Cold War Responses
This U.S. policy aimed to stop the spread of communism by providing political, military, and economic assistance to threatened nations after World War II.
What is Containment?
This 1944 law provided returning WWII veterans with low-cost mortgages, tuition help, and other benefits that expanded higher education and home ownership.
What is The G.I. Bill (Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944)?
The 1957 Soviet launch that spurred U.S. investment in science and education — what was it called?
What is Sputnik?
This 1963 speech by Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington, D.C., contains the famous line “I have a dream.”
What is “I Have a Dream” (Martin Luther King Jr.)?
The economic policy of reduced taxes, deregulation, and increased defense spending primarily associated with the 1980s presidency of whom?
Who was Ronald Reagan (Reaganomics)?
Name President Truman’s program that provided massive economic aid to rebuild European economies after WWII.
What is the Marshall Plan?
OR
What is the Truman Doctrine?
Truman took this civil rights action in 1948 that changed the armed forces and set a federal example against segregation.
What is Executive Order 9981 (desegregation of the armed forces)?
The televised 1960 presidential debates helped this candidate’s image and are often cited as an early example of TV’s influence on elections; name the candidate who benefited most.
Who was John F. Kennedy?
The 1963 letter written from jail by Martin Luther King Jr. defending nonviolent protest is commonly called what?
What is “Letter from Birmingham Jail”?
The terrorist attacks that shaped U.S. foreign policy and led to the global “war on terror” occurred on what date?
What was September 11, 2001?
The 1950–1953 conflict on the Korean Peninsula that tested U.S. containment policy involved which two main opposing blocs or countries?
What is North Korea (with Chinese and Soviet support) vs. South Korea (with U.S. and UN support)?
Senator Joseph McCarthy led a campaign in the early 1950s that accused many Americans of being communists; what is the term commonly used for this anti-communist crusade?
What is McCarthyism?
This 1969 event, widely broadcast on television, was a milestone for U.S. technological achievement and national pride.
What is The Apollo 11 moon landing (Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on July 20, 1969)?
Name one major labor or farm-worker leader who organized migrant workers and helped found the United Farm Workers movement.
Who was Cesar Chavez?
Name the 1990s U.S. president who was impeached by the House of Representatives but acquitted by the Senate.
Who was Bill Clinton?
This 1964 congressional resolution gave President Johnson expanded authority to use military force in Vietnam after alleged attacks on U.S. ships.
What is The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution?
This 1956 federal law transformed U.S. transportation and defense logistics by authorizing the construction of a nationwide highway system.
What is The National Interstate and Defense Highways Act (Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956)?
Name one major long-term educational or technological policy or institution the U.S. strengthened in direct response to Sputnik.
What is the National Defense Education Act (NDEA)
OR
accelerated space program funding (NASA).
Identify one tactic (with a brief description) commonly used by civil rights organizations during the 1950s and 1960s to press for change.
What is nonviolent direct action such as sit-ins, marches, boycotts, and freedom rides to provoke change, attract national attention, and pressure officials.
Identify one major foreign-policy event or achievement from the Carter administration (1977–1981).
Camp David Accords (peace between Egypt and Israel) — other acceptable answers: U.S. response to the Iranian Revolution/hostage crisis, Panama invasion, SALT agreements context.
President Nixon’s major Cold War diplomatic breakthrough that opened official relations and eased tensions with a large communist nation in 1972.
What is Nixon’s opening to China / 1972 visit to the People’s Republic of China?
The Supreme Court decision in 1954 that declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional.
What is Brown vs. Board of Education?
Explain briefly how nightly TV news coverage impacted U.S. public opinion about the Vietnam War (two or three sentences).
Sample answer: Television brought graphic, regular reporting of battlefield images and civilian casualties into American living rooms, which increased public skepticism about the war and put pressure on policymakers and troop withdrawal.
Describe the major social and political events of 1968 that increased turmoil in the U.S. (two or three bullet points).
Sample points: Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. (April 1968) and Robert F. Kennedy (June 1968); the Tet Offensive in Vietnam (January 1968) increasing antiwar sentiment; the chaotic 1968 presidential election and widespread protests.
Explain briefly why the 2008 presidential election was historically significant (one to two sentences).
Barack Obama’s election was historically significant because he became the first African American elected president of the United States.