CHAPTER 23 The United States and the Cold War, 1945–1953
TEST BANK
Learning Objectives
1. Identify the events and ideological conflicts that prompted the Cold War.
2. Explain how the Cold War reshaped the ideas of American freedom.
3. Explain the major initiatives of Truman’s domestic policies.
4. Analyze the effects of Cold War anticommunism on American politics and culture.
Multiple Choice
1. How did the Freedom Train suggest the meaning of freedom remained controversial?
a. Protests erupted in a number of cities over the required recitation of the Freedom Pledge and signing of the
Freedom Scroll for access to the exhibit.
b. American Heritage Foundation members were unhappy the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were
withdrawn from the documents to be displayed.
c. The Wagner Act, the law guaranteeing workers’ right to form unions, was removed from inclusion in the
documents display.
d. The international press criticized the spectacle accompanying the American train when millions of people
were suffering amid the ruins of World War II.
e. Many viewers were upset that Native American treaties that showed the United States in a negative light
were included.
2. Who was prevented from seeing the American Freedom Train exhibit in 1947?
a. All blacks in the South were banned.
b. People in Memphis and Birmingham were not allowed, because the train’s organizers refused to segregate
the viewing.
c. Chinese people in California cities were not allowed to view the exhibit.
d. Blacks in the South were only permitted to view exhibits after 8 p.m. when whites were done touring the
train.
e. Immigrants who were naturalized citizens were banned from boarding the train.
3. Why was it unlikely that the Soviet Union was going to embark on a new military campaign in the years
following World War II?
a. The communist nation had suffered more than 20 million casualties, along with immense devastation.
b. Stalin was eager to demonstrate to eastern Europeans the pacifist credentials of his communist regime.
c. The Soviet Union had made enormous territorial gains during the war and had every interest in securing
them first.
d. Stalin was shocked and appalled by the American use of the nuclear bomb in Japan and vowed to his people
never to sink to that level.
e. The Soviet politburo had replaced the warmongering Joseph Stalin with the decidedly pacifist Nikola
Khrushchev.
4. Why was it inevitable that the United States and the Soviet Union would eventually come into conflict after the
war ended?
a. FDR had privately told his advisers that the wartime friendly relationship between both nations could never
last.
b. Historically, both nations had never shared long–term interests or values.
c. It was clear as early as the Tehran conference that Stalin had never intended to follow through on any of the
Grand Alliance agreements.
d. Exploitation of Iran’s northern oil fields suggested the Soviet Union was already ahead of the United States
in postwar economic development.
e. The Soviet Union had not fulfilled its obligations from the Yalta conference.
5. The policy of “containment” can best be described as
a. preventing the expansion of U.S. economic interests in Latin America to appease growing unrest in
impoverished regions.
b. a focus on the containment of further military conflict in the postwar world.
c. preventing the spread of communism worldwide.
d. fighting for the complete destruction of communism anywhere in the world.
e. containing capitalism within its own safe sphere.
6. Why were American diplomats particularly dismayed that the Soviets had installed a procommunist
government in Poland in 1945?
a. U.S. forces had hoped to include Poland in the western European security pact that later became known at
NATO.
b. The Soviet Union had ruled Poland brutally prior to the war and was responsible for most of the killings that
took place there in the war.
c. Stalin had promised Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt at Yalta that he would allow a democratic
government in Poland.
d. Americans feared that Soviet control of Poland would make it easier for the Red Army to capture and
control all of Germany.
e. Poland had significant oil reserves that British and U.S. interests had planned to tap in an expanded Baltic
Trade Agreement after the war.
7. What obstacle did Harry Truman face when he assumed the presidency following the death of Franklin
Roosevelt in April 1945?
a. Roosevelt’s popularity made it difficult for Truman to win the respect of Congress and the people.
b. At this time in the war, Americans were looking for a president with a military background, something
Truman could not offer.
c. Truman had been such an aggressive power player in Congress that he was likely to face stiff opposition
there.
d. Harry Truman had absolutely no experience in foreign policy, the most important qualification at this point
in American history.
e. Roosevelt had become so unpopular with the American people that his vice president was likely to have to
pay for the sins of his predecessor.
