Deck 26: The Cold War Abroad and at Home, 1945-1960

Question 1

In 1948, Whittaker Chambers testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee that former State Department official Alger Hiss was

A) an anarchist.
B) a socialist.
C) a Nazi.
D) a communist.
E) a homosexual.

Answer 1

a communist.

Question 2

In 1950, Joseph McCarthy argued that

A) General Eisenhower should lead a military coup against President Truman.
B) the United States should seek a peace settlement with the Soviet Union.
C) UN forces should use the atomic bomb against North Korea.
D) there were communists working in the American government.
E) Richard Nixon had been a communist spy during World War II.

Answer 2

there were communists working in the American government.

Question 3

The Employment Act of 1946

A) established full employment as a federal goal.
B) gave the president broad powers to achieve maximum employment.
C) committed the federal government to ensuring economic growth and maintaining employment.
D) made Keynesian economics an officially recognized government approach to maximum employment.
E) prohibited the government from running a deficit for the purpose of improving the economy.

Answer 3

committed the federal government to ensuring economic growth and maintaining employment.

Question 4

Which of the following was not a result of the labor strikes of 1945-1946?

A) A presidential order for the army to seize mines where the miners went on strike.
B) A presidential threat to draft workers who struck vital industries.
C) A growing public support for unions.
D) A paralyzed economy.
E) A split between the president and the nation's union leaders.

Question 5

Which of the following statements provides evidence of American's assessment of the first twenty months of Harry Truman's presidency?

A) Procommunist elements strengthened their influence in the Democratic party.
B) In the November 1946 elections Republicans gained control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1928.
C) John L. Lewis took the United Mine Workers out on strike twice, and Truman nationalized the mines twice.
D) Truman was reelected in a landslide victory.
E) The Democrats gained control of twenty-five governorships in the elections of 1946.

Question 6

Who were the Dixiecrats?

A) They were states rights segregationists who hoped to deny Truman's re-election and preserve their "way of life."
B) They bolted the Democratic party and supported Thomas Dewey in the 1948 presidential election.
C) They formed the core of President Truman's support in the solid South during the 1948 election.
D) They were Northerners who moved to the south in the postwar years to build new industries and take advantage of cheap labor.
E) They were the leftwing Democrats who joined with communists to launch a new Progressive Party in 1948.

Question 7

Which of the following did not occur in the 1948 presidential election?

A) Southern segregationists bolted the Democratic party.
B) Leftwing Democrats joined with communists to launch a new Progressive Party.
C) Truman blasted the "no-good, do-nothing" Republicans as "gluttons of privilege." Pollsters predicted a Dewey victory.
D) Governor Thomas Dewey of New York defeated President Truman for reelection.
E) The radicalism of the Progressives and Dixiecrats kept most moderates safely in the Democratic fold.

Question 8

The Korean War was an example of all the following except

A) limited war.
B) the triumph of military over political leadership.
C) the containment policy.
D) war without congressional approval.
E) a stalemate.

Question 9

In response to the 1948 Soviet blockade of West Berlin, the United States

A) used an airlift to re-supply West Berlin.
B) threatened to launch a preemptive nuclear war.
C) allowed West Berlin to become part of East Germany.
D) permitted the Soviet Union to participate in the government of West Berlin.
E) exchanged the right to West Berlin for access to Prague.

Question 10

Why did President Harry Truman develop the Truman Doctrine in 1947?

A) He wanted to give European countries economic assistance.
B) He wanted to rebuild the militaries of Great Britain and France in order to resist communism.
C) He wanted to provide military and economic aid for Turkey and Greece to resist the spread of communism.
D) He wanted to offer the Soviet Union an opportunity for reconciliation.
E) He wanted to place atomic weapons under international control.

Question 11

What was Winston Churchill referring to in 1946 when he spoke in Missouri about an "iron curtain"?

A) the division that had developed between President Truman's loyal supporters in his home state and his opponents in the rest of the country.
B) a division between Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe and the rest of the continent.
C) the barrier that had to be established in order to contain communism within its existing boundaries.
D) the cultural and intellectual barrier that prevented Westerners from understanding Asia.
E) the atomic espionage ring supposedly organized by Klaus Fuchs.

