Deck 19: America Confronts the Post-Cold War Era, 1992-2000

Question 1

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
J. Danforth Quayle

Answer 1

Answers will vary. ​

Question 2

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
O. J. Simpson

Answer 2

Answers will vary. ​

Question 3

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
H. Ross Perot

Answer 3

Answers will vary. ​

Question 4

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
William Clinton

Question 5

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Joseph Lieberman

Question 6

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Slobodan Milosevic

Question 7

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
George W. Bush

Question 8

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
George H. W. Bush

Question 9

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
globalization

Question 10

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Question 11

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Richard Cheney

Question 12

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Hillary Rodham Clinton

Question 13

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Newt Gingrich

Question 14

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Cesar Chavez

Question 15

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Ralph Nader

Question 16

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Al Gore

Question 17

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
"don't ask, don't tell"

Question 18

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Robert Dole

Question 19

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Toni Morrison

Question 20

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Monica Lewinsky

Question 21

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Oklahoma City bombing

Question 22

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
information age

Question 23

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
gender gap

Question 24

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Contract with America

Question 25

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
New Democrat

Question 26

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Welfare Reform Bill

Question 27

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Kosovo

Question 28

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
"dot.com" businesses

Question 29

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

Question 30

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
​affirmative action

Question 31

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
United Farm Workers Organizing Committee

Question 32

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
"ethnic cleansing"

Question 33

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
World Trade Organization (WTO)

Question 34

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
"outsourcing"

Question 35

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
multiculturalism

Question 36

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
​Democratic Leadership Council

Question 37

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
postmodernism

Question 38

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Reform party

Question 39

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Branch Davidians

Question 40

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Whitewater

Question 41

The two articles of impeachment passed by the House of Representatives against President Clinton charged him with

A) foreign policy deception and misuse of the Central Intelligence Agency.
B) malfeasance of funds and defiance of Congressional spending restrictions.
C) perjury and obstruction of justice.
D) adultery and misuse of federal office facilities.
E) bribery and jury tampering.

Question 42

The vigorously partisan leader who led Republicans to a majority in the House of Representatives in 1994 was

A) John McCain.
B) Trent Lott.
C) Robert Dole.
D) Newt Gingrich.
E) Henry Hyde.

Question 43

In the beginning of the Clinton administration, First Lady Hillary Clinton was heavily criticized for

A) taking too large a role in managing her husband's administration.
B) considering running for office in her own right.
C) not publicly criticizing her husband's sexual affairs.
D) developing an excessively complex health care plan that was quickly dropped by Congress.
E) advocating too strongly for the role of women in the administration.

Question 44

The rise of computer corporations like Microsoft and dot.com businesses signaled the advent of

A) industrial technology.
B) the global information age.
C) mass democracy.
D) entrepreneurial capitalism.
E) the speculative stock market.

Question 45

President Clinton's primary political legacy was that he

A) revived the vigorous liberal traditions of the Democratic party.
B) established a firm direction for American foreign policy after the Cold War.
C) consolidated the Reagan-Bush revolution by encouraging reduced expectations of government.
D) restored faith in elected officials if not in big government.
E) turned the Democratic party away from his historic commitments to racial and social justice.

Question 46

A widespread public attitude of the early 1990s that affected many areas of politics and society was

A) disillusionment and distrust of the federal government.
B) fear of attack from Islamic fundamentalism.
C) confidence in the purpose and direction of American foreign policy.
D) a greater faith in the federal government than in local and state government.
E) a strong confidence about the ability of federal, state, and local governments to solve domestic problems.

Question 47

After they gained control of both houses of Congress in the 1994 mid-term elections, the Republicans

A) successfully pushed through their Contract with America.
B) overreached with conservative policies that bred a backlash favoring President Clinton.
C) worked to keep the federal government running despite a confrontation with President Clinton.
D) modified their more radical conservative ideas to take account of political reality.
E) failed to achieve even one of their political goals.

Question 48

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Cinco de Mayo

Question 49

The razor-thin 2000 presidential election was finally settled by

A) a vote by states in the House of Representatives.
B) the Florida Supreme Court determining that George W. Bush had won Florida's electoral votes.
C) a complete recount of Florida's votes that gave a majority there to George W. Bush.
D) a federal commission that awarded Florida's electoral votes to George W. Bush.
E) the Supreme Court's ruling ending a recount of Florida's votes and declaring George W. Bush the winner of Florida's electoral votes and, thus, giving an Electoral College majority to George W. Bush.