8. Which of the following events occurred after Truman’s 1947 speech to Congress?
a. A precedent was established for the United States to support terroristic regimes everywhere in their
struggles against communism.
b. Congress approved $400 million in U.S. military aid to West Germany.
c. Truman received only immediate, short-term Republican support for his containment policies.
d. The Central Intelligence Agency and the Atomic Energy Commission were established with strict
democratic oversight.
e. A precedent was set to create military alliances against the Soviet Union.
9. Assess the effects of the Marshall Plan.
a. It was a disaster because China became a Communist country.
b. It never went into effect because the U.S. Congress provided very little funding.
c. The plan struggled because the Soviet Union embezzled half of the funds.
d. The plan was controversial due to the discovery of George Marshall being a communist spy.
e. It helped to jump-start the economies of western Europe.
10. Why did American policymakers agree to spend billions of dollars on the economic recovery of Europe under
the Marshall Plan?
a. They hoped to provoke the Soviet Union with this program.
b. They were trying to further solidify the division between the East and the West on the continent.
c. They were happy to provide their own constituents with profitable defense contracts.
d. They were afraid that otherwise, western European nations might fall under Soviet influence.
e. Most Americans still had immediate family in Europe and felt a strong personal connection.
11. Which of the following happened right after World War II?
a. The United States emerged as the world’s greatest power because it had the most powerful air force and
navy.
b. The United States accounted for almost all of the world’s manufacturing capacity.
c. Only the United States and the Soviet Union could manufacture an atomic bomb.
d. The League of Nations was created.
e. The United States built the Berlin Wall.
12. The Berlin Blockade was
a. a barrier erected by Allied forces in postwar Berlin to shield them from angry protests of starving residents.
b. a means for the United States to justify its threat to mobilize Allied forces stationed in Turkey.
c. erected because the United States threatened to invade the Soviet Union.
d. the Soviet Union’s reaction to the establishment of a separate currency in the western occupied zones.
e. a temporary defensive measure by the United States that was soon taken down.
13. 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?
a. East Germany had positioned nuclear missiles along the border to the west.
b. The United States depended heavily on the expertise of German rocket scientists.
c. The United States made this concession in order to win access to lucrative German consumer markets.
d. The Soviet detonation of a nuclear bomb underlined the importance of a militarily united West.
e. The United States had thoroughly “de–nazified” the country.
14. Why did France and other European nations understand NATO as a form of double containment?
a. The organization would keep both the United States and the Soviet Union in check.
b. NATO would prevent the expansion of the British empire as well as of American imperialism.
c. The pact would guard them against Soviet aggression as well as Germany’s resurgence.
d. NATO would contain communism but also contain the costs of defense for European nations.
e. NATO would counterbalance Soviet influence and that of the United Nations.
15. Which statement about the Korean conflict is correct?
a. The United Nations authorized the use of force to repel the North Koreans.
b. Chinese troops threatened to enter the conflict, but never did.
c. General MacArthur argued against an invasion of China and for the use of nuclear weapons.
d. Truman removed General Eisenhower from command when he criticized Truman.
e. The war ended with a formal peace treaty.
16. After World War II, the only nation that could rival the United States was
a. China.
b. France.
c. the Soviet Union.
d. Japan.
e. Great Britain.
17. The Truman Doctrine assumed
a. the United States would only help democratic governments in its quest against communism.
b. communism had already been defeated.
c. the United States would first and foremost focus on its internal problems.
d. the United States would provide aid to any anticommunist regime, even if it was not a democratic one.
e. the U.S. Army should have a presence in every country dealing with the communist threat.
18. The “Iron Curtain”
a. separated south and north Vietnam.
b. isolated Japan from the world economy.
c. was a term used to ridicule the Soviet Union.
d. separated Japan from the rest of Asia.
e. was a term used in reference to the division between the capitalist West and the communist East.
19. What was the result of the Korean War?
a. North Korea won, but then gave half of its territory to China.
b. The United States became divided on the home front as large peace demonstrations occurred in opposition
to the war.
c. South Korea unified its country and then kicked out the United States.
d. Korea remained divided along the thirty-eighth parallel.
e. The Soviet Union sent troops to occupy Korea.
20. Who was the general who led the counterattack at Inchon during the Korean War?
a. Dwight D. Eisenhower
b. George Marshall
c. Douglas MacArthur
d. George Patton
e. John Pershing
21. The Truman Doctrine
a. accepted different types of government.
b. adhered to non-interference policies.
c. produced a language that helped Americans make sense of the Cold War.
d. was supported by Democrats only.
e. provided aid to democratic governments only.
