AMH 2020 Test 3
As residue from the Red Scare, anti-Semitism was widespread in America during the 1950s.
False
The United States won the Korean War.
False
Men like Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and Father Coughlin were members of the:
c. America First committee, an isolationist group.
President Truman's civil rights plan called for all of the following EXCEPT:
d. reparations.
The Office of War Information:
e. used radio, film, and press to give the war an ideological meaning.
Although suburban communities were segregated in the 1950s, today, communities such as Levittown on Long Island are completely racially integrated.
False
Despite the communist victory in China's civil war and the Soviets' successful development of an atomic bomb, the Truman administration refused to endorse a permanent U.S. military buildup.
False
During the war, the AFL made great strides in helping blacks and was more racially integrated than any union had ever been before.
False
Freedom of speech and freedom of worship were not principles expressed by the Atlantic Charter because FDR feared their application to the African-American struggle for racial justice and equality at home.
False
Hollywood remained the one voice of protest during the McCarthy era, making films that glorified individualism, socialism, and the questioning of authority.
False
In 1948, the Supreme Court ruled against provisions that would have allowed banks and private developers from barring non-whites from home ownership in the suburbs.
False
Overall, despite good intentions, the Marshall Plan was not very successful.
False
The "zoot suit" riots were between the police of Detroit and the black workers of the city.
False
The Kitchen Debate refers to the public debate during the 1950s over whether women ought to work outside of the home.
False
The majority of the Japanese-Americans who were interned during the war were not actually citizens of the United States.
False
To improve the image of American race relations abroad, the U.S. government sponsored trips of African-American jazz musicians to Africa.
False
By 1945, support for racial justice had finally taken its place on the liberal-left agenda alongside full employment, civil liberties, and the expansion of the New Deal welfare state.
True
By 1955, the number of women working in America had exceeded the levels of World War II.
True
By the mid-1950s, for the first time in American history, white-collar workers outnumbered blue-collar factory and manual laborers.
True
During the 1950s, religion had less to do with spiritual activities or sacred values than with personal identity and group assimilation.
True
During the 1950s, the West became the home of numerous military bases and government-funded shipyards.
True
Generally speaking, economics and geopolitical interests motivated American foreign policy, but the language of freedom was used to justify America's actions.
True
George Kennan's Long Telegram laid the foundation for the policy of containment.
True
Japanese propaganda depicted Americans as a self-indulgent people contaminated by ethnic and racial diversity, as opposed to the racially "pure" Japanese.
True
Texas passed the Caucasian Race-Equal Privileges resolution in 1943 in a goodwill effort to help Mexican-Americans.
True
The "standard consumer package" of the 1950s included a car, house, and television.
True
The Berlin Airlift made it clear that Truman was determined to deny the Soviet Union any victories in the Cold War.
True
The Bretton Woods meeting established a new international economic system.
True
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was the first long-term military alliance between the United States and Europe since the Treaty of Amity and Commerce with France during the American Revolution.
True
The dropping of the atomic bombs to end World War II was the logical culmination of a war that was unprecedented in the targeting of civilian populations in the fighting.
True
The percentage of families at or below the poverty rate fell during the 1950s.
True
The war experience brought many more Native Americans closer to the mainstream of American life.
True
Truman was advised to "scare the hell out of people" as a means of gaining support for aid to Greece and Turkey.
True
What was so ironic about Dean Acheson's speech to the Delta Council in 1947?
a. Acheson praised the president's defense of democratic institutions in the place that did not know democracy.
Why did the United States back away from pressuring its European allies to grant self-government to colonies in Asia and Africa?
a. American diplomats valued nations like France more highly for their alliance in the European Cold War.
What does Henry Luce see as the cure for America in his book The American Century?
a. For America to exert its influence on the world.
According to some critics, how did the casting of the Cold War as a worldwide struggle between freedom and slavery have unfortunate consequences?
a. It made it difficult to discern legitimate postwar struggles for economic and political freedom from those simply motivated by American interests. b. It suggested that the United States would align itself against postwar colonial independence movements in the name of anticommunism. e. A and B
Which statement about industry is FALSE?
a. The West did not benefit from the industries that sprang up from the Cold War.
How did the Allied campaign in Italy prepare for the ground invasion of France on D-Day?
a. The defeat of Mussolini's regime forced Hitler to redirect valuable German troops to occupy Italy.
The shopping mall was the inevitable result of what institution?
a. The suburb.
How did the United States respond to Joseph Stalin's blockade around Berlin?
a. Truman ordered that supplies be brought to Berlin via an airlift.
In 1948, the Progressive Party:
a. advocated expanded social welfare programs.
