Unit 10 General Questions

World War II

1.Why did the United States negotiate separate treaties after World War I?

2.What was accomplished by the Washington Conference and subsequent naval and disarmament conferences?

3.How did American Loans and investments work at cross purposes with United States tariff policy? What was the result?

4.What did President Hoover do to improve relations with Latin America?

5.What happened to the international efforts at economic stability and disarmament in Europe in the late 1920s and early 1930s?

6.How did the Hoover administration deal with Japanese expansionism? How effective was the approach?

7.To what extent did Roosevelt change the U. S. approach to international debt and currency issues?

8.In what ways did U. S. relations with the U. S. S. R. change in the early 1930s?

9.Was the "Good Neighbor" policy a radical departure from past Latin American policies? What future problems did it pose for the United States in the region?

10.Why were Americans supporting a neutral position in the 1930s regarding the growing political and military tensions in Europe? How did the Nye Commission hearings add to this point of view?

11.Briefly describe the restrictions that Congress place on US contacts with foreign nations in the Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937?

12.Why had the Japanese government become hostile to and suspicious of the United States by the early 1930s?

13.Why did the Japanese invade Manchuria in 1931? What was the US response to this attack?

14.How was the Panay incident, in the minds of some historians, a "trial run" for the later Pearl Harbor attack?

15.What was the Japanese policy known as the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere?" How did it reflect Japan's true ambitions in Asia?

16.What did the public reaction to the War of the Worlds broadcast reveal about the power of radio and the anxieties of the American people in 1938?

17.How did Roosevelt manage to get aid to Great Britain in 1939 and 1940 despite the limitations imposed by the Neutrality Acts? What changes in American public opinion coincided with the worsening situation for France and Britain?

18.What were the two principal positions in the domestic debate over the degree to which the United States should participate in the European war?

19.How did the Lend-Lease program work? What was the basis of the national debate over this Act?

20.What was the shape of our military readiness at the outbreak of war in Europe in the fall of 1939? What did President Roosevelt and Congress do to enhance our potential military capabilities?

21.Why was the Atlantic Charter important? What principles did it establish?

22.How did the US enter into an undeclared shooting war with Germany in the fall of 1941?

23.Why was oil a major source of conflict between the US and Japan in the early 1940s?What other areas of disagreement existed between the two nations in the fall of 1941?

24.Why were we caught so off guard at Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941?

25.What problems did the Japanese attack solve for FDR?

26.Why could the attack on Pearl Harbor be considered a tactical victory but a political blunder by the Japanese? How have historians treated this issue?

27.What region of the country benefited most from the enormous government spending for the war effort? Why?

28.What impact did the war have on organized labor?

29.What efforts did the national government make to regulate production, labor, and prices during the war? How successful were they?

30.Why did the US fight a war for democracy with a segregated military?

31.How did African-Americans distinguish themselves during World War II?

32.Describe the demographic, social, and military changes for African Americans and Mexican Americans during World War II.

33.Who was A. Philip Randolph? Why did he lead a March on Washington in 1941?

34.What was a "zoot suit?" How did this apparel create racial tensions in Los Angeles during World War II?

35.How did World War II challenge traditional Indian life and redirect federal Indian policy?

36.How were the women who filled war jobs treated? What obstacles did they face?

37.What long-term consequences for the role of women in society and the work force were foreshadowed by the wartime experience?

38.Describe popular culture on the home front. What efforts were made to make life less disruptive for the service members themselves? Explain the justification for and the circumstances surrounding the internment by the US government of Japanese Americans during World War II.

39.Why did Japanese Americans suffer more than German Americans? How did their treatment contrast with Chinese Americans?

40.What was the key issue in the case of Korematsu v. US? How did the Supreme Court rule?

41.What was the historical significance of D-Day, June 6, 1944?

42.Describe the nature of Allied bombing raids over Germany and Japan between 1944 and 1945.

43.Why were the Allies finally able to win the war in Europe?

44.Identify the candidates, the issues, and the outcome of the 1944 presidential election. Why did FDR change running mates?

45.What strategy did the US use in fighting the Japanese in the Pacific?

46.When the first atomic test bomb was exploded on July 11, 1945 near Almogordo, NM, Dr. Robert J. Oppenheimer remarked:I am become Death--Destroyer of worlds. What did he mean by this comment?

