Deck 26: The Age of Fracture: the 1970s

Question 1

Which of these was not enacted or created during the Nixon years?

A) Environmental Protection Agency
B) OSHA
C) Pell Grants for higher education
D) Doubling of the budget for the National Endowment for the Humanities
E) Increased funding for the National Endowment for the Arts

Answer 1

C

Question 2

The activism of the 1960s ran into roadblocks in the 1970s,which included all of the following,except

A) The economic boom of the 1960s had turned into a recession.
B) Ethnic groups seemed poised to fracture any national unity the struggle for black civil rights had initially created.
C) American politics had reached its limits - and arguably its low - in credibility.
D) A conservative movement began to push back against the demands of women and minorities.
E) Some civil rights activists believed they had achieved most of their goals and disagreed with other activists over the need for further agitation.

Answer 2

E

Question 3

Passed in 1972,Title IX is important because

A) It outlawed discrimination in employment based on race, creed, religion and national origin.
B) It required that educational institutions spend equally on women's and men's athletics.
C) It legalized access to safe and legal abortions.
D) It led to the nuclear disarmament.
E) It banned wiretapping of political candidates and government officials.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which is true of affirmative action?

A) Companies found it fairly easy to follow the affirmative action guidelines of hiring a certain percentage of minorities.
B) Nixon tried but failed to cause a breakup of the Democratic coalition of blacks and whites that had been forged during the New Deal years.
C) Many of the nation's universities adopted affirmative action policies only after lengthy court battles.
D) In the 1978 case Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the Supreme Court upheld the legality of affirmative action but denied the right of an entity to use exact quotas to achieve the goal of equality.
E) Programs of affirmative action were generally developed at the state level, since the federal government could not create a one-size-fits-all policy.

Question 5

Which of these is not a reason why the Watergate scandal was a crucial event in American history and life in the 1970s?

A) It left Americans distrustful of politics and politicians.
B) After Watergate, many Americans turned to individual groups for answers, which led to the rise of identity politics.
C) Despite the disgraced Republican president, it assisted the party's objective of reducing the power and reach of government.
D) It led to the rise of the careers of Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, who exposed the scandal.
E) After Watergate, the media more closely scrutinized and exposed the doings of politicians.

Question 6

Nixon is often called an accidental liberal because

A) he resented the Eastern Establishment.
B) he covered up his role in the Watergate break-in.
C) of his crimes of tax evasion and bribery.
D) of his commitment to liberal principles.
E) his preoccupation with getting reelected led him to advocate many liberal goals.

Question 7

On August 9,1974,Nixon made history when he

A) named Gerald Ford as his new vice president.
B) admitted to his involvement in the Watergate scandal.
C) was the first president to be impeached by both the House and Senate.
D) resigned as president.
E) refused to provide his secret taped White House conversations to Congress.

Question 8

Carter was unable to carry out any of his plans for expanding American social justice because

A) the budget was already in deficit.
B) the New Left would not support him.
C) Islamic militants took 52 hostages from the American Embassy in Tehran.
D) his ambitious plans were struck down by the Supreme Court.
E) the economy remained too troubled overall.

Question 9

The most controversial issue to arise in regard to the desegregation attempts by the federal government was

A) busing children to achieve integrated schools.
B) interracial marriage.
C) desegregating elementary schools.
D) desegregating high schools.
E) interracial sports in public schools.

Question 10

Which of the following did not happen during Carter's presidency?

A) Some public schools had to close because there was not enough energy to heat them.
B) There was a meltdown of a nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, raising profound concerns about the safety of nuclear energy.
C) His administration was finally able to get stagflation under control.
D) Carter signed the SALT II agreement with the Soviet Union, although it fell apart years later.
E) He achieved his goal of establishing human rights as an element of American policy.

Question 11

Proposition 13

A) was the law that granted Nixon his pardon.
B) limited all further increases on property taxes in California to 2 percent per year and inspired similar legislation in other states.
C) was the order that got the final troops out of Saigon, Vietnam in 1973.
D) was a plan against stagflation authored by a group of MIT economists.
E) was a movie shot in Detroit at the height of the oil embargo.

