Download Am Hist II Exam Study Guide

AMERICAN HISTORY II FINAL EXAM STUDY GUIDE
Dr. Longhi
America in a World at War
1.
In World War II, the main American strategy to fight Japan was to
create two offensive campaigns to attack the Japanese from two directions.
3.
The Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942
marked the first important victory by the United States against Japan.
6.
During World War II, the United States Army chief of staff was
George Marshall.
7.
In 1943, the country that pressed for an immediate Allied invasion of France against Germany was
the Soviet Union.
8.
In 1942–1943, the British and American war effort against the Nazis concentrated on
fighting in North Africa.
11. During World War II, the first Axis country to be defeated was
Italy.
13. The United States government acquired definite knowledge of the Holocaust
during the first years of the war.
15. In regards to European Jewish refugees, between 1939 and 1945, the United States
refused to accept large numbers of refugees.
18. During World War II, the labor force of the United States
saw fifteen million people leave civilian labor for the armed forces.
19. During World War II, organized labor in the United States
won automatic union memberships for new defense plant workers.
20. Throughout World War II, in organized American labor
“wildcat” strikes were quite common.
23. In 1943, to simplify tax collections, Congress enacted
A. automatic payroll deductions.
27. During World War II, Germany held the technological edge over the Allies in
rocket-propelled bombs.
30. During World War II, the Fair Employment Practices Commission was created
by President Roosevelt to stop black protesters from marching on the capital.
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31. During World War II, the United States military
began to relax its practices of racial segregation.
32. During World War II, American Indians
saw the war effort undermine efforts to revitalize tribal traditions.
35. In 1942, when the United States interned Japanese Americans in “relocation centers”
there was no evidence that the Japanese Americans were a domestic security risk.
38. During World War II, American women who worked outside the home
tended to be older than women who worked in the past.
45. In the 1944 elections
Democrats increased their control of the Congress.
47. In August 1944, the Allies liberated from German occupation the city of
Paris.
49. The Battle of the Bulge
was the last major battle on the western front.
52. The 1944 Battle of Leyte Gulf
was the largest naval engagement in history.
53. The 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima
was the costliest in the history of the United States Marines.
55. In 1939, the first steps toward the creation of an atomic bomb were taken by
Nazi Germany.
57. In 1945, the first atomic explosion in history took place in
Alamogordo, New Mexico.
58. Prior to ordering the use of an atomic bomb against Japan, President Harry Truman
issued an ultimatum to Japan to surrender or face utter devastation.
The Cold War
2.
In early 1943, at the Casablanca Conference
Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt agreed the Axis powers must surrender unconditionally.
4.
In early 1945, at the Yalta Conference
it was agreed the Soviet Union should regain land lost in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War.
5.
In designing the structure of the new United Nations, planners called for
each nation on the Security Council to have veto power over the others.
9.
Between the Yalta Conference and his death, President Franklin Roosevelt
was concerned that Joseph Stalin was not going to fulfill conference agreements.
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11. President Harry Truman initially decided to “get tough” with the Soviet Union
after his first few days in office.
12. In 1945, President Harry Truman conceded to communist authority in
Poland.
15. Beginning in 1947, the United States’ policy of “containment” was
the basis for its foreign policy for more than thirty years.
20. In 1948, the Soviet Union’s blockade of West Berlin was primarily a response to
the creation of a unified West Germany.
21. In 1948, President Harry Truman responded to the Soviet blockade of West Berlin by
airlifting supplies to West Berlin.
22. In 1949, the North Atlantic Treat Organization
declared that an attack on one member nation was an attack on all.
26. During 1946–1947, the American economy
was plagued by serious inflation.
28. President Harry Truman’s Fair Deal called for
the creation of national health insurance.
30. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947
permitted the “union shop.”
35. In 1949, the Truman Administration made progress in civil rights by
ordering an end to discrimination in the hiring of government employees.
37. A 1948 public opinion poll revealed that a majority of Americans believed atomic power would
in the long run, do more good than harm.
38. In 1950, the immediate cause of the Korean War was the
military invasion by North Korea into South Korea.
41. In 1950, the Truman administration responded to the onset of fighting in Korea by
calling on the United Nations to intervene.
42. During the Korean War, the American invasion at Inchon
prompted President Truman to try and push communists out of North Korea.
43. In 1951, President Harry Truman relieved General Douglas MacArthur of command because
MacArthur publicly criticized President Truman’s policy in Korea.
45. During the Korean War, the Truman administration faced major strikes in the industries of
rail and steel.
47. In 1947, the first target of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was
the movie industry.
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52. In 1950, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were accused of spying for
the Soviet Union.
53. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were
accused of passing American secrets to its enemies.
55. Joseph McCarthy burst to national prominence by charging that there were known communists in the
State Department.
56. During Joseph McCarthy’s investigation into alleged subversion in government
he never produced conclusive evidence that any federal employee was a communist.