Question 50

In his campaign for the presidency in 2000, George W. Bush promised to

A) pursue America's national interests without restraint from traditional U.S. allies.
B) bring reconciliation after the sharp partisan divisions of the Clinton years.
C) pursue hard right conservative policies regarding the environment and social welfare.
D) protect the environment and try to stop global warming.
E) balance the federal budget under all circumstances.

Question 51

​Which of the following demonstrated the persistent racial divide in America during the 1990s?

A) ​The contrasting attitudes of whites and African Americans to the not guilty verdict in the O.J. Simpson murder case.
B) ​The outbreak of the Los Angeles riots following the acquittal of white police officers who had been videotaped viciously beating a black suspect.
C) ​America's segmented and separate residential patterns with minorities making up majorities within many American cities and whites dominating the suburbs.
D) ​Massive partisan differences among black and white voters with African Americans and other minorities becoming more consequential parts of the Democratic base and whites gravitating increasingly to the Republicans.
E) ​All of these choices are correct.

Question 52

Among the biggest trends for white collar workers at the start of the twenty-first century was

A) the continued outsourcing of financial service and engineering jobs to other countries.
B) declining salary rates across the board.
C) increased opportunities to relocate internationally.
D) jobs requiring a higher level of education than in the past.
E) work days that have inched up from eight to ten or even twelve hours a day.

Question 53

As women's status changed, men's lives changed in all of the following ways except

A) employers offered paternity leave in addition to maternity leave.
B) companies increasingly acknowledged shared obligations of two-worker households.
C) more men took on traditional female household chores.
D) Congress passed a Family Leave Bill that protected jobs for fathers and mothers who need time off for family reasons.
E) men began to look outside of their marriages for the emotional connections they once shared with wives.

Question 54

Which of the following was not among the areas where President Clinton's foreign policy stumbled in the first years of his presidency?

A) Ethnic violence and massive deaths in Rwanda
B) American troops in Somalia
C) Bringing democracy to Haiti
D) Ethnic conflict in the Balkans
E) Relations with America's European allies in NATO

Question 55

President Clinton aroused the hostility of liberals within his own party when he

A) signed the Welfare Reform Bill.
B) backed the "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding gays.
C) vetoed the Welfare Reform Bill.
D) appointed Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court.
E) put his wife Hillary Rodham Clinton in charge of health care reform.

Question 56

Two of Clinton's early political blunders occurred in the areas of

A) gun control and the environment.
B) deficit reduction and foreign trade.
C) military preparedness and relations with Latin America.
D) gays in the military and health care.
E) sexual relations with his staff and appointments to the Supreme Court.

Question 57

One of the most dramatic changes in women's economic condition by the early twenty-first century was

A) that equal pay was finally a reality.
B) the employment of mothers.
C) the decline in the number of women seeking high-demand careers.
D) the removal of the glass ceiling preventing advancement to top positions.
E) women now enjoyed a higher income than men for the first time in American history.

Question 58

In the 1992 national elections, Democratic candidate Bill Clinton

A) campaigned as a new Democrat who proposed to move away from his party's traditional liberalism.
B) campaigned on a platform criticizing President Bush's leadership in the Persian Gulf War.
C) effectively prevented third-party candidate Ross Perot from taking votes away from the Democrats.
D) stayed away from economic issues because of the growing prosperity under President Bush.
E) proved inarticulate and unable to respond to sharp Republican attacks on his character and record.

Question 59

In 1999, President Clinton authorized U.S.-led NATO forces to launch a bombing campaign against the nation of

A) Somalia.
B) Serbia.
C) Kosovo.
D) Albania.
E) Bosnia.

Question 60

The Branch Davidians were a(n)

A) organization of fiscal conservatives promoting a reduced deficit.
B) fundamentalist sect assaulted by the federal government.
C) branch of the House of David within the Jewish community.
D) underground militia plotting rebellion against the federal government.
E) group of liberal Democrats opposed to Clinton's new Democrat policies.

Question 61

What were the primary domestic policy goals of the Clinton presidency? Did Clinton's policies owe more to his claim to be a New Democrat, or was he still fundamentally in tune with the liberal heritage of the Democratic party?

Question 62

What steps did President Clinton take to successfully manage the economy in the 1990s? Why were his trade and tax policies so controversial?

