Deck 30: The Crisis of Authority

Question 1

Founded in 1968, the American Indian Movement (AIM)

A) drew all of its support from tribal reservations.
B) disbanded after the passage of the Indian Civil Rights Act.
C) focused on militant action.
D) vehemently opposed the idea of intertribal action.
E) emphasized assimilation into larger American society.

Answer 1

focused on militant action.

Question 2

Which of the following is true of the "New Left" that sprang up in the 1960s and 1970s?

A) The New Left showed little interest in the plight of African Americans.
B) It was formed mainly by middle-aged white individuals who had been disillusioned by the Vietnam War.
C) The New Left was relatively racially diverse.
D) The New Left was generally uninterested in the Vietnam War.
E) Relatively few members of the New Left were communists.

Answer 2

Relatively few members of the New Left were communists.

Question 3

In 1973, American Indian activists occupied the old Indian battle site of

A) Wounded Knee.
B) Little Bighorn.
C) Horseshoe Bend.
D) Fallen Timbers.
E) Sand Creek.

Answer 3

Wounded Knee.

Question 4

By the early 1990s, gay men and lesbians in the United States

A) were experiencing a powerful backlash from within American society.
B) achieved many of the same milestones that other minority groups had attained in earlier decades.
C) saw some openly gay politicians win election to public office.
D) were making slow, halting progress in achieving laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual preference.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 5

In the late 1960s and early 1970s all of the following occurred due to American Indian activism, EXCEPT

A) Congress granting to reservations "independent nation" status within the United States.
B) Indians fighting for old treaty fishing rights in Washington State.
C) Indians occupying Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay.
D) Congress passing an Indian Civil Rights Act.
E) the appointment of a Mohawk-Sioux as Nixon's commissioner of Indian affairs.

Question 6

The 1969 "Stonewall Riot" is associated with the civil rights movement for

A) women.
B) homosexuals.
C) African Americans.
D) Hispanic Americans.
E) Native Americans.

Question 7

In the 1960s, the aspect of popular culture most strongly embraced by the counterculture was

A) television.
B) music.
C) movies.
D) literature.
E) sports.

Question 8

Between 1960 and 1970, the Latino population of the United States

A) rose by 25 percent.
B) rose by 50 percent.
C) doubled.
D) tripled.
E) sextupled.

Question 9

In the 1950s, the federal "termination" policy as applied to American Indians sought to

A) withdraw all official recognition of the tribes as legal entities.
B) keep American Indians largely confined to rural areas.
C) enforce the tribal reservation system.
D) break up militant tribes.
E) restore tribal autonomy.

Question 10

Throughout the late 1960s,

A) deferments for the military draft increased.
B) opposition in the United States to the Vietnam War intensified.
C) no American refused induction; instead, thousands fled to Canada and Sweden.
D) both deferments for the military draft increased, and opposition in the United States to the Vietnam War intensified.
E) None of these answers is correct.

Question 11

The 1961 Declaration of Indian Purpose called for

A) a reassessment of current assimilation practices.
B) "affirmative action" for Native Americans.
C) the removal of whites from Indian reservations.
D) a complete separation from the society of the United States.
E) the right of Indians to choose their own way of life.

Question 12

In 1964, a dispute broke out at the University of California at Berkeley over

A) the cost of tuition and student housing.
B) the military draft.
C) the rights of students to engage in free speech.
D) corporate influence on the university's military research projects.
E) the question of graduate student unionization.

Question 13

Early during the feminist movement, the National Organization of Women focused its efforts on

A) changing the traditional concepts of women in the home.
B) addressing the needs of women in the workplace.
C) abortion rights.
D) helping poor and minority women.
E) passing the Equal Rights Amendment.

Question 14

Students for a Democratic Society was formed

A) primarily by college students from prestigious universities.
B) to protest the Vietnam War.
C) in reaction to the Kennedy assassination.
D) as a branch of the Democratic Party.
E) to support civil rights efforts in the South.

Question 15

The Civil Rights Act of 1964

A) gave women equal pay for equal work.
B) led to the creation of the National Organization of Women.
C) resulted in the creation of the President's Commission on the Status of Women.
D) was amended for the benefit of women.
E) made no mention of gender discrimination in its final form.