The Affluent Society
1.
During the 1950s, the general economic conditions of the United States included
low unemployment.
3.
Following World War II, the American economy
grew nearly ten times faster than the population between 1945 and 1975.
5.
During the 1950s, the American Federation of Labor in the United States
merged with the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
7.
Following World War II, American scientists made a critical contribution to the development of penicillin by
finding methods for its mass production and commercial distribution.
9.
In 1954, the American scientist Jonas Salk developed a vaccine for the prevention of
polio.
13. During the 1950s, the United States government’s primary motive for the development of rocket and missile
technology was for the
long-range delivery of weapons.
14. In 1960, the United States first successfully launched a missile from a submarine with the
Polaris.
15. In 1961, the first American to be launched into space was
Alan Shepard.
16. The primary purpose of the American Apollo program was to
land men on the moon.
18. Beginning in the late 1940s, William Levitt used mass-production techniques to sell
houses.
23. During the 1950s, television networks
generally sought to convey an idealized image of America.
27. The popular “beat” novel, On the Road, (1957) was written by
Jack Kerouac.
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29. Like many early white rock musicians, Elvis Presley drew heavily from black traditions in
rhythm and blues.
31. Michael Harrington’s 1962 book, The Other America focused on the problems of
poverty.
33. During the 1950s, rural America
lost ten percent of its population in 1956.
34. In 1960, the city in the United States with the largest Mexican-American population was
Los Angeles.
36. The Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
declared that separate educational facilities were unlawful.
38. In 1957, the effort to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas required
the presence of federal troops to enforce court orders.
39. The Montgomery bus boycott of 1955–1956
marked the emergence of an effective form of racial protest.
40. Martin Luther King, Jr., was leader of the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
43. The most significant and costly initiative of the federal government under President Dwight Eisenhower
involved
a federal highway system.
47. In 1954, under John Foster Dulles’ concept of “massive retaliation,” the United States would
use nuclear weapons against communist aggression.
52. Between 1945–1959, the United States policy in the Middle East saw the
CIA help bring to power the Shah of Iran.
53. In 1954, the Eisenhower administration ordered the CIA to help overthrow the government of
Guatemala.
56. In his farewell address to the nation, President Dwight Eisenhower warned against dangers of
the military-industrial complex.”
The Ordeal of Liberalism
4.
In regards to the assassination of President John Kennedy
Lee Harvey Oswald was shot and killed while in police custody.
5.
The Warren Commission investigation of the assassination of President John Kennedy concluded
Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin of Kennedy.
8.
In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson’s Medicare program
was similar in design to the Social Security system.
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9.
Only weeks after taking office, President Lyndon Johnson declared a “war” on
poverty.
13. The Immigration Act of 1965
eliminated rules which gave preference to immigrants from northern Europe.
14. Great Society reforms
contributed to the greatest reduction in poverty in American history.
15. In February 1960, the first “sit-in” demonstration protesting segregation was held at a
lunch counter.
17. In 1961, the “freedom rides” sponsored by CORE attempted to
end segregation of bus stations.
18. In 1963, civil rights activist Medgar Evers was murdered the same day
George Wallace tried to prevent black students from enrolling in the University of Alabama.
19. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech
was given during the largest civil rights demonstration in the nation’s history.
23. The Civil Rights Act of 1965 primarily focused on the issue of
voting rights.
26. In the 1960s, the philosophy of “black power”
called for an increased awareness of racial differences.
27. In 1965, Malcolm X
belonged to the Nation of Islam.
28. In 1961, President John Kennedy believed the major struggle against communism in the future would be
waged in
the Third World.
30. During the Bay of Pigs operation, President John Kennedy decided to withhold
military air support.
33. The Cuban missile crisis ended after President John Kennedy agreed to
not invade Cuba.
34. The correct chronological order of the following events is
Bay of Pigs, Vienna summit, Berlin Wall, Cuban missile crisis.
37. Under the terms of the 1954 Geneva Conference accords, Vietnam was
to hold elections in 1956.
41. In 1963, the overthrow of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem
was supported by the Kennedy administration.
42. At the beginning of 1964, the Lyndon Johnson administration
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inherited a substantial American commitment to maintain South Vietnam.
44. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
gave President Lyndon Johnson much greater authority over Vietnam.
46. In 1967, the number of American troops in Vietnam had surpassed
500,000.
51. In 1967, President Lyndon Johnson responded to mounting inflation at home by
agreeing to large funding reductions in Great Society programs.
53. The 1968 Tet offensive was a
a major political defeat for President Lyndon Johnson and
a substantial military victory for the United States.
58. In the 1968 presidential campaign, Richard Nixon called for
national law and order.
The Crisis of Authority
2.
Students for a Democratic Society was formed
primarily by white college students.
3.
