Download AP U.S. History Chapter 36: The Cold War Begins, 1945

AP U.S. History
Chapter 36: The Cold War Begins, 1945-1952
Focus Question
Analyze the influence of the following on American-Soviet relations in the decade following the
Second World War.
Yalta Conference
Communist victory in China
Korean War
Learning Objectives
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What were some of the reasons for the postwar anxieties and prosperity brought about
after World War II?
What were the reasons for the standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union?
What major issues needed to be resolved in the postwar years in Europe and Japan?
What role did each of the following play with regard to the Cold War; Berlin airlift,
containment policy, Marshall Plan, Truman Doctrine, NATO, and the Korean War?
What domestic concerns were brought about as a result of the Cold War?
Questions
Postwar Economic Anxieties (830)
1. Why did many Americans fear that the end of World War II would bring a return of the Great
Depression?
2. How did the Taft-Hartley Act deliver "revenge against labor's New Deal gains" in 1947? In
addition to the Taft-Hartley Act, what factors slowed the growth of organized labor in the
post-World War II era?
3. What steps did the Truman administration take in an effort to forestall an economic
downturn?
4. What factors motivated the passage of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act (GI Bill of
Rights)? What were the provisions and the effects of the GI Bill?
The Long Economic Boom, 1950-1970 (831)
5. What social transformations occurred at least partly because of the prosperity of the postwar
decades?
6. Why did the post-World War II prosperity in the United States most benefit women, with
new jobs and new opportunities?
7. What factor was striking about postwar home ownership?
The Roots of Postwar Prosperity (832)
8. How did high military budgets affect the economy of the 1950s and 1960s?
9. If much of the prosperity of the 1950s and 1960s "rested on the underpinnings of colossal
military budgets," then why didn't the Soviet Union's economy experience a similar boom?
10. How did low energy costs affect the economy in the postwar period?
11. What caused the dramatic reduction in the number of American farms and farmers in the
postwar era?
Examining the Evidence (833)
12. What was the marketing tool of "planned obsolescence" and why was it invented in the
postwar era?
The Smiling Sunbelt (834)
13. What factors contributed to the popularity of advice books on child-rearing in the postwar
era?
14. Why did population in the United States grow most rapidly in the "Sunbelt" during the
postwar era? What factors were the basis of the Sunbelt's new prosperity?
The Rush to the Suburbs (835)/ Makers of America (836)
15. What factors contributed to the rapid rise of suburbia in post-World War II America? By
1960, what percentage of Americans lived in areas classified as metropolitan suburbs?
16. How did the continued growth of the suburbs help lead to an increase in urban poverty?
17. What factors account for the urban-suburban segregation of blacks and whites in major
metropolitan areas after World War II? What factors helped drive many blacks into public
housing?
The Postwar Baby Boom (838)
18. When did the postwar baby boom reach its peak? How did children of the baby boom affect
America in the following decades?
Truman: the "Gutty" Man from Missouri (838)
19. What jobs had Harry S. Truman held before he was elected vice president of the United
States in 1944? What were Harry Truman's strengths and weaknesses, in terms of personal
characteristics?
Yalta: Bargain or Betrayal? (839)
20. What were the key decisions made by Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill at the Yalta
Conference? Why was the United States eager to secure the Soviet Union's participation in
the projected invasion of Japan in early 1945?
The United States and the Soviet Union (840)
21. How did disagreement between the United States and the Soviet Union over postwar
arrangements lead to the start of the Cold War?
22. How did the United States and the Soviet Union differ, and how did they resemble one
another, in 1945?
Shaping the Postwar World (841)
23. How did the new United Nations differ from the failed League of Nations in conception and
structure? What were the early successes of the UN?
Thinking Globally (842)
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The Problem of Germany (844)
24. On what did the victorious World War II Allies agree about the treatment of Germany?
25. How did President Truman respond when the Soviet Union denied the United States, Britain,
and France access to Berlin in 1948?
The Cold War Congeals (846)
26. How did George F. Kennan frame a coherent approach for America in the Cold War?
27. What was the fundamental idea of the containment doctrine embraced by President Truman?
28. What crisis prompted the announcement of the Truman Doctrine? What open-ended
commitment did the United States make as part of the Truman Doctrine?
29. How did liberal theologian Reinhold Niebuhr affect American foreign policy?
30. What were the provisions of President Truman's Marshall Plan? What were its results?
31. How was President Truman taking a risk in recognizing the new Jewish state of Israel?
America Begins to Rearm (849)
32. How was the United States' participation in NATO a departure from traditional American
foreign policy? What was the purpose of NATO, and what did American membership
accomplish?
Reconstruction and Revolution in Asia (850)
33. How did Allied treatment of postwar Japan resemble that of Germany? What factors
characterized the new Japanese government installed by General Douglas MacArthur in
1946?
34. How did Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek) and the Nationalist government lose the Chinese
civil war to the communists and Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung)? How did Republicans use the
Communist victory in the Chinese civil as a political issue?
Ferreting Out Alleged Communists (852)
35. What steps did President Truman take in an effort to detect communists within the federal
government? What were some of the major features of the increasing domestic
anticommunist uproar in the late 1940s?
Democratic Divisions in 1948 (853)
36. Why did many southern Democrats split from their party to support Governor J. Strom
Thurmond in 1948?
37. What were the roles of J. Strom Thurmond, Henry Wallace, Harry S Truman, and Thomas E.
Dewey in the 1948 presidential race? Why did almost everyone expect Governor Thomas
Dewey to win the presidency in 1948?
38. What was "Point Four" in Truman's inaugural address of 1949? What were the elements of
President Truman's domestic legislative plan, dubbed the Fair Deal?
The Korean Volcano Erupts (854)
39. How did President Truman's action upon hearing of the invasion of South Korea correspond
to his previously stated foreign policy of containment?
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40. What was the recommendation of NSC-68? What American belief was reflected in the
recommendation?
The Military See-Saw in Korea (855)
41. Why did President Harry Truman relieve General Douglas MacArthur from command of
United Nations troops in Korea?
Varying Viewpoints (857)
42. Who was to blame for the Cold War?
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