Deck 26: The Nation Divides: the Vietnam War and Social Conflict, 1964-1971

Question 1

The zenith of liberalism was reached during the presidency of __________.

A) Harry Truman
B) Franklin D. Roosevelt
C) Lyndon Johnson
D) Jimmy Carter

Answer 1

Lyndon Johnson

Question 2

How was Johnson's policy focus different than Kennedy's?

A) He looked to forge new alliances with western Europe.
B) He was deeply invested in stopping communism abroad.
C) He aimed to build new relations with Latin America.
D) He wanted to perfect American society.

Answer 2

He wanted to perfect American society.

Question 3

Which of the following was true of Lyndon Johnson?

A) He was an extraordinarily powerful Senate majority leader.
B) He was committed to maintaining segregation.
C) He was distrustful of New Deal Democrats.
D) He was an easy person to get along with.

Answer 3

He was an extraordinarily powerful Senate majority leader.

Question 4

Johnson's administration tackled health care concerns by __________.

A) creating the Department of Health and Human Services
B) approving passage of the Clean Air Act and Clean Waters Act
C) establishing universal single-payer health care
D) establishing Medicare and Medicaid

Question 5

In what way did the Supreme Court case Griswold v. Connecticut affect birth control in the United States?

A) It held that the use of contraceptive devices by married people was a legally protected private matter.
B) It made birth control illegal.
C) It legalized birth control.
D) It enacted strict rules and regulations for obtaining over-the-counter birth control.

Question 6

How did the Civil Rights Act of 1964 fulfill the implicit promise of Brown v. Board of Education?

A) It made desegregation the law of the land.
B) It created new education programs.
C) It affected Social Security payments.
D) It secured voting rights for all.

Question 7

In pursuit of what he called the Great Society, Johnson first declared a "War on __________."

A) Poverty
B) Drugs
C) Racism
D) Terrorism

Question 8

Why was the Supreme Court case of Miranda v. Arizona significant?

A) It affected environmental protection laws.
B) It upheld desegregation legislation.
C) It guaranteed the rights of impoverished prisoners to legal counsel.
D) It required police to inform anyone they arrested of their rights.

Question 9

Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) established the right of impoverished prisoners to __________.

A) have access to education
B) food stamps
C) health care
D) legal counsel

Question 10

In the late 1950s, Ngo Dinh Diem was the __________.

A) ruler of South Vietnam
B) leader of the Viet Cong
C) Vietnamese puppet of the Soviet Union
D) ruler of North Vietnam

Question 11

Lyndon Johnson defeated __________ in a landslide in 1964.

A) Barry Goldwater
B) Richard Nixon
C) Ronald Reagan
D) Nelson Rockefeller

Question 12

The Civil Rights Act of __________ fulfilled the promise of Brown v. Board of Education.

A) 1968
B) 1964
C) 1960
D) 1957

Question 13

Vietnamese nationalists had sought since the 1930s to liberate their country from __________ colonial rule.

A) French
B) British
C) American
D) Japanese

Question 14

In the early 1960s, __________.

A) less than five percent of Americans lived in rural communities
B) most Americans believed that racism had been eliminated
C) one in five Americans lived below the poverty line
D) two in five Americans lived in inner city slums

Question 15

What Kennedy administration program was VISTA most like?

A) the Peace Corps
B) the Works Progress Administration
C) Head Start
D) the Civilian Conservation Corps

Question 16

Which of the following programs was put in place during the Johnson administration?

A) TVA
B) CCC
C) WPA
D) AFDC

Question 17

After 1965, the new Medicare system paid for the medical needs of Americans __________.

A) living below the poverty line
B) age 65 and older
C) age 18 and younger
D) who had served in the armed forces

Question 18

In Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court overturned laws restricting __________.

A) prayer in schools
B) interracial marriage
C) contraception
D) school bussing

Question 19

Lyndon Johnson entered Democratic politics as an avid supporter of __________.

A) Adlai Stevenson
B) Huey Long
C) Henry Wallace
D) Franklin Roosevelt

Question 20

Why was it significant that the 1964 Republican presidential candidate was from Arizona?

A) It represented a larger party shift toward the more conservative South and West.
B) It signified the growing political power of liberal elements in the South and West.
C) It marked the importance of growing American trade ties with Mexico.
D) It symbolized a growing interest in conservation of various natural environments.

Question 21

The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorized U.S. military action in __________.

A) the Middle East
B) Central America
C) Vietnam
D) Korea

Question 22

Where did the Black Panther party originate?

A) Oakland, California
B) Atlanta, Georgia
C) Newark, New Jersey
D) Cleveland, Ohio

Question 23

In the late 1960s, younger feminists focused on __________.

A) the personal experiences of women
B) discrimination in the public sphere
C) voting rights
D) employment and wages

Question 24

Which of the following best characterizes the strategy Johnson chose in Vietnam upon becoming president?

A) He chose to attempt a slow withdrawal.
B) He chose to escalate direct American involvement in Vietnam.
C) He chose to increase material support for the South Vietnamese.
D) He chose to switch from an air attack to a ground attack.

Question 25

The Black Panther party formed in response to __________.

A) police brutality
B) the war in Vietnam
C) the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
D) the disbanding of SNCC

Question 26

Betty Friedan and other liberal feminists founded __________ in 1966.

