Step 61 of 62

End of the Cold War

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Identify Mikhail Gorbachev.
Define glasnost and perestroika.
Identify the Brezhnev Doctrine and explain its abandonment under Gorbachev.
Identify Solidarity and Lech Walesa.
State the date the Berlin Wall fell.
State the date Germany was reunified.
State the date the USSR officially dissolved.
Name three factors that contributed to the end of the Cold War.

XIV. Smart Assessments: Practice Questions

Multiple Choice Practice (20 questions)

Which of the following best describes the term "Iron Curtain"?

(A) A new weapon developed during the Cold War
(B) The dividing line between Western Europe and Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe
(C) The Berlin Wall
(D) A political party in postwar Germany

The U.S. policy of containment was developed primarily to:

(A) Roll back Soviet control over Eastern Europe
(B) Prevent the spread of communism while avoiding direct war
(C) Establish a NATO base in Moscow
(D) End the United Nations

The primary purpose of the Marshall Plan was to:

(A) Provide military aid to communist countries
(B) Rebuild Western European economies after WWII to stabilize them and reduce the appeal of communism
(C) End the Berlin Airlift
(D) Establish the United Nations

Which of the following best describes the Berlin Airlift of 1948-1949?

(A) A Soviet attempt to deliver aid to West Berlin
(B) An Allied response to a Soviet blockade that delivered supplies to West Berlin by air
(C) An American military attack on East Germany
(D) A peacetime delivery program with no strategic purpose

NATO and the Warsaw Pact were:

(A) Trade agreements between Western and Eastern Europe
(B) Opposing military alliances during the Cold War
(C) Cultural exchange programs
(D) Nuclear test ban treaties

In 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China after defeating which leader and his forces?

(A) Sun Yat-sen

7. Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward (1958-1962) is best remembered as:

(A) A successful modernization that lifted China out of poverty
(B) A catastrophic campaign that produced one of the deadliest famines in history
(C) An American military intervention in China
(D) A peace agreement with the Soviet Union

8. "Smash the Four Olds. Sweep away the dust of feudal culture. Send capitalist roaders to be re-educated through labor. Long live Chairman Mao!"

This passage best describes:

(A) The May Fourth Movement
(B) The Boxer Rebellion
(C) The Cultural Revolution
(D) The Great Leap Forward

9. The Korean War ended in:

(A) A North Korean victory and unification
(B) An American victory and unification under South Korea
(C) An armistice with Korea remaining divided at the 38th parallel
(D) A treaty unifying the peninsula under UN supervision

10. Why did China intervene in the Korean War?

(A) To overthrow North Korea
(B) Because UN forces advancing to the Yalu River threatened the Chinese border
(C) To support the United States
(D) To establish a Chinese colony in Korea

11. The Cuban Missile Crisis was triggered by:

(A) The U.S. invasion of Cuba
(B) The Soviet Union secretly placing nuclear missiles in Cuba
(C) The U.S. placement of missiles in Mexico
(D) The Castro government invading Florida

12. The Cuban Missile Crisis ended when:

(A) The United States invaded Cuba

(B) The Soviet Union agreed to remove its missiles in exchange for a U.S. pledge not to invade Cuba
(C) Castro was overthrown
(D) Nuclear war broke out

Vietnam was divided at the 17th parallel by the:

(A) Treaty of Versailles
(B) Geneva Accords of 1954
(C) Yalta Conference
(D) Paris Peace Accords of 1973

The Tet Offensive of 1968 was significant because it:

(A) Was a decisive military victory for North Vietnam
(B) Demonstrated to the American public that the war was not being won as advertised, turning U.S. opinion against the war
(C) Ended the war
(D) Was a Chinese invasion of Vietnam

The Vietnam War ended with:

(A) An American victory
(B) The fall of Saigon to North Vietnamese forces and the reunification of Vietnam under communist control
(C) A negotiated peace preserving South Vietnam
(D) Chinese annexation of Vietnam

Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of glasnost called for:

(A) Mass executions of political opponents
(B) Greater openness in Soviet political life
(C) Renewed Soviet expansion
(D) Closing of all churches

Gorbachev's perestroika referred to:

(A) Foreign policy aggression
(B) Economic restructuring including limited market reforms
(C) Military buildup
(D) Persecution of dissidents

The Berlin Wall fell in:

19. The Soviet Union officially dissolved in:

(A) 1985
(B) 1989
(C) 1991
(D) 2000

20. Which of the following best describes the events at Tiananmen Square in June 1989?

(A) A successful democratic revolution
(B) The Chinese government's violent suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations
(C) A peaceful negotiation between students and the government
(D) A communist takeover

Answer Key with Explanations

1. B. Churchill's phrase referred to the political and physical division between Western Europe and Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe.
1. B. Containment, as articulated by Kennan and applied by Truman, aimed to prevent communist expansion through long-term pressure short of war.
1. B. The Marshall Plan delivered $13 billion in economic aid to rebuild Western European economies and reduce the appeal of communism.
1. B. After the Soviets blockaded land routes to West Berlin in 1948, the Western allies sustained West Berlin by air for nearly a year.
1. B. NATO (1949) and the Warsaw Pact (1955) were the opposing military alliances of the Cold War.
1. C. Mao defeated Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists; Chiang fled to Taiwan with the remnants of his forces.
1. B. The Great Leap Forward was a catastrophic campaign that produced the deadliest famine in history, killing perhaps 15-45 million people.
1. C. Attacks on the Four Olds, talk of capitalist roaders, and Red Guard mobilization signal the Cultural Revolution.
1. C. The Korean War ended with an armistice in 1953, leaving Korea divided at roughly the original 38th parallel boundary.
1. B. China entered the war to prevent UN forces from reaching the Chinese border.

