1302 Topic 10: Atomic Age and the Cold War

Topic 10 - Atomic Age and the Cold War

Quiz:

From Mintz readings

1. What did the term 'cold war' mean?
A. War fought only in the winter
B. War that didn't involve nuclear detonation
C. War that didn't have direct confrontations between the U.S. and Soviet Union
D. War that had direct confrontations between the U.S. and Soviet Union

2. The policy of containment was designed to
A. stop the spread of Soviet communism.
B. keep the Soviet Union from exporting oil for profit.
C. make it difficult for the Soviet Union to trade with the west.
D. keep Soviet immigrants out of the U.S.

3. Why was the Communist Revolution in China such a worry to the U.S.?
A. It was a blow to trade, which could cost billions.
B. It signaled the spread of communism, which was seen as a devastating blow.
C. It meant that all political contact with China would cease.
D. It was a sign that the youth movement in China had collapsed.

4. Why did the U.S. enter the Korean War?
A. It appeared that the Koreans couldn't run their own government.
B. The Chinese were poised to take over the entire peninsula.
C. When communist North Korea invaded the democratic South Korea, it appeared that communism was spreading again.
D. The U.S. wanted to have a hand in the oil trade coming out of Korea.

5. What was the 'big picture' concept illustrated by the Korean War?
A. The U.S. was willing to act on the concept of containment.
B. The U.S. was willing to fight anywhere for better oil prices.
C. The U.S. didn't want to commit full force capability to just any war.
D. The U.S. government wanted to help other countries industrialize.

6. Why does the author say fighting a 'limited war' is so difficult?
A. Spending a limited amount of time in a war creates artificial deadlines, which are hard to meet.
B. Sending a limited amount of soldiers makes is certain that a longer time will be spent fighting the war.
C. Fighting for limited objectives makes it hard to explain the reason for the war, creating problems on the homefront, and escalation could invite intervention by other countries.
D. Calling it a limited war sends the wrong message to the enemy.

7. How did Joseph Stalin's death change the Soviet Union?
A. He was officially mourned for six months, during which time, Soviet global trade came to a halt.
B. His successors gradually eased economic and political controls which inspired Eastern Europeans to demand more freedoms.
C. His successors employed even more draconian political changes, which crushed all demands for change.
D. The Soviet Army was underfunded for a number of years, allowing the U.S. to become the world's sole superpower.

8. What inspired the Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba?
A. The increased support of Cuba by the Soviet Union, which sparked worry about communism spreading in this hemisphere.
B. Worries that too many Cuban immigrants were coming to the U.S. in unsafe boats.
C. Rumors that Fidel Castro was planning an invasion of Florida with Soviet backing.
D. Concern that sugar prices would skyrocket.

9. The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the U.S. and Soviet Union came to a possible nuclear war. After the initial crisis:
A. both sides agreed to destroying all their nuclear stockpiles.
B. Cubans immediately began immigrating to the U.S. by the thousands.
C. relations between the U.S. and Soviet Union warmed somewhat, communications improved and treaties were signed.
D. both sides immediately began building more and more nuclear weapons, just in case a situation like this happened again.

10. What was the key reason that the U.S. became involved in turmoil in Vietnam?
A. The U.S. wanted to increase trade with Vietnam.
B. The U.S. was employing the containment theory.
C. Many political leaders saw it as a plus for their reelection campaigns.
D. It was seen as a way to boost the economy in the U.S.

11. What were the reasons Lyndon B. Johnson had for escalating U.S. presence in Vietnam?
A. He didn't want to appear weak.
B. U.S. ships were reported to have come under fire in the Gulf of Tonkin.
C. He believed it could be won without expanding to an all-out military effort.
D. All of the above

12. What was the tipping point for LBJ's strategy in Vietnam?
A. renewed bombing campaigns in the north
B. improved tunnel systems throughout the south
C. the Tet Offensive
D. sending the national guard in to prop up troop strength

13. What was the 'New Left'?
A. a group of Democrats who wanted to change the way the war was being waged
B. actors in California who wanted to get involved in politics
C. college students who wanted to change the way people participated in the U.S. political system
D. people in government who didn't think the war was going well.