In 1964, a dispute broke out at the University of California at Berkeley over
the rights of students to engage in free speech.
6.
In the 1960s, the youth counterculture
presented a fundamental challenge to American middle-class society.
8.
The purpose of the 1969 Woodstock music festival was to
express the ideals of the counterculture philosophy.
21. The Civil Rights Act of 1964
was amended for the benefit of women.
22. In the mid 1960s, the National Organization of Women focused its efforts on
addressing the needs of women in the workplace.
26. Ecology rests primarily on the assumption that nature should be preserved
because humans needed to maintain the interrelated balance of life.
30. The creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 came after
a major oil spill.
32. The intent of President Richard Nixon’s “Vietnamization” policy was to
have the South Vietnamese military do more of the fighting.
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34. In April 1970, the antiwar movement was recharged by
the invasion by the United States of Cambodia.
35. The so-called Pentagon Papers
revealed the government had misled the public regarding the progress of the war.
38. In 1972, President Richard Nixon, to prompt a peace settlement with North Vietnam,
ordered an increase in the aerial bombing of North Vietnam.
41. The South Vietnam government in Saigon finally collapsed during the presidency of
Gerald Ford.
43. President Richard Nixon believed United States foreign policy should work for
a balance of power between several major nations.
45. In 1972, the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty
froze the arsenals of some nuclear missiles at their current levels.
48. In practice, the Nixon Doctrine led the United States to increase its support of
authoritarian regimes.
51. As part of his domestic agenda, President Richard Nixon
tried to end the forced busing of students to desegregate schools and
ordered affirmative action programs for workers on federally-funded projects.
53. The Supreme Court case Engel v. Fitak (1962)
ruled prayers in public schools were unconstitutional.
58. The Supreme Court ruling in the case of Furman v. Georgia (1972)
abolished existing capital punishment statutes.
61. In the 1972 presidential campaign, an assassin attempted to kill the candidate
George Wallace.
64. In 1971, President Richard Nixon’s responded to mounting economic problems by
imposing a freeze on all wages and prices.
65. “Stagflation” refers to
rising prices and a weak economy.
66. In 1972, the Watergate scandal began with a break-in of the
offices of the Democratic National Committee.
70. The key evidence in the determination of President Richard Nixon’s guilt or innocence in the Watergate
scandal were
tape recordings made of most conversations in the Oval Office.
71. In 1973, the so-called “Saturday night massacre” involved President Richard Nixon’s firing of
the special prosecutor investigating the Watergate case.
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From “The Age of Limits” to the Age of Reagan
1.
In 1974, former President Richard Nixon was pardoned by
the President.
2.
During the Ford administration
the cost of oil rose dramatically.
3.
President Gerald Ford’s foreign policy actions included
the signing of an arms control agreement with the Soviet Union.
7.
On the economic front, during the Carter administration,
interest rates rose to their highest level in American history.
9.
As president, Jimmy Carter called for a foreign policy that stressed the importance of
human rights.
10. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter supported treaties in which the United States gave up control of
the Panama Canal.
12. In 1979, Iranians who took American hostages demanded, in return for their release,
the United States return the Shah of Iran.
14. In 1979, the United States responded to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan by
imposing economic sanctions on the Soviet Union.
18. In the late 1970s, the “Christian Right”
were alarmed by many Supreme Court rulings.
21. In 1978, supporters of Proposition 13 in California successfully
separated the issue of taxes from the issue of what the taxes supported
24. As president, Ronald Reagan
succeeded in making his personality a central feature of his presidency.
25. During the Reagan presidency, “neo-conservatives” were
engaged in a battle with the radical left to influence the American culture.
27. The “supply-side” economic theory embraced by President Ronald Reagan called for
a reduction of personal and corporate taxes.
28. In the Reagan administration, “deregulation” meant
reducing the role of government in the economy.
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33. In the early 1980s, the country President Ronald Reagan described as an “evil empire” was
the Soviet Union.
35. President Ronald Reagan argued that the Strategic Defense Initiative would
make nuclear war obsolete.
36. The Reagan Doctrine of opposing communism
led the United States to militarily intervene in many Latin American nations.
41. In the late 1980s, challenges to communist rule were the least successful in
China.
43. In 1988, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signaled his desire to change past policies by
agreeing to a significant nuclear arms reduction treaty.
47. In the late 1980s, in foreign affairs, President George Bush
moved toward far-reaching arms reduction agreements with the former Soviet Union.
48. The recession of 1990–1992
caused an unusually high number of bankruptcies.
49. The Gulf War of 1991 had its origins in an Iraqi decision to
invade Kuwait.
51. After the Gulf War, President George Bush’s high popularity quickly faded because of his
inability to contain a worsening recession.
52. In 1992, Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign focused on
the condition of the economy.
53. In 1992, Ross Perot made the best third-party showing in American politics since
Theodore Roosevelt in 1912.
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