The Road to Serfdom:
a. advocated for laissez-faire economics. b. offered an intellectual basis for the critique of active government. e. A and B
In 1940, the "cash and carry" plan:
a. allowed Great Britain to purchase U.S. arms on a restricted basis.
Freedom House was an organization that:
a. demanded American intervention in the European war.
The "social contract":
a. describes the new style of cooperation between labor and management that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s.
Labor and employers agreed to a new "social contract" that included all of the following provisions EXCEPT:
a. employers required the National Association of Manufacturers to accept the right of workers to organize unions.
The impact of the Cold War on American culture was:
a. especially evident in the movies.
During the war, Americans:
a. experienced the rationing of scarce consumer goods such as gasoline.
During the Cold War, Americans:
a. formed anticommunist groups who pressured public libraries to remove "un-American" books from their shelves.
Between 1946 and 1960, the American gross national product:
a. more than doubled, and wages increased.
The Taft-Hartley Act:
a. outlawed the closed shop.
During World War II, Native Americans:
a. served in the military and worked in war production.
Guatemalan leader Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán:
a. sought to reduce foreign corporations' control over his country's economy.
In the United States during World War II:
a. unemployment declined, production soared, and income taxes increased.
Eisenhower's intervention in Vietnam partly consisted of:
a. urging Ngo Dinh Diem not to hold elections. c. the United States paying four-fifths of the cost of the war between the French and Ho Chi Minh's nationalist forces. e. A and C
Civil rights initiatives after 1948:
a. waned, given widespread American sentiment that any criticism of American society smacked of "disloyalty."
Fascism:
a. was a political movement similar to Nazism. b. became the political system in Spain by the late 1930s. e. A and B
Which statement best describes what NSC-68 called for?
b. A permanent military buildup and a global application of containment.
What was the "final solution"?
b. Adolf Hitler's plan to mass-exterminate "undesirable" peoples.
How did 1950s consumerism differ from previous eras?
b. Americans became accustomed to buying goods with credit cards. c. The wide availability of goods such as Levis, dishwashers, and refrigerators symbolized the superiority of American culture to communist culture. d. B and C
Which statement best describes the thesis of David Riesman's book The Lonely Crowd?
b. Americans were conformists and lacked the inner resources to lead truly independent lives.
Which statement about the Korean conflict is FALSE?
b. Chinese troops threatened to enter the conflict, but never did.
All of the following statements are true of the Fair Deal EXCEPT:
b. Congress passed Truman's Fair Deal to raise the standard of living for Americans.
Which of the following does NOT accurately depict one of the uses of anticommunism?
b. Conservative Catholic congregations were investigated for enforcing "principles of communist conformity" among parishioners.
How did President Dwight D. Eisenhower surpass the New Deal in government involvement in the economy?
b. He presided over the construction of 41,000 miles of interstate highways.
What did Roosevelt mean by the phrase "Freedom from Want"?
b. Initially, it was a call to eliminate barriers to international trade. c. It suggested the Great Depression would not continue after the war. d. B and C
Which of the following statements best describes Japan's overseas actions in the 1930s?
b. Japan invaded China in 1931 and 1937 to expand its military and economic power.
How did "Patriotic Assimilation" differ from "Americanization"?
b. Patriotic assimilation described the American way of life, where people of different backgrounds could live together in freedom and unite as a people.
What did Eleanor Roosevelt do of particular significance several years after the war ended?
b. She chaired the committee that drafted the United Nation's "Universal Declaration of Human Rights."
Who were the "Dixiecrats"?
b. Southern Democrats who walked out of the 1948 convention to form the "States' Rights Democratic Party."
Which long-held U.S. territory was granted independence in 1946?
b. The Philippines.
What about the golden age of capitalism between 1946 and 1960 was most beneficial for Americans?
b. The United States maintained a trade surplus.
Why did the Soviet Union strongly support the national independence movements in the new Third World?
b. They hoped to convince new nations to ally themselves with the eastern bloc against European and American imperialists.
Which of the following is NOT true about the growth of the postwar West?
b. 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?
b. With large-scale production of goods came the freedom for individuals to choose among many items.
Organized labor emerged as:
b. a major supporter of the foreign policy of the Cold War.
Organized labor assisted in the war effort by:
b. agreeing to a no-strike pledge.
The 1943 Texas Caucasian Race-Equal Privileges resolution:
b. allowed Mexicans equal treatment in public accommodations, while still segregating blacks.
The Lend-Lease Act:
b. 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:
b. buy a home.
The new conservatives:
b. emphasized tradition, community, and moral commitment.
"Militant Liberty" was the code name for a national security agency that:
b. encouraged Hollywood to produce anticommunist movies.
During the Eisenhower administration, U.S.-Soviet relations:
b. improved somewhat after the end of the Korean War and the death of Stalin.
