Unit Eighteen: The Post-World War II Blues, 1945-2000
Part One: The Cold War
1) When did the Cold War begin? Describe the Yalta Conferenceand the agreements made there. What
was the most significant consequence of the Potsdam Conference – besides the decision todrop the
atomic bomb on Japan?
2) Why was the world so dangerous when Harry Truman succeededFranklin Delano Roosevelt to the
presidency? In general, howeffectively did Truman deal with this dangerous world?
3) What are the two main historical interpretations of Sovietmotives in the aftermath of World War II?
American motives?
4) Identify:
a) "Big Three" –
b) zones of occupation –
c) Baruch Plan –
d) Secretary of State James Byrne –
e) Iron Curtain –
5) Define "Containment." Who authored the policy? When?
6) Explain the Truman Doctrine. What was its chief drawback?
7) Identify:
a) Eisenhower Doctrine –
b) Nixon Doctrine –
c) Carter Doctrine –
d) Reagan Doctrine –
8) Explain the Marshall Plan.
9) Identify:
a) Point Four Program –
b) Food for Peace Program –
c) Alliance for Progress –
d) Peace Corps –
e) Caribbean Basin Initiative –
10) Explain how Stalin used Berlin to respond to the TrumanDoctrine and the Marshall Plan. How did
Truman respond to theBerlin Blockade?
11) Identify:
a) NATO –
b) Warsaw Pact –
c) NSC-68 –
12) Describe the confrontations between the US and the USSR over Cuba.
13) Identify:
a) Bay of Pigs –
b) Cuban Missile Crisis –
c) Jupiter missiles –
d) hot line –
14) Briefly describe events in China following WWII. What ismeant by the "fall" of China? What was the
consequence of the "fall" of China on American politics?
15) Identify:
a) Chiang Kai-shek –
b) Mao Tse-tung –
c) Formosa/Taiwan –
d) Quemoy and Matsu –
e) General George C. Marshall –
16) Describe the events leading to the Korean War.
17) Describe the Truman-MacArthur controversy. How was it resolved? How did the public respond?
18) Identify:
a) 38th parallel –
b) Kim Il-Sung –
c) Secretary of State Dean Acheson –
d) repatriation of prisoners –
19) Describe the history of American involvement in Vietnam.
20) Identify:
a) Vietminh –
b) Ho Chi Minh –
c) Dien Bien Phu –
d) Geneva Conference/Geneva Accords –
e) Ngo Dinh Diem –
f) Viet Cong –
g) the domino theory –
h) Gulf of Tonkin Incident –
i) Gulf of Tonkin Resolution –
j) escalate –
k) Hawks/Doves –
l) credibility gap –
m) Tet Offensive –
n) peace with honor –
o) Vietnamization –
p) Kent State –
q) POWs/MIAs –
r) ) My Lai Massacre –
s) Khmer Rouge –
t) Pathet Lao –
u) boat people –
v) War Powers Resolution –
w) Boland Amendment –
21) Describe the foreign policy advocated by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. In practical terms, how
did it differ from the policy of containment?
22) Trace the events encapsulated in the expression “the thawing of the Cold War.”
23) Identify:
a) Nikita Khrushchev –
b) peacefulcoexistence –
c) Geneva Summit/Spirit of Geneva –
d) U-2 Incident/ Francis Gary Powers –
e) Paris Summit –
f) Vienna Summit –
g) "military-industrial complex" –
h) Berlin Wall –
i) Cuban Missile Crisis – (I know I asked about this earlier, but how did this help thaw the Cold
War?)
j) Nuclear Test Ban Treaty –
k) détente –
l) China Card –
m) SALT I –
n) SALT II –
o) Strategic Defense Initiative/Star Wars –
p) Mutually Assured Destruction –
q) START –
r) Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty –
24) Define the "Second Red Scare" and describe its origins.
25) Identify:
a) Loyalty Review Board –
b) Smith Act –
c) McCarran Internal Security Act –
d) House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) –
e) blacklisting –
f) Julius and Ethel Rosenberg –
26) Describe the "Hiss Affair." Who were the major players in it?
27) Describe the role played by Joseph McCarthy in the Red Scare. When did the Red Scare end?
Part Two: Post-War Domestic Politics
28) Trace the dominant issues confronted by Harry Truman during his first administration.
29) Identify:
a) G.I. Bill of Rights –
b) United Auto Workers –
c) Walter Reuther –
d) Philip Murray –
e) United Mine Workers/John L. Lewis –
30) Identify the key components of the Taft-Hartley Act.
31) Identify:
a) National Security Act of 1947 –
b) Presidential Succession Act of 1947 –
c) 22nd Amendment –
d) To Secure These Rights –
e) Progressive Party –
f) Dixiecrats –
g) dynamic conservatism/progressive moderation –
32) Trace the key components of Harry Truman’s Fair Deal. How did this plan fare during Truman’s
second term?