22. Japan
a. failed to renounce a policy of war and armed aggression.
b. received no international aid to facilitate the country’s economic reconstruction.
c. was under the control of the U.S. military until 1960.
d. sided with the Soviet Union.
e. adopted a new democratic constitution.
23. The Marshall Plan
a. assumed economic prosperity and promoted communism.
b. provided economic assistance to Latin American countries.
c. was broadly capitalist, but incorporated a few key Marxist ideals.
d. did not reach its objectives and was rapidly canceled.
e. was popularized by the use of the slogan “Prosperity Makes You Free.”
24. How did Walter Lippmann view the Cold War?
a. He saw it as a long, protracted war that the United States must win at all costs.
b. He saw the Soviet Union as a supporter of freedom.
c. He believed the United States needed to support colonization in order to gain allies.
d. He believed the United States should give in to Soviet demands.
e. He did not want U.S. foreign policy to turn into an ideological crusade.
25. Japan’s constitution, which Americans had written, provided for the first time in Japanese history
a. immigration guidelines.
b. women’s suffrage.
c. freedom of speech.
d. decision power to the lower classes.
e. labor rights.
26. After World War II, which country gained its independence from Great Britain?
a. Ireland
b. Germany
c. the Philippines
d. India
e. Vietnam
27. What country’s inclusion in the “Free World” does the textbook portray as hypocritical?
a. South Africa
b. France
c. Philippines
d. Canada
e. India
28. According to Time magazine’s Henry Luce, what was the key word to explain the essence of the United States?
a. capitalism
b. money
c. liberty
d. freedom
e. opportunity
29. 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.
b. Since the United States was expanding its own empire, it was losing the moral high ground against
European colonial powers.
c. American strategists reasoned that national independence in Asia and Africa was likely to benefit the Soviet
Union more than the United States.
d. Southern Democrats in Congress did not want to inspire civil rights campaigns at home by supporting
national independence in Asia or Africa.
e. The United States depended on European nations to wage war against communists in the developing world.
30. How did Truman respond to Joseph Stalin’s blockade around Berlin?
a. He asked the United Nations to get involved.
b. He invaded East Berlin.
c. He ordered an airlift.
d. He started a long process of diplomatic negotiations.
e. He sent supplies by ship.
31. In 1949, Mao Zedong
a. was forced into exile.
b. was elected as China’s representative in front of the United Nations.
c. invaded Taiwan.
d. won the Chinese Civil War and created the People’s Republic of China.
e. invaded Japan.
32. Which statement accurately describes what NSC-68 called for?
a. more spending on scientific research
b. enforcement of the Marshall Plan
c. isolationism
d. an elimination of military arsenals
e. a permanent military buildup to fight communism
33. “Militant Liberty” was the code name for a national security agency that
a. patrolled the border in search of illegal aliens.
b. encouraged Hollywood to produce anticommunist movies.
c. required labor unions to purge suspected communist leaders.
d. forced schools to fire teachers and professors suspected of teaching Marxist ideas.
e. encouraged artists to paint work in a Norman Rockwell style.
34. To wage the cultural Cold War, the Central Intelligence Agency and Defense Department
a. promoted the work of artist Norman Rockwell.
b. censored the work of modern artists.
c. funded artistic publications, concerts, performances, and exhibits.
d. sought to censor the work of painter Jackson Pollock.
e. imposed artistic conformity.
35. 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 required Americans to sympathize with communism, which many were unwilling to do.
c. It prevented any long-term establishment of a diplomatic presence in Moscow.
d. It unfortunately positioned the United States as the leader in military aggression, rather than a beacon of
peace.
e. It backfired on Americans whose ancestors had been slaveowners.
36. How was Truman’s national health insurance plan defeated?
a. Doctors did not have enough support from patients.
b. It appeared to be something that Nazis would endorse.
c. It was painted as socialist.
d. Insurance companies endorsed the plan.
e. Too many doctors faced malpractice suits.
37. What were the Nuremberg trials?
a. court cases that put Adolf Hitler in power
b. trials in which German officials were prosecuted for crimes against humanity
c. congressional hearings in regard to communists in Hollywood
d. Soviet Union court cases in Poland in regard to the German invasion
e. trials that resulted in Japanese military officials being held accountable for their treatment of prisoners of
war
38. The principle of human rights—the idea of basic rights belonging to all persons because they are human—was
introduced into international relations
a. after the Holocaust.
b. after the dropping of the atomic bomb.
c. when NATO was established.
d. in the revolutionary period of the late eighteenth century.
e. when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted.