Question 16

The 1969 Woodstock music festival was

A) held to establish cooperatives based on the principles of communal living.
B) organized as a rally in protest to the Vietnam War.
C) designed make amends for the events of Altamont four months earlier.
D) formed to help heal the cultural divisions within American society.
E) a powerful symbol of the ideals of the counterculture philosophy.

Question 17

In the 1960s, the youth counterculture

A) rejected the complaints of the "beats" of the 1950s.
B) was really little more than a change in clothing styles.
C) sought to overthrow the U.S. government through an armed revolution.
D) was openly scornful of the values and conventions of American middle-class society.
E) attempted to differentiate itself from the stereotype of the "hippie."

Question 18

All of the following statements regarding Latinos in the United States are true EXCEPT that

A) by the late 1960s, Mexican Americans were one of the largest population groups in the West.
B) large numbers of Central American immigrants arrived in the U.S. in the 1980s.
C) Cuban immigrants in the 1980s were more well-to-do than their counterparts in the 1960s.
D) in 1953, the government launched what it called Operation Wetback to deport illegals.
E) Puerto Rican migrants established a large community in New York City.

Question 19

Betty Friedan's 1963 book, The Feminine Mystique,

A) described why women had found success and satisfaction in postwar America.
B) detailed the many problems confronting single mothers.
C) argued against women placing children before their careers.
D) encouraged women to remain single in order to maintain their independence.
E) gave a voice to a reemerging women's rights movement.

Question 20

In the 1960s, the radical group known as "Weathermen"

A) expressed their ideas in a manifesto known as the Port Huron Statement.
B) seized administration offices at Columbia University.
C) reflected the attitudes of a majority of college students at major universities.
D) were involved in college bombings that claimed several lives.
E) targeted SDS meetings as sites of un-American activity.

Question 21

The so-called Pentagon Papers

A) were suppressed by the Nixon administration until after the Vietnam War.
B) revealed the government had misled the public regarding the progress of the war.
C) indicated President Nixon had used the IRS to harass leaders of the antiwar movement.
D) showed that American operatives in Vietnam had carried out political assassinations.
E) revealed that the government had tried to cover up American involvement in the My Lai massacre.

Question 22

President Richard Nixon believed U.S. foreign policy should work toward

A) a bipolar world dominated by the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
B) improving governments in less-developed nations.
C) a multipolar international structure.
D) destruction of the government in the Soviet Union.
E) encouraging Europe to take up its own defense against the Soviet Union.

Question 23

In 1969, President Richard Nixon believed an American withdrawal from Vietnam would

A) harm America's honor and "credibility."
B) enhance his public standing in the United States and the world.
C) silence his critics.
D) allow the nation to have "peace with honor."
E) force North Vietnam to live up to its promises regarding South Vietnam.

Question 24

In 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment

A) was strongly opposed by some women.
B) was passed by Congress and submitted to the states for ratification.
C) seemed almost certain to be ratified.
D) had been promoted since the 1920s by some feminists.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 25

Sandra Day O'Connor, the first female Supreme Court justice, was named to the court by

A) Jimmy Carter.
B) Ronald Reagan.
C) George H. W. Bush.
D) Bill Clinton.
E) George W. Bush.

Question 26

In 1972, diplomat Henry Kissinger announced that "peace is at hand"

A) after a failed North Vietnamese offensive.
B) right before the American presidential election.
C) after the United States threatened to use nuclear weapons against North Vietnam.
D) before the final American ground troops were pulled out of Vietnam.
E) right before American troops embarked on the Easter offensive.

Question 27

President Richard Nixon's visit to China in 1972

A) was designed to bring the United States closer to Chiang Kai-shek.
B) was opposed by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
C) moved the United States into a deeper conflict with the Soviet Union.
D) came after Taiwan was expelled from the United Nations.
E) aroused deep animosity from the majority of Chinese communists.

Question 28

Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring helped launch the modern environmental movement by focusing on problems concerning

A) nuclear energy.
B) pesticides.
C) pollution in the oceans.
D) the destruction of forests.
E) global warming.