33) Describe the major accomplishments of Eisenhower’s presidency.
34) Identify:
a) Saint Lawrence Seaway –
b) Interstate Highway System –
c) Sputnik –
d) Explorer I –
e) National Defense Education Act of 1958 –
f) Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas –
g) Civil Rights Act of 1957 –
h) Civil Rights Act of 1960 –
i) Sherman Adams Scandal –
j) missile gap –
35) Describe the presidency of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. How effective was he in securing passage of
his programs through Congress? What did he call his program?
36) Describe the main components of LBJ's Great Society program.
37) Describe the election of 1964.
38) Describe the chief domestic programs of LBJ's administration after his victory in 1964.
39) Briefly describe the role of the federal government in the civil rights movement, 1960-1968.
40) Identify:
a) Civil Rights Act of 1964 –
b) Economic Opportunity Act (War on Poverty) –
c) "In your heart you know he's right" –
d) Voting Rights Act of 1965 –
e) Thurgood Marshall –
f) Medicare –
g) Medicaid –
h) Elementary and Secondary Education Act / Higher Education Act –
i) Housing and Urban Development Act –
41) Why was the Great Society in retreat by 1968? How was this reflected in the election of 1968?
42) Briefly describe the nature of Richard Nixon’s administration.
43) Identify:
a) H. R. Haldeman –
b) John D. Ehrlichman –
c) “Disneyland Mafia”/”Berlin Wall” –
d) Nixonomics –
e) stagflation –
f) wage and price controls –
g) “southern strategy” –
44) Describe the Nixon administration’s economic policies.
45) How did the Nixon administration continue (and even expand) LBJ’s Great Society programs?
46) What public concerns underlay Nixon’s anti-crime policies? How did events within the civil rights
movement and at the Democratic National Convention in 1968 contribute to these fears?
47) Describe Nixon’s policies on civil rights.
48) Describe Nixon’s attempts to bring about a “full generation of peace” in foreign affairs – particularly
regarding the USSR and China.
49) Describe Nixon’s policy for extracting the United States from Vietnam.
50) Identify:
a) SALT –
b) Vietnamization –
c) “peace with honor” –
d) Edmund S. Muskie –
e) George C. Wallace –
f) George McGovern –
g) New Federalism –
h) Arab Oil Boycott of 1973 –
i) OPEC –
j) shuttle diplomacy –
k) Swann v Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education –
l) Milliken v Bradley–
m) Bakke v Board of Regents of California –
n) stagflation –
o) Milton Friedman –
p) Arthur Bremer –
51) Describe the events of Watergate and Nixon’s subsequent resignation.
52) Describe the outcry that accompanied Gerald Ford’s decision to extend a complete pardon to former
president Nixon.
53) Briefly describe “Ford’s Interlude.”
54) Describe the domestic policies of the James Earl Carter’s presidency.
55) Describe the foreign policy of the Carter administration. How did concern for human rights shape
Carter’s policies?
56) Identify:
a) misery index –
b) Paul A. Volcker –
c) the moral equivalent of war –
d) windfall profits tax –
e) Panama Canal Treaty –
f) MX Missile System –
g) Camp David Accords –
h) SALT II –
i) October Surprise –
57) Describe the Carter administration’s response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
58) Describe the Carter administration’s response to the Iran Hostage Crisis.
59) Describe the election of 1980.
60) Briefly describe Reagan’s domestic policies.
61) Briefly describe Reagan’s foreign policy.
62) Identify:
a) New Federalism –
b) “supply side economics” –
c) “Reaganomics” –
d) “Boll Weevils” –
e) Jerry Falwell/Moral Majority –
f) traditional values –
g) Religious Right –
h) nuclear freeze movement –
i) evil empire –
j) Operation Urgent Fury –
k) MAD Doctrine –
l) Islamic Jihad –
m) Muammar al-Qadhafi –
n) Lockerbie, Scotland –
63) Describe Reagan’s relationship with Mikhail Gorbachev.
64) Identify:
a) “nuclear blackmail” –
b) Strategic Defense Initiative –
c) START –
d) Korean Airliner 700 (KAL 700) –
e) Grenada –
f) Marine Barracks, Beirut –
g) Nicaragua –
h) Sandinistas –
i) Daniel Ortega –
j) Contras –
k) Boland Amendment –
l) Iran-Contra/Contragate –
m) “Teflon presidency” –
65) Describe the election of 1988.
66) Describe the major domestic issues and accomplishments of the presidency of George H. W. Bush.
67) Identify:
a) budget summit –
b) savings and loan debacle –
c) Read my lips. No new taxes! –
d) Big Three –
e) electronic lynching –
f) Exxon Valdez –
68) Describe the foreign policy of the Bush presidency, including the events leading up to the First
Persian Gulf War.