Question 12

Which of the following was not one of the reasons that the 1947 National Security Act was significant?

A) It unified the armed forces.
B) It created the Central Intelligence Agency.
C) It established the National Security Council.
D) It established the Department of Defense.
E) It required federal employees to sign a loyalty oath.

Question 13

How did Truman's presidency end?

A) Congress impeached him for his mishandling of General Douglas MacArthur.
B) He resigned after his affair with his secretary became public.
C) Dwight Eisenhower defeated him in the 1952 presidential election.
D) The Democratic Party refused to renominate him.
E) He decided not to run for re-election in 1952.

Question 14

Which of the following was not one of the reasons that many Americans became concerned about the nation's security during the late 1940s?

A) The communist victory in China.
B) The Soviet development of a hydrogen bomb.
C) The discovery of a major spy network that had given American atomic secrets to the Soviets.
D) Hysteria about communist infiltrators.
E) Publicity over Congressional investigations into communist influence in American life.

Question 15

Why was Inchon significant to the Korean War?

A) The North Koreans opened the war by seizing Inchon.
B) General Douglas MacArthur launched a daring amphibious assault at Inchon that forced North Korea's forces to retreat.
C) The United States detonated a nuclear bomb over Inchon to show the North Koreans how powerful the United States was.
D) Inchon housed a prison that became notorious for American prisoner of war abuse.
E) South Korea based its capitol at Inchon after the North Koreans captured Seoul.

Question 16

What did George Kennan argue in his long telegram from Moscow?

A) that conflict with the Soviet Union was inevitable, so the United States had to pursue a firm policy of containing Soviet expansion.
B) that the focus of world communism was shifting to China, and the United States should abandon its preoccupation with affairs in Eastern Europe.
C) that American war aims in Europe had been achieved, so the United States should withdraw and focus on domestic challenges.
D) that the Soviet Union was interested mainly in securing its borders, so the United States should encourage its domination of Eastern Europe.
E) that conflict with the Soviet Union was inevitable, so the United States should, if at all possible, invade Russia and halt its expansive tendencies.

Question 17

What 1949 event embittered many Americans?

A) The establishment of the communist People's Republic of China
B) The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
C) The outcome of the Korean War
D) The loss of Eastern Europe to communism
E) The provisions of the Yalta agreements

Question 18

Which of the following statements concerning the formation of NATO in 1949 is not true?

A) The United States wanted a defensive alliance that preserved the security of Western Europe.
B) Many European countries joined because of they feared the spread of communism.
C) The Soviet Union formed NATO to offset the creation of the Warsaw Pact by the United States.
D) This was the first major military alliance involving the United States since the late 1700s.
E) President Truman ranked NATO as one of his proudest achievements.

Question 19

The Taft-Hartley Act

A) outlawed the closed shop and permitted the president to call a cooling-off period to delay a strike.
B) expanded the rights of labor unions.
C) constituted a slave-labor bill that crippled the labor movement in the United States.
D) was the cornerstone of President Truman's Fair Deal.
E) was the first New Deal act that was repealed in the Truman administration.

Question 20

The 1948 Marshall Plan provided funding after World War II to help the recovery and rebuilding of

A) the Soviet Union.
B) Eastern Europe.
C) Western Europe.
D) Southeast Asia.
E) Northern Africa.

Question 21

Which of the following was not one of the reasons that the Republicans were victorious in the 1952 election?

A) Americans were tired of the stalemate in Korean.
B) Wage-and-price freezes had angered many Americans.
C) Americans were ready for a change from twenty years of Democratic presidents.
D) Eisenhower's military stature and infectious smile won him many admirers.
E) Americans were comforted by the soothing moderation of Eisenhower's running mate, Richard Nixon.

Question 22

What did the "New Look" defense program in the 1950s emphasize?

A) strengthening the army and navy but not the air force.
B) new methods of guerrilla warfare learned in Vietnam.
C) the importance of nuclear weapons.
D) the control and reduction of strategic weapons.
E) clandestine OSS operations.

Question 23

What did Secretary of State John Foster Dulles believe?

