Deck 37: The Eisenhower ERA

Question 1

Several critics of the new consumerism of the 1950s charged that the American people

A) had become too individualistic.
B) were losing their religious faith.
C) were relying too much on government welfare.
D) were losing their sense of moral priorities.
E) had developed into a generation of conformists.

Answer 1

had developed into a generation of conformists.

Question 2

A significant marker of change in the American work force occurred in 1956 when

A) white-collar workers first outnumbered blue-collar workers.
B) skilled workers first outnumbered unskilled workers.
C) union membership exceeded 50 percent of all workers.
D) women held more than 50 percent of all jobs.
E) the average age of workers dropped under forty.

Answer 2

white-collar workers first outnumbered blue-collar workers.

Question 3

The first dramatic use of television in American presidential politics came in

A) the Army-McCarthy hearings.
B) Adlai Stevenson's witty acceptance speech at the 1952 Democratic convention.
C) Richard Nixon's "Checkers speech" appealing to stay on the Republican ticket.
D) Dwight Eisenhower's televised promise to go personally to Korea.
E) Richard Nixon's attack ads on Dean Acheson and Adlai Stevenson.

Answer 3

Richard Nixon's "Checkers speech" appealing to stay on the Republican ticket.

Question 4

Among anticommunists, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy was the

A) most effective.
B) first Republican.
C) most fair and successful.
D) the most ruthless and damaging to American traditions.
E) first serious candidate for the presidency.

Question 5

Prospects for a Democratic victory in the 1952 presidential election were poor for all of the following reasons except

A) the military deadlock in Korea.
B) Truman's refusal to seek another term.
C) war-bred inflation.
D) scandals in the White House.
E) the Republicans' choice of popular Dwight Eisenhower.

Question 6

Sports reflected the population shift toward the West and South when

A) San Francisco-born Joe DiMaggio became a major start.
B) television viewership of sports in those regions became the highest in the country.
C) baseball's Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants moved to California.
D) when UCLA and Duke dominated college basketball.
E) the major college football bowls were moved to those regions.

Question 7

All of the following were developments closely tied to the emerging new lifestyle of affluence and leisure in the 1950s except

A) the plastic credit card.
B) fast-food production.
C) popular music.
D) commercialized sex and sensuality.
E) the environmental movement.

Question 8

Which of the following was not related to the greater display of public sexuality in America in the 1950s?

A) the music and dance of rock and roll
B) Playboy magazine
C) film stars like Marilyn Monroe
D) televised sports
E) sensual mass advertising

Question 9

Richard Nixon was selected as Dwight Eisenhower's vice-presidential running mate in 1952 to attract the support of

A) isolationists.
B) liberal Republicans.
C) hard-line anticommunists.
D) conservative Democrats.
E) southern Republicans.

Question 10

Dwight Eisenhower's greatest asset as president was

A) his vast military experience.
B) his willingness to fight hard for unpopular policies.
C) his commitment to social justice.
D) his willingness to fight back against demagogues like Joseph McCarthy.
E) the deep popular affection and respect of the American people.

Question 11

All of the following were harbingers of an emerging new lifestyle of affluence during the 1950s that was in full flower by the decade's end except

A) easy credit.
B) high-volume fast-food production.
C) new forms of recreation.
D) new technology of television.
E) reduction in the middle class.

Question 12

The power behind the economic boom of the 1950s and 1960s was increasingly

A) science and technology.
B) a return to the ethic of rugged individualism.
C) foreign investment in the United States.
D) the growth of small businesses.
E) the military and defense industries.

Question 13

President Eisenhower did considerable damage to future American foreign relations by allowing Senator Joseph McCarthy to

A) force General George Marshall to resign as army chief of staff.
B) control hiring policies for Asian specialists in the State Department.
C) force the United States to break relations with Arab states in the Middle East.
D) help set up an anticommunist government in South Vietnam.
E) prevent the United States from recognizing Communist China.

Question 14

All of the following were critics of and lamented the implications of this new consumerist and technological lifestyle of the 1950s except

A) traditionalists who felt as if it was degrading to the public's aesthetic, moral, political, and educational standards.
B) Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith, who highlighted the troublesome connection between private opulence and public squalor in a series of books, beginning with The Affluent Society.
C) William H. Whyte, Jr., editor of Fortune magazine, in his bestselling book The Organization Man.
D) televangelists like Billy Graham and Oral Roberts, who refused to take part.
E) Harvard sociologist David Riesman, who criticized the postwar generation as a pack of conformists in his book The Lonely Crowd.