11. B.

The crisis began when American U-2 reconnaissance discovered Soviet nuclear missiles being installed in Cuba in October 1962.

12. B.

Khrushchev removed the missiles in exchange for Kennedy's public no-invasion pledge and (secretly) U.S. missile removal from Turkey.

13. B.

The Geneva Accords of 1954 ended French rule and divided Vietnam at the 17th parallel pending unification elections that never took place.

14. B.

Tet was a military defeat for the communists but a political catastrophe for the U.S., shattering claims that victory was near and collapsing public support for the war.

15. B.

Saigon fell to North Vietnamese forces on April 30, 1975, and Vietnam was reunified under communist control.

16. B.

Glasnost meant openness, loosening Soviet controls on speech, press, and political expression.

17. B.

Perestroika meant economic restructuring, including limited market reforms while preserving overall state planning.

18. C.

The Berlin Wall opened on November 9, 1989, after East German border guards stood aside in the face of crowds.

19. C.

The USSR officially dissolved on December 25-31, 1991, succeeded by fifteen independent post-Soviet states.

20. B.

The Chinese government used the army to suppress pro-democracy demonstrations, killing hundreds or thousands of protesters.

Constructed-Response Practice Set 1

Document A:

"I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way." President Harry Truman, address to Congress, March 1947

Document B:

"The United States proposes to assist in the rebuilding of war-damaged European economies. Such assistance shall be available to any European nation that wishes to participate. The purpose of the program is the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist." Secretary of State George Marshall, June 1947

Question 1:

Based on Document A, identify the policy that Truman announced.

Strong sample answer: "Truman announced the policy of containment, formalized as the Truman Doctrine. He committed the United States to supporting free peoples resisting subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressures, meaning communist movements supported by the Soviet Union."

Question 2:

Based on Document B, identify two purposes of the Marshall Plan.

Strong sample answer: "The Marshall Plan had two principal purposes: to assist in rebuilding war-damaged European economies, and to revive working economies so that political and social conditions favorable to free institutions could emerge. The economic recovery was thus tied to a political goal of preserving democratic governments against communist alternatives."

Question 3:

Using both documents and your knowledge of social studies, explain how the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan together represented the U.S. strategy of containment.

Strong sample answer: "The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan together represented two arms of the U.S. strategy of containment. The Truman Doctrine, as Document A shows, committed the United States to political and military support for nations resisting communist pressure, beginning with Greece and Turkey. The Marshall Plan, as Document B shows, addressed the economic conditions that made populations vulnerable to communist appeals, by rebuilding Western European economies through massive American aid. The combination of military support against external threats and economic aid against internal vulnerabilities formed an integrated containment strategy that stabilized Western Europe within the American sphere and prevented the further expansion of Soviet influence beyond Eastern Europe."

Constructed-Response Practice Set 2

Document A:

"In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He introduced glasnost, a policy of greater openness in political life, and perestroika, restructuring of the economy. He declared that the Soviet Union would no longer use force to keep communist governments in power in Eastern Europe." Description of Gorbachev's reforms

Document B:

"On November 9, 1989, after weeks of mass demonstrations, the East German government announced that citizens could cross to West Berlin. Crowds rushed to the Berlin Wall. Guards stood aside. East and West Berliners climbed onto the Wall and began to dismantle it with hammers and chisels. Within a year, Germany was reunified." Description of the fall of the Berlin Wall

Question 1:

Based on Document A, identify two policies that Gorbachev introduced.

Strong sample answer: "Gorbachev introduced glasnost, a policy of greater openness in Soviet political life that loosened controls on speech and the press, and perestroika, a restructuring of the Soviet economy that allowed limited market mechanisms. He also abandoned the Brezhnev Doctrine, declaring that the Soviet Union would no longer use military force to keep Eastern European communist regimes in power."

Question 2:

Based on Document B, explain what the fall of the Berlin Wall represented.

Strong sample answer: "The fall of the Berlin Wall represented the practical end of the division between East and West Germany and, more broadly, the end of the Iron Curtain that had divided Europe since the late 1940s. Mass demonstrations had forced the East German government to open the border, and

within a year East and West Germany were reunified, ending one of the most visible legacies of the Cold War."

Question 3: Using both documents and your knowledge of social studies, explain how Gorbachev's reforms led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War in Europe.

Strong sample answer: "Gorbachev's reforms, described in Document A, included the renunciation of the Brezhnev Doctrine, the Soviet claim of the right to intervene militarily to preserve communist regimes in Eastern Europe. Once Gorbachev signaled that Soviet tanks would not roll in to save unpopular communist governments, those regimes lost the credible threat of force that had previously sustained them. The result, as Document B describes, was that mass protests in East Germany in autumn 1989 forced the opening of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. The same pattern recurred across Eastern Europe through 1989-1990: Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, and other Eastern European countries overthrew their communist governments. By the end of 1991 the Soviet Union itself had dissolved. The Cold War in Europe, frozen since the late 1940s, ended in a few years because one Soviet leader chose not to use the force that had previously preserved the system."