Question 29

In 1972, the United States' "Christmas bombing" of North Vietnam

A) saw the United States suffer, by far, its greatest loss of bombers in the war.
B) resulted in a collapse of the peace talks.
C) dramatically altered the terms of the final peace agreement.
D) later drew an apology from President Richard Nixon.
E) avoided Hanoi for the sake of continuing peace talks.

Question 30

After the 1972 election, President Richard Nixon, to prompt a peace settlement with North Vietnam,

A) allowed the opening of North Vietnamese harbors.
B) withdrew American forces as North Vietnamese troops left from the South.
C) ordered an increase in the aerial bombing of North Vietnam.
D) broke off diplomatic negotiations with North Vietnam.
E) evacuated the American embassy in Saigon.

Question 31

Ecology rests primarily on the assumption that nature should be preserved

A) for its beauty.
B) because it was divinely created.
C) because humans need to maintain the interrelated balance of life.
D) because humans need a spiritual connection with the natural world.
E) because American democracy flourishes when the land is plentiful and healthy.

Question 32

As a result of the Vietnam War,

A) Vietnam became one of the world's richest nations.
B) more than 1.2 million Vietnamese soldiers died.
C) the United States suffered more than 500,000 killed and wounded.
D) Laos fell to the murderous communists of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 33

The Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade (1973)

A) made abortion legal for the first time in the history of the United States.
B) enabled women to obtain an abortion during any point of a pregnancy.
C) initially applied only to pregnancies resulting from rape or abuse.
D) invalidated all laws prohibiting abortion during the second trimester.
E) was based on a new legal interpretation of privacy rights.

Question 34

"Earth Day" in 1970 was

A) an effort to protect the environment from commercial development.
B) organized by American manufacturers of garden supplies.
C) an example of the popularization of environmentalism.
D) characterized by protests and confrontations between opposing sides.
E) only celebrated by members of the radical counterculture.

Question 35

The intent of President Richard Nixon's "Vietnamization" policy was to

A) expand the war effort to all parts of Vietnam.
B) have the South Vietnamese military do more of the fighting.
C) declare an immediate end to the conflict.
D) expand the war effort to all parts of Indochina.
E) concentrate American military power on destroying the NLF.

Question 36

The killing of South Vietnamese civilians by American soldiers in the village of My Lai

A) was not learned about until years after the war had ended.
B) did not result in any convictions of Americans who took part.
C) attracted little public attention in the wake of the Cambodian invasion and the Pentagon Papers.
D) was not learned about until years after the war had ended, and did not result in any convictions of Americans who took part.
E) None of these answers is correct.

Question 37

In April 1970, the antiwar movement was recharged by

A) the U.S. invasion of Cambodia.
B) the shooting deaths of students at Kent State.
C) revelations regarding the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
D) the newspaper publication of the My Lai massacre.
E) the publication of the Pentagon Papers.

Question 38

The Environmental Protection Agency was created in ________ when ________ signed the National Environmental Protection Act into law.

A) 1963; John F. Kennedy
B) 1966; Lyndon Johnson
C) 1970; Richard Nixon
D) 1974; Gerald Ford
E) 1977; Jimmy Carter

Question 39

In 1972, the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty

A) was signed by all of the world's nuclear powers.
B) called for the suspension of all new nuclear weapons systems.
C) froze the arsenals of some nuclear missiles at their current levels.
D) both called for the suspension of all new nuclear weapons systems, and froze the arsenals of some nuclear missiles at their current levels.
E) None of these answers is correct.

Question 40

By the end of their first year in office, Nixon and Kissinger had concluded that the most effective way to tip the military balance in America's favor was to

A) install a pro-American regime under General Lon Diem.
B) destroy military bases in Cambodia.
C) have the Congress repeal the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
D) "surge" 30,000 additional ground combat forces in the Mekong Delta.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 41

As part of his domestic agenda, President Richard Nixon

A) tried to end the forced busing of students to desegregate schools.
B) dismantled many Great Society programs.
C) abolished the Office of Economic Opportunity.
D) tried to overhaul the nation's welfare system by creating a guaranteed annual income.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 42

In the Supreme Court case of Milliken v. Bradley (1974), the Court

A) handed down a decision that delighted both liberals and conservatives.
B) eliminated all restrictions on performing abortions.
C) upheld the principle of affirmative action.
D) struck down a plan to transfer students across district lines to achieve racial balance.
E) None of these answers is correct.

