Name: _______________________________ Period: _______ Date: _______

U.S. History 2 Midterm Exam

Multiple Choice
Identify the letter of the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.

1. During the early years of World War II, the United States
a. Organized several peace talks between the Allies and the
Axis powers.
b. Stopped trading with ALL nations at war
c. Tried to remain neutral while supplying weapons to Britain
and France.
d. Sent military and economic aid to ALL nations at war.

2. During the 1930s, Hitler, Mussolini and the military leaders of

Japan began invading other lands because they
a. Had a monopoly on world trade.
b. All wanted to expand their empires.
c. Organized the League of Nations.
d. Bolstered national pride by calling for free elections.

3. Which of the following took place on D-Day?

a. The United States finally got supplies across the Atlantic to
aid Great Britain.
b. The first British and American landings in Japan took place.
c. The start of the Allied invasion of Italy.
d. Allied forces landed on France’s Normandy coast in an
attempt to liberate Europe from the Nazis.

4. Why did the world choose to appease Adolf Hitler during the
1930s?
a. Most of the industrial world was involved in a Depression.
b. Most of the world leaders supported Adolf Hitler’s final
solution.
c. All of Europe had originally belonged to Germany therefore
it was only right for Hitler to reunite it.
d. Most of Europe felt that another war would improve the
economy.

5. What was the “final solution to the Jewish question”?

a. Force all Jews to leave Europe.
b. Draft all Jews into the German army.
c. Kill all of the Jews.
d. Compromise with Jewish leaders.
6. What forced the United States to enter World War II in 1941?
a. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
b. Germany’s invasion of the Rhineland.
c. The pact that the Soviet Union signed with Germany.
d. The imprisonment of Jews in German concentration camps.

7. What was a wartime strategy used by the United States against

Japan?
a. Mutual assured destruction
b. Containment
c. Island-hopping
d. The Truman Doctrine

8. What action did the Nazis take to strip Jews of their Germany
citizenship?
a. Opened the Warsaw ghetto.
b. Passed the Nuremberg Laws
c. Opened the concentration camps
d. Forced all Jews to leave Europe

9. Individuals are responsible for their own actions even during

times of war was a result of which war crimes tribunal?
a. Berlin
b. Paris
c. Nuremberg
d. Washington D.C.

10. After Hitler had invaded Czechoslovakia and made a pact

with Stalin, he invaded
a. Japan
b. England
c. Poland
d. France

11. To finance World War II, the federal government did all of
the following EXCEPT
a. Raise income taxes.
b. Launch bond drives.
c. Reduce corporate profits.
d. Use deficit spending.

12. Why did President Franklin D. Roosevelt create the Office

of War Mobilization?
a. To produce goods for the Axis Powers.
 b. To reduce the government’s role in war production.
c. To centralize agencies dealing with war production.
d. To build up wartime morale.

13. After Germany surrendered in 1945, the Allies decided to

a. Return Germany to the German people
b. Divide Germany in two parts and return one half to the
German people.
c. Ultimately create what came to be known as West and East
Germany.
d. Divide Germany into four parts which came to be known as
North, South, East and West Germany.

14. Which group had to fight in segregated military units

during World War II?
a. English-Americans
b. German-Americans
c. Italian-Americans
d. African Americans

15. During World War II, large numbers of women began to

work as steel workers and welders because
a. Most of the men had died in World War II.
b. The jobs needed to be filled due to men leaving to fight in
the war.
c. The women’s movement had opened up the jobs for
women.
d. The federal government began encouraging the hiring of
women in the war industries.

16. During World War II, many Japanese Americans were

interned, or
a. Given special privileges.
b. Told to leave the United States.
c. Sent back to Japan.
d. Confined to camps in isolated areas.

17. In 1988, Congress passed a law which gave each surviving

Japanese American interned during World War II
a. A new home.
b. Passage back to Japan.
c. A college education.
d. $20,000 tax-free and a formal apology
18. The United States began to emerge from the Great
Depression as a result of
a. Freezing rents of housing and prices of goods.
b. Increasing production of consumer goods.
c. Allocating raw materials.
d. Producing goods for the Allied forces to fight in World War
II.