39. What introduced the concept of human rights to the broader world?
a. the Russian Revolution
b. the United Nations
c. the Covenant of the League of Nations
d. the European Union
e. the American and French Revolutions
40. During the Cold War, the United States considered all anticommunist regimes as part of the free world even
when the government was oppressive to its own people. Which of the following nations fit this description?
a. South Africa
b. France
c. Great Britain
d. Soviet Union
e. Argelia
41. How did the Soviet focus on social and economic rights in the Cold War human rights debate affect American
attitudes?
a. It caused millions of Americans to be jealous of and become curious about the Soviet Union.
b. It inspired American politicians to invoke the example of the Soviet Union in order to push for bolder
reincarnations of the New Deal.
c. In the climate of anticommunist hysteria, it prompted many Americans to condemn these rights as a first
step to socialism.
d. It gave Americans comfort to know that their own emphasis on social and economic rights placed them far
ahead of the Soviet Union.
e. It secured voting rights for women along with a quota system for political leadership positions.
42. What did the Soviet Union claim to provide to all its citizens?
a. democratic rights
b. civil liberties
c. free health care
d. social and economic rights
e. the right to vote
43. Which of the following statements is true of the Fair Deal?
a. The Fair Deal included a provision to reduce public housing.
b. Congress passed Truman’s Fair Deal to raise the standard of living for Americans.
c. The Fair Deal included a provision to freeze the minimum wage.
d. The Fair Deal included a provision to create a national health insurance program.
e. The Fair Deal included a provision to cut Social Security coverage.
44. Why did nearly 5 million workers walk off their jobs over the course of 1946?
a. Returning veterans had been given preferential treatment in hiring and promotion.
b. The millions of women who had worked in defense industries were refusing to leave their jobs.
c. The postwar wave of deflation was dramatically reducing the value of workers’ wages.
d. The removal of price controls resulted in a drop in workers’ real income.
e. American workers had accumulated months of vacation and overtime during the war years.
45. Which long-held U.S. territory was granted independence in 1946?
a. Falkland Islands
b. Guantanamo
c. the Philippines
d. Hawaii
e. Puerto Rico
46. In the 1950s, what did the term “totalitarianism” describe?
a. democratic governments in Latin America
b. states that left no room for individual rights or alternative values
c. America’s enemies in the Cold War
d. liberalism and the free market
e. the foreign policy of containment
47. Along with freedom, which was the other concept the United States used to mobilize support at home and
abroad?
a. a greater good
b. geopolitics
c. totalitarianism
d. liberalism
e. equality
48. How did President Truman react to the postwar strike wave of 1946?
a. He sent federal troops to the strike areas.
b. He did not actively get involved with any of the strikes.
c. He asked for union leaders to be removed from the Democratic Party.
d. He praised the strike leaders and asked for patience from the American public.
e. He used a court order to require coal miners to return to work.
49. What led to Republican control of both houses of Congress in 1946?
a. Large numbers of middle-class voters voted Republican, while workers stayed at home.
b. Martin Luther King led civil rights demonstrations, and Democrats were painted as a party for African–
Americans.
c. Congress failed to pass the national health-care plan so Democrats lost support.
d. The additional New Deal programs were not extensive enough.
e. France lost control of its Vietnamese colony.
50. Besides failing to unionize the South, what other intended goal did Operation Dixie not meet?
a. ending segregation in southern public schools
b. weakening the political control of conservative Democrats in the South
c. creating more military bases in the South
d. lessening the influence of the Communist Party in America
e. moving textile jobs from the South to the North
51. Between 1945 and 1952, what was one way in which black Americans gained more rights?
a. The Voting Rights Act was passed.
b. No lynchings took place during these seven years.
c. Eleven states established fair employment practices commissions.
d. The first African-American senator was elected.
e. Jackie Robinson joined the New York Giants in 1947.
52. During the Cold War, American culture
a. became virtually nonexistent as most wartime financial efforts were directed elsewhere.
b. witnessed how the Central Intelligence Agency and Defense Department emerged as patrons of the arts.
c. was absent from the daily lives of the common men and women.
d. faced no intervention from the national government.
e. was not politicized.
