Deck 26: Americas Rise to Globalism 1927-1945

Question 1

The chapter introduction tells the story of Hawaiian pipefitter John Garcia to make the point that

A) the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor was used as justification for interning Japanese Americans.
B) Mexican Americans made significant gains in acceptance because of their contribution to the war effort.
C) the attack on Hawaii and subsequent global war taught Americans that they could not be isolated from the perils of the rest of the world.
D) tragically, it now appears that U.S. entry into World War II could have been avoided if Roosevelt had been less preoccupied with Europe.

Answer 1

the attack on Hawaii and subsequent global war taught Americans that they could not be isolated from the perils of the rest of the world.

Question 2

Each of the following was a component of U.S. diplomacy between the world wars EXCEPT

A) reaction to a Japanese takeover of Manchuria with nothing more than refusal to recognize an act that violated international agreements or open-door principles.
B) becoming a good neighbor to Latin America by using economic influence rather than military intervention.
C) joining collective efforts to block German and Japanese aggression.
D) passing legislation meant to help secure U.S. neutrality.

Answer 2

joining collective efforts to block German and Japanese aggression.

Question 3

What did Hoover allow his secretary of state, Henry Stimson, to do in response to the Japanese takeover of Manchuria?

A) support the Japanese action
B) refuse to recognize the new Japanese territories
C) sign on with the League of Nations in a joint protest and censure
D) embargo all oil and scrap iron sales to Japan

Answer 3

refuse to recognize the new Japanese territories

Question 4

Which of the following is NOT one of the Baltic states?

A) Romania
B) Latvia
C) Estonia
D) Lithuania

Question 5

What was NOT a principle or strategy that unified the diverse group known as isolationists?

A) opposition to war
B) opposition to political commitments to other nations
C) support for the Neutrality Acts
D) support for the Lend-Lease Act

Question 6

The Southeast Asia state known as French Indochina is today known as

A) Indonesia.
B) Vietnam.
C) Cambodia.
D) Laos.

Question 7

The Nye Committee hearings in the 1930s popularized the idea that a key factor leading the United States into World War I had been

A) German aggression.
B) the power vacuum caused by the decline of the Ottoman Turkish Empire.
C) the need to protect American bank loans to the Allies (which were used to buy arms from U.S. manufacturers).
D) the need to protect American overseas colonial possessions (which were threatened by German and Japanese expansion).

Question 8

Concerning the background to the Pearl Harbor attack, which of the following statements is true?

A) Right up until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt was one of the country's most outspoken isolationists.
B) The Japanese attack was based on an unfortunate series of misunderstanding between the two nations.
C) Clear evidence now exists that President Franklin Roosevelt knew about and even encouraged the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor in 1941.
D) Before Pearl Harbor, the U.S. provided substantial military aid to the British and Russians.

Question 9

Which of the following was a factor in the Japanese decision to militarily expand into Southeast Asia?

A) Neither the Americans or the Europeans were paying full attention to events in Asia.
B) An American oil embargo left the Japanese without a choice.
C) They were acting defensively against Russian attempts to acquire territory.
D) It was a precondition to their acceptance into the Tripartite Pact.

Question 10

Which Soviet city was NOT being threatened by Nazi forces by the end of summer in 1942?

A) Leningrad
B) Stalingrad
C) Vladivostok
D) Moscow

Question 11

The war aims of the Allies were articulated before U.S. entry into the war, in the so-called Atlantic Charter. This document included all of the following EXCEPT

A) a call for a new association of nations.
B) a condemnation of Nazism.
C) a commitment to the "Four Freedoms."
D) the combined approval of Churchill and Roosevelt.

Question 12

After Allied forces in North Africa were halted at the Kasserine Pass, which general regrouped them and masterminded an impressive string of victories?

A) Eisenhower
B) Patton
C) Montgomery
D) Rommel

Question 13

In 1942 the Allies launched Operation Torch, which was the code name for the

A) invasion of North Africa.
B) invasion of Normandy.
C) Battle of the Bulge.
D) start of military action at Guadalcanal.

Question 14

Which of the following does NOT describe an aspect of the impact of World War II on American society?

A) It brought recovery from the stagnation and unemployment of the Great Depression.
B) Military life served as a melting pot, as well as taking Americans far from home.
C) Women and minorities felt resentment at being barred from military service.
D) Women found new economic opportunities despite little change in gender attitudes.

Question 15

During the war, minorities in the United States

A) enlisted in high numbers to avoid being sent to internment camps.
B) avoided getting involved in the war effort as much as they could.
C) enlisted to become a part of the American mainstream.
D) overcame racial prejudice in the army, which was desegregated at the outset of the war.

