Deck 28: Liberalism, Civil Rights, and War in Vietnam, 1960-1975

Question 1

Which of the following captures the approach of the Kennedy administration to the issue of civil rights?

A) reduced support for civil-rights litigation by the Justice Department.
B) accepted racial discrimination in federally financed housing.
C) was reluctant to take a firm stand and to introduce civil-rights legislation.
D) encouraged the Black Power movement and the Nation of Islam.
E) All of these choices

Answer 1

was reluctant to take a firm stand and to introduce civil-rights legislation.

Question 2

Which of the following is not true about John F. Kennedy?

A) He had compiled an impressive record of achievement during his years in Congress and had sponsored much notable reform legislation.
B) He had won a Pulitzer Prize for a book that had been written primarily by one of his staff members.
C) He was esteemed as a war hero and projected an image of vigor and rugged good looks.
D) He was the first Roman Catholic to become president of the United States.
E) While president he used mood-altering drugs to alleviate pain and engaged in extramarital affairs.

Answer 2

He had compiled an impressive record of achievement during his years in Congress and had sponsored much notable reform legislation.

Question 3

Where did the most serious conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Kennedy administration occur?

A) Berlin.
B) Cuba.
C) Vietnam.
D) Hungary.
E) Turkey.

Answer 3

Cuba.

Question 4

Who was accused of assassinating John F. Kennedy?

A) William Miller
B) Medgar Evers
C) Lee Harvey Oswald
D) Jack Ruby
E) Malcolm Little

Question 5

Which of the following was not one of the programs enacted during the Johnson administration?

A) VISTA
B) Project Head Start
C) Job Corps
D) Social Security
E) Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Question 6

What was the Kennedy administration's policy toward Vietnam?

A) sent some 16,000 military advisers to South Vietnam and attempted to move South Vietnamese peasants into fortified villages to isolate the Vietcong.
B) ordered American troops to protect Premier Ngo Dinh Diem from an expected military coup.
C) withdrew American troops and negotiated with the Soviet Union to install a neutral premier.
D) placed an embargo of the South to force Premier Ngo Dinh Diem to deliver on his promise of land reform.
E) initiated a major bombing campaign of North Vietnam.

Question 7

What was America's initial involvement in Vietnam?

A) provided aid to the nationalist coalition, the Vietminh.
B) furnished aid to the French, who were trying to re-conquer their former colony.
C) committed American troops to assist the French.
D) offered to use atomic weapons to assist the French.
E) pressured the French to grant Vietnam its independence.

Question 8

The purpose of the Medicare program was to provide health insurance for

A) the elderly.
B) the poor.
C) all Americans.
D) America's veterans.
E) illegal immigrants.

Question 9

Which of the following accurately describes Lyndon Johnson's policy on civil rights?

A) adopted a cautious "wait and see" attitude that betrayed fear of upsetting his southern constituents.
B) emphasized on increased educational opportunities for African-Americans, but failure to address immediate economic concerns.
C) won passage of a sweeping civil-rights law that granted the federal government new powers to fight segregation.
D) delivered strong speeches but failed to produce significant legislation because of a continuing southern filibuster.
E) frequent used federal troops and lavish government spending.

Question 10

What did the 1965 Immigration Act do?

A) established immigration limits based on nationality.
B) allowed for unlimited immigration to this country.
C) abolished the national origins quotas of the 1920s.
D) outlawed immigration unless you had a family member already living in the United States.
E) appropriated money to build a fence between the United States and Mexico.

Question 11

When assumed the office, President Kennedy's top domestic priority was

A) pass social legislation to benefit African-Americans and women.
B) encourage economic growth through defense spending and incentives to private enterprise.
C) control runaway inflation.
D) overcome the threat from environmental pollution.
E) cut taxes and downsize the government.

Question 12

During the Cuban missile crisis, the United States

A) instituted a quarantine of Cuba.
B) attempted to avoid a military confrontation with the Soviet Union at all costs.
C) decided to invade Cuba if the missiles were not withdrawn within 72 hours.
D) recognized the right of the Castro government to possess any weapons it wanted
E) traded medical supplies to Cuba in return for the removal of the missiles.

Question 13

Who ran against Lyndon Johnson for president in the 1964 election?

A) Richard Nixon
B) Barry Goldwater
C) Hubert Humphrey
D) Eugene McCarthy
E) George McGovern

Question 14

Why did the Kennedy administration have such a poor record of legislative accomplishments?

A) members of the administration had no program for reform.
B) the threat of communism abroad forced the president to turn from domestic affairs and concentrate on foreign affairs.
C) the administration had received a weak electoral mandate, was more committed to foreign affairs, and lacked the votes in Congress.
D) an economic recession required that the federal government reduce its expenditures, so the administration refrained from proposing new programs.
E) Kennedy was assassinated before he had a chance to propose any programs.