Question 15

In The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan sharply criticized

A) the idea that there is such a thing as gender identity.
B) the relegation of most women to working-class jobs.
C) the growing sexual explicitness of American culture.
D) the "feminine ideal" and the "cult of domesticity."
E) the ideal of the two-parent family.

Question 16

Which of the following was not true of the changing nature of work in the 1950s?

A) Science and technology drove economic growth.
B) There were fewer jobs in the military-related aerospace industry.
C) White collar workers were surpassing blue collar workers in numbers.
D) Labor unions reached a peak and then began to decline.
E) Job opportunities were open to women in the white collar work force.

Question 17

Senator McCarthy first rose to national prominence by

A) revealing that Communist spies were passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.
B) charging that there was extensive Communist influence in Hollywood and elsewhere in the media.
C) asserting that General George Marshall was part of a Communist conspiracy within the U.S. Army.
D) mobilizing Republicans to demand a stronger anticommunist foreign policy in East Asia.
E) charging that hundreds of Communists were working for the U.S. State Department.

Question 18

President Eisenhower's attitude toward Senator Joseph McCarthy was to

A) publicly denounce him when he attacked General George Marshall.
B) privately encourage his attacks on Democrats as Communist sympathizers.
C) privately loathe him but publicly avoid and appease him.
D) secretly encourage the Army to attack and destroy McCarthy.
E) cut McCarthy off from all access and influence within his administration.

Question 19

During the 1952 presidential campaign, Republican candidate Dwight Eisenhower declared that he would ____ to help to end the Korean War.

A) use atomic weapons
B) blockade the China coast and bomb Manchuria
C) open negotiations with Mao Zedong
D) order United Nations troops to invade North Korea
E) personally go to Korea

Question 20

Between 1950 and 1980, the majority of newly created jobs in the clerical and service fields were held by

A) men.
B) minorities.
C) people with some college education.
D) women.
E) immigrants.

Question 21

Which one of the following is least related to the other three?

A) nonviolent direct action
B) Martin Luther King, Jr.
C) Rosa Parks
D) Montgomery bus boycott
E) Orval Faubus

Question 22

As president, Dwight Eisenhower steadfastly pursued the goal of

A) balancing the federal budget.
B) returning power to the states.
C) overturning the New Deal.
D) improving race relations.
E) guaranteeing the education and health of all American citizens.

Question 23

The Supreme Court began to advance the cause of civil rights in the 1950s partly because

A) the Court was the only branch of government with the Constitutional authority to do so.
B) the courts were dominated by New Deal liberals.
C) African Americans decided that the Supreme Court was their best hope.
D) the other two branches of government tried to steer clear of the issue.
E) street demonstrations and protests had proven unsuccessful.

Question 24

President Eisenhower defined the domestic philosophy of his administration as

A) "the Fair Deal."
B) "the silent majority."
C) "dynamic conservatism."
D) "two cars in every garage."
E) "compassionate conservatism."

Question 25

The largest public works project during Eisenhower's presidency was

A) the space program.
B) the building of Grand Coulee Dam.
C) the St. Lawrence Seaway.
D) construction of the interstate highway system.
E) the polio vaccine program.

Question 26

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was an outgrowth of the

A) National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
B) black power movement of the 1960s.
C) pacifist movement of the 1950s.
D) Civil Rights Act of 1957.
E) sit-in movement launched by young southern blacks.

Question 27

Senator McCarthy's anticommunist crusade ended when he

A) began to attack the personal integrity of his critics.
B) alleged that there were communists in Hollywood.
C) alleged that there were communists in the Foreign Service.
D) alleged that many college professors were communists.
E) alleged that there were communists in the army.

Question 28

In the epochal 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the Supreme Court

A) declared that the concept of "separate but equal" facilities for blacks and whites was unconstitutional.
B) upheld its earlier decision in Plessy v. Ferguson.
C) required busing to achieve racial balance.
D) declared that the principle of local control of schools would have to be modified.
E) ordered immediate and total integration of all American schools.