14. According to Mintz, why did the counterculture end up falling apart?
A. When too many counterculture candidates lost their elections, everyone lost interest.
B. There wasn't enough public support for their causes.
C. The movement ended up collapsing under its own excesses.
D. Too many young people were panhandling in cities, causing police crackdowns and public emnity.

15. What were some of the long-term costs of the Vietnam War?
A. People became more suspicious of the government
B. The Democratic party was severely weakened by a split in opinion about the war
C. Social spending was reduced and liberal reforms withered away
D. All of the above

A: The possibility of a nuclear attack on the United States was a very real one to people in the early years of the Cold War. This worry inspired people to build nuclear fallout shelters (click on the first document available, "Pamphlet entitled "Facts About Fallout" ") in their backyards or basements. It also inspired a flurry of public service announcements about civil defense and what to do in case of nuclear attack both on the airwaves of the new medium of television, the radio, films and recordings. Listen to the recordings, and using your own knowledge and research you find on the web about the effects of a nuclear blast, write a 100-word essay on why the announcements were useful and factual, or why they were not.

CONELRAD was a national Emergency Broadcasting System outlet available during the early Cold War, and now is a website "devoted to atomic culture, past and present..."

B: Levittown: Documents of an Ideal American Suburb chronicles the early history of a post-World War Two suburban town. One reason that suburbia flourished after World War II was the legisaltion signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in June of 1944 (shortly after D-Day) entitled the "Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944," better known as the "GI Bill of Rights." The first GI Bill provided six benefits to returning servicemen:

It was the second provision of the GI Bill that encouraged former soldiers to go out into the Crabgrass Frontier and "rough it." What our the legacies of this suburban development? How did the American Dream play a role in the flight to the suburbs? What were some of the positive and negative ramifications in suburbia's growth? (Lyricist Malvina Reynolds was less enamored with the suburbs when she wrote Little Boxes. This is the song used to open the Showtime series, Weeds.) How did the growth of suburbia occur in San Antonio? In what directions do those "burbs" continue today? Why?

C: View the 1964 film Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb. This Cold War satire- one of Hollywood's darkest comedies ever made- forced its audience to re-examine their own political ideological biases. (It's a film where you laugh and then think hey wait that's not funny.) Stanley Kubrick directed Dr. Strangelove to not only make money but to have Americans realize that there are no winners in a nuclear holocaust. (Read the historical background to the film.)

In 1948, cartoonist Rube Goldberg drew Peace Today, which later won a Pulitzer prize. (Scroll down in the small window on the left to see the image and enlarge it.) How does Goldberg's cartoon and Dr. Strangelove confront the issue of having the bomb? Research three websites on dealing with a nuclear war. Who created these websites? What are the conclusions you draw from each web author's intent? How valid are the web authors' arguments?

D: Gender roles in the 1950s were very well defined, and examples were everywhere, from television programs to magazine advertisements. Read about how the cult of domesticity was reinforced in women's magazines during that era on this site featuring British ads directed toward women in the '50s, which feature strikingly similar themes as American ads from the same era. Compare some advertisements targeted toward women you see on television or in print today and describe how they're different? Do you think there were many 'quick-meal' ads in the '50s? Why or why not? Another window to the lives of women in the 1950s can be found on this site from University of Maryland. What do the fashions that became popular in the 1950s indicate about what women were supposed to aspire to? Why do we wear what we do in everyday life? What does our outward appearance say about us as individuals?

E: The anti-communist hysteria in the U.S. peaked with the rise of Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy, but didn't end there. In Hollywood, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was busy investigating the communist connection in the entertainment industry. Read Hollywood Blacklist,
by Dan Georgakas which appeared in the Encyclopedia of the American Left, Buhle, Buhle, and Georgakas, ed., (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992). Why were members of the entertainment community being targeted in these hearings? What were the legislators conducting these hearings worried about? Is is popular (or easy) now to speak out against the government for entertainers? What are some of the ramifications of doing so? Provide two specific examples of recent cases of entertainers speaking out and tell what happened to them.