Deck 30: The Turbulent Sixties, 1960-1968

Question 1

What was one major factor that helped Kennedy defeat Nixon in the 1960 presidential election?

A) Kennedy's performance in the first televised presidential debate
B) Nixon's poor performance in a presidential radio debate
C) Kennedy's extensive political experience compared to Nixon's
D) Kennedy's warm relationship with the Eisenhower administration
E) the fact that the nation was familiar with Kennedy, but Nixon was a newcomer to politics

Answer 1

Kennedy's performance in the first televised presidential debate

Question 2

John F. Kennedy's domestic program was known as the________ .

A) Great Society
B) New Deal
C) Fair Deal
D) New Frontier
E) Camelot Era

Answer 2

New Frontier

Question 3

What was Kennedy's top priority when he assumed the office of the presidency?

A) civil rights
B) foreign policy
C) health care
D) poverty
E) the economy

Answer 3

foreign policy

Question 4

What did President Kennedy do to help South Vietnam in 1961?

A) He praised the South Vietnamese government but took no action.
B) He sent money and advisers.
C) He sent combat troops.
D) He threatened North Vietnam.
E) He badgered European countries into sending combat troops.

Question 5

Kennedy's failed 1961 covert operation to overthrow Cuba's Fidel Castro is called________ .

A) the Monroe Affair
B) the Cuban Missile Crisis
C) the Bay of Pigs
D) Operation Castro
E) the Havana Project

Question 6

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation that came very close to being a nuclear conflict between which two countries?

A) Cuba and China
B) Cuba and the Dominican Republic
C) the United States and China
D) the United States and Russia
E) Russia and Cuba

Question 7

Which individual was an African American appointed to a prominent post in the federal government during the Kennedy administration?

A) Philip Randolph
B) Thurgood Marshall
C) Martin Luther King, Jr.
D) Malcolm X
E) Stokely Carmichael

Question 8

What was the 1961 freedom ride?

A) a march on Washington in which participants rode bicycles
B) a sit-in during which thousands of college students experimented with LSD
C) a protest in which thousands of college students blocked the routes of segregated buses and trains
D) a protest in which thousands of people crossed the United States on motorcycles
E) a protest in which a biracial group tested the desegregation laws on public transportation

Question 9

Who put the most pressure on Kennedy to openly support racial justice?

A) Philip Randolph
B) Thurgood Marshall
C) Martin Luther King, Jr.
D) Malcolm X
E) Stokely Carmichael

Question 10

One of Lyndon Johnson's greatest assets in the White House was his________ .

A) ability to persuade Congress
B) acclaimed public speaking skills
C) polish and sophistication
D) excellent relationship with the media
E) unassuming presence that caused others to underestimate him

Question 11

When Johnson became president after the assassination of Kennedy in 1963, what did he focus on first?

A) ending the cold war
B) passing JFK's tax cuts and civil rights bill
C) escalating the war in Vietnam
D) boosting the military
E) bolstering international relationships

Question 12

Lyndon Johnson's main theme in the presidential election of 1964 was________ .

A) rolling back communist gains around the world
B) further advances in civil rights
C) decreasing the size of the federal government
D) winning the cold war
E) ending poverty in America

Question 13

Lyndon Johnson's reform program was called the .

A) Fair Deal
B) New Frontier
C) Great Society
D) Great Future
E) Morning in America

Question 14

In his health care program, President Lyndon Johnson secured .

A) free health care for all Americans
B) the Medicare program for the elderly
C) more rights for private insurance companies
D) a restriction on health benefits for welfare recipients
E) a free prescription drug program

Question 15

In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson sent American soldiers to________ in order to prevent a communist takeover there.

A) Cuba
B) Argentina
C) the Dominican Republic
D) Lebanon
E) Madagascar

Question 16

In Vietnam, American military strategists counted heavily on________ .

A) enthusiasm for the war which would generate recruits
B) superior American firepower, especially airstrikes
C) superior American counterinsurgency tactics
D) the overwhelming number of American troops
E) the overwhelming support from the Vietnamese people

Question 17

The most prominent student protest organization during the sixties was the________ .

A) Students of America
B) Students for a Democratic Society
C) Yippie movement
D) Southern Christian Leadership Conference
E) Young Republicans

Question 18

What was the main issue that American college students protested during the sixties?

A) the election of Lyndon Johnson
B) the Vietnam War
C) Lyndon Johnson's education policies
D) civil rights
E) tax increases for the middle class

Question 19

In the spring of 1968, students seized five buildings at________ for eight days before police regained control.

A) Arizona State University
B) Duke University
C) the University of California at San Francisco
D) Harvard University
E) Columbia University

Question 20

What was the touchstone of the new counterculture of the sixties?

A) literature
B) photography
C) painting
D) film
E) music

Question 21

Who advocated "black power" as the leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s?

A) Martin Luther King, Jr.
B) Phillip Randolph
C) Stokely Carmichael
D) Thurgood Marshall
E) Robert Weaver

Question 22

Cesar Chavez________ .