53. What artist had his work promoted by the CIA but at the same time had his paintings criticized as un–
American?
a. Norman Rockwell
b. Mark Rothko
c. Willem de Kooning
d. Fred Busbey
e. Jackson Pollock
54. Before breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball, Jackie Robinson did what?
a. He served overseas in the navy during World War II.
b. He organized a march for voting rights in Selma, Alabama.
c. He dropped as a paratrooper in Normandy for D-Day.
d. He opposed segregated seating on a bus at Fort Hood, Texas.
e. He attempted to break the color barrier of the National Basketball Association.
55. How had the political climate changed in the South during World War II and in the early Cold War years?
a. The mass exodus of African-Americans for the West Coast and Northeast left the region almost exclusively
white.
b. The high concentration of prisoner–of-war camps in the region had made these southerners savvy in foreign
affairs.
c. The number of African–Americans in the region that were registered to vote increased sevenfold.
d. In light of the fight against an enemy with a racial ideology, the states of the Upper South abolished
segregation and Jim Crow rule.
e. The region’s central role in the development of the atomic bomb made it the capital of militant Cold War
politics.
56. President Truman’s civil rights plan called for which of the following?
a. a permanent federal civil rights commission
b. national laws regulating the poll tax
c. affirmative action in employment
d. reparations
e. separate and equal education
57. In addition to despising racism, what motivated President Truman to push for civil rights?
a. He hoped to gain reparations for African-Americans who had descendants that had been slaves.
b. He wanted to increase the number of black voters in the Republican Party.
c. It was part of his strategy to win reelection.
d. He thought it would silence Joe McCarthy in his attempt to weed out communism.
e. He wanted to protect jobs for women.
58. What was To Secure These Rights?
a. a World War II propaganda film that denounced fascism
b. an indictment of racial inequality in America issued by the Commission on Civil Rights
c. a government film on how the United States needed to stand up to the Soviet Union
d. a Major League baseball report recommending how to integrate blacks into the sport
e. a documentary about creating the Constitution and the Bill of Rights
59. Why did southern Democrats fear losing their position in the Democratic Party following its national
convention of 1948?
a. Their numbers were ever shrinking in proportion to northern Democrats.
b. The migration westward had significantly reduced the southern Democratic constituency.
c. President Truman used the convention to bolster the position of his fellow Democrats from the northeastern
establishment.
d. Party liberals under the leadership of Hubert Humphrey had added a strong civil rights plank to the party
platform.
e. The success of Republicans in the South was eroding the constituency base for southern Democrats.
60. Who were the “Dixiecrats”?
a. members of the national press corps who covered the story of Strom Thurmond’s breakaway from the
Democratic Party
b. southern Democrats who walked out of the 1948 convention to form the “States’ Rights Democratic Party”
c. southern labor organizers who campaigned against passage of the Taft-Hartley Act
d. Republicans who favored maintaining segregation in the South in support of the principle of states’ rights
e. members of the Commission on Civil Rights
61. The committee that drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was led by
a. President Truman.
b. Dwight Eisenhower.
c. Eleanor Roosevelt.
d. Franklin Roosevelt.
e. Winston Churchill.
62. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
a. established an enforcing mechanism.
b. protected people against arbitrary governments.
c. failed to include freedom of religion.
d. was drafted by Delano Roosevelt.
e. failed to include economic rights.
63. On what topic did Henry A. Wallace significantly differ from Truman?
a. segregation
b. voting rights
c. waging the Cold War
d. creating jobs
e. improving the social safety net
64. In 1948, the Progressive Party
a. advocated expanded social welfare programs.
b. supported segregation.
c. supported Truman’s civil rights proposals.
d. agreed with Truman’s Cold War policies.
e. did not allow socialists or communists to join.
65. What helped Harry Truman win reelection?
a. He toned down his attacks on segregation.
b. He revived New Deal rhetoric.
c. He talked about easing tensions with the Soviet Union.
d. He avoided commitment on controversial issues.
e. The Republican candidate faced an embezzlement scandal.
66. The 1948 presidential race
a. was a three-way race.
b. was the last to occur before television forever changed campaigning.
c. ended the movement of southern Democrats into the Republican Party.
d. highlighted gender as a campaign issue for the Republican Party.
e. had Strom Thurmond as a close second to Harry Truman.