34 Flashcards

1. Republicans used the communist victory in the Chinese civil war to claim dubiously that
a. China now posed a greater threat to the United States than the Soviet Union.
b. the United States should force a showdown with China over Korea.
c. Japan should be given access to nuclear weapons as soon as possible.
d. pro-communist elements in the Truman administration had prevented the Nationalist Chinese leader Jiang
Jieshi and his forces from winning the war.
e. East Asia should be given a lesser priority in American policy than Europe.

2. The post-World War II prosperity in the United States was most beneficial to
a. African Americans.
b. labor unions.
c. women.
d. nonunion workers.
e. farmers

3. In response to Senator Joseph McCarthy's anticommunist attacks, President Eisenhower
a. publicly denounced him only after he attacked General George Marshall.
b. quietly encouraged him to continue his attacks on Democrats.
c. publicly opposed his ruthless tactics but privately enjoyed his personal charm.
d. declined to confront the senator's irresponsible accusations of communism against upstanding and loyal
government officials, effectively allowing him to control personnel policy at the State Department.
e. privately supported him but publicly kept his distance.

4. A leading liberal American theologian who urged a vigorous American foreign policy and a return to Christian
foundations was
a. Paul Tillich.
b. Billy Graham.
c. Benjamin Spock.
d. Reinhold Niebuhr.
e. Norman Vincent Peale.

5. Despite their political and strategic differences, the United States and the Soviet Union strongly resembled one
another in 1945 in that they
a. had long experience as great powers in Europe.
b. accepted the idea of balance of power and spheres of influence.
c. believed that control of the Middle East was essential to maintaining their national security.
d. had been historically very involved in world affairs and engaged in protecting peace and collective
security in the world.
e. had a long history of conducting an idealistic, "missionary" diplomacy in world affairs.

6. By 1960, the proportion of Americans who lived in areas classified as metropolitan suburbs was approximately
a. three out of four (75 percent).
b. one out of four (25 percent).
c. half (50 percent).
d. one out of 10 (10 percent).
e. four out of 10 (40 percent).

7. The refusal of the Federal Housing Authority to grant home loans to Black people contributed to
a. the growth of savings and loan institutions exclusively for Black people.
b. the movement of Black people migrating from the South into city neighborhoods.
c. the development of exclusively Black suburbs.
d. a decline in Black migration to the cities.
e. All of these choices are correct.

8. All of the following encouraged many post-1945 Americans to move to the suburbs EXCEPT
a. development of fuel-efficient automobiles.
b. home-loan guarantees from the Federal Housing Authority and the Veterans' Administration.
c. government-built highways.
d. tax deductions for interest payments on home mortgages.
e. white flight from racial change.

9. Much of the Sunbelt's new prosperity was based on its
a. tremendous influx of money from the federal government.
b. policy of high state taxes.
c. regulated economic growth.
d. cooperative effort rather than unbridled individualism.
e. high levels of union membership.

10. President Harry Truman relieved General Douglas MacArthur from command of United Nations troops in
Korea when
a. MacArthur continued to lose crucial battles against China and North Korea.
b. MacArthur crossed the 38th parallel and entered North Korea.
c. the Chinese entered the Korean War after MacArthur said they would not.
d. MacArthur's open insubordination and criticism of Truman's orders on military policy in Korea prompted
his firing by the president.
e. MacArthur demonstrated he had lost the trust, morale, and support of U.N. troops under his command in
Korea.

11. Which of the following did NOT contribute to the rapid rise of suburbia in post-World War II America?
a. the baby boom
b. government mortgage guarantees
c. new federally funded highways
d. white flight
e. urban environmental problems

12. President Truman's action upon hearing of the invasion of South Korea illustrated his commitment to a foreign
policy of
a. appeasement.
b. liberation.
c. détente.
d. rollback.
e. containment.

