APUSH Cold War

excerpt from NSC 68, published in 1950:

“The Kremlin regards the United States as the only major threat to the conflict between idea of slavery under the grim oligarchy of the Kremlin, which has come to a crisis with the polarization of power described in Section I, and the exclusive possession of atomic weapons by the two protagonists. The idea of freedom, moreover, is peculiarly and intolerably subversive of the idea of slavery. But the converse is not true. The implacable purpose of the slave state to eliminate the challenge of freedom has placed the two great powers at opposite poles. It is this fact which gives the present polarization of power the quality of crisis.”

What stance did the US take towards the USSR during the Cold War?

• The US decided to launch a direct invasion of the USSR to destroy communism once and for all.

• The US used political, diplomatic, and economic tools to try and contain the USSR.

• The US did nothing because we were shocked by the carnage of World War II and reverted to isolationism.

• The US sent money and technology directly to Soviet citizens to convince them communism was inferior.

The policy of containment, justified by George Kennan’s 1947 analysis of the international situation, called for

• blocking the expansion of the Soviet Union’s influence

• curbing United States foreign investment to limit involvement in world conflict

• liberating Eastern Europe form communism

• dividing Germany into zones administered by the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union

“A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allied victory. Nobody knows what Soviet Russia and its Communist international organization intends to do in the immediate future, or what are the limits, if any, to their expansive and proselytizing tendencies. . . . It is my duty . . . to place before you certain facts about the present position in Europe.

“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow. Athens alone—Greece with its immortal glories —is free to decide its future at an election under British, American, and French observation. . . . The Communist parties, which were very small in all these Eastern States of Europe, have been raised to preeminence and power far beyond their numbers and are seeking everywhere to obtain totalitarian control.”

Former British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, speaking at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, “Sinews of Peace,” (better known as the “Iron Curtain Speech”), 1946

A key significance of Churchill’s purpose in the excerpt was that it helped prompt the United States to

• promise financial aid to veterans returning from the Second World War, promoting economic growth

• eliminate many earlier barriers to immigration, allowing postwar refugees to enter the country

• provide financial support to democratic nations in Western Europe to help restore a market economy

• restrict the power of labor unions in the United States to help protect the country from communist influence

The initial response of the United Stated to the outbreak of war in Korea was to

• seek the cooperation of the People’s Republic of China to end the fighting

• increase American aid to Indochina to meet the threat of communist aggression

• seek collective action against North Korea through the United Nations

• request a summit meeting with the Soviet Union

• nuke Canada

The main goal of the Marshall Plan was to

• create a strong military alliance between the United States and Western Europe

• strengthen the Chinese nationalists against the Chinese communists

• speed the economic recovery and democratization of Japan

• finance the economic reconstruction of Western Europe

The purpose of the Truman Doctrine of 1947 was to

• decrease the risk of nuclear war by placing atomic weaponry under the control of the United Nations

• prevent communism from spreading further through military aggression

• retake Eastern Europe from the Soviet Union

• create an atmosphere of trust in which negotiation with the Soviet Union would have the best chance for success

In 1950 a major factor in President Harry Truman’s commitment of American troops to combat North Korean aggression was a desire to

• force Congress to appropriate more money for the armed services

• overcome the stigma that the Democratic party had “lost” China to communism

• convince Americans that containment was an inefficient way to deal with communist expansion

• direct the focus of American postwar foreign policy away from Europe

Someone who favored George Washington’s approach to foreign policy would be most likely to object to which of the following United States policies?

• Declaration of neutrality at the beginning of the First World War

• Selling surplus wheat to the Soviet Union in the 1970s

• Membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

• Trade with the European Common Market nations

“[W]e must, by means of a rapid and sustained build-up of the political, economic, and military strength of the free world, and by means of an affirmative program intended to wrest the initiative from the Soviet Union, confront it with convincing evidence of the determination and ability of the free world to frustrate the Kremlin design of a world dominated by its will. Such evidence is the only means short of war which eventually may force the Kremlin to abandon its present course of action and to negotiate acceptable agreements on issues of major importance.

“The whole success of the proposed program hangs ultimately on recognition by this Government, the American people, and all free peoples, that the cold war is in fact a real war in which the survival of the free world is at stake.... The prosecution of the program will require of us all the ingenuity, sacrifice, and unity demanded by the vital importance of the issue and the tenacity to persevere until our national objectives have been attained.”

NSC-68: United States Objectives and Programs for National Security, 1950

Which of the following United States actions most directly resulted from the goals expressed in the excerpt?

• Passage of new immigration laws

• Intervention in the conflict in Korea

• Application of federal power to try to end poverty

• Investigations to find communist subversives in government jobs

“A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allied victory. Nobody knows what Soviet Russia and its Communist international organization intends to do in the immediate future, or what are the limits, if any, to their expansive and proselytizing tendencies. . . . It is my duty . . . to place before you certain facts about the present position in Europe.

“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow. Athens alone—Greece with its immortal glories —is free to decide its future at an election under British, American, and French observation. . . . The Communist parties, which were very small in all these Eastern States of Europe, have been raised to preeminence and power far beyond their numbers and are seeking everywhere to obtain totalitarian control.”

Former British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, speaking at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, “Sinews of Peace,” (better known as the “Iron Curtain Speech”), 1946

Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech helped mark the beginning of which of the following developments?

• The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union

• United States efforts to counteract Soviet influence by sending troops into Eastern Europe

• United States campaigns to support democratic movements in Latin America

• Soviet Union efforts to extend its influence into the countries of Western Europe