Question 15

Which of the following was not one of the programs of the Kennedy administration?

A) social legislation to fight poverty and finance medical care for the elderly
B) a massive arms buildup
C) a huge cut in corporate taxes to stimulate the economy.
D) a crash program to put an American on the moon
E) The establishment of the Peace Corps

Question 16

What did the results of the 1960 presidential election reveal?

A) A widespread desire all around the country for change.
B) The growing influence of "yellow journalism."
C) Lingering fears about a Catholic president.
D) A middle-class white backlash.
E) The enduring popularity of Harry Truman.

Question 17

In the 1960 presidential election, what advantages did Richard M. Nixon have over John F. Kennedy?

A) He was not tied to the crises and scandals of the Eisenhower administration.
B) He was Protestant and had a great deal of experience.
C) He was known for his poise and dynamism.
D) He had a lot of experience in front of television cameras.
E) He was respected by liberals for his opposition to McCarthyism in the early 1950s.

Question 18

How did Martin Luther King, Jr. use Eugene "Bull" Conner to garner attention for the black civil rights movement in 1963?

A) He hired Conner as a public relations adviser to gain the support of northern whites.
B) He ordered a march on Birmingham, AL knowing that Conner would react violently.
C) He asked Conner to organize the march on D.C. in August.
D) He persuaded Conner to become the first southern leader to support the desegregation of schools.
E) He encouraged Conner to lobby President Kennedy concerning new civil rights legislation

Question 19

What was the result of the 1964 presidential election?

A) Lyndon Johnson won a landslide in the popular vote while the GOP carried only Arizona and five Deep South states.
B) The GOP nearly defeated Lyndon Johnson, who had alienated northerners because he was a southerner and southerners because he was too liberal.
C) The GOP successfully branded Johnson as an irresponsible liberal whose reelection would lead to depression and war in Vietnam.
D) Lyndon Johnson won a sweeping electoral victory but was unable to help the Democratic party make gains in either the Senate or the House of Representatives.
E) Third-party candidate George Wallace siphoned enough votes from both major-party candidates to throw the election into the House of Representatives, which, because it was controlled by the Democrats, voted for Lyndon Johnson.

Question 20

Which of the following statements correctly describes Kennedy's policies toward the Soviet Union in 1963?

A) developed new nuclear weapons.
B) compromised on Berlin and in the conflict over Vietnam.
C) established a direct "hot line" between the two countries and agreed to a nuclear test-ban treaty.
D) invited Nikita Khrushchev to a summit meeting in Washington.
E) announced a reduction in the size of the American nuclear triad.

Question 21

The Gulf of Tonkin resolution

A) advocated the use of nuclear weapons against North Vietnam if that government did not accede to American demands.
B) authorized the president to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against American forces and to prevent further aggression in Vietnam.
C) condemned the U.S. involvement in Vietnam and demanded that American troops be withdrawn immediately.
D) demanded that Chinese troops be withdrawn to the Tonkin region before negotiations could begin.
E) constituted a congressional explanation to the American people of the Johnson administration's immediate and long-term foreign policy goals in Southeast Asia.

Question 22

The Bay of Pigs incident was the failed attempt by CIA-supported rebels to overthrow

A) Saddam Hussein.
B) Nikita Khrushchev.
C) Sigmun Rhea.
D) Mao Zedong.
E) Fidel Castro.

Question 23

When Eisenhower used the phrase the "domino theory," what did he mean?

A) He wanted America diplomats to understand the importance in playing dominos with their counterparts in the Soviet Union.
B) He was referring to his fear that if one country fell to communism that country's neighbors would ultimately also fall to communism.
C) He was comparing the fall of European countries to Hitler because of appeasement.
D) He meant that United States had to correct its own problems or they would create more.
E) He was arguing that the United States had to be the dominant domino in the world.

Question 24

Who was largely responsible for kindling the ethnic pride and solidarity of Mexican-Americans in the 1960s?

A) Carmen Miranda
B) César Chávez
C) Martin Luther King, Jr.
D) Mario Savio
E) Aileen Hernandez

Question 25

President Johnson's vision of a Great Society was a society where

A) poverty and racial injustice would be eliminated, and economic opportunity would be available for all.
B) inequalities between social classes could be eliminated by government wealth-redistribution schemes.
C) individuals and corporations could work as partners to eliminate poverty without the need for elaborate government-sponsored social-welfare programs.
D) independent farmers and small shop owners would once again form the backbone of a free and democratic citizenry in the Jeffersonian mold.
E) whites would dominate all of other races and ethnic groups.