13. The immediate crisis that prompted the announcement of the Truman Doctrine was related to the threat of a
communist takeover in
a. Iran.
b. Greece and Turkey.
c. Communist China.
d. Czechoslovakia.
e. West Germany.

14. The continued growth of the suburbs led to
a. increased school integration.
b. better entertainment opportunities in the cities.
c. an increase in urban poverty.
d. a decrease in urban crime.
e. more efficient transportation.

15. Senator Joseph McCarthy first rose to national prominence by
a. revealing that communist spies were passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.
b. charging that there was extensive communist influence in Hollywood and the media.
c. asserting that General George Marshall was part of a vast communist conspiracy within the U.S. Army.
d. mobilizing Republicans to demand a stronger anticommunist foreign policy in East Asia.
e. charging that dozens of known communists were working within the U.S. State Department.

16. President Truman's Marshall Plan called for
a. an alliance to contain the Soviet Union.
b. military supplies for Britain and France.
c. economic aid for Japan.
d. foreign economic and military aid for Eastern Europe to resist Soviet occupation.

17. In an effort to forestall an economic downturn, the Truman administration did all of the following EXEPT
a. create the President's Council of Economic Advisers.
b. sell war factories and other government installations to private businesses at very low prices.
c. pass the Employment Act, which made it government policy to promote maximum employment.
d. pass the Servicemen's Readjustment Act, known as the GI Bill of Rights.
e. continue wartime wage and price controls.

18. Under the Truman Doctrine, the United States pledged to
a. refrain from polarizing the world into pro-Soviet and pro-American camps.
b. work to liberate the captive nations of Eastern Europe.
c. give very limited assistance to nations fighting communism.
d. support those who were resisting subjugation by communists.

19. Which of these is NOT a true statement about the GI Bill?
a. It included provisions to help veterans gain an education.
b. Benefits included $16 million in loans for veterans to buy farms, homes or businesses.
c. The GI Bill nurtured the nation's economic expansion in the postwar era.
d. Benefits were only available in the first three months after leaving the military.
e. Millions of veterans took advantage of the GI Bill programs.

20. Soviet specialist George F. Kennan framed a coherent approach for America in the Cold War by advising a
policy of
a. détente.
b. appeasement.
c. containment.
d. rollback.
e. negotiation.

21. Population distribution after World War II followed a pattern of
a. movement into the Northeast and out of the South.
b. mass migration of Black people from the West to the Midwest.
c. movement from the Southwest to Appalachia.
d. movement out of the cities and into small towns.
e. an urban-suburban segregation of Black people and white people in major metropolitan areas.

22. American membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization did all of the following for the country
EXCEPT
a. strengthen the containment of the Soviet Union.
b. help reintegrate Germany into the European family.
c. reduce our defense expenditures, since we would get help from other countries.
d. reassure Europeans that the United States would not abandon them.
e. strike a major blow to American isolationists.

23. Even by the end of the 1948 presidential campaign, almost everyone expected Governor Thomas Dewey to win
because
a. the Republicans had finally united their northeastern internationalist and midwestern isolationist wings.
b. Truman had run a listless and defensive campaign.
c. Dewey was such a charming and charismatic candidate.
d. President Truman seemed unpopular and the Democrats had split three ways.
e. the Republicans had developed a stronger and more progressive domestic platform.

24. One sign of the stress that the widespread post-World War II geographic mobility placed on American families
was the
a. redistribution of income.
b. popularity of advice books on child-rearing.
c. increasing reliance on television as a baby sitter.
d. increased number of long-distance telephone calls.
e. dramatic rise in divorces.

25. The passage of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act (GI Bill of Rights) was partly motivated by
a. fear of postwar veterans' protests.
b. memories of the mistreatment of the veterans' Bonus Army in the 1930s.
c. fear that the labor markets could not absorb millions of discharged veterans.
d. a desire to expand the social diversity of American colleges and universities.
e. the need of American business for a more highly educated workforce.