Question 12

The action(s)that Gerald Ford took which cost him widespread public support was/were

A) his pardon of Richard Nixon.
B) his decision to attempt to try Nixon.
C) his fumbling speeches that made him a laughingstock across America.
D) his pardon of Spiro Agnew.
E) his direct meeting with Ho Chi Minh.

Question 13

Americans reeled from an embargo on oil deliveries to the United States from the oil-producing countries in the Middle East because those countries

A) resented the help America had given Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
B) wanted to convince the United States to stay out of Middle Eastern affairs.
C) believed the United States had pushed Israel to begin the 1973 war.
D) wanted to see Americans begging for help.
E) resented the friendly relationship between Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir and the American press.

Question 14

All of the following is true about young conservatives in the late 1950s under the leadership of William F.Buckley,except

A) They opposed Great Society and New Deal-style government programs.
B) They opposed abortion and embraced traditional family values.
C) They advocated aggressive imperial expansion.
D) They urged tax cuts and less government intervention in people's lives.
E) They were militantly anti-communist.

Question 15

The Watergate scandal began with a break-in at the

A) Washington Post.
B) Democratic National Committee headquarters.
C) National Endowment for the Arts headquarters.
D) Republican National Headquarters.
E) National Review.

Question 16

Nixon's goal in seeking improved relations with China in 1972 was to

A) try to take the Soviet Union's place as China's closest ally.
B) have a chance to visit China during his administration.
C) drive a further wedge between China and the Soviet Union.
D) be able to invite the Chinese table tennis team to the United States.
E) try to convince the Chinese to trade with the United States and help cut trade protections between the two countries.

Question 17

Nixon's vice president,Spiro Agnew,resigned from office after admitting to

A) illegal taping of White House conversations.
B) an extramarital affair.
C) participating in the planning of the Watergate burglary.
D) tax evasion and bribery.
E) ordering illegal surveillance of reporters who had been hounding him.

Question 18

When the last American troops came home from Vietnam in 1973,

A) most Americans were relieved that soldiers had been removed from an un-winnable war.
B) protests over the Vietnamization of the conflict grew.
C) pro-war Americans protested at the airport.
D) South Vietnam was a stable and defensible nation.
E) most Americans considered the war "won."

Question 19

Stagflation is an economic crisis that combines

A) low prices and economic growth.
B) steady prices and decreasing output.
C) runaway high prices and declining jobs.
D) unemployment with a contraction in the money supply.
E) a contraction in the labor market combined with excessive regulation.

Question 20

Nixon's agreement to sell excess American wheat to the Soviet Union

A) opened up improved relations with the Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev.
B) highlighted the fact that the Soviet economy was doing well enough to afford such an extra good.
C) made the SALT agreements unnecessary.
D) was successful because the U.S. president came with Chinese recommendation to Moscow.
E) angered American farmers committed to anticommunism.

Question 21

The gay liberation movement considers this its first spark of activism:

A) the alliance with the women's liberation movement.
B) the police raid on the Stonewall Inn.
C) the election of Harvey Milk as Mayor of San Francisco.
D) the Gay Power sit-in at New York's city hall.
E) the first national conference for gay rights in 1971.

Question 22

The rise of the religious right in the 1970s brought

A) a public aspect of faith that reflected the growing influence of the South on American culture.
B) a new economics of egalitarianism.
C) a widely shared and new understanding of the meaning of conservatism.
D) greater unity among all religious groups, especially Christians.
E) None of these choices.

Question 23

Opponents to the women's rights movement - among them,Phyllis Schlafly,founder of STOP-ERA - managed to block passage of the Equal Rights Amendment and other feminist leaps forward by

A) claiming that low-wage jobs were not as rewarding as women's roles within the home.
B) labeling feminists as lesbians.
C) denouncing the women's movement for promoting divorce, putting families in jeopardy and encouraging the sexual revolution.
D) charging that members of NOW were using the women's movement to fix problems in their personal lives.
E) All of these choices.