Question 43

In 1972, the Watergate scandal began with a break-in at the

A) Washington Post newspaper building.
B) headquarters of the George McGovern campaign.
C) House of Representatives.
D) office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist.
E) offices of the Democratic National Committee.

Question 44

In 1972, two Washington Post reporters uncovered evidence linking the Watergate break-in to

A) the Committee for the Reelection of the President.
B) a former employee of the Nixon White House.
C) a secret reelection fund controlled by White House staff.
D) both the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, and a secret reelection fund controlled by White House staff.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 45

In 1973, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries

A) refused to ship oil to all nations that supported Israel.
B) raised the price of oil by 400 percent.
C) helped to precipitate a fuel shortage in the United States.
D) both refused to ship oil to all nations that supported Israel, and raised the price of oil by 500 percent.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 46

In the 1972 presidential election,

A) Richard Nixon won a narrow victory in the Electoral College.
B) George Wallace only carried California and the District of Columbia.
C) Richard Nixon won over 60 percent of the popular vote.
D) Richard Nixon won a narrow victory in the Electoral College and won over 60 percent of the popular vote.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 47

President Richard Nixon's appointments to the Supreme Court

A) were twice rejected by the Senate.
B) included the first nomination of a female justice.
C) culminated in the successful appointment of G. Harrold Carswell to the Court.
D) both included the first nomination of a female justice, and were twice rejected by the Senate.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 48

In Engel v. Vitale (1962), the Supreme Court

A) ruled that limits on campaign funding violated the right to free speech.
B) sharply limited government curbs on pornography.
C) ruled that forced busing to integrate public schools was constitutional.
D) declared that the application procedure for federal jobs must be open to the public.
E) ruled prayers in public schools were unconstitutional.

Question 49

In early 1973, allegations of misconduct by Richard Nixon were made by White House counsel

A) John Dean.
B) John Mitchell.
C) H. R. Haldeman.
D) Spiro Agnew.
E) John Ehrlichman.

Question 50

In Miranda v. Arizona (1966), the Supreme Court

A) ruled that a defendant must have access to a lawyer before being questioned by police.
B) required authorities to inform a criminal suspect of his or her legal rights.
C) established new guidelines for capital punishment cases.
D) did all of these: ruled that a defendant must have access to a lawyer before being questioned by police; required authorities to inform a criminal suspect of his or her legal rights; and established new guidelines for capital punishment cases.
E) None of these answers is correct.

Question 51

After President Richard Nixon had appointed four new justices, the Supreme Court

A) became decidedly more conservative in its rulings.
B) became decidedly less active.
C) more closely reflected the president's own political beliefs.
D) attempted to overturn the Warren Court decision in Roe v. Wade.
E) actually increased its commitment to social reform.

Question 52

"Stagflation" refers to

A) falling prices and a falling inventory.
B) deflation and rising inventory.
C) flat prices, wages, and inventory.
D) rising prices and economic stagnation.
E) high taxes and large budget deficits.

Question 53

The Supreme Court ruling in the case of Furman v. Georgia (1972)

A) overturned existing capital punishment statutes.
B) was upheld in the case of Gregg v. Georgia (1976.)
C) redefined the appeals process in death penalty convictions.
D) ruled that execution by hanging was unconstitutional.
E) favored the use of forced busing to achieve racial balance in schools.

Question 54

The "Saturday night massacre" refers to an event that included

A) the decision by the Supreme Court that forced Nixon to hand over incriminating audio recordings.
B) the confessions of the Watergate burglars.
C) the resignation of two key Nixon administration officials.
D) the departure of Spiro Agnew.
E) the testimony of James McCord and John Dean.

Question 55

In Bakke v. Board of Regents of California (1978), the Supreme Court

A) limited the ability of defendants to appeal state convictions.
B) stopped a plan to transfer students across district lines to achieve racial integration.
C) ruled in favor of using forced busing to achieve racial balance in schools.
D) upheld the principle of affirmative action, with restrictions.
E) argued that limits on campaign funding violated the right to free speech.