47.The principal biographers of President Truman and many other historians contend that the President's decision to use the atomic bomb was based purely on the motivation to end the war quickly and save lives. Why do some historians dispute that view?

48.Why is the issue so politically volatile as evidenced by the Enola Gay controversy at the Smithsonian Institute?

Beginnings of the Cold War

1.Why did tensions emerge between the Soviet Union and her former allies before World War II?

2.At the time of World War II, how did the vision of the postwar world held by the United States differ from that of the Soviets and the British?

3.How did the Yalta Conference deal with the Polish and German questions?

4.Explain the basic structure of the United Nations, and contrast its reception in the United States with that of the League of Nations.

5.Contrast the attitudes of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman toward Stalin and the Russians. How did this difference play out at the Potsdam Conference?

6.Why did the U. S. continue to support Chiang Kai-shek even as his control of mainland China slipped away?

7.How did events in China impact on U. S. attitudes toward Japan?

8.What were Stalin's aims after the war?

9.What was the purpose of the I. M. F.? the World Bank?

10.How did the US attempt to control global reorganization following World War II?

11.What was the policy of "containment?" What were President Truman's goals in establishing this foreign policy?

12.Identify the main objectives of the Truman Doctrine.

13.In what ways was the Marshall Plan the economic component of containment? How well did it work?

14.Why was the National Security Council created? What role did it play in the development of national policy?

15.Why did the US initiate the Berlin Airlift in 1948? What were the effects of this move?

16.List the original members of N. A. T. O. What was the purpose of this alliance?

17.Why was NSC-68 a key document in the early Cold War era?

18.What is the "post-revisionist" view of the origins and nature of the Cold War?

19.What kept the United States from experiencing another depression after the war? What economic challenges did the nation face?

20.Identify the provisions of the GI Bill of Rights. How did it help World War II veterans make the transition to civilian life?

21.How did re-conversion affect the many women and minorities who had taken war-related jobs?

22.How did post-war labor strikes impact American sentiment regarding the power of organized labor?

23.List the major components of Truman's "Fair Deal." What were his proposals for domestic reform that were rejected by a more conservative Congress?

24.What were the provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947? How did it address the issue of labor unions in the post-WW II period?

25.What did President Truman mean by the sign on his desk which said:The buck stops here!?

26.Identify the major candidates, issues, and outcome of the 1948 presidential election. Why is it so historic?

27.What were the Truman administration's domestic successes and failures after the 1948 election?

28.Why did the US go to war in Korean in 1950? What was the role of the United Nations in this conflict?

29.What was General MacArthur's plan in 1951 to end the stalemate in Korea? Why did President Truman object to it so strongly?

30.Why did President Truman fire General MacArthur? What was the initial reaction of most Americans to this decision?

31.What were the terms of the peace treaty that ended the Korean War?

32.What was the significance of the Korean War in terms of American military effectiveness, its prediction of future US involvement in Asia, and its impact on the American commitment to fighting the Cold War?

33.Why was HUAC created? What role did it play in the Second "Red Scare?"

34.Who were the "Hollywood 10?" Why was Hollywood a target of anti-communist investigations by Congress in the 1950s?

35.What role did Ronald Reagan play in those Hollywood investigations?

36.What is "red-baiting?" How was it used by the Republican Party in the 1950s?

37.What factors combined to create the anti-communist paranoia that led to the national mood that allowed the rise to prominence of Senator Joseph McCarthy?

38.How did McCarthy exploit the existing mood of hysteria? What sorts of tactics did he use in his attacks on alleged subversion?

39.What personalities and policies led to the Republican victory in the presidential election of 1952?

40.Though anti-communist sentiment did not disappear, what led to the demise of Senator Joseph McCarthy?

41.How was this 1950s "Red Scare" era similar to the one at the end of and immediately following World War I? How was it different?