26. The Taft-Hartley Act delivered a major blow to labor by
a. outlawing strikes by union and nonunion members in the steel, rubber, coal, and automobile industries.
b. creating a serious inflationary spiral.
c. banning labor's political action committees.
d. outlawing closed (all-union) shops.
e. forbidding union organizers to enter workplaces.

27. In early 1945, the United States was extremely eager to secure the Soviet Union's participation in the projected
invasion of Japan because
a. the Soviets would become so engaged in East Asia that they would not expand further into central
Europe.
b. without Soviet help, the Japanese could not be defeated.
c. American casualties were expected to be high if only Americans were involved.
d. Roosevelt believed that Stalin's involvement in Japan could help to control the communists in China.
e. Roosevelt did not want Stalin to become aware of the atomic bomb secret.

28. Postwar Japan
a. was, like Germany, divided into Allied occupation zones.
b. was destabilized by a civil war between nationalist and communist elements.
c. resisted the imposition of American-style democracy.
d. was governed from the island of Formosa (Taiwan) until 1949.
e. had its military leaders tried for war crimes, as had occurred in Germany.

29. Senator McCarthy's anti-communist crusade ended when he
a. began to attack the personal integrity of General George C. Marshall.
b. alleged that there were communists in Hollywood.
c. alleged that there were communists in the Foreign Service.
d. alleged that many college professors were communists.
e. maliciously and recklessly attacked the U.S. Army for allegedly sheltering communists.

30. President Truman risked American access to Middle Eastern oil supplies when he
a. sent U.S. military forces into Lebanon.
b. refused to recognize the authoritarian Saudi Arabian monarchy.
c. supported British control of the Suez Canal.
d. tried to force the Soviet Union out of the Middle East.
e. recognized the new Jewish state of Israel.

31. In 1948, many Southern Democrats split from their party to support Governor J. Strom Thurmond because
a. China had fallen to the communists.
b. they opposed American membership in the United Nations.
c. President Truman took a strong stand in favor of civil rights.
d. they found the Republican candidate, Thomas E. Dewey, more sympathetic to their conservative
ideology.
e. Truman appointed an ambassador to the Catholic Vatican City.

32. Much of the prosperity of the 1950s and 1960s rested on the underpinnings of
a. foreign aid.
b. income and business tax cuts on the wealthy.
c. foreign trade.
d. a thriving automobile industry.
e. colossal military budgets.

33. Arrange the following events in chronological order: (A) Berlin airlift, (B) Korean War, and (C) fall of China.
a. A, C, B
b. A, B, C
c. C, A, B
d. B, A, C
e. C, B, A

34. NSC-68 called for
a. the invasion of North Korea by United Nations troops.
b. a blockade of the China coast and bombing of Manchuria.
c. a program of spying on the Soviet Union.
d. the reorganization of the Defense Department.
e. a massive increase in military spending.

35. The fundamental idea of the containment doctrine, embraced by President Truman, was
a. the Soviet Union should be gradually forced to give up its sphere of influence in Eastern Europe.
b. the Soviet Union should be prevented from trading with nations in Africa and Asia.
c. the West and the Soviet Union should seek to contain the spread of nuclear weapons.
d. Soviet communist expansion in regions of the world should be blocked by firm political, economic, military,
and diplomatic defense of free peoples and nations by America.
e. military competition between the West and the Soviets should be replaced by economic competition.

36. The prosperity of the postwar decades paved the way for all of the following social transformations EXCEPT
a. the civil rights movement.
b. new welfare programs like Medicare.
c. America's international leadership.
d. the migration of people to the North.
e. increased opportunity to move up economically.

37. One striking consequence of the postwar economic boom was
a. the continued exclusion of most women from the workplace.
b. the growing split between urban and rural America.
c. the growing concentration of wealth at the top of society.
d. a vast expansion of the homeowning middle class.
e. the growth of blue-collar employment.