A) led a communist takeover of Nicaragua in 1969
B) organized a Chicano political movement known as La Raza Unida
C) organized California grape and lettuce workers to strike for higher wages
D) was the first Hispanic player to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame
E) campaigned for bilingual education programs in public schools in California and Texas

Question 23

Who wrote the 1963 book The Feminine Mystique?

A) Jacqueline Kennedy
B) Rosa Parks
C) Ella Baker
D) Betty Friedan
E) Coretta Scott King

Question 24

The turning point of the Vietnam War which convinced U.S. leaders that the war would end in a stalemate was the________ .

A) Tet offensive
B) Gulf of Tonkin affair
C) Battle of Pleiku
D) Battle of Haiphong
E) massacre at My Lai

Question 25

Which 1968 presidential candidate cut deeply into Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey's voter base by running on the American Independent Party ticket?

A) Eugene McCarthy
B) William Westmoreland
C) Timothy Leary
D) George C. Wallace
E) Huey Newton

Question 26

Kennedy secured the African American vote in the 1960 presidential election by________ .

A) promising to defend African nations from communism
B) promising to appoint an African American as his running mate
C) supporting the release of Martin Luther King, Jr. from jail
D) publicly criticizing southern Democrats who supported segregation
E) being a close personal friend of Stokely Carmichael

Question 27

Why did the United States become involved in the conflict between North and South Vietnam in 1961?

A) to stop the spread of communism from North Vietnam to South Vietnam
B) to gain control of valuable natural resources in South Vietnam
C) to honor obligations to Russia from the treaty ending World War II
D) to retaliate for North Vietnam's involvement in the Bay of Pigs operation
E) to stop South Vietnam's bloody takeover of North Vietnam

Question 28

Why did Kennedy authorize a covert mission in which 1,400 Cuban exiles invaded Cuba?

A) to check the island for nuclear weapons
B) to topple the regime of Fidel Castro
C) to gather information about Castro's relationship with Russian leader Khrushchev
D) to steal classified documents related to the conflict in Vietnam
E) to spark an anticommunist movement among the Cuban people

Question 29

How was the Cuban Missile Crisis resolved?

A) Cuba would remove its nuclear missiles in exchange for America's promise not to attack Russia.
B) America would remove its nuclear missiles from Cuba in exchange for Russian promises not to aid North Vietnam.
C) America would remove its nuclear missiles from Cuba in exchange for Russia's promise not to invade Cuba.
D) Russia would remove its nuclear missiles from Cuba in exchange for America's promise not to invade North Vietnam.
E) Russia would remove its nuclear missiles from Cuba in exchange for America's promise not to invade Cuba.

Question 30

What was a consequence of the Cuban Missile Crisis?

A) the end of the U.S.-Soviet arms race
B) the Soviet-American telephone hotline
C) a decrease in Kennedy's popularity among the American people
D) a new maturity in John F. Kennedy's domestic policy
E) a new policy of nuclear arms reduction by both the Soviet and American government

Question 31

John F. Kennedy played down civil rights legislation because he________ .

A) feared the possibility of alienating southern Democrats
B) did not think the country was ready to consider it
C) did not want to offend conservative African American leaders
D) thought it was unnecessary and should be left to the states
E) thought there was little a president could do to combat racism

Question 32

What finally caused Kennedy to support racial justice openly?

A) He visited segregated schools in the South.
B) Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech.
C) Kennedy wanted a united country to fight the war in Vietnam.
D) Authorities attacked children in a segregation protest in Birmingham, Alabama.
E) The Democratic party threatened not to support him if he did not speak out.

Question 33

Which statement about Johnson's war on poverty is correct?

A) It was a failure; the poverty level actually rose while the program was in effect.
B) It was barely passed by Congress and was never actually implemented.
C) It lacked effective funding and, in the end, helped only about 80,000 people.
D) It emphasized self-help and brought almost 10 million people out of poverty.
E) It gave money directly to the poor and nearly solved the nation's poverty problem.

Question 34

The Voting Rights Act of 1965________ .

A) was resisted by blacks who believed voting was a white prerogative
B) won President Johnson the public adulation he craved
C) reduced President Johnson's popularity
D) had little effect on the voting practices of southern African Americans
E) led to a dramatic increase in African American voting registration in the South

Question 35

Which was a difference between John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson?

A) Kennedy was more committed to a liberal reform agenda than Johnson.
B) Johnson was considered more stylish than Kennedy.
C) Kennedy was better at manipulating Congress than Johnson.
D) Johnson was more popular with the media than Kennedy.
E) Kennedy was a better public speaker than Johnson.

Question 36

The foreign policy of Lyndon Johnson________ .

A) was dramatically different from that of John Kennedy
B) was, in many respects, simply a continuation of Kennedy's policies
C) indicated his strong opposition to the Cold War
D) indicated his acceptance of existing communist states
E) was isolationist by nature

Question 37

What caused the Gulf of Tonkin affair?

A) American support for covert operations in Vietnam led North Vietnam to attack a U.S. ship.
B) American intervention in Cuban politics led Castro to urge the North Vietnamese to attack U.S. ships.
C) American hostility to Russia caused Khrushchev to ask the North Vietnamese to attack U.S. ships.
D) Russian hostility to North Vietnam caused Khrushchev to ask the United States to seize North Vietnamese ships.
E) North Vietnam attacked South Vietnamese ships carrying valuable natural resources to the United States, and the Americans retaliated.