1950s: Uniformity and Affluence

  1. What were the causes of the great economic growth in the country from 1945 to 1960? What was the impact on the American standard of living?
  2. Why did the West grow faster than the rest of the nation in the post-World War II era?
  3. What was Keynesian economic theory? How did the developments of the 1950s and early 1960s seem to confirm the theory?
  4. What was the post-war trend in economic consolidation?
  5. What was the nature of the "post-war contract" that developed between big labor and big business? What were the "escalator clauses?"
  6. How was the labor movement hampered by scandal, new government restrictions, and other factors?
  7. Identify the key medical advances of the mid-20c. What were the social results of these discoveries?
  8. What key developments in electronics in the 1950s and 1960s transformed consumer and industrial products and paved the way for the computer revolution?
  9. How did Americans react to the Soviet Sputnik? What was the response of the US government?
  10. What was the expanded role of advertising and consumer credit in the 1950s? Why can it be said that the prosperity of the 1950s and 1960s was substantially consumer-driven?
  11. What was the appeal of Levittown and similar suburban developments? How did typical suburbs transform family life and shape women's attitudes?
  12. What was the impact of the automobile and the super highway on metropolitan development patterns, especially the traditional downtown?
  13. What impact did the automobile culture have on railroads, energy consumption, air pollution, and retailing? How did the American experience compare with that of other developed nations at the time?
  14. Why can it be said that television was central to the culture of the postwar era? How did the medium simultaneously unify and alienate Americans?
  15. What types of programs characterized television's "Golden Age?" What were the major social, political, economic, and cultural themes in those shows?
  16. How did radio and the movies maintain their appeal to the new television generation during the 1950s?
  17. Describe the depth of the "gender divide" in the 1950s, especially in regard to jobs, primary gender roles, and body image.
  18. What was the "Beat" movement? How did the values of the beatniks differ from those of mainstream America in the 1950s?
  19. Identify some of the writers and social critics of the period who challenged American affluence. How did their challenge reveal the limitations and dangers of national economic abundance?
  20. 1950s? How did Hollywood and radio reflect this importance?
  21. How did the music of African American influence the development of rock and roll? To what extent was the audience multi-racial?
  22. What groups in society seemed mired in hard-core poverty largely outside the prosperity of the 1950s? Why?
  23. What demographic shifts occurred in minority populations during World War II and the postwar era?
  24. What was the result of the "urban renewal" program?
  25. What were the conclusions of the report from President Truman's Committee on Civil Rights? What steps did Truman take to end racial discrimination in the federal government?
  26. Why was Jackie Robinson an important figure in the struggle for civil rights?
  27. Why was Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka, KS such a landmark Supreme Court case? [create a case analysis sheet on the details and ramifications of this case!].
  28. What were President Eisenhower's views on civil rights [especially regarding the Brown decision]?
  29. What was the intent of the Southern Manifesto?
  30. How did President Eisenhower enforce the Brown ruling in Little Rock, AR in the summer of 1957?
  31. Why was Rosa Park's courageous stand and the resulting Montgomery bus boycott so important to the 1950s civil rights movement?
  32. How and why did Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. emerge as the leader of the civil rights movement in the US in the 1950s?
  33. Identify the various African American organizations that were created during the 1950s to fight segregation and racism.
  34. From what segment of society did President Eisenhower draw most of the members of his administration? How did these individuals differ from their 1920s counterparts of similar background?
  35. How did the domestic policies of the Eisenhower administration compare and contrast with the Roosevelt and Truman administrations?
  36. Why did President Eisenhower's new Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, question Truman's policy of containment?
  37. Explain Eisenhower's policy of "brinksmanship" and "massive retaliation" in terms of its impact on American foreign relations during the 1950s.
  38. What was the political significance of the U-2 spy plan incident of 1960?
  39. What were some of the views that Americans and their government had about the newly independent countries of the "Third World?"
  40. Why did many Third World nations feel hostile to the US? What was the stereotype in their eyes of the "ugly American?"
  41. How did the Eisenhower administration use the CIA to further its foreign policy?
  42. Briefly describe the effects of US intervention in Iran.
  43. List the provisions of the Geneva Accords of 1954. Why was the US not satisfied with this agreement?
  44. Why was the President of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, a difficult ally to support?
  45. What were the key issues that led to the Suez War of 1956? Why did the US side with the Soviet Union in this conflict?
  46. What was the Eisenhower Doctrine? What authority did Congress give the President when they approved this policy?
  47. Why did the Soviet Union form the Warsaw Pact in 1955?
  48. How was Nikita Khrushchev a different Soviet leader from Stalin? How was he the same?
  49. Why did Hungary become a Cold War trouble spot in 1956? How did the US respond to the Hungarian Crisis?