38. The crucial origins of the Cold War lay in a fundamental disagreement between the United States and the Soviet
Union over postwar arrangements in
a. North Africa.
b. East Asia.
c. the Middle East.
d. the Third World.
e. Eastern Europe.

39. Unlike the failed League of Nations, the new United Nations
a. denied the power of veto to any party in an international dispute.
b. established no forum for the smaller nations besides the great powers.
c. assumed that there would eventually be conflict among the great powers.
d. was unable to achieve approval by the United States Senate.
e. was established with a Security Council that assured that none of the Big Five Powers (the United
States, the USSR, Britain, France, and China) could have action taken against it without its consent.

40. As a result of Senator McCarthy's crusade against communist subversion in America
a. the FBI was shown to have had several spies working as communist agents.
b. the United States Army was forced to give dishonorable discharges to more than 100 officers.
c. the State Department lost a number of Asian specialists who might have counseled a wiser course in
Vietnam.
d. Eisenhower nearly lost the Republican presidential nomination in 1956.
e. the United States achieved a stronger settlement in Korea.

41. Which of the following was NOT among the early successes of the United Nations?
a. exercising of strict control over atomic energy
b. preventing warfare over Kashmir and Iran
c. enhancing global health, food production, and cultural development
d. guiding former European colonies to independence

42. Match each 1948 presidential candidate below with his political party.
A. J. Strom Thurmond 1. Progressive
B. Henry Wallace 2. Democratic
C. Harry S Truman 3. States' Rights
D. Thomas E. Dewey 4. Republican
a. A-1, B-3, C-2, D-4
b. A-4, B-2, C-1, D-3
c. A-3, B-1, C-2, D-4
d. A-1, B-4, C-3, D-2
e. A-2, B-3, C-4, D-1

43. Which of the following were NOT among the key decisions made by Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill at the
Yalta Conference?
a. The Soviet Union would attack Japan within three months in exchange for territorial concessions.
b. The Soviet Union would sponsor free elections in Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania.
c. A new international peacekeeping organization, the United Nations, would be set up.
d. The Soviets and Americans would militarily withdraw from Europe after a peace treaty was signed.

44. The victorious World War II Allies quickly agreed that
a. Germany should pay economically crippling war reparations.
b. Nazism should be destroyed in Germany and high-ranking Nazis should be tried and punished for war
crimes.
c. occupied Germany should be reunited as soon as possible.
d. Germany should receive massive economic aid.
e. Germany should be divided into two nations, East and West Germany.

45. Children of the baby boom
a. comprised a lucrative market for prepared baby food and other infant products.
b. grew into teenagers who spend $20 billion a year on clothes and music.
c. became the foundation of the youth movements of the 1960s and 1970s.
d. did not have access to the disposable income to spend substantial money on consumer goods such as
clothes and music.
e. All of these choices are correct.

46. When the Soviet Union denied the United States, Britain, and France access to Berlin in 1948, President
Truman responded by
a. asking the United Nations to intervene.
b. denying the Soviets access to West Germany.
c. declaring that an iron curtain had descended across Central Europe.
d. organizing a gigantic airlift of supplies to Berlin.
e. sending an armed convoy to Berlin.

47. Which of the following was NOT true of the new Japanese government installed by General Douglas
MacArthur in 1946?
a. It joined an American military alliance to prevent the spread of communism in East Asia.
b. It pledged itself to providing for women's equality.
c. It introduced a Western-style democratic constitution.
d. It paved the way for a spectacular economic recovery.
e. It renounced militarism.

48. The growth of organized labor in the post-World War II era was slowed by all of the following EXCEPT the
a. Taft-Hartley Act.
b. rapidly growing number of service-sector workers.
c. failure of Operation Dixie.
d. reduced number of women in the workforce.
e. growing number of part-time workers.

49. Since 1945, population in the United States has grown most rapidly in the
a. Northeast.
b. Midwest.
c. Sunbelt.
d. Frostbelt.
e. Pacific Northwest.

