module 12: America in the 1960s

Question 1

Which of the following statements most accurately describes the Kennedy administration’s attempts to prevent the Cuban Missile Crisis from igniting war with the Soviet Union?

Answer 1

President Kennedy ordered a naval quarantine to prevent Soviet ships from reaching Cuba, while his brother, Robert Kennedy, negotiated a peaceful resolution of the crisis with Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin.

Question 2

What was President Kennedy’s primary alternative to the Eisenhower administration’s Cold War deterrent of “mutually assured destruction” in the 1950s?

Answer 2

Kennedy followed Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara’s counsel of developing tactics for limited military engagements in developing nations, while also continuing Eisenhower’s expansion of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

Question 3

In a televised interview in 1963, President Kennedy said of South Vietnam’s struggle against North Vietnam, “In the final analysis, it is their war. …We can help them, we can give them equipment, we can send our men out there as advisors, but they have to win it, the people of Vietnam, against the communists.” Which of the following is a form of assistance that the Kennedy administration refused to offer South Vietnam?

Answer 3

preventing the removal of South Vietnam’s prime minister, Ngo Dinh Diem.

Question 4

Fidel Castro became the leader of the Cuban government after the overthrow of dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959. What was the primary reason that the U.S. government wanted to remove Castro from power?

Answer 4

Castro sought a friendly political and economic relationship with the Communist Soviet Union.

Question 5

The Cold War strategies of the Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations all followed a widely held belief that if one nation fell under the influence of Communism, the surrounding nations would also fall. This belief was called

Answer 5

the domino theory.

Question 6

what is the domino theory?

Answer 6

In the domino theory, the successful Communist takeover of one nation would result in the spread of Communism to neighboring nations – that is, nations would quickly fall like dominoes.

Question 7

In his inaugural address, John F. Kennedy told Americans, “[W]e stand today on the edge of a New Frontier…Beyond that frontier are the uncharted areas of science and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered pockets of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty and surplus…” Which of these “questions” did Kennedy feel unable to answer early in his presidency?

Answer 7

Ignorance and prejudice

Question 8

Which of the following statements most accurately summarizes the immediate outcome of the Cuban Missile Crisis?

Answer 8

Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles from Cuba if President Kennedy agreed not to invade Cuba again, and to remove U.S. missiles from Turkey.

Question 9

In the 1950s, Ho Chi Minh led the Viet Minh in a struggle to free Vietnam from French control. This was an example of

Answer 9

a nationalist independence movement.

Question 10

The Kennedy administration created new programs and initiatives to limit the Soviet Union’s global influence. Which of these initiatives or programs served the purposes of Kennedy’s “flexible response” strategy?

Answer 10

Green Berets

Question 11

What was the outcome of the Bay of Pigs invasion on April 17, 1961?

Answer 11

CIA-trained Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs without air support from the U.S. military. They were quickly killed or captured, and no national uprising followed the invasion.

Question 12

The Ku Klux Klan murdered three college students in Mississippi in response to what civil rights initiative in 1964?

Answer 12

Freedom Summer

Question 13

Which of the following statements most accurately describes the goal of the 1961 Freedom Rides?

Answer 13

To test whether the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling against segregation on buses and trains would be enforced in the South.

Question 14

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) launched peaceful protests in 186 southern cities in 1963. What SCLC tactic was illustrated when police turned fire hoses and dogs on peaceful demonstrators in Birmingham, Alabama?

Answer 14

Provoking hostile responses from White southerners

Question 15

The U.S. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1960 because segregation and discrimination might damage relationships with potential Cold War allies in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. What did this act do?

Answer 15

Allowed federal courts to appoint referees to make sure all qualified citizens could register to vote.

Question 16

Which of the following statements most accurately describes the similarities between the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), which Malcolm X founded in 1964, and the Black Panther Party, which Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded in 1966?

Answer 16

Both organizations identified the struggles of African Americans with those of non-White people in other countries.

Question 17

The 1965 Watts Riots in Los Angeles, California resulted in the deaths of thirty-four people and the destruction of thousands of businesses. Which of the following statements most accurately explains the factors behind more than three hundred similar riots which occurred in U.S. cities between 1964 and 1968?

Answer 17

Frustration in communities of color regarding poor housing, healthcare and job opportunities.

Question 18

Civil rights activist Ella Baker promoted grassroots campaigns to protest segregation in public accommodations, rather than waiting for leaders in the Civil Rights Movement to accomplish the same goals. Baker’s concept was called

Answer 18

“participatory democracy.”

Question 19

The Freedom Rides in 1961 sparked violent reprisals from segregationists in southern states. What sort of violence did the freedom riders encounter during the Alabama portion of their journey?

