CHAPTER REVIEW
Rapid Review Guide
To achieve the perfect 5, you should be able to explain the following:
• Winning the Cold War was the central goal of American policy for 45 years.
• The economic impact of the Cold War on American industry was enormous; many plants continued making military hardware throughout the Cold War era.
• The debate over who “started” the Cold War has occupied the minds of historians since 1945.
• Decisions made at the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences ushered in Cold War tensions between the World War II victors.
• The concept of the “iron curtain” was first articulated by Winston Churchill in 1946.
• The American strategy of containment motivated many foreign policy decisions in the Cold War era.
• The Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, and NATO united America and Western Europe both militarily and economically against the Soviet Union and its satellites.
• America’s resolve to oppose communism was tested during the Berlin Crisis and the Korean War.
• 1949 was a critical year in the Cold War, as the Soviet Union got the atomic bomb and mainland China turned communist.
• Some Americans feared that communists had infiltrated the American government and the entertainment industry; investigations by the House Un-American Activities Committee and Senator Joseph McCarthy were dedicated to “rooting out” communists in America.
• Under President Dwight Eisenhower, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles formulated an aggressive foreign policy that would not just contain communism by also attempt to roll communism back whenever possible.
• During the Eisenhower administration, crises in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America further tested American resolve.
• Both the Soviet Union and the United States built up their nuclear arsenals to dangerous levels in this era.
Time Line
1945: Yalta Conference
Harry Truman becomes president
Potsdam Conference
1946: Winston Churchill gives “Iron Curtain” speech
Article by George Kennan on containment
1947: HUAC begins probe into movie industry
Introduction of Federal Employee Loyalty program
President Truman articulates Truman Doctrine
1948: Berlin Airlift
Implementation of Marshall Plan
Creation of nation of Israel
Alger Hiss implicated as a communist
1949: NATO established
Soviet Union successfully tests atomic bomb
Mainland China turns communist
1950: Joseph McCarthy gives speech on communists in the State Department
Alger Hiss convicted of perjury
McCarran Internal Security Act enacted
Beginning of Korean War
1952: Dwight Eisenhower elected president
1953: CIA orchestrates return of Shah of Iran to power
Death of Joseph Stalin
Execution of the Rosenbergs
1954: Army-McCarthy hearings
Government in Guatemala overthrown
French defeated at Dien Bien Phu
Geneva Conference
1955: Creation of the Warsaw Pact
1956: Hungarian Revolt suppressed by Soviet Union
Suez crisis
1957: Sputnik launched by Soviet Union
1959: Castro comes to power in Cuba; United States halts trade with Cuba
1960: U-2 Incident
John Kennedy elected president
Review Questions
1. The Army -McCarthy hearings proved
A. that a number of communists were serving in the United States Army
B. that Americans were largely uninterested in the issue of communism
C. that Eisenhower would support McCarthy at any cost
D. that McCarthy had little proof for his claims
E. the massive popularity of Joseph McCarthy
(Correct Answer: D. The hearings did much to discredit McCarthy. By this point Eisenhower had broken from McCarthy, and many Americans watched these hearing from beginning to end.)
2. The policy of containment stated that
A. it would be possible for the United States and the Soviet Union to coexist over a long period of time
B. America should go out and attempt to dislodge communist leaders where ever possible
C. America should hold firm against communist encroachment in all parts of the world
D. America should not hesitate to use atomic weapons against the Soviet Union
E. the United States should depend on its Western European allies for help against the Soviet Union
(Correct Answer: C. Containment emphasized stopping communism whenever it attempted to expand; containment did not emphasize attacking communism where it already existed.)
3. America was especially interested in stopping communist expansion in Latin America because
A. the United States had many economic interests in the region
B. both Presidents Truman and Eisenhower were close to many of the Latin American leaders
C. the Soviet Union expressed a special interest in expanding in this region
D. the CIA had repeatedly failed in operations in Latin America in the past
E. political leaders were attempting to gain support from voters of Hispanic origin in the United States
(Correct Answer: A. The United States had factories in and active trade relationships with many Latin American countries, and feared that communism would destroy American economic interests in the region. The CIA had actually been quite successful in their operations in the region in the past—witness their role in Guatemala.)
4. When HUAC began their investigation of the movie industry they looked with suspicion at writers, actors, and directors who
A. attended Communist party meetings in the 1930s
B. wrote or appeared in movies that were critical of the “American way of life”
C. wrote or appeared in World War II-era films that were sympathetic to the Soviet Union
D. invoked the Fifth Amendment when testifying before HUAC
E. All of the above
(Correct Answer: E. As a result of the HUAC hearings, the American movie industry changed dramatically.)
5. Republicans claimed that the Democrats were “soft on communism” for all of the following reasons except
À. during the Truman administration mainland China had gone communist
B. Alger Hiss was an advisor to Franklin Roosevelt at Yalta
C. the Truman administration failed to establish a system to check on the possibility of communists working for the federal government
D. decisions made by Roosevelt and Truman at the end of World War II made it easier for the Soviet Union to control Eastern Europe
E. there were perceived communists in the State Department during the Truman administration
(Correct Answer: C. All of the other four were used by Republicans to say that the Democrats were indeed “soft on communism.” Truman instituted a Loyalty Review Board to verify that nearly 4 million federal workers were “true Americans.”)