A) He believed the United States had to open negotiations with the Soviet Union to reduce tensions.
B) He believed the United States needed to offer the Soviet Union concessions in order to improve diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.
C) He believed the United States should pursue a strong anti-communist foreign policy.
D) He believed the United States should unilaterally offer to eliminate its nuclear weapons.
E) He believed the United States had to accelerate defense spending and to challenge the Soviet Union throughout the world.

Question 24

Senator Joseph McCarthy won strong backing from all the following groups except

A) Midwestern Republicans opposed to Democratic internationalism and restrictions on business.
B) Eastern, upper-class, Protestant Democrats and Republicans, such as Dean Acheson and Nelson Rockefeller.
C) Traditionally Democratic Catholic groups.
D) Chambers of Commerce and the American Legion.
E) Blue-collar workers who agreed with his assessment of what made a true American.

Question 25

Which of the following people was convicted and executed for conspiring to commit espionage?

A) Alger Hiss
B) "Red Dean" Acheson
C) Whittaker Chambers
D) Julius Rosenberg
E) Ayn Rand

Question 26

In the "Eisenhower Doctrine," Dwight Eisenhower declared the United States would send military aid and, if necessary, troops to help counter communist thrusts in

A) The Middle East.
B) Indochina.
C) Latin America.
D) Western Europe.
E) Southern Africa.

Question 27

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, what did the House Un-American Activities Committee, Hollywood, and some thirty-nine state legislatures have in common?

A) They were all revealed to be riddled with communist spies and other subversives.
B) They all took vigorous stands against the witch hunting of Senator Joseph McCarthy.
C) They all participated in the crusade to clear Alger Hiss and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg of charges that they passed secrets to the Soviets.
D) They all contributed to the anticommunist hysteria of the period and tried to root out subversives in American society.
E) none of these choices.

Question 28

Which of the following did the "new conservatives" not advocate?

A) Victory over communism instead of containment.
B) A return to older moral standards.
C) Gun control.
D) Extending social security benefits.
E) The impeachment of Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren.

Question 29

Which of the following operations was the CIA not responsible for in the 1950s?

A) It helped return the deposed shah of Iran to power.
B) It intervened in elections in the Philippines to ensure a pro-American government.
C) It supported a coup in Guatemala and instituting a military dictatorship.
D) It intervened in East Germany and Hungary when the Soviet Union crushed popular insurrections.
E) It sponsored intellectual conferences and jazz concerts, subsidized magazines, and recruited college students.

Question 30

How did President Eisenhower respond to the aggression of England, France, and Israel against Egypt in 1956?

A) He commended their action and offering military assistance.
B) He threatened nuclear war if they did not withdraw from Egypt.
C) He condemned the attacks forced them to withdraw their troops.
D) He sent American ground troops to defend the Egyptian capital.
E) He offered military assistance to Nasser.

Question 31

President Eisenhower's greatest crisis in the Middle East began when Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser

A) nationalized the oil wells.
B) nationalized the foreign-owned Suez Canal.
C) seized the Aswan Dam.
D) declared his nation's independence from France.
E) invaded Israel.

Question 32

Between 1947 and 1951, what did the loyalty boards that were established to root out subversives in government service do?

A) They uncovered evidence of massive subversion and espionage within the Departments of State and Defense.
B) They restricted their investigations to potential subversives in high-risk areas of government service.
C) They forced several thousand government employees to resign and led to the dismissal of almost six hundred on charges of disloyalty.
D) They restored to federal government employees a sense of calm and confidence that had been missing since the end of World War II.
E) They were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

Question 33

Why did Soviet-American relations become strained in 1960?

A) A Soviet spy plane was shot down within U.S. borders.
B) An American spy plane was shot down within Soviet borders.
C) The Soviets resumed atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons.
D) The United States discovered that Soviet missiles had been installed in Cuba.
E) The United States resumed atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons.

Question 34

When General Dwight Eisenhower received the Republican nomination for president in 1952, which wing of the party was he viewed as representing?

A) The moderate wing
B) The conservative wing
C) The hard-line wing
D) The southern wing
E) The left wing