19. What was one goal of the Marshall Plan?

a. To help the United States buy its way into European affairs.
b. To develop strong trading partners in Asia.
c. To force the Soviet Union to allow more emigration into
their country.
d. To create financially stable democracies that could resist
communism.

20. What did President Truman promise in the Truman

Doctrine?
a. To help General Motors increase war time production.
b. To fight hunger anywhere in the world.
c. To win the election of 1948.
d. To support nations trying to resist Soviet control.

21. In response to the formation of NATO, the Soviet Union

a. Created the Warsaw Pact.
b. Left the United Nations.
c. Withdrew from Eastern Europe.
d. Joined the Marshall Plan.

22. What was the outcome of the Korean War?

a. Korea remained divided at almost exactly the same place
as before the war.
b. China controlled North Korea while South Korea remained
independent.
c. Korea was unified under a Communist government.
d. North Korea surrendered after the threat of atomic
warfare.

23. The Berlin Airlift was President Truman’s response to the

a. Reunification of East and West Germany
b. German development of the atomic bomb.
c. Soviet blockade of West Berlin.
d. Construction of the Berlin Wall.
24. Truman’s Fair Deal aimed to
a. Eliminate most New Deal programs established by FDR.
b. Greatly shrink the federal government.
c. Extend the goals of the New Deal.
d. Appeal to conservative Republicans.

25. What impact did Joseph McCarthy have on American

society?
a. He encouraged Americans to stand up for their civil rights.
b. He encouraged a widespread fear of communism.
c. He strengthened the United States Army.
d. He created opposition to United States involvement in
Latin America.

26. The high birth rate that followed World War II was known
as
a. The GNP increase.
b. The school boom
c. The Baby Boom.
d. The reconversion process

27. Martin Luther King, Jr’s famous “I have a Dream Speech”

was a highlight of which event?
a. 1966 March through Mississippi
b. 1963 March on Washington
c. 1965 March through Selma
d. 1955 Montgomvery Bus Boycott

28. To achieve victory in the struggle for civil rights, Martin

Luther King, Jr., and other members of SCLC encouraged a policy
of
a. Lawsuits
b. National strikes
c. Armed confrontation
d. Nonviolent protest

29. Which of the following was NOT part of the Civil Rights Act of
1964
a. It banned discrimination in public places such as motels,
restaurants and gas stations.
b. It banned discrimination on the basis of race, gender,
religion or national origin.
c. It gave the right to vote to African American men and
women
 d. It allowed the withholding of federal funds from public or
private programs that practiced discrimination.
30. Martin Luther King, Jr., influenced by Gandhi, believed in
__________, while Malcolm X adopted a policy of ________________
a. Fighting back – nonviolent protest
b. Violent revolution – civil disobedience
c. Nonviolent protest and integration of the race – black
power and separation of the races.
d. Fighting back only if struck first – nonviolent protest and
integration.

31. The Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education

ended
a. Discrimination in the hiring of federal employees.
b. The “separate but equal” doctrine established by Plessy v.
Ferguson
c. Jackie Robinson’s career in baseball
d. Eisenhower’s support of civil rights.

32. Which of the following was a result of the Civil Rights

movement?
a. The African country of Liberia was created as a home for
African Americans.
b. De facto segregation ended in the north.
c. Racist attitudes completely ended in the south.
d. Thousands of African Americans could freely register to
vote for the first time.

33. Kennedy won the election of 1960 by

a. A landslide.
b. A comfortable margin
c. A narrow margin
d. An error in the counting of the votes.

34. John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier included proposals to

improve or increase all of the following EXCEPT
a. Aid to the poor.
b. The space grogram.
c. Satellite defense systems (nicknamed “star wars”)
d. The economy.