Question 56

According to policies that came to be called the Nixon Doctrine, the United States would

A) assist in the development of friendly nations.
B) assume a basic responsibility for the future of friendly nations.
C) increase Third World contributions to shake up the status quo.
D) both assist in the development of friendly nations, and assume a basic responsibility for the future of friendly nations.
E) None of these answers is correct.

Question 57

President Richard Nixon's proposed Family Assistance Plan included

A) a maximum six-year participation in the federal welfare system.
B) federal support for parental leave following the birth of a child.
C) free medical care to all Americans over the age of seventy.
D) a guaranteed annual income for all Americans.
E) a program to replace Social Security with private retirement vouchers.

Question 58

In the 1970s, the Nixon administration believed the world's most volatile region to be

A) the Middle East.
B) Eastern Europe.
C) the so-called Third World.
D) China.
E) sub-Saharan Africa.

Question 59

In 1971, President Richard Nixon responded to mounting economic problems by

A) lowering interest rates to spur consumption.
B) lowering corporate taxes to spur investment.
C) sharply reducing the rate of inflation.
D) expanding the money supply.
E) imposing a freeze on all wages and prices.

Question 60

In Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), the Supreme Court

A) limited the appeals process for state convictions.
B) established new guidelines for capital punishment cases.
C) ruled that all felony defendants were entitled to a lawyer, regardless of their ability to pay.
D) ruled that a defendant must have access to a lawyer before being questioned by police.
E) sharply limited government curbs on pornography.

Question 61

The founders of Students for a Democratic Society could accurately be described as hippies.

Question 62

The federal government's "termination" policy toward Native Americans contributed to a generation of Indian militancy.

Question 63

The political New Left emerged out of opposition to the military draft in the 1960s.

Question 64

When it was founded, the National Organization of Women was concerned primarily with the rights of women in marriage and in the home.

Question 65

The Supreme Court in the case United States v. Richard M. Nixon (1974) ruled that Nixon must

A) no longer tape conversations in the Oval Office.
B) turn over evidence to the special prosecutor.
C) be held in contempt of court.
D) be impeached.
E) resign.

Question 66

The key evidence in the determination of President Richard Nixon's guilt or innocence in the Watergate scandal was

A) audio tape recordings made of most conversations in the Oval Office.
B) eyewitness testimony from Nixon confidants in the White House.
C) phone records kept by Nixon's personal secretary.
D) Nixon's personal diaries.
E) journals kept by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Question 67

During the 1970s, Congress approved the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution.

Question 68

Betty Friedan's book, The Feminine Mystique, concerned the difficulties facing poor and working-class women.

Question 69

The gay rights movement had been gaining strength since at least the 1950s.

Question 70

Aldo Leopold's sensational 1962 book, Silent Spring, helped introduce the new science of ecology.

Question 71

The United Farm Workers union was founded and first led by César Chávez.

Question 72

The Free Speech Movement was born on a college campus.

Question 73

Throughout the Vietnam War, deferments from the military draft were increasingly easy to obtain for those in college.

Question 74

By the mid-1970s, affirmative-action guidelines included women, and the vast majority of women with college degrees were in the workforce.

Question 75

When the Supreme Court handed down the Roe v. Wade decision, abortion became legal for the first time in American history.

Question 76

An important and controversial aspect of the counterculture was its more permissive view of sex and drugs.

Question 77

By the early 1970s, a significant change was visible in the tone and direction of the women's movement. New books by younger feminists expressed a milder critique of American society than Friedan had offered.

Question 78

The AIDS epidemic weakened the gay rights movement in the early 1980s.

Question 79

In 1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned because

A) of his involvement in the Watergate break-in.
B) of his involvement in the Watergate cover-up.
C) of his refusal to testify against Richard Nixon.
D) evidence surfaced that he had accepted bribes.
E) None of these answers is correct.

Question 80

In 1974, Richard Nixon left the presidency

A) through impeachment.
B) through resignation.
C) when he was convicted of obstructing justice.
D) by official arrest.
E) when he lost a special election by huge margins.