Question 24

What was Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's role in the achievement of detenté during Nixon's presidency?

Question 25

The most controversial milestone of the women's movement was

A) the defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment.
B) the acceptance of women in gender-equal military units.
C) the emergence of Phyllis Schlafly as an opponent of the ERA.
D) the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion.
E) the transition from using the term "stewardess" to "flight attendant," thus opening that profession to males for the first time.

Question 26

How did the evangelical movement,the growing fundamentalist aspect of religion,and the case of Roe v.Wade change the American cultural landscape?

Question 27

The event that signaled growing awareness of the environment in the 1970s was

A) publication of Rachel Carson's book, Silent Spring.
B) the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.
C) the celebration of the first Earth Day.
D) the inauguration of the national parks movement.
E) All of these choices.

Question 28

La Raza had as its main goal

A) electing Mexican American politicians in the West and Southwest.
B) unionizing Mexican American workers in the West.
C) changing the name Mexican American to that of Chicano.
D) separating itself from earlier, more accommodationist, leaders such as Cesar Chavez.
E) broadening the interaction between Chicanos and white Americans in order to remove some elements of the racism which had been so prevalent.

Question 29

Spiro Agnew,Nixon's vice president,was forced to resign from office because of his involvement in the Watergate scandal.

Question 30

President Gerald Ford was the first president who came to office without a national election.

Question 31

How could one account for the liberal policies of Republican president Richard Nixon?

Question 32

Under the original affirmative action guidelines,a certain percentage of government contracts were to be given to minority-owned businesses.

Question 33

How did America's involvement with Israel lead to the oil embargo of 1973? What were the results of the embargo in the United States?

Question 34

What were Nixon's reasons for visiting China in 1972? Was he successful? Explain.

Question 35

Landmark films of the Seventies such as The Godfather and Bonnie and Clyde indicated that Americans in the 1970s

A) shifted towards cultural conservatism.
B) enjoyed a sense of moral superiority.
C) went through an identity crisis.
D) lived in a period of increasing moral complexity.
E) All of these choices.

Question 36

Gerald Ford (Republican)and Jimmy Carter (Democrat)both failed to win their bids for reelection.Apart from the differences between these two presidents,what shared circumstances may have jeopardized their chances at a second term?

Question 37

During the 1970s,American Indian activists drew attention to their cause by

A) staging sit-ins in downtown San Francisco.
B) hosting teach-ins at Berkeley.
C) marching peacefully.
D) occupying the former federal prison on Alcatraz for over one year.
E) rioting in the cities' poorer neighborhoods.

Question 38

Which of the following does not accurately characterize the religious revivalism that began to assert itself into America's political arena in the late 1970s?

A) It was driven by Protestant evangelicals who attempted to bring Christians into a closer personal relationship with God.
B) It entered the political realm via lobbying groups such as the Moral Majority.
C) It saw the growing popularity of Zen Buddhism and New Age spiritual beliefs as an assault on traditional religious values.
D) It resulted in division and exclusion in religion, rather than inclusion and community-building.
E) It stressed family values and targeted feminism, gay liberation, and overturning Roe v. Wade.

Question 39

Richard Nixon held long-smoldering resentment against what he termed the "Eastern Establishment."

Question 40

During the 1970s,women struggling to achieve equality in the corporate world began to use this term to describe the point beyond which they could not be accepted into a male-dominated world:

A) glass ceiling
B) velvet curtain
C) tipping point
D) iron curtain
E) problem with no name

Question 41

Cities blossomed as manufacturing grew during the 1970s.

Question 42

Detenté,disillusionment,and disco dramatized the complexities of the 1970s.

Question 43

The movement begun by Phyllis Schlafly was the driving force that kept the Equal Rights Amendment from becoming law.

Question 44

William F.Buckley's National Review was touted as one of the best liberal publications of the 20ᵗʰ century.

Question 45

The ideal man of the 1970s was willing to get in touch with his feelings.