Question 38

In part, Lyndon Johnson wanted the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution to demonstrate the American commitment to________ .

A) making Vietnam an American colony
B) remaining neutral in Vietnam
C) defending South Vietnam
D) invading North Vietnam
E) cooperating with Russia in the Vietnam conflict

Question 39

American bombing of North Vietnam________ .

A) proved an effective strategy in limiting North Vietnam's participation in the war
B) destroyed North Vietnam's major port facilities at Haiphong
C) impeded communist supply lines
D) garnered approval from the international community
E) was largely ineffective

Question 40

Lyndon Johnson must bear great responsibility for the American problems in the Vietnam War because he________ .

A) failed to confront the American people with the stark reality of the war
B) was the first U.S. leader to commit American financial resources to fighting the communists in Vietnam
C) was not fully committed to containment and strayed from Kennedy's approach to foreign policy
D) was more committed to the implementation of containment policy than his predecessors had been
E) took funding away from the war effort to prop up his Great Society programs

Question 41

Lyndon Johnson's political downfall resulted primarily from his________ .

A) Latin American policy
B) pursuit of the Vietnam War
C) failure in implementing his Great Society programs
D) refusal to be a Cold Warrior
E) advocacy of welfare programs

Question 42

Participation in the Vietnam War was connected to socioeconomic class primarily because wealthy young men________ .

A) were more likely to be in college and thus could avoid the draft
B) were more likely to volunteer and enlist without being drafted
C) could hire someone to take their places in the military
D) often bribed officials and bought their way out of the draft
E) were often given safer desk jobs rather than combat duty

Question 43

How did the civil rights movement change in the mid- to late sixties?

A) It cooled off, since African Americans had achieved most of their social goals.
B) The movement became even more committed to nonviolent resistance to racism.
C) It became more militant and considered violence to force social change.
D) It focused less on protest in the streets and more on progress through the courts.
E) The movement focused less on domestic social change and more on international social change.

Question 44

Which statement best describes the social change that American women experienced from the 1920s to the 1960s?

A) The media no longer portrayed stereotypical gender roles for men and women in the 1960s, as it had in the 1920s.
B) In the 1960s, there were actually fewer women enrolled in college and professional schools than there were in the 1920s.
C) In the 1960s, there were a large number of female doctors and lawyers, unlike the situation in the 1920s.
D) Women were no longer relegated to stereotypical occupations in the 1960s, as they had been in the 1920s.
E) In the 1960s, women were no longer expected to maintain the household and raise children, as they were in the 1920s.

Question 45

Nixon's election signaled a public reaction against the________ .

A) failure of the Democratic party to bring about social reform
B) efforts to bring peace in Vietnam
C) successes of the civil rights movement
D) economic failures of the last Democratic president
E) growth of the federal government

Question 46

The Vietnam War affected future U.S. foreign policy because it caused America to________ .

A) pursue a more active containment policy abroad
B) abandon its containment policies
C) return to an isolationist policy abroad
D) refuse to cooperate with nations in Asia for almost a decade
E) abandon international efforts for almost a decade due to embarrassment

Question 47

What is one reason the Gulf of Tonkin affair was such a costly victory for Johnson?

A) Johnson became ill during the Gulf of Tonkin affair and never fully recovered his health.
B) The Gulf of Tonkin affair caused the deaths of thousands of civilians, which soured America's reputation abroad.
C) The Gulf of Tonkin affair led Congress to reduce Johnson's ability to use force in Vietnam.
D) When the war started in earnest, Johnson was vulnerable to the charge of deliberately misleading Congress.
E) Johnson had to underfund his domestic social programs to finance the operation.

Question 48

What were Johnson's feelings about committing the United States to the war in Vietnam?

A) He worried about the consequences of either withdrawal or invasion, so he committed to a large-scale but limited military intervention.
B) He worried about the consequences of being too cautious, so he committed the American military to an all-out invasion of North Vietnam.
C) He was worried about the consequences of a U.S. troop presence, so he withdrew troops to Taiwan and Japan while he reconsidered his options.
D) He worried about the spread of communism, so he committed American troops to two fronts, both Vietnam and Europe.
E) He was worried about domestic unrest in the United States, so he decided he could not commit more than 10,000 troops to the effort.

Question 49

African American activism affected social change for other ethnicities because other ethnic groups -----------

A) were unimpressed with the strategies of African American activists and tried to enact social change in other ways
B) had little success in making social change, since the country was weary of protests for racial justice
C) were inspired by African American activism and launched their own protests
D) were afraid to protest after seeing the violence African American activists endured from authorities
E) were resentful of African American successes because the social changes of the sixties affected only African Americans

Question 50

What successes did the civil rights movement achieve during the Johnson administration? How do these relate to the violent radicalism of the civil rights movement in the late 1960s?

Question 51

Analyze President Johnson's strategy in the Vietnam War. Why did it lead to American defeat?