The GI Bill of Rights:
b. included scholarships for education for veterans.
During the 1950s, American teenagers:
b. increased in number and were often perceived to be alienated.
To libertarian conservatives, freedom meant:
b. individual autonomy, limited government, and unregulated capitalism.
In 1949, Mao Zedong:
b. led a successful communist revolution in China.
Women working in defense industries during the war:
b. made up one-third of the West Coast workers in aircraft manufacturing and shipbuilding.
During the 1950s:
b. more efficient machinery and fertilization techniques helped the shift toward larger farms with fewer people working on them, particularly in the West. d. the Cold War stimulated western manufacturing in defense industries such as guided missiles. e. B and D
In the 1952 presidential campaign, Richard Nixon's Checkers speech:
b. reflected the growing importance of television in American life.
New conservatives trusted government to:
b. regulate personal behavior.
The Housing Act of 1949:
b. reinforced the concentration of poverty in non-white urban neighborhoods.
In the aftermath of World War II:
b. the majority of returning GIs went back to work. d. Americans paid more for consumer goods. e. B and D
Operation Dixie was:
b. the postwar union campaign in the South.
In Korematsu v. United States, the Supreme Court:
b. upheld the legality of Japanese internment.
The National Resources Planning Board:
b. urged the expansion of the welfare state.
Ngo Dinh Diem:
b. was backed by the United States in his decision to ignore the Geneva Accords' plan for elections in Vietnam.
The 1948 presidential race:
b. was the last to occur before television forever changed campaigning.
FDR's "Economic Bill of Rights":
b. would have empowered the federal government to secure education, housing, medical care, and full employment for all Americans.
Which of the following statements is NOT true of the Asian-American experience during World War II?
c. Executive Order 9066 fully integrated Asian-Americans into U.S. army units serving overseas.
Who did publisher Henry Luce credit with the provision of "the abundant life" in his blueprint for postwar prosperity, The American Century?
c. Free enterprise.
Why did Franklin D. Roosevelt announce his candidacy for a third term in 1940?
c. He argued that the recovery was too fragile and the international situation too dangerous for him to leave his post.
On what grounds did the Austrian-born economist Friedrich A. Hayek reject the New Deal state?
c. He was convinced that even the best intentioned government planning efforts would threaten individual liberties.
How did the Soviet focus on social and economic rights in the Cold War human rights debate affect American attitudes?
c. In the climate of anticommunist hysteria, it prompted many Americans to condemn these rights as a first step to socialism.
Under the bracero program:
c. Mexicans were encouraged to immigrate, but they were denied the right of citizenship.
How did Los Angeles epitomize the new emphasis on the car in 1950s America?
c. People drove to and from work on a web of highways and shopped at malls only accessible by driving.
Why did Executive Order 9066 NOT apply to persons of Japanese descent living in Hawaii?
c. Since nearly 40 percent of the population was of Japanese descent, the evacuation order would have been impractical.
How did World War II change the role of corporations in American life?
c. Technological innovation and high productivity in the war effort restored the reputation of corporations from its Depression lows.
What gave conservatives of the 1950s their political unity?
c. The common enemies of the Soviet Union and the federal government.
Why did the Eisenhower administration embrace the doctrine of "massive retaliation"?
c. The constant threat of mutually assured destruction under the doctrine made for more cautious diplomacy.
Why did auto manufacturers and oil companies vault to the top ranks of corporate America in 1950s?
c. The consumer demand for the automobile boomed in this decade.
How had the political climate changed in the South during World War II in the early Cold War years?
c. The number of African-Americans in the region that were registered to vote increased sevenfold.
Why did France and other Europeans understand NATO as a form of double containment?
c. The pact would guard them against Soviet aggression as well as against the resurgence of a powerful Germany.
What did Henry Luce and Henry Wallace have in common?
c. They both put forth a new conception of America's role in the world based in part on internationalism and on the idea that the American experience should serve as a model for all other nations.
Why did so many American workers walk out of their jobs between 1943 and 1944?
c. They charged their employers with the unseemly expansion of corporate profits.
How did black organizations employ the language of the Cold War?
c. They noted how the Russians could use racism to damage America's image abroad, given its hypocrisy about the meaning of "freedom" at home.
Why did anticommunist Harry Truman veto the McCarran-Walter Act?
c. Truman had become alarmed at the excesses of the anticommunist crusade.
Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed which kind of individuals to his cabinet?
c. Wealthy businessmen to run the government like an efficient business.
All of the following spurred the growth of the suburban middle class EXCEPT:
c. a growing popular interest in the arts.
For most women workers, World War II:
c. allowed them to make temporary gains.
To wage the cultural Cold War, the Central Intelligence Agency and Defense Department:
c. funded artistic publications, concerts, performances, and exhibits.
