Final Exam Flashcards
What led England and France to declare war on Germany, marking the start of World War II?
Germany invaded Poland, a country Britain and France had promised to protect.
Why was the Battle of Midway the turning point of the Pacific naval war?
In the battle, four Japanese aircraft carriers were destroyed, providing a pivotal victory for American forces.
What was the single largest battle ever fought by the U.S. Army?
The Battle of the Bulge.
The Manhattan Project….
was a top-secret program in which American scientists developed an atomic bomb.
What accounted for the tension between Great Britain and the United States at the Yalta conference?
Churchill and Roosevelt disagreed over the future status of Britain’s overseas colonies.
How did the American public react to the dropping of the atomic bomb?
At first there was a general acceptance of the attack, but it was later criticized.
Which of the following events are in the correct order?
Munich Agreement, Battle of Britain, Pearl Harbor, D-Day, Hiroshima.
Why did Japan bomb Pearl Harbor in 1941?
Japan wanted a free hand to gain access to oil and other strategic resources.
Which of the following occurred at the Potsdam conference?
The West recognized that eastern Europe would become a Soviet sphere of influence.
Which theater of war in Europe suffered the most casualties?
Eastern Europe
The Berlin Blockade was…
the Soviet Union’s reaction to the establishment of a separate currency in the western occupied zones.
Emerging from World War II, what was the only nation that could rival the United States?
the Soviet Union
Who was the general who led the counterattack at Inchon during the Korean War?
Douglas MacArthur
The Truman Doctrine…
produced a language that helped Americans make sense of the Cold War.
What does the Nuremberg trials refer to post-World War II events?
trials in which German officials were prosecuted for crimes against humanity
Which long-held U.S. territory was granted independence in 1946?
the Philippines
President Truman’s civil rights plan called for which of the following?
a permanent federal civil rights commission
Which statement is true of the Korean War?
It signaled that the Cold War was a global conflict.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were
executed due to an atmosphere of anticommunist hysteria.
What was one permanent outcome of the Cold War in America?
the military-industrial complex
Vice President Richard Nixon believed that American goods and popular culture were a more powerful vehicle of foreign influence than what traditional source of influence?
military intervention
During the “Kitchen Debate,” what prediction made by Nikita Khrushchev would never become a reality?
The Soviet Union would outproduce Americans in consumer goods.
What about the golden age of capitalism between 1946 and 1960 was most beneficial for Americans?
Most monetary gains reached ordinary citizens through rising wages.
William Levitt, with the help of the GI Bill, gave many Americans the opportunity to…
become homeowners.
How did the 1950s differ from previous eras regarding economic freedom and consumerism?
Americans became comfortable living in debt while using credit to buy consumer goods.
During the 1950s, television…
became the most common source of information.
This NAACP lawyer was instrumental in dismantling the legal basis for segregated schools in the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case.
Thurgood Marshall
What helped to launch Martin Luther King Jr. as a civil rights leader?
He participated in the Montgomery Bus Boycott and spoke at protest meetings.
In the postwar era, working women…
earned a fraction of what men earned.
What role did Protestant and Catholic religious leaders play in shaping Cold War culture in America?
They preached messages that portrayed communism as a godless evil directed by Satan.
In which part of the United States did the Freedom Rides take place?
the Lower South
What event forced John F. Kennedy to take meaningful action in support of the civil rights movement?
King’s demonstrations in Birmingham
What was the centerpiece of Johnson’s Great Society?
the War on Poverty
Why was the Berlin Wall built?
to stop emigration from East to West Berlin
The free speech movement…
began in Berkeley to protest a campus ban on political activism.
In the 1964 election Barry Goldwater suffered a major defeat in the Deep South. What did this suggest?
There was a strong opposition among whites to the civil rights movement.
By 1968, the number of U.S. troops in Vietnam…
exceeded half a million as the war became more brutal.
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring inspired the ________ movement.
environmental
What did the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision do?
It created a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion.
According to the textbook, what is one legacy of the 1960s?
The 1960s undermined public confidence in national leaders.
“Vietnamization” was….
Nixon’s Vietnam strategy to have American troops gradually withdraw and South Vietnamese troops assume the fighting.
What were the results of the U.S. invasion of neutral Cambodia in 1970?
The invasion destabilized the nation and ushered in a murderous regime.
How did the War Powers Act of 1973 change the powers of the presidency?
It required congressional approval for the commitment of troops overseas.
When they were arrested, the burglars at the Watergate apartment complex were breaking into
the Democratic Party headquarters.
President Carter’s foreign policy emphasized…
human rights as a diplomatic priority.
The “Second Gilded Age” …
could describe the 1980s, a decade where making deals was more profitable for companies than making products.
Geraldine Ferraro is best known as…
the first female candidate on a major-party presidential ticket.
In which election year did a presidential candidate first claim he or she would “make America great again”?
1980
Which statement is true of the war on drugs?
It grew out of public fear over crack use in urban areas.
Neoconservative writer Jeane Kirkpatrick…
helped set a foreign policy agenda that stepped up U.S. interventions in foreign countries.
What was the first post–Cold War international crisis?
the Gulf War
What sparked the development of improved computer technology in the 1960s?
the space program
Between 1990 and 2008, how did companies contribute to U.S. job growth?
Companies took manufacturing to other countries where labor was cheaper, causing the loss of American jobs.
What was characteristic economically of the last two decades of the twentieth century?
The poor and the middle class became worse off, while the rich became significantly richer.
Which of the following was a common destination for immigrants at the turn of the twenty-first century?
Miami
What does the term “pay gap” refer to?
pay rates between men and women
What made the war on terrorism different from previous wars?
The enemy was not clearly defined.
Early in 2003, President Bush announced that the United States would go to war against Iraq…
because it was believed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
How did President Bush characterize the toppling of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan?
as only the beginning of the war on terror
Operation Enduring Freedom was launched in October 2001…
against Afghanistan, because the nation was harboring Osama bin Laden.
Which of the following did Barack Obama and Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns have in common?
Both appealed to the voters’ feeling that the country was moving in the wrong direction.
Which of the following was a job category for which the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicted strong growth in 2012?
childcare
How did Trump intend to promote American manufacturing?
by raising tariffs on imported goods
Which of the following widespread changes in the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century did NOT occur in the United States?
a significant decline in infant mortality rates
What are “subprime” mortgages?
risky loans made to home buyers who could not meet their monthly payments
In what way did the United States differ from other developed countries in the early twenty-first century?
The United States lacks comprehensive social benefits like paid vacation, sick days, and maternity leave.
What twenty-first-century development did both Obama and Trump use effectively in their presidential campaigns?
the Internet and social media
According to Justice Kennedy in the Obergefell v. Hodges decision, where can new ideas about freedom arise?
pleas of protest
What was former National Security Agency employee Edward Snowden charged with?
violating the Espionage Act
What did the Great Recession reveal?
the lack of a social safety net in America compared to Europe