Question 29

The bracero program between the United States and Mexico involved

A) legally importing Mexican farm workers to the United States.
B) sending illegal aliens back to Mexico.
C) transferring manufacturing jobs to Mexico in return for Mexico's efforts to stem the tide of illegal immigration.
D) establishing a vast irrigation project using water from the Rio Grande.
E) enabling families to join Mexican workers in the United States.

Question 30

During his presidency, Dwight Eisenhower accepted some of the New Deal's proposals, and did the New Deal one better by backing the

A) Federal Health Care System Act.
B) Tennessee Valley Act.
C) Indian New Deal Act.
D) Federal Housing Act.
E) Interstate Highway Act.

Question 31

In 1956, when Hungarians revolted against continued domination by the Soviet Union and its Hungarian puppet government, the United States under Dwight Eisenhower

A) supplied funds and small arms to the rebels.
B) quickly recognized the new Hungarian government.
C) refused to admit any Hungarian refugees.
D) gave only outdated military equipment to the Hungarian freedom fighters.
E) did nothing to assist the Hungarian freedom fighters.

Question 32

Dwight Eisenhower's policies toward Native Americans included

A) efforts at preserving tribal culture and self-government.
B) the attempt to create a single intertribal government for all Indians.
C) incentives for Indians to move from the reservations to the cities.
D) "terminating" tribes and returning to the assimilationist goals of the Dawes Act of 1887.
E) an emphasis on education and job training for Indians.

Question 33

President Eisenhower's "New Look" foreign policy in the 1950s involved

A) a reduction of the military-industrial complex.
B) massive new military spending for the regular army.
C) greater strategic reliance on air power and the threat of "massive retaliation" nuclear weapons.
D) a buildup of unconventional and guerrilla-warfare forces.
E) greater reliance on sea power, including the rapid deployment of the navy and marines to trouble spots.

Question 34

In an effort to overturn the Jim Crow segregation laws, African Americans used all of the following methods except

A) economic boycotts.
B) legal attacks on underpinnings of segregation in the courts.
C) filing charges of human rights violations with the United Nations.
D) mobilizing black churches on behalf of black rights.
E) using the nonviolent tactics of Mohandas Gandhi.

Question 35

The 1954 Supreme Court case that ruled racially segregated school systems "inherently unequal" was

A) Roe v. Wade.
B) Plessy v. Ferguson.
C) Milliken v. Bradley.
D) Bakke v. California.
E) Brown v. Board of Education.

Question 36

President Dwight Eisenhower's attitude toward racial justice can best be described as

A) not inclined toward promoting integration.
B) very supportive.
C) a reluctant belief in integration as essential to America's image abroad.
D) supporting racial justice over social harmony.
E) adhering to the philosophy of states' rights.

Question 37

The new militancy and restlessness among many members of the African American community after 1945 was generated by

A) the white churches' growing awareness of social injustice.
B) World War II's highlighting of the gap between America's ideals and its racial practices.
C) Thurgood Marshall's appointment to the U. S. Supreme Court.
D) Dwight Eisenhower's strong commitment to civil rights.
E) the agitation of A. Philip Randolph.

Question 38

President Eisenhower's secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, promised to

A) recognize a Communist government of Vietnam if it were elected.
B) end all negotiations with the Soviet Union.
C) roll back communism and liberate the captive peoples of Eastern Europe.
D) force Third World leaders to choose between communism and capitalism.
E) provide military support for Israel against the Arab states.

Question 39

On the subject of racial justice, President Eisenhower

A) used his personal prestige to promote better racial relations.
B) publicly endorsed the 1954 Supreme Court school-desegregation decision.
C) believed that the courts were the best way to overturn segregation.
D) argued that the law could not effectively change racial customs and prejudices.
E) admired the Christian philosophy of Martin Luther King.

Question 40

Senator Joseph McCarthy had a devastating effect in smearing or destroying the careers of all of the following except

A) General George Marshall.
B) Hollywood actors.
C) the Supreme Court.
D) writers.
E) State Department officials.

Question 41

The 1955 Geneva Conference

A) unified the two Vietnams.
B) made Ngo Dinh Diem president of Vietnam.
C) called for the two Vietnams to hold national elections within two years.
D) created the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization.
E) established a permanent division of North Vietnam and South Vietnam.