50. The majority of the new jobs created in the postwar era went to
a. men.
b. women.
c. African Americans.
d. Hispanics.
e. new immigrants.

51. Match each postwar American program below with its primary purpose.
A. Point Four 1. assist communist-threatened Greece and Turkey
B. NATO 2. promote economic recovery of Europe
C. Truman Doctrine 3. aid underdeveloped nations of Latin America, Asia, and

Africa

D. Marshall Plan 4. resist Soviet military threat
a. A-4, B-1, C-3, D-2
b. A-2, B-3, C-1, D-4
c. A-1, B-2, C-4, D-3
d. A-3, B-4, C-1, D-2
e. A-4, B-3, C-2, D-1

52. The Marshall Plan succeeded in reviving Europe's economy and thwarting the large internal Communist parties
in Europe threatening to take over
a. Italy and France.
b. West Germany and Czechoslovakia.
c. Britain and Ireland.
d. Spain and Portugal.
e. France and the Netherlands.

53. Among anti-communists, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy was the
a. most effective.
b. first Republican.
c. only true World War II hero.
d. one who most damaged free speech and fair play.
e. one who organized a national movement.

54. The long economic boom from World War II to about 1970 was especially fueled by
a. low energy costs.
b. reduced military expenditures.
c. low inflation.
d. low taxes.
e. a more highly educated work force.

55. The NSC-68 document reflected the American belief
a. in the limitless capabilities of the American economy and society to support a giant rearmament program
to expand the American military.
b. that we needed help to fight the spread of communism.
c. that huge sacrifices would be needed by Americans to fight the Cold War.
d. in the futility of containment.
e. None of these choices are correct.

56. The huge postwar baby boom reached its peak in the
a. late 1940s.
b. early 1950s.
c. late 1950s.
d. mid-1960s.
e. early 1970s.

57. The dramatically reduced number of American farms and farmers in the postwar era was accompanied by
a. growing poverty in rural America.
b. increasing shortages of American-grown food and fiber.
c. radical protests by farmers and farm laborers.
d. a romantic "back to the land" movement among city dwellers.
e. spectacular gains in American agricultural productivity and food growing.

58. Which of the following was NOT among the features of the increasing domestic anti-communist uproar in the
late 1940s and early 1950s?
a. The Federal Bureau of Investigation successfully prevented the Soviets from stealing American atomic
secrets.
b. Two American citizens, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, were executed as Soviet spies.
c. The House Un-American Activities Committee successfully exposed the State Department's Alger Hiss
as a Communist agent.
d. Radical and liberal voices in unions, universities, churches, and civic institutions were muzzled.
e. Teachers and other employees in many states were forced to sign loyalty oaths.

59. Jiang Jieshi and the Nationalist government lost the Chinese civil war to the communists and Mao Ze-dong
mainly because
a. Jiang lost the political support and confidence of the Chinese people due to ineptitude and corruption.
b. the United States failed to give Jiang enough aid.
c. Mao received much assistance from the Soviet Union.
d. communists within the Truman administration undermined Jiang's efforts.
e. the communists were closer to traditional Chinese culture.

60. President Truman's domestic legislative plan was dubbed the
a. Square Deal.
b. New Deal.
c. Fair Deal.
d. Redeal.
e. New Frontier.

61. Before he was elected vice president of the United States in 1944, Harry S Truman had served as all of the
following EXCEPT
a. a haberdashery store owner.
b. secretary of the navy.
c. a World War I artillery officer.
d. a farmer.
e. a United States senator.

62. One of the most significant structural differences between the old League of Nations and the new United
Nations was that the U.N.
a. did not attempt to include all the independent nations of the world in its membership.
b. gave a veto in the powerful Security Council to the five Great Powers.
c. did not try to address the question of colonialism.
d. developed its own independent military force controlled by the Security Council.
e. established a powerful independent executive branch in the Secretary General.