Answer 19

A bus was firebombed, and Ku Klux Klan members tried to intimidate the freedom riders at a bus station.

Question 20

President Lyndon B. Johnson used his skills as a former legislator to break a filibuster in the U.S. Senate, securing passage of legislation to end discrimination in schools, employment, public accommodations, and federally funded programs. What was this legislation called?

Answer 20

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Question 21

In contrast to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s philosophy of nonviolence, Malcolm X encouraged Black Americans to arm themselves for defensive purposes. How did the goals of Malcolm X also differ from those of King and other mainstream civil rights leaders?

Answer 21

Malcolm X advocated for Black separatism rather than a policy of racial integration.

Question 22

The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) was organized in 1964 in response to

Answer 22

efforts to disenfranchise Black voters by the Mississippi Democratic Party

Question 23

North Vietnam launched the Tet Offensive in 1968, brazenly attacking one hundred South Vietnamese cities until U.S. troops pushed them back. What effect did media coverage of the Tet Offensive have on public perception of the war?

Answer 23

Americans doubted the claims of Johnson and General William Westmoreland that the war could be won.

Question 24

The Economic Opportunity Act (EOA) of 1964 provided funding for employment and education programs in impoverished communities. One of the EOA programs, Community Action, promoted “maximum feasible participation” which meant

Answer 24

allowing recipients to administer the program.

Question 25

In his 1964 speech at the University of Michigan, President Johnson called for an end to poverty and racial injustice and challenged the college graduates to “enrich and elevate our national life, and to advance the quality of our American civilization.” Which Great Society programs were intended to “enrich and elevate” American life rather than to solve practical problems?

Answer 25

National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities

Question 26

Following reports of North Vietnamese attacks on two U.S. destroyers, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in August 1964, which authorized President Johnson to use military force in Vietnam without a congressional declaration of war. How did the resolution transform the U.S. role in Vietnam?

Answer 26

The U.S. changed from an advisor to a combatant.

Question 27

President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal was meant to ameliorate the effects of the Great Depression on all Americans in the 1930s. Which of the following statements most accurately describes the different rationale for President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society in the 1960s?

Answer 27

Inequality of opportunity in an otherwise prosperous economy.

Question 28

Since the 1960s, historians have associated the phrase “guns vs. butter” with the Johnson administration and the Vietnam War, although the concept can be traced back to the First World War. Why is the phrase closely identified with President Johnson?

Answer 28

Johnson’s escalation of the Vietnam War strained the federal government’s ability to fund his Great Society social programs.

Question 29

The Chicano Movement’s goals included improved working conditions for farm laborers and the restoration of lands lost in the Mexican-American War. Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales and other leaders of the movement framed these goals in the context of cultural nationalism in a document called the

Answer 29

Plan Espiritual de Aztlan

Question 30

Which of the following statements describes the major shortcoming of the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women, which explored ways in which federal legislation might address gender-based discrimination?

Answer 30

The commission focused on problems affecting White, middle-class women.

Question 31

Mario Savio, one of the student leaders of the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley, delivered a speech to fellow students in December 1964 in which he said, “There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part…and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels…and you’ve got to make it stop.” What issue did the Berkeley students hope to address through civil disobedience?

Answer 31

Restrictions on campus political activities

Question 32

In 1962, Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) – later called the United Farm Workers of America (UFWA) – to improve working conditions for California grape pickers. What did the three-year collective bargaining agreement between the UFWA and the grape industry in 1970 demonstrate?

Answer 32

The effectiveness of strikes and boycotts.

Question 33

The New Left movement – which attracted many disaffected college students in the 1960s – had some goals in common with the mainstream Democratic Party, despite the opposition that New Left groups such as SDS voiced for the party’s strident anti-communism and seemingly complacent liberalism. Which New Left goal was shared with the Democratic Party?

Answer 33

Working for civil rights and integration.

Question 34

Historical significance is most often assigned to an event or series of events that fit the criteria of Effect (N.A.M.E.) as well as Resulting in Change (“The Five R’s”). Based on your study of social turmoil in the 1960s, which of the following events most closely fits both criteria?

Answer 34

The Great Society

Question 35

what was the great society?

Answer 35

legislation and social programs which President Johnson pushed through the U.S. Congress – radically changed the constitutional relationship between citizens, states, and the federal government, replacing the Founders’ concept of “rights” as protected liberties into entitlements that the federal government bestowed. The Great Society affected many people by providing medical care for elderly citizens, funding for public schools, and reducing the number of citizens living below the poverty line. Although the Vietnam War drained funding for many Great Society programs, the legislation remains in place and continues to affect American lives in the 21st century.