35. Which Kennedy program was created to assign volunteers

to serve in developing nations?
a. Bay of Pigs invasion
b. Cuban Missile Crisis
 c. Alliance for Progress
d. Peace Corps

36. Who was the US president during the conflict known as the
Bay of Pigs Invasion?
a. Lyndon B. Johnson
b. Herbert Hoover
c. John F. Kennedy
d. Richard Nixon
37. As a result of the Cuban Missile Crisis,
a. Fidel Castro was removed from power.
b. The United States set up missile sites in Cuba
c. The United States increased investments in Cuba
d. The Soviet Union removed their missiles from Cuba

38. Which of the following was NOT a goal of Lyndon Johnson’s

Great Society?
a. Provide tax breaks to the wealthy
b. Provide medical care for the elderly
c. Provide medical insurance for the poor
d. Aid public education

39. What did Cesar Chavez organize to help improve

conditions for migrant farm workers?
a. A march on the state capital in Sacramento, California
b. Nationwide sit-ins at supermarkets to protest their low
wages for workers
c. The defense of these workers in lawsuits against their
employers
d. A consumer boycott of grapes

40. Miranda vs. Arizona was a Supreme Court ruling in the 1960s
which dealt with
a. Abortion
b. Voting districts
c. The rights of people accused of a crime
d. Prayer in school.

41. The term feminism, which drove the women’s movement of the
1960s, describes the theory of
a. Women’s special nature
b. The equality of men and women
c. Women’s superiority over men
d. Women’s role of serving men
42. Which of the following Supreme Court cases legalized
abortion?
a. Reynolds v. Simms
b. Roe v. Wade
c. Miranda v. Arizona
d. Brown v. Board of Education

43. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

a. Gave Lyndon Johnson authorization to use all means
necessary to repel communist aggression in South
Vietnam.
b. Gave Lyndon Johnson total control over North Vietnam.
c. Forced the US to withdraw troops from Vietnam.
d. Was a surprise attack on100 cities throughout South
Vietnam by the Vietcong.

44. How had public opinion in America shifted after the TET
Offensive?
a. More Americans questioned whether victory in the war was
possible.
b. The majority of Americans became critical of the Great
Society
c. Americans supported increased escalation of troops to
defeat the increased strength of the enemy.
d. Anti-war protests greatly decreased

45. What did the United States fear would happen if it did not
get involved in Vietnam?
a. Diem, the leader of South Vietnam, would be assassinated.
b. The French would regain control over Vietnam
c. Vietnam would invade China
d. Communists would take over Vietnam then the rest of
Southeast Asia.

46. President Nixon’s policy of Vietnamization involved?

a. Halting bombing raids in North Vietnam
b. Replacing South Vietnamese forces with American soldiers.
c. Moving US ground troops into Cambodia
d. Replacing American forces with South Vietnamese.

47. What was the greatest foreign policy accomplishment

during the Nixon years?
a. Defeating communist forces in South Vietnam.
b. Ending the Cold War with Soviet Union
 c. Bringing about détente with the Soviet Union and China
d. Establishing democracy in Cuba.

48. As the evidence mounted against him n the Watergate

Affair, Nixon
a. Attempted to halt the investigation
b. Named Gerald Ford as Vice President
c. Was impeached by the US House of Representatives
d. Resigned from office

49. President Ford’s most controversial act as President was to

a. Pardon Nixon
b. Bomb Vietnam
c. Balance the budget
d. Raise taxes

50. OPEC’s 1973 embargo on shipping oil to the United States

resulted in
a. A flare-up of problems with the Soviet Union
b. Higher inflation and another recession at home
c. A war between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
d. A British-American foreign policy offensive against Arab
nations.

51. President Carter halted grain shipments to the Soviet Union

and imposed a boycott on the 1980 Summer Olympic games in
response to ________.
a. Soviet arms buildup in Arab nations
b. Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev’s refusal to sign the SALT
II treaty
c. The Iran Hostage crisis
d. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

52. One major factor contributing to Ronald Reagan defeat of

President Carter in 1980 was
a. The Persian Gulf War
b. The Camp David Accords
c. The hostage crisis in Iran
d. The decline of the New Rights

53. The Reagan administration rapidly increased spending on

a. Social programs
b. Support of the Soviet Union
c. The American military to defeat the Soviet Union in the
Cold War
 d. Enlargement of the federal government.

54. Under President Ronald Reagan, programs created by

Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society were
a. Funded mainly by higher taxes
b. Cut back
c. Expanded slightly
d. Eliminated entirely

55. During the Reagan administration, the federal deficit and

debt
a. Rose dramatically
b. Decreased significantly
c. Seesawed up and down
d. Was somewhat reduced by new taxes