A) the National Organization for Women
B) the League of Women Voters
C) the Redstockings
D) the Womanhouse

Question 27

_________ are the largest Spanish-speaking ethnic group located primarily on the East Coast.

A) Guatemalans
B) Mexicans
C) Cubans
D) Puerto Ricans

Question 28

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) served as the central organization of the __________.

A) Black Panthers
B) Democratic party
C) American Communist Party
D) New Left

Question 29

Why was the Battle of Dien Bien Phu so significant?

A) The Vietnamese dealt the French a decisive defeat.
B) The French dealt the Vietnamese a decisive defeat.
C) The Vietnamese dealt the United States a decisive defeat.
D) The United States dealt the Vietnamese a decisive defeat.

Question 30

How did young men from middle-class and wealthy families so often avoid military service in Vietnam?

A) They got college deferments.
B) They paid for substitutes to serve in their places.
C) They faced favorable draft boards.
D) They were intentionally given high draft numbers.

Question 31

After 1965, SDS's initially broad reform agenda narrowed to__________.

A) stopping the war in Vietnam
B) fighting racism
C) ending poverty in America
D) promoting women's rights

Question 32

On November 20, 1969, 78 _____________ seized the island of Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay.

A) Native Americans
B) African Americans
C) Mexican Americans
D) Puerto Ricans

Question 33

Which of the following was a key strategic goal of the United States in the Vietnam War?

A) to avoid drawing China into the war
B) to colonize all of Vietnam
C) to draw the Soviets into the war
D) to put NLF leaders in charge in South Vietnam

Question 34

César Chávez and Dolores Huerta built a farm workers' union in __________.

A) New York
B) Ohio
C) California
D) Washington

Question 35

The village of My Lai was the site of __________.

A) a massacre of Vietnamese villagers by American soldiers
B) the mass killing of American civilians by the Viet Cong
C) peace negotiations between North and South Vietnam
D) a major U.S. victory

Question 36

Which of the following was a consequence of the Tet Offensive?

A) It led to the introduction of 500,000 additional U.S. troops into Vietnam.
B) It demonstrated the weakness of the NLF.
C) It resulted in the deaths of 50,000 American soldiers.
D) It shook the American public's confidence in President Johnson and his military commanders.

Question 37

After the defeat of Germany and Japan, the French wanted to __________.

A) begin the process of decolonization
B) hand their colonies over to the United States
C) become the dominant power in Europe
D) regain control of their colonies in Asia and Africa

Question 38

The first conservative backlash of the 1960s was against __________.

A) large corporations
B) young women
C) the growing gay rights movement
D) the increasing assertiveness of people of color

Question 39

American public optimism about the war in Vietnam was crushed by which of the following?

A) the Tet Offensive
B) the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
C) the Battle of Dien Bien Phu
D) the death of Ngo Dinh Diem

Question 40

The Supreme Court established a woman's constitutional right to abortion in the landmark case of __________.

A) Frontiero v. Richardson
B) Roe v. Wade
C) Geduldig v. Aeillo
D) Kahn v. Shevin

Question 41

Biologist Paul Ehrlich warned of the dangers of __________.

A) over population
B) climate change
C) racial intolerance
D) pesticides and herbicides

Question 42

What was the key to a successful withdrawal from Vietnam from Nixon's perspective?

A) the installation of a pro-American regime
B) the preservation of U.S. credibility
C) the total defeat of the NLF
D) the withdrawal of all U.S forces within three months

Question 43

What did the slogan "black power" mean? How were the feelings behind the slogan expressed?

Question 44

What steps did President Johnson take to combat poverty and discrimination?

Question 45

In 1968, Richard Nixon won a convincing electoral college victory over __________.

A) Jimmy Carter
B) Hubert Humphrey
C) Lyndon Johnson
D) George McGovern

Question 46

Describe Nixon's approach to his political opponents in his first term.

Question 47

What led to the formation of the "plumbers" by the Nixon White House?

A) the Tet Offensive
B) the assassination of Robert Kennedy
C) the killings at Kent State
D) the publication of the Pentagon Papers

Question 48

What initial policy choices did President Johnson make with respect to Vietnam? Why?

Question 49

Once in the White House, Nixon governed as __________.

A) an arch-conservative
B) the most liberal Republican since Theodore Roosevelt
C) a strict libertarian
D) the most business-friendly Republican since Calvin Coolidge

Question 50

Why did Nixon order attacks on and invasions of Laos and Cambodia?

A) He wanted to weaken the Communist forces in Vietnam.
B) He wanted to establish new American colonies.
C) He wanted to build public support for the war.
D) He wanted to frighten the Soviet Union.

Question 51

Under the __________ Doctrine, the United States would provide military hardware rather than U.S. soldiers to allied governments.

A) Nixon
B) Carter
C) Kissinger
D) Agnew

Question 52

Which of the following was established during the Nixon administration?

A) the Fair Employment Practices Commission
B) the Department of Labor
C) the Department of Housing and Urban Development
D) the Environmental Protection Agency

Question 53

On April 4, 1968, a gunman named James Earl Ray assassinated ______________.

A) Malcolm X
B) Robert Kennedy
C) Martin Luther King Jr.
D) George Wallace

Question 54

__________ campaigned for president on a segregationist platform.

A) George Wallace
B) Ronald Reagan
C) Barry Goldwater
D) Nelson Rockefeller