AMH 2020 Ch.22,23,24 Study Guide

What was the "final solution"?

Adolf Hitler's plan to mass-exterminate "undesirable" peoples.

Organized labor assisted in the war effort by:

Agreeing to a no strike pledge

"D-Day" refers to the:

Allied invasion of Europe at Normandy.

The shopping mall was the inevitable result of what institution?

The suburb.

After World War II, the automobile:

altered the American landscape

The Marshall Plan:

offered economic assistance to noncommunist governments.

Which statement best describes what NSC-68 called for?

A permanent military buildup and a global application of containment.

Men like Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and Father Coughlin were members of the:

America First committee, an isolationist group.

Why did the United States back away from pressuring its European allies to grant self-government to colonies in Asia and Africa?

American diplomats valued nations like France more highly for their alliance in the European Cold War.

How did 1950s consumerism differ from previous eras?

Americans became accustomed to buying goods with credit cards. The wide availability of goods such as Levis, dishwashers, and refrigerators symbolized the superiority of American culture to communist culture.

After the United States entered World War II:

Americans experienced a series of military losses.

During the 1950s, television:

Became an effective advertising medium

Which statement about the Korean conflict is FALSE?

Chinese troops threatened to enter the conflict, but never did.

Between 1950 and 1970, suburbanization:

Hardened racial divisions in American life

What obstacle did Harry Truman face when he assumed the presidency following the death of Franklin Roosevelt in April 1945?

Harry Truman had absolutely no experience in foreign policy, the most important qualification at this point in American history.

Why did Franklin D. Roosevelt announce his candidacy for a third term in 1940?

He argued that the recovery was too fragile and the international situation too dangerous for him to leave his post.

In what aspect of American foreign policy did Franklin D. Roosevelt remove himself from Herbert Hoover's precedent?

He formally recognized the Soviet Union in an effort to stimulate trade

Why was it inevitable that the United States and the Soviet Union would eventually come into conflict after the war ended?

Historically, both nations had never shared long-term interests or values.

What did Roosevelt mean by the phrase "Freedom from Want"?

Initially, it was a call to eliminate barriers to international trade. It suggested the Great Depression would not continue after the war.

According to some critics, how did the casting of the Cold War as a worldwide struggle between freedom and slavery have unfortunate consequences?

It made it difficult to discern legitimate postwar struggles for economic and political freedom from those simply motivated by American interests. It suggested that the United States would align itself against postwar colonial independence movements in the name of anticommunism.

Which of the following does NOT explain why Americans hoped to avoid involvement in the war in Europe?

It was clear to most people that there was little possibility of an Allied victory.

What made the Army-McCarthy Hearings unusual for American television programming of the 1950s?

It was deeply political and controversial.

Which of the following statements best describes Japan's overseas actions in the 1930s?

Japan invaded China in 1931 and 1937 to expand its military and economic power

How did World War II affect the West Coast of the United States?

Millions of Americans moved to California for jobs and military service.

During the 1950s:

More efficient machinery and fertilization techniques helped the shift toward larger farms with fewer people working on them, particularly in the West. the Cold War stimulated western manufacturing in defense industries such as guided missiles.

What about the golden age of capitalism between 1946 and 1960 was most beneficial for Americans?

Most monetary gains reached ordinary citizens through rising wages.

How did Los Angeles epitomize the new emphasis on the car in 1950s America?

People drove to and from work on a web of highways and shopped at malls only accessible by driving.

Why were American suburbs of the 1950s so heavily segregated?

Residents, brokers, and realtors dealt in contracts and mortgages that barred the sale to non-white residents.

Why were American diplomats particularly dismayed that the Soviets had installed a procommunist government in Poland in 1945?

Stalin had promised Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt at Yalta that he would allow a democratic government in Poland.

How did World War II change the role of corporations in American life?

Technological innovation and high productivity in the war effort restored the reputation of corporations from its Depression lows.

Which long-held U.S. territory was granted independence in 1946?

The Philippines.

How did the Freedom Train suggest the meaning of freedom remained controversial?

The Wagner Act, the law guaranteeing workers' right to form unions, was removed from inclusion in the documents display.

Which statement about industry is FALSE?

The West did not benefit from the industries that sprang up from the Cold War.

What gave conservatives of the 1950s their political unity?

The common enemies of the Soviet Union and the federal government.

Why was it unlikely that the Soviet Union was going to embark on a new military campaign in the years following World War II?

