Deck 27: Cold War America 1945-1954

Question 1

The chapter introduction recounts the stories of returning GI Timuel Black and nurse Betty Basye. The point drawn from these anecdotes is how

A) relieved Americans felt now that the war was over.
B) committed Americans were to confronting the growing Soviet threat.
C) prosperous and routine life soon became after the disruptions of wartime.
D) different from "normal" life became as the American government met the international and economic challenges of peacetime.

Answer 1

different from "normal" life became as the American government met the international and economic challenges of peacetime.

Question 2

Who of the following would be considered "Eurocentric"?

A) General MacArthur
B) President Harry Truman
C) Senator Robert Taft
D) None of these individuals were Eurocentric; they all believed that events in the Pacific basin would "determine the course of history."

Answer 2

President Harry Truman

Question 3

Stalin made numerous demands to control territory along the Soviet borders; and with the coming of peace, he continued to push for a role in controlling the ______, which linked Soviet ports on the Black Sea with the Mediterranean Sea.

A) Dardanelles
B) Suez Canal
C) Strait of Gibraltar
D) Strait of Hormuz

Answer 3

Dardanelles

Question 4

Several factors explain the rise of the cold war. Which of the following does NOT describe these factors?

A) geopolitical: the Truman administration harbored suspicions about Soviet designs on its neighbors
B) ideological: both Soviet communism and the "American dream" represented ends and means that the other side hated
C) economic: both the U.S. and Soviet Union were economically devastated after World War II
D) historic: the Soviets remembered earlier invasions; the Americans remembered the prewar Nazi-Soviet pact

Question 5

Four key initiatives in the Truman administration set the basic pattern for implementing the strategy of containment. Which was NOT one of these initiatives?

A) a program of secret spy plane flights over specified potential targets within Russian territory
B) a program to rebuild Europe's war-torn economy
C) a multi-national political and military alliance among the Western democracies
D) an analysis calling for sharp increases in defense spending to deter Communist aggression

Question 6

"The Truman Doctrine marked a new level of American commitment to a cold war."On what basis is this statement made?

A) The Truman Doctrine for the first time committed the U.S. to a peacetime military alliance.
B) Truman publicly and finally rejected Stalin's offer of friendly negotiations between onetime allies.
C) Truman's pledge to support free peoples who resisted totalitarian takeover signaled an open-ended intent to oppose the Soviets anywhere in the world.
D) Sending military advisers to Greece was the first step in U.S. involvement in the Middle East quagmire.

Question 7

What did the secretary of state offer in his Marshall Plan?

A) to provide financial aid to rebuild Europe's war-torn economies
B) to station U.S. troops in Europe to defend democratic nations
C) to train free-world armies in the art of oriental hand-to-hand combat
D) to place atomic energy research under United Nations control

Question 8

In response to the United States' proposal for a U.S.-led international atomic agency to supervise the mining and use of the world's atomic raw materials, the Soviet Union

A) agreed.
B) demanded publication of U.S. weapons secrets.
C) demobilized its own army in Eastern Europe.
D) demanded nuclear disarmament.

Question 9

Which of the following is one of the "lessons of Munich"?

A) If the Russians could blockade Munich, they could blockade London.
B) National power is gained through cooperation.
C) An aggressor might launch a surprise attack at any place, at any time.
D) You dare not appease aggressors.

Question 10

Which statement about the postwar world of work is most accurate?

A) The percentage of women in the workforce declined below 1930s figures.
B) The cultural and economic status of women's work rose for those women who found jobs.
C) Minority workers lost their jobs through the practice of "last hired, first fired."
D) A patriotic spirit coupled with pay hikes for unionized white workers prevented strikes.

Question 11

All of the following forces stymied Truman's efforts to revive the New Deal EXCEPT

A) un-met demands of veterans.
B) conservative opposition in Congress.
C) labor unrest.
D) inflation.

Question 12

Which statement about the Red Scare after World War II is true?

A) Rooted in fears of a Soviet invasion, it essentially began as a reaction to revelations that the Russians had the bomb.
B) The administration, the House of Representatives, and the Senate all conducted probes of possible subversive activity.
C) With Truman's blessing, the McCarran Act of 1950 was passed, requiring all Communists to register with the attorney General.
D) American fears of Communist subversion eased once the Truman administration set up an internal loyalty program.

Question 13

With his "Fair Deal,"Truman hoped to keep his working coalition of ________ together.

A) labor and farmers
B) southern Democrats and Republicans
C) Square Dealers and New Dealers
D) liberal Democrats and Dixiecrats

Question 14

Who was Alger Hiss?

A) a Hollywood film star accused of Communist ties
B) a high-ranking American government official convicted of lying about his association with a known Communist
C) a congressman who conducted sensational hearings into disloyal activities
D) the macho hero of a series of sensational spy novels

Question 15

McCarthyism primarily and fundamentally reflected

A) fears of Soviet attack.
B) the fears and hatreds of many Americans, who were suspicious of things foreign, liberal, internationalist, or intellectual.
C) hostility to the Truman administration for firing General MacArthur.
D) the threat that Communist-led insurgencies would overthrow the pro-Western governments in developing countries in Asia.

Question 16

What was the official status of the American force fighting in Korea?

A) an authorized agent of a United Nations police action
B) a corps of military advisors to the South Korean army
C) a punitive expedition dispatched by executive order of the U.S. president in defiance of Security Council policies
D) a military response to a congressional declaration of war

Question 17

How did the Korean War finally end?

A) The U.S. withdrew its troops unilaterally when the fighting died down.
B) China persuaded the North Koreans to retreat within their own borders.
C) A military deadlock and protracted negotiations finally ended in an armistice that maintained a divided Korea.
D) With the fighting stalemated, the United Nations interposed its own peacekeeping force.

Question 18

President Eisenhower proposed to follow a course that politically would "take that straight road down the middle."By the 1950s, "the middle"meant all EXCEPT

A) promoting New Deal-style government responsibility for managing the economy and providing social programs.
B) containing the Soviet threat through active involvement around the world.
C) recognizing that limited, regional conflicts had global connections with the potential for nuclear destruction.
D) rejecting Communist ideology while recognizing the value of allowing leftists to advocate their beliefs in a pluralistic, free society.

Question 19

Access to a college education was a major benefit for veterans under the ______ Bill of Rights.

Question 20

Identify the countries in which early cold war crises occurred. What do these countries have in common?

Question 21

What was the policy of containment?

Question 22

How did the United States use nuclear weapons to deter aggression?

Question 23

What were the major steps taken to prevent subversion in the United States?

Question 24

Why did Truman relieve MacArthur of his command in Korea? Was he justified?

Question 25

Describe the major problems that prevented orderly conversion from a wartime to a peacetime economy.

Question 26

What major conflicts between the Soviet Union and United States resulted in the beginning of the cold war?

Question 27

Explain important ways in which both the United States and the Soviet Union contributed to the worsening of cold war tensions.

Question 28

Explain why you think George Kennan became an opponent of the policies recommended under NSC-68.

Question 29

Explain why staunch anti-Communists were especially concerned with the possibility of subversion in the film and television industries.

Question 30

Many historians feel that Harry Truman as much as Joe McCarthy gave force to the postwar "Red Scare."Explain why you agree or disagree.

Question 31

Explain whether you feel President Truman was an effective leader on the civil rights issue.

Question 32

Why do you think the New Deal remained controversial in the elections of 1948 and 1952?

Question 33

How did the cold war affect the film industry and popular culture? Explain by discussing both the content of films and the reactions of the larger political community.

Question 34

How were the rights of African Americans advanced or blocked during the Truman years?