Honors US History WW2 & Cold War

Question 1

What was the London Economic Conference?

Answer 1

Sixty-six nations met to launch a frontal attack on the global depression, eager to stabilize national currencies and revive international trade.

Question 2

Who was Joseph Stalin?

Answer 2

Leader of the Soviet Union during WWII.

Question 3

What was the ‘Quarantine Speech’?

Answer 3

Delivered by Roosevelt in the autumn of 1937, calling for ‘positive endeavors’ to quarantine aggressors Italy and Japan by economic embargoes.

Question 4

What was the Miracle of Dunkirk?

Answer 4

The British managed to evacuate the bulk of their shattered and disarmed army to England.

Question 5

What was the Battle of Britain?

Answer 5

An air battle over the British Isles where the Royal Air Force’s defense led Hitler to postpone his planned invasion indefinitely.

Question 6

What was the Atlantic Charter?

Answer 6

Promised no territorial changes contrary to the wishes of the inhabitants.

Question 7

What did the Office of Price Administration do?

Answer 7

Brought ascending prices under control with extensive regulations.

Question 8

What was the Bracero program?

Answer 8

Mexican workers came to America to harvest wartime crops.

Question 9

Who was Douglas MacArthur?

Answer 9

An eloquent, egotistical commander in the Pacific whose company retreated to the Philippines.

Question 10

What was the significance of Midway?

Answer 10

The turning point in the battle on the Pacific front where America came out on top over Japan.

Question 11

What is Leapfrogging?

Answer 11

A defense strategy used by America to defeat Japan by going from island to island, destroying each before moving on.

Question 12

What happened at Stalingrad?

Answer 12

The Russians halted the German advance.

Question 13

What is D-Day?

Answer 13

June 6, 1944, an enormous operation involving forty-six hundred vessels.

Question 14

What is V-E Day?

Answer 14

Victory in Europe Day on May 8, the day after the German government surrendered.

Question 15

What were ‘Kamikazes’?

Answer 15

Japanese suicide pilots.

Question 16

What was the Rome-Berlin Axis?

Answer 16

The alliance between Nazi Hitler and Fascist Mussolini.

Question 17

What does ‘Appeasement’ refer to?

Answer 17

‘Appeasement’ of dictators, symbolized by Munich, was merely surrender on the installment plan.

Question 18

Who was Winston Churchill?

Answer 18

British Prime Minister during WWII, involved in a conference with Roosevelt and formed the Atlantic Charter.

Question 19

Who were the Axis Powers?

Answer 19

Germany, Japan, and Italy formed an alliance.

Question 20

What did the War Labor Board do?

Answer 20

Imposed ceilings on wage increases.

Question 21

Who were the Code talkers?

Answer 21

Comanche in Europe and Navajos in the Pacific transmitted radio messages in their native languages, incomprehensible to the Germans and Japanese.

Question 22

What was the Bataan death march?

Answer 22

A vicious 85-mile death march in the Philippines.

Question 23

Who was the ‘Desert Fox’?

Answer 23

Marshall Rommel, who led Germans across North Africa into Egypt.

Question 24

What was the ‘Second front’?

Answer 24

The Soviet Union pleaded with the British and Americans for a second front in the west due to staggering losses in 1942.

Question 25

Who was Thomas E. Dewey?

Answer 25

The Republican nominee for President in 1944.

Question 26

What was Iwo Jima?

Answer 26

A tiny island in the Pacific needed for damaged bombers returning from Japan, captured in March 1945.

Question 27

What is V-J Day?

Answer 27

The day Japan was defeated.

Question 28

What is Totalitarianism?

Answer 28

The belief that the individual was nothing and the state was everything.

Question 29

Who was Francisco Franco?

Answer 29

He headed the Spanish rebels, took over Spain, and made it a fascist state.

Question 30

What was the Hitler-Stalin Pact?

Answer 30

Allowed Nazi Germany to make war on Poland and Western democracies without fearing a stab in the back from the Soviet Union.

Question 31

What was the Conscription law?

Answer 31

America's first peacetime draft, provision made for training 1.2 million troops and 800,000 reserves each year.

Question 32

What is the Red Army?

Answer 32

Another name for the Soviet Army.

Question 33

What did the War Production Board do?

Answer 33

Orchestrated American factories to produce an avalanche of weaponry.

Question 34

What did FDR mean by 'Arsenal of democracy'?

Answer 34

What FDR said the US would become under lend-lease.

Question 35

What are 'Baby boomers'?

Answer 35

The huge leap in the birthrate in the decade and a half after 1945.

Question 36

What was the Battle of Coral Sea?

Answer 36

Pivotal to victory in the Pacific along with the Battle of Midway.

Question 37

What happened at Guadalcanal?

Answer 37

In August 1942, American ground forces gained a toehold on Guadalcanal Island to protect the lifeline from America to Australia.

Question 38

Who was General Montgomery?

Answer 38

British commander in Northern Africa.

Question 39

What was the Battle of the Bulge?

Answer 39

A ten-day penetration of Axis forces halted after the 101st Airborne Division stood firm at Bastogne.

Question 40

What was Okinawa?

Answer 40

A well-defended Japanese island needed for closer bases to attack enemy cities and industries.

Question 41

What is 'White Flight'?

Answer 41

The movement to the green suburbs left the inner cities black, brown, and broke.

Question 42

What is NATO?

Answer 42

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization signed in April 1949 by the US and several other countries, pledging mutual defense.

Question 43

What was the Yalta Conference?

Answer 43

In February 1945, 'The Big Three' Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin called for a conference on world organization.

Question 44

What was the Cold War?

Answer 44

A tense standoff between communistic Russia and capitalistic America after WWII.

Question 45

What was the Loyalty Review Board?

Answer 45

Established by Truman in 1947 to review government employees in response to criticism of being soft on communism.

Question 46

Who were Julius and Ethel Rosenberg?

Answer 46

American citizens convicted of espionage for relaying atomic secrets to Russia, executed in 1953.

Question 47

What was the Fair Deal?

Answer 47

Truman's program outlined in 1949 calling for housing, full employment, higher minimum wage, and an extension of Social Security.

Question 48

What was the Police action in Korea?

Answer 48

Action taken by the United Nations in response to the outbreak in Korea, supported by the US.

Question 49

What are Satellite states?

Answer 49

Countries under Soviet control with their own limited form of government.

Question 50

What is the Iron Curtain?

Answer 50

Term for the countries possessed by the Soviets, separating the east from the west.

Question 51

What is Containment?

Answer 51

Washington's foreign policy of stopping communist aggressors.

Question 52

What are Suburbs?

Answer 52

Housing developments criticized for their monetary and cultural barrenness, providing inexpensive housing for families.

Question 53

What is the Baby boom?

Answer 53

The huge leap in the birthrate in the decade and a half after 1945.

Question 54

Who were the Big Three?

Answer 54

Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt.

Question 55

What is NSC-68?

Answer 55

A document recommending the US to quadruple its defense spending, established under the National Security Act.

Question 56

Who was Dean Acheson?

Answer 56

Secretary of State to President Truman, blamed for the loss of China.