Question 42

The launching of Sputnik by the Soviet Union in 1957

A) caused little concern because it had few military implications.
B) created great anxiety about America's scientific and educational strength.
C) was quickly matched by the launching of a larger American satellite.
D) led Congress to demand that local school boards provide more funding for education.
E) was regarded by American scientists as largely a stunt.

Question 43

In 1956 the United States sharply criticized ____ as the aggressors in the Suez Canal crisis.

A) Egypt and Jordan
B) Iran and Pakistan
C) Israel and Turkey
D) Lebanon and Syria
E) Britain and France

Question 44

The Paris summit conference scheduled for 1960 was aborted by the

A) Suez crisis.
B) Bay of Pigs.
C) Quemoy episode.
D) launching of Sputnik.
E) U-2 incident.

Question 45

During the 1950s, the Central Intelligence Agency engineered a pro-American political coups in

A) Guatemala.
B) Nicaragua.
C) El Salvador.
D) Costa Rica.
E) Egypt.

Question 46

The popular Vietnamese leader who was both a nationalist and a communist was

A) Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung).
B) Ngo Dinh Diem.
C) Madame Nhu.
D) Ho Chi Minh.
E) Nguyen Cao Ky.

Question 47

During his second term, President Eisenhower took a more active role in the area of

A) race relations.
B) national health insurance.
C) labor law reform.
D) environmental protection.
E) diminishing the power of the military-industrial complex.

Question 48

The Cold War seemed to thaw a little in 1955 when the Soviet Union agreed to

A) provide Hungary with substantial political independence.
B) end its military occupation of Austria.
C) sign a nuclear test-ban treaty with the United States.
D) the eventual reunification of East and West Germany.
E) open West Berlin to ground transportation.

Question 49

The Suez crisis marked the last time in history that the United States could

A) use the threat of nuclear war to win concessions.
B) criticize Israel's foreign policy.
C) engage in covert activities against a foreign government.
D) invoke the Eisenhower Doctrine.
E) use its "oil weapon" to make foreign policy demands.

Question 50

When Dwight Eisenhower left the presidency in 1961,

A) there was relief at the end of his "lame duck" second term.
B) Congress was firmly in the hands of the Republicans.
C) he was unhappy with Vice President Nixon's unbending anticommunism.
D) he had succeeded in establishing American domination of the Cold War.
E) he remained an extraordinarily popular figure.

Question 51

Which of the following was not among the important new post-World War II American novelists?

A) H.L. Mencken
B) Ralph Ellison
C) Flannery O'Connor
D) John Updike
E) Norman Mailer

Question 52

In contrast to the literary realism spawned by World War I, the literary response to World War II turned toward

A) heroism and romance.
B) escapism.
C) social and political criticism.
D) surrealism, fantasy, and satire.
E) nihilism and despair.

Question 53

By the end of the 1950s, Latin American anger toward the United States had intensified because Washington had done all of the following except

A) extended massive aid to Europe and little to Latin America.
B) continued to intervene in Latin American affairs.
C) supported bloody dictators who claimed to be fighting communism.
D) allowed Cuba to fall into the hands of the communists.
E) sponsored a CIA-directed coup in Guatemala.

Question 54

Which of the following novels was not written by one of the prominent Jewish writers of the post-World War II era?

A) Herzog
B) The Adventures of Augie March
C) All the King's Men
D) The Assistant
E) Catcher in the Rye

Question 55

The 1957 Eisenhower Doctrine empowered the president to extend economic and military aid to nations of ____ that wanted help to resist communist aggression.

A) Southeast Asia
B) Africa
C) Central and Eastern Europe
D) the Middle East
E) Latin America

Question 56

Which of the following is least related to the other three?

A) the launching of Sputnik
B) Landrum-Griffin Act
C) National Defense Education Act
D) the space race with the Soviet Union
E) National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Question 57

What may well have tipped the electoral scales for John F. Kennedy in the presidential election of 1960 was

A) his age.
B) his religion.
C) his televised debates with Richard M. Nixon.
D) President Eisenhower's heavy loss of popularity in his last two years in office.
E) his family.

Question 58

Many of America's leading poets in the post-World War II era

A) moved away from big cities to rural retreats.
B) turned toward epic poetry.
C) ended their lives through suicide.
D) left the country to live in Paris.
E) turned to nature for subject matter.