69) Evaluate the accuracy of the following assessment of the Clinton presidency:
“Politically astute, charismatic, and well-informed, Clinton had as much ability and potential as
any president. Yet he was also shamelessly self-indulgent. The result was a scandalous
presidency punctuated by dramatic achievements in welfare reform, economic growth, as well as
foreign affairs.”
70) Identify the following:
a) Hillary Clinton –
b) Ross Perot/Reform Party –
c) “Slick Willy” –
d) Whitewater –
e) Travelgate –
f) Filegate –
g) Ken Starr –
h) Paula Jones –
i) Monica Lewinsky –
j) Newt Gingrich –
k) Contract with America –
l) Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996 –
m) Somalia –
n) Mohamed Farrah Adid –
o) Jean-Bertrand Aristide –
p) Oslo Accords –
q) Wye Accords –
r) North America Free Trade Agreement –
Part Three: Society and Culture: A Nation in Transition
71) Describe the growth of the American economy in the post-war period.
72) Identify:
a) baby boom –
b) Federal Housing Administration (FHA) –
c) suburbia –
d) federal highway programs –
e) Levittowns –
73) Describe how "consumerism" became the "American way of life." What role did the automobile play
in consumerism? T.V.?
74) Describe the social criticism of the "packaged society." Be sure to include the titles of the major books
and authors in this genre.
75) Identify:
a) consumer credit –
b) rock n’ roll/Elvis Presley –
c) Norman Vincent Peale –
d) Reinhold Niebbuhr –
76) Describe the intellectual reaction to the consumerism and conformity of the 1950s.
77) Identify:
a) Plessy v Ferguson –
b) Great Migration –
c) Niagara Movement –
d) NAACP –
78) Trace the emergence of the modern civil rights movement from 1909 to 1954.
79) Trace the resistance by whites to the civil rights movement following the Brown decision in 1954.
80) Identify:
a) Voting Rights Act of 1957 –
b) Civil Rights Act of 1964 –
c) Voting Rights Act of 1965 –
81) Explore the prominent role played by African-Americans in the civil rights movement beginning with
Rosa Parks in 1955.
82) Describe how the civil rights movement of the late 1950s andearly 1960s became the black revolution
of the mid and late1960s.
83) Identify:
a) desegregation of the armed forces –
b) Rosa Parks –
c) Montgomery Bus Boycott –
d) Martin Luther King –
e) White Citizens Councils –
f) Little Rock, Arkansas –
g) James Meredith –
h) Medgar Evers –
i) Thurgood Marshall –
j) Watts –
k) Black Power –
l) "Burn Baby Burn" (etc) –
m) Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) –
n) Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) –
o) Black Panther Party / Republic of New Africa / Nation of
Islam –
p) "long hot summers" –
q) National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders –
r) Civil Rights Act of 1968 –
s) Adarand Contractors v. Pena –
t) Hopwood v.Texas –
u) Proposition 209 –
84) Describe the rise and fall of the New Left.
85) Describe the rise and fall of the Counterculture.
86) How did the idea of the "domestic sphere" for women remain the same following WWII? How and
when did it change?
87) Identify:
a) The Feminine Mystique–
b) Title VII, Civil Rights Act of 1964 –
c) Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) –
d) Free Speech Movement –
e) Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) –
f) Ten Days of resistance –
g) Columbia Student Revolt –
h) Weather Underground –
i) Andy Warhol –
j) Timothy Leary –
k) Gloria Steinem –
l) Phyllis Schlafly –
m) hippies / flower children –
n) Acquired Immune Deficiency –
88) Trace the history of foreign terrorism against the United States.
89) Describe the militia movement and domestic terrorism within the United States during the 1990s.
90) Describe the “new economy” of the 1990s. What made it possible? What were its consequences?
91) Identify:
a) Osama Bin Laden/Al Qaeda –
b) World Trade Center/Pentagon –
c) militia movement –
d) Ruby Ridge –
e) Waco –
f) Timothy McVeigh/Murrah Federal Building –
g) Ed Roberts/Bill Gates –
h) “white-collar sweatshops” –
i) globalization –
j) outsourcing –
92) Briefly trace the origins of the environmentalist movement in the United States.
93) Trace the growth of the environmental movement from 1950-1970.
94) Trace the environmental movement from 1970 to the present.
95) Identify:
a) passenger pigeon/American Bison –
b) John Muir –
c) Aldo Leopold –
d) David Brower, Ansel Adams, and Nancy Newhall –
e) Sierra Club –
f) The Wilderness Society –
g) Rachel Carson/Silent Spring –
h) Environmental Protection Agency –
i) Greenpeace –
j) back-to-the-land movement –
k) Endangered Species Act of 1973/Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of
Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) –
l) James Lovelock/Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth –