Question 1

The impact of the Cold War on the civil rights movement:

Accepted Answer

The Cold War had a negative impact on the civil rights movement, as the government viewed civil rights leaders as potential threats to national security and took action against them, including surveillance, harassment, and imprisonment. This included the FBI's surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr. and the COINTELPRO program, which sought to disrupt and neutralize civil rights organizations.

Question 2

Organized labor emerged as:

Accepted Answer

Organized labor was a major supporter of the foreign policy of the Cold War.

Question 3

Civil rights initiatives after 1948:

Accepted Answer

Widespread American sentiment that any criticism of American society smacked of "disloyalty" led to a decline in civil rights initiatives after 1948.

Question 4

How did white supremacists take advantage of anticommunist rhetoric?

Accepted Answer

White supremacists charged African-American civil rights leaders with a communist agenda in order to discredit their demands for equal rights and portray them as a threat to American values. This tactic was used in the 1950s and 1960s, when McCarthyism and anticommunist sentiment were widespread in the US, and it allowed white supremacists to tap into fears about the spread of communism while also advancing their own racist agenda.

Question 5

Analyze the political, social, and economic effects of the Cold War on domestic life in the United States during the period 1945-1970.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Analyze the political, social, and economic effects...

Question 6

Evaluate the extent to which the end of World War II in 1945 marked a turning point for United States foreign policy, analyzing what changed and what stayed the same from the period before the war to the period after it.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Evaluate the extent to which the end...

Question 7

What was so ironic about Dean Acheson's speech to the Delta Council in 1947?

Accepted Answer

Acheson's speech was ironic because he praised the president's defense of democratic institutions in a place that did not practice democracy, highlighting the contradiction between the ideals being promoted and the reality of the audience's practices.

Question 8

Document Based Question
Analyze the causes of American fear of communism from 1945 to 1960 and the effect it had on the American people.
Document 1
Source: President Harry S Truman, Address to Joint Session of Congress, March 12, 1947.
The very existence of the Greek state is today threatened by the terrorist activities of several thousand armed men, led by Communists, who defy the government's authority at a number of points, particularly along the northern boundaries. . . . Meanwhile, the Greek Government is unable to cope with the situation. . . . The United States must supply that assistance. We have already extended to Greece certain types of relief and economic aid but these are inadequate. . . . I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. . . . There is no other country to which democratic Greece can turn.
Document 2
Source: President Harry S Truman, Statement on Detection of Soviet Atomic Test, September 23, 1949.
I believe the American people to the fullest extent consistent with the national security are entitled to be informed of all developments in the field of atomic energy. That is my reason for making public the following information.
We have evidence that within recent weeks an atomic explosion occurred in the USSR. Ever since atomic energy was first released by man, the eventual development of this new force by other nations was to be expected. This probability has always been taken into account by us.
Document 3
Source: Movie poster for The Red Menace, 1949.
  Document 4
Source: Joseph McCarthy, Speech at Wheeling, West Virginia, February 9, 1950.
The great difference between our western Christian world and the atheistic Communist world is not political, gentlemen, it is moral. For instance, the Marxian idea of confiscating the land and factories and running the entire economy as a single enterprise is momentous.
Today we are engaged in a final, all-out battle between communistic atheism and Christianity. . . . Unless we face this fact, we shall pay the price that must be paid by those who wait too long.
I have here in my hand a list of 205 . . . a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department.
Document 5
Source: Federal Aid Highway Act, June 29, 1956.
SEC. 108. NATIONAL SYSTEM OF INTERSTATE AND DEFENSE HIGHWAYS.
(a) INTERSTATE SYSTEM.-It is hereby declared to be essential to the national interest to provide for the early completion of the "National System of Interstate Highways," as authorized and designated in accordance with section 7 of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944 (58 Stat. 838). It is the intent of the Congress that the Interstate System be completed as nearly as practicable over a thirteen-year period and that the entire System in all the States be brought to simultaneous completion. Because of its primary importance to the national defense, the name of such system is hereby changed to the "National System of Interstate and Defense Highways." Such National System of Interstate and Defense Highways is hereinafter in this Act referred to as the "Interstate System."
Document 6
Edwin Marcus, "Awake at Last," 1957, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Division.
  Document 7
Source: U.S. Military Spending, 1945 -1996 (Billions of 1996 Dollars in Outlays), Center for Defense Information.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Document Based Question
Analyze the causes of American...

Question 9

How did black organizations employ the language of the Cold War?

Accepted Answer

Black organizations such as the NAACP and the Civil Rights Congress also used the language of the Cold War by pointing out the hypocrisy of the US government's claims of being a champion of freedom while denying it to its own citizens of color. They also argued that racism and discrimination limited America's credibility and ability to compete with the Soviet Union in the global arena. They used these arguments to bolster support for desegregation and civil rights reform.

Quiz 23: The United States and the Cold War, 1945-1953