Question 16

What government body was created to help implement Executive Order 8802, which forbade discrimination by race in hiring government and defense industry workers?

A) Fair Employment Practices Committee
B) Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
C) Equal Opportunity Bureau
D) Fair Practices Commission

Question 17

Which statement regarding the "miracle"of war production is most accurate?

A) War production rested on the conversion of peacetime industries, so overall economic output grew very little.
B) Both corporate profits and personal incomes rose, though more-flexible smaller firms and wealthier individuals gained the most.
C) Worker productivity increased, due more to new job opportunities after a long depression than to any commitment to the war effort.
D) U.S. achievements in war production proved as important to the Allied victory as success on the battlefield.

Question 18

What happened to the New Deal during the war?

A) Since wartime spending brought recovery, neither Roosevelt nor Congress thought the New Deal was needed anymore.
B) Since "Dr. New Deal" had become "Dr. Win-the-War," there was little political interest in domestic legislation.
C) An anti-New Deal coalition moved to end many New Deal programs, and the president adapted to the new political environment.
D) Although cloaked in wartime labels, several additional New Deal-style agencies were in fact created to provide relief, recovery, and reform.

Question 19

Roosevelt established the ________, similar to the agency Wilson had created during World War I, to ease tensions between business and labor and end labor strife.

A) War Labor Board
B) National Labor Relations Board
C) War Labor Relations Board
D) National War Labor Board

Question 20

General MacArthur did in fact make his prophetic return to the Philippines on October 1944, when he splashed ashore on the island of

A) Lagen.
B) Luzon.
C) Latuan.
D) Leyte.

Question 21

Winston Churchill's vision for the postwar world

A) stressed the balance of power to check the Soviets, achieved through military cooperation, which would guarantee peace.
B) placed first priority on reviving a strong international organization to achieve collective security.
C) sought expansive advantages to guarantee security for his own nation, based on suspicions about his two Allied counterparts.
D) imagined the continuation of the Grand Alliance into the postwar world as "Policemen" of world peace and order.

Question 22

With respect to Japan, the Yalta Conference provided for

A) permanent Soviet occupation.
B) a system of United Nations mandates.
C) the return of Russian territories.
D) the withdrawal of the Red Army and immediate self-government.

Question 23

The key agreements at the Roosevelt-Churchill-Stalin Yalta Conference of 1945 can be portrayed as

A) a one-sided diplomatic victory for the Americans-until the Soviets broke their pledges.
B) a sellout and betrayal of American ideals and interests by a naive and ill President Roosevelt.
C) a series of compromises and U.S. concessions, relying on Soviet cooperation for fulfillment.
D) a diplomatic stalemate: There was no agreement, because the U.S. sought maximum territorial control and the Soviets wanted a new collective security organization.

Question 24

The vast majority of Nazi Germany's war casualties occurred

A) on the eastern front.
B) in the hedgerows in France.
C) in Italy, in trying to halt the southern advance.
D) while defending German soil.

Question 25

At the Potsdam summit,

A) the United Nations was organized.
B) Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin agreed on the fate of Germany.
C) Truman, Churchill, and Stalin agreed on occupying Germany, but had to compromise on reparations.
D) representatives of smaller allied nations met with the Big Three to hammer out a comprehensive peace treaty, ending the war.

Question 26

Because of Anglo hostility toward Latinos focused on pachucos, the Los Angeles city council passed an ordinance making it a crime to wear a(n) ________ suit.

Question 27

The systematic extermination of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and others who were considered deviant by the Germans during World War II has come to be known as the ________.

Question 28

What steps did the Roosevelt administration take to maximize war production?

Question 29

What did the Germans, British, and French agree to at Munich in 1938?

Question 30

What steps did the government take to ease discrimination against minorities in war industries?

Question 31

What reasons did the government have for placing Japanese Americans in relocation centers?

Question 32

How did conservatives attempt to limit New Deal programs and liberal reform during the war?

Question 33

How did the government try to limit labor unrest during the war?

Question 34

What are the major reasons given for the decision to drop atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

Question 35

Discuss the three events you consider most important in drawing the United States into World War II.

Question 36

Describe the major war aims of the Allied Powers.

Question 37

Explain why the battles at Midway, El Alamein, and Stalingrad were turning points in the war.

Question 38

Why did the United States fail to take steps to help Europe's Jews during the Holocaust?

Question 39

Compare the treatment of Italian Americans with that of Japanese Americans during World War II. How do you account for the differences?

Question 40

Explain what you think were the government's least and most effective responses to the problems of war production.

Question 41

How did the war change the attitudes of women and minorities toward their status in American society?

Question 42

How did political debate during the war reflect issues that had arisen during the New Deal?