Question 63

By the early twenty-first century, evidence of the growing numbers and influence of the Latino population in the U.S. could be seen in all of the following ways except

A) electing Hispanic mayors of major cities such as Miami, Denver and San Antonio.
B) the United Farm Workers' success in improving working conditions for the mostly Chicano laborers.
C) electing Hispanic senators from states such as Arizona, Florida, and Texas.
D) increasing Spanish-language television broadcasts.
E) more election ballots in Spanish.

Question 64

The first significant numbers of Mexican American immigrants to the United States came during the

A) aftermath of the Mexican War, 1850-1860.
B) era of the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1920.
C) Great Depression, 1930-1940.
D) aftermath of World War II, 1945-1955.
E) post-Vietnam War era, 1975-1985.

Question 65

Given that traditional political party organizations had seriously weakened, what explains the fierce partisan conflict between Republicans and Democrats in the 1990s? Was the conflict really rooted in different ideologies and views of government or more in the clash of colorful personalities like Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich?

Question 66

The Latino immigrant population maintained their language and culture better than most previous immigrant groups because

A) they were so thinly scattered across the country.
B) they lived in segregated neighborhoods.
C) of their large numbers and geographic concentration.
D) of a stronger desire to preserve their culture than previous groups had.
E) they remained politically loyal to the Latin American nations from which they came.

Question 67

Were there legitimate constitutional issues in the impeachment of President Clinton, or were the charges largely a case of "sexual McCarthyism"? How did the impeachment and acquittal affect Clinton's achievements and reputation as president? How would you evaluate President Clinton's foreign and domestic policy achievements and shortcomings?

Question 68

Evaluate the impact of the postindustrial economy on the American family. In what ways is it accurate to say that the family has not so much declined as altered its forms and functions? What were the greatest challenges that American families faced?

Question 69

Did the contested, razor-thin election of 2000 reflect the strengths or the weaknesses of American democracy? Do you agree that the Supreme Court was right to settle the outcome? What other possible solutions might have been pursued?

Question 70

Which of the following was not among prominent American playwrights or musical theater creators in the late twentieth century?

A) Eve Ensler
B) Nilo Cruz
C) Tony Kushner
D) Jackson Pollock
E) David Hwang

Question 71

In general, the effects of the electronic new media in the early twentieth century were

A) used to reinforce existing political and economic power structures.
B) restricted to those with extensive education and training in their use.
C) of greater benefit to corporations than to ordinary citizens.
D) democratizing for ordinary citizens.
E) complementary to the interests of the traditional mainstream media.

Question 72

The most populous group of Latinos in the United States comes from

A) Cuba.
B) Nicaragua.
C) El Salvador.
D) Mexico.
E) Venezuela.

Question 73

By the 2000s, the traditional nuclear family unit was undergoing severe strain because

A) the divorce rate had increased.
B) the number of single-parent households had risen.
C) parent-substitutes had assumed the role of child-rearing.
D) the family no longer served many of its traditional social functions.
E) All of these

Question 74

Mexican American mutual aid societies or Mutualistas provided

A) a way for money to be transferred to relatives back in Mexico.
B) recreation, aid for the sick and disabled, and defense against discrimination.
C) a political alternative to the Democratic and Republican parties.
D) artistic, intellectual, and religious outlets for the immigrant community.
E) None of these choices are correct.

Question 75

What were the greatest successes of the American economy in the 1990s? What role did Clinton's international trade agreements play in the expanding prosperity of the period? Why was the process of economic globalization often controversial?

Question 76

What gains has the African American community attained since the 1960s? What are the greatest challenges still facing African Americans and U.S. society regarding race?

Question 77

Which of the following was not among the notable ethnic and African writers of the period since the 1980s?

A) Amy Tan
B) Toni Morrison
C) Joy Harjo
D) James Welch
E) Raymond Carver

Question 78

What explains the rash ofviolencedirected toward government entities in America in the 1990s? How were such extreme actions connected to the general disillusionment with government, politics, and political leaders? How did the general disillusionment with government in the 1990s affect the political fortunes of President Clinton and the Republicans in the 1990s?

Question 79

In what ways did the Clinton administration reinforce the negative public views of government and politics first nourished in Vietnam and Watergate eras?

Question 80

Do you agree that America struggled to find a direction for its foreign policy in the post-Cold War years? What principles, if any, do you see operating across the board in such areas as the Balkans, the Middle East, East Africa, and Latin America in the 1990s?