Between 1950 and 1970, suburbanization:
c. hardened racial divisions in American life.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
c. included freedom of speech and religion.
The impact of the Cold War on the civil rights movement:
c. included government action against black leaders.
Operation Wetback:
c. was a military operation that rounded up illegal aliens found in Mexican-American neighborhoods for deportation.
The "Third World":
c. was an invented term describing developing nations not aligned with either the Soviet Union or United States. d. included many nations newly created out of former European colonies. e. C and D
The Four Freedoms:
c. were President Roosevelt's statement of the Allied war aims.
After World War II, most working women:
c. were concentrated in low-paying, nonunion jobs.
After the United States entered World War II:
d. Americans experienced a series of military losses.
Why did the editors of Life magazine fear that American freedom might be in danger from not being used enough?
d. Americans seemed to have largely withdrawn from open dissent in the public sphere.
How did wartime experiences change Mexican-American life in California?
d. Employment opportunities in the defense sector prompted Mexican-Americans to find work outside of their neighborhoods.
In the 1950s, what did the term "totalitarianism" describe?
d. Fascism, Nazism, and communism.
In what aspect of American foreign policy did Franklin D. Roosevelt remove himself from Herbert Hoover's precedent?
d. He formally recognized the Soviet Union in an effort to stimulate trade.
Why did Harry Truman's loyalty review system target homosexuals working for the government?
d. Homosexuals were considered susceptible to blackmail and thought to be lacking the manly qualities necessary to fight communism.
What made the Army-McCarthy Hearings unusual for American television programming of the 1950s?
d. It was deeply political and controversial.
How did World War II affect the West Coast of the United States?
d. Millions of Americans moved to California for jobs and military service.
Why did southern Democrats fear losing their position in the Democratic Party following its national convention of 1948?
d. Party liberals under the leadership of Hubert Humphrey had added a strong civil rights plank to the party platform.
Why were American suburbs of the 1950s so heavily segregated?
d. Residents, brokers, and realtors dealt in contracts and mortgages that barred the sale to non-white residents.
The charges against which of the following organizations led to the downfall of Joseph McCarthy in 1954?
d. The army.
Why did President Eisenhower use the CIA to overthrow the government of Iran in the early 1950s?
d. The government had attempted to nationalize British-owned oil fields.
How did American companies contribute to the influx of Puerto Rican migrants by the hundreds of thousands beginning in the 1950s?
d. 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.
What taste of freedom did women enjoy in World War II?
d. The perks of doing men's jobs.
Why did nearly 5 million workers walk off their jobs over the course of 1946?
d. The removal of price controls resulted in a drop in workers' real income.
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?
d. The successful Soviet detonation of a nuclear bomb underlined the importance of a militarily united West.
How did white supremacists take advantage of anticommunist rhetoric?
d. They charged African-American civil rights leaders with a communist agenda.
What reason did the Hollywood Ten give for not cooperating with the HUAC hearings?
d. They felt the hearings were a violation of the First Amendment.
After World War II, the automobile:
d. altered the American landscape.
The McCarran-Walter Act:
d. authorized the deportation of communists, including naturalized citizens.
During the 1950s, television:
d. became an effective advertising medium.
The "zoot suit" riots of 1943:
d. highlighted the limits of racial tolerance during World War II.
The status of blacks during World War II:
d. in northeastern cities was not always improved, despite the promise of better economic opportunity through wartime jobs.
The principle of human rights—the idea of basic rights belonging to all persons because they are human—was introduced into international relations:
d. in the revolutionary period of the late eighteenth century.
Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president in 1952 in part because he:
d. manifested a public image of fatherly warmth.
During the 1950s, Americans:
d. on average married younger and had more children than previous generations.
"Rosie the Riveter":
d. refers to Norman Rockwell's image of a female industrial laborer.
The Berlin Blockade was:
d. the reaction by the Soviet Union to the establishment of a separate currency in western Berlin's occupied zones.
"D-Day" refers to the:
e. Allied invasion of Europe at Normandy.
All of the following statements about the Cold War's impact on American life are true EXCEPT:
e. Cold War military spending weakened the economy.
Which of the following does NOT explain why Americans hoped to avoid involvement in the war in Europe?
e. It was clear to most people that there was little possibility of an Allied victory.
Which statement about the Japanese-American internment is FALSE?
e. Once their loyalty was proven, they were free to leave.
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles's policy of massive retaliation:
e. declared that any Soviet attack would be countered by a nuclear attack.
Joseph McCarthy:
e. was an embarrassment to his party by 1954.
During the Cold War, religious differences:
e. were absorbed within the notion of a common Judeo-Christian heritage.
During the postwar suburban boom, African-Americans:
e. were often unable to receive financing for housing.