Question 26

In the 1950s and 1960s what did the Warren Court do?

A) It issued a string of decisions declaring unconstitutional most of the liberal Great Society programs of the Johnson administration.
B) It refused to decide on any of the major social or political issues of the day.
C) It was responsible for a series of liberal decisions enraged more conservative Americans.
D) It began to lobby openly for a more vigorous American military policy in Vietnam.
E) It acted beyond the powers of the Constitution and saw several of its members impeached.

Question 27

By 1964 what had become the major thrust of the majority of African-American activists?

A) The prohibition of segregation on professional sports teams
B) Voter-registration drives in southern states
C) Encouragement of economic opportunity for African-Americans by making Small Business Administration loans available for minority-owned companies
D) Encouragement of the development of a separate and distinct sense of African culture and heritage among African-Americans
E) Revolution and violence

Question 28

What were the recommendations the Kerner Commission?

A) strengthening of local police forces to ensure that law and order could be maintained in the nation's cities.
B) increases in federal expenditures to assist urban African-Americans.
C) financing a system of medical care for the elderly.
D) a 20 percent increase in the defense budget, a five-fold increase in the purchase of intercontinental ballistic missiles, and the building of nuclear submarines armed with Polaris missiles.
E) more jails, larger police forces, and a reinstitution of the death penalty.

Question 29

What was the purpose of Operation Rolling Thunder?

A) It was designed to eliminate 50% of the poverty in the United States by 1970.
B) It was designed to use aerial bombardments to force the North Vietnamese to negotiate and stop the flow of soldiers and supplies on the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
C) It was designed to increase literacy in the United States by 20% in the 1960s.
D) It was designed to reduce racial tensions by rebuilding the worst urban slums.
E) It was designed to force the Soviet Union to withdraw its forces from Eastern Europe.

Question 30

Which of the following was an explanation offered for the destructive race riots that swept American cities between 1964 and 1968?

A) they were revolutionary violence to overthrow a racist, reactionary society.
B) they were evidence of a communist plot to subvert the United States.
C) they were senseless outbursts by troublemakers.
D) they were the product of white racism, poverty, slum housing, poor education, and police brutality.
E) all of these choices

Question 31

Which of the following was not one of the decisions of the Warren court?

A) Bible reading and prayer were not permissible in public schools.
B) States could not ban the use of contraceptives.
C) Communities' power to censor books and films was limited.
D) Police had to advise a suspect of his or her constitutional right to remain silent.
E) The Constitution protected a woman's right to an abortion.

Question 32

In Miranda v. Arizona, the Supreme Court declared that

A) police had to advise a suspect of his or her constitutional right to remain silent.
B) state laws prohibiting marriage between persons of different races were unconstitutional.
C) the federal courts possessed jurisdiction over state apportionment systems to ensure that the votes of all citizens carry equal weight.
D) states could not establish racially segregated schools even if the schools were supposed to have equal facilities.
E) states could not ban the use of contraceptives.

Question 33

Which of the following did Malcolm X not advocate before 1964?

A) African-Americans should separate themselves from whites.
B) African-Americans should be proud of their blackness.
C) African-Americans should rely on nonviolence.
D) African-Americans should celebrate their African roots.
E) African-Americans should control their own destinies.

Question 34

In January 1968, how did typical Americans feel about continued United States involvement in the war in Vietnam?

A) that the war was immoral and that the United States should withdraw immediately.
B) that the government should be conducting the war more vigorously and should commit more American ground troops.
C) generally supportive or ambivalent, wanting to get out but not wanting to give up.
D) in favor of the use of tactical nuclear weapons so that the U.S. could win without endangering American soldiers.
E) unconcerned, because the economy was good and Vietnam was far away.

Question 35

Which of the following was not part of President Richard Nixon's strategy in Southeast Asia?

A) He escalated American bombing of North Vietnam.
B) He ordered massive increases in American ground forces to invade North Vietnam.
C) He replaced American troops with South Vietnamese forces.
D) He opened secret direct negotiations with North Vietnam's foreign minister, Le Duc Tho.
E) He widened the war by invading Cambodia.

Question 36

Which of the following was not a reason why Ngo Dinh Diem, the president of South Vietnam and ally of the United States, lacked popular support in his country?

A) there was widespread corruption in his government.
B) he refused to institute land reform for the peasants.
C) his Buddhism alienated the predominantly Catholic population.
D) he was an autocrat who saw himself as the mediator between the people and heaven.
E) he refused to hold the promised elections to unify North and South Vietnam.