The communist nation had suffered more than 20 million casualties, along with immense devastation.

Why did auto manufacturers and oil companies vault to the top ranks of corporate America in 1950s?

The consumer demand for the automobile boomed in this decade.

How did the Allied campaign in Italy prepare for the ground invasion of France on D-Day?

The defeat of Mussolini's regime forced Hitler to redirect valuable German troops to occupy Italy.

How did American companies contribute to the influx of Puerto Rican migrants by the hundreds of thousands beginning in the 1950s?

The increasing control of land by U.S. sugar companies on the island pushed small tobacco and coffee farmers off the land and into a search for jobs on the mainland.

Why did France and other Europeans understand NATO as a form of double containment?

The pact would guard them against Soviet aggression as well as against the resurgence of a powerful Germany.

Why did the United States allow West Germany to become part of a defensive alliance less than ten years after the defeat of Nazi Germany?

The successful Soviet detonation of a nuclear bomb underlined the importance of a militarily united West.

Why did so many American workers walk out of their jobs between 1943 and 1944?

They charged their employers with the unseemly expansion of corporate profits.

Why did American policymakers agree to spend billions of dollars on the economic recovery of Europe under the Marshall Plan?

They were afraid that if they did not help with the recovery, western European nations might fall into the Soviet sphere of influence.

How did the United States respond to Joseph Stalin's blockade around Berlin?

Truman ordered that supplies be brought to Berlin via an airlift.

Which of the following events did NOT occur after Truman's 1947 speech to Congress?

Truman received only immediate, short-term Republican support for his containment policies.

Fascism:

Was a political movement similar to Nazism. Became the political system in Spain by the late 1930s.

Japan:

Was aided by the United States in rebuilding its postwar industrial base to establish a strong economic counter to communism in the Far East. Was under the control of the supreme commander Douglas MacArthur from the end of the war until 1948.

Which of the following is NOT true about the growth of the postwar West?

Washington and Oregon eclipsed California's population, due to unprecedented employment opportunities in the defense industry.

As suggested by some commentators, how did big business enable individual freedom in the 1950s?

With large-scale production of goods came the freedom for individuals to choose among many items.

All of the following spurred the growth of the suburban middle class EXCEPT:

a growing popular interest in the arts.

In 1940, the "cash and carry" plan:

allowed Great Britain to purchase U.S. arms on a restricted basis.

For most women workers, World War II:

allowed them to make temporary gains.

The Lend-Lease Act:

authorized military aid to those fighting against Germany and Japan.

William Levitt, with the help of the GI Bill, gave many Americans the opportunity to:

buy a home.

Truman Doctrine

committed the United States to fighting communism anywhere.

Freedom House was an organization that:

demanded American intervention in the European war.

The impact of the Cold War on American culture was:

especially evident in the movies.

During the war, Americans

experienced the rationing of scarce consumer goods such as gasoline.

To libertarian conservatives, freedom meant:

individual autonomy, limited government, and unregulated capitalism.

In 1949, Mao Zedong:

led a successful communist revolution in China

Women working in defense industries during the war:

made up one-third of the West Coast workers in aircraft manufacturing and shipbuilding.

Between 1946 and 1960, the American gross national product:

more than doubled, and wages increased.

During the 1950s, Americans:

on average married younger and had more children than previous generations.

The policy of "containment" can best be described as:

preventing the spread of communism worldwide.

"Rosie the Riveter":

refers to Norman Rockwell's image of a female industrial laborer.

The Housing Act of 1949:

reinforced the concentration of poverty in non-white urban neighborhoods.

The "Iron Curtain":

separated the free West from the communist East.

After World War II, the only nation that could rival the United States was:

the Soviet Union.

The Berlin Blockade was:

the reaction by the Soviet Union to the establishment of a separate currency in western Berlin's occupied zones.

In the United States during World War II:

unemployment declined, production soared, and income taxes increased.

Office of War Information

used radio, film, and press to give the war an ideological meaning.

The Four Freedoms

were President Roosevelt's statement of the Allied war aims.

During the Cold War, religious differences:

were absorbed within the notion of a common Judeo-Christian heritage.

After World War II, most working women:

were concentrated in low-paying, nonunion jobs.

During the postwar suburban boom, African-Americans:

were often unable to receive financing for housing.

Japan's constitution, which Americans had written, provided for the first time in Japanese history:

women's suffrage.