Question 37

In the 1960s many Native Americans began to demand that the federal government

A) take action to redress long-standing discrimination and poverty.
B) provide public-works projects to improve the reservations.
C) end the practice of keeping them on reservations.
D) allow them to leave the United States and establish a new homeland on a South Pacific island.
E) convert Alcatraz Island to a Native American cultural center.

Question 38

What policy did Lyndon Johnson follow with regard to American involvement in Vietnam?

A) He followed an attrition strategy to try to force the communist to the peace table.
B) He rapidly increased the number of American ground troops in South Vietnam for a massive invasion of North Vietnam
C) He gradually withdrew American forces while asking for United Nations mediation.
D) He pulled American forces out immediately and declared that the United States had achieved its goals.
E) It did nothing until free elections could be held in South Vietnam.

Question 39

The 1964 Civil Rights Act

A) established affirmative action programs.
B) guaranteed the right to vote of all Americans regardless of race.
C) outlawed segregation in public accommodations.
D) prohibited discrimination in education.
E) established voting commissions to supervise elections.

Question 40

Between 1964 and 1968, how did some urban African-Americans around the country express their reaction to progress in civil-rights?

A) They looted, rioted, and destroyed white property.
B) They launched the most vigorous voter-registration drive in American history.
C) They organized a series of mass demonstrations and marches that paralyzed city affairs for days at a time.
D) They staged sit-ins at banks in order to get more loans for African-American-run businesses.
E) They voted in record numbers for Democratic candidates.

Question 41

What was the result of President Nixon's policy of increased heavy bombing of North Vietnam in December 1972?

A) It caused the People's Republic of China to send a large army to North Vietnam to fight the United States.
B) It destroyed all chance of a negotiated peace because Le Duc Tho walked out of the Paris peace talks in protest.
C) It caused the North Vietnamese to release their supplies of nerve gas and anthrax.
D) It broke the deadlock in the peace talks and got the North Vietnamese to agree to terms.
E) It brought Nixon close to defeat in his bid for reelection in 1972.

Question 42

Lieut. William Calley became a public figure in the late years of the U.S. war in Vietnam War because he

A) assassinated Ngo Dinh Diem.
B) attempted to kill General William Westmoreland.
C) raped 15 Vietnamese women.
D) distributed heroin to American soldiers.
E) led a group of American soldiers who massacred Vietnamese villagers.

Question 43

Which of the following statements does not accurately describe conditions in the American army in Vietnam by 1969?

A) morale had plummeted and drug use had soared.
B) racial conflict among American soldiers had increased.
C) killing of officers by enlisted men had become more common.
D) troop strength had risen to about 700,000.
E) American soldiers mutinied against their commanders.

Question 44

What was the purpose of the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Project?

A) protest the escalation of the Vietnam War.
B) help and encourage African-Americans to become registered voters.
C) force the Interstate Commerce Commission to declare segregated transportation facilities unconstitutional.
D) persuade the state legislature to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.
E) convince southern blacks to join the military.

Question 45

How was war avoided in the Cuban missile crisis?

A) The United States agreed to remove its missiles from Europe in exchange for the Soviets' taking their missiles out of Cuba.
B) Kennedy agreed to remove Western troops from East Berlin in exchange for Khrushchev's order to dismantle Soviet missiles in Cuba.
C) The United States agreed to stop its bombing of North Vietnam in exchange for the Soviets' removal of missiles with nuclear warheads from Cuba.
D) Khrushchev agreed to remove Soviet missiles from Cuba in exchange for Kennedy's pledge not to invade that country.
E) Kennedy ended the embargo of Cuba, and Khrushchev transferred its missiles to China.

Question 46

What did the Nixon Doctrine state?

A) United States would help to defend, by military means if necessary, the territorial integrity of any nation threatened by communism.
B) United States would use force, if necessary, to ensure that Latin American nations elected honest, pro-American governments.
C) United States would provide financial and moral support to nations facing communist subversion, but such nations would have to defend themselves.
D) United States would work to support human rights around the globe.
E) United States would support free trade and capitalism throughout the globe.

Question 47

What was Eugene McCarthy's main issue during his challenge to Lyndon Johnson for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination?

A) presence of communists in the State Department
B) war in Vietnam
C) war on poverty
D) an appeal to the "silent majority" of Americans
E) the white backlash

Question 48

What was a result of the Tet offensive?

A) American military leaders came to realize that United States forces could never repulse a massive Vietcong offensive, much less regain captured territory.
B) the nation experienced a resurgence of support for the war effort.
C) many Americans came to realize that no area of South Vietnam was secure from enemy attack.
D) Lyndon Johnson trounced Eugene McCarthy in the New Hampshire primary.
E) Barry Goldwater reentered politics to run for the Republican nomination for president.