History
342
Devine
Fall
2014
Midterm Study Guide
The questions that will appear on the midterm will be drawn verbatim from the questions below. If
you are able to answer these questions thoroughly, you will be well-prepared
for the midterm. It should be clear which questions are short answer questions
and which are long answer questions.
In Part one of the midterm, there will 10 short essay
questions taken from the list below; you will answer SEVEN of them. In Part two, there will be three long essay questions
taken from the list below; you will answer ONE of them.
PLEASE BRING AN UNMARKED GREEN BOOK TO CLASS.
1.
What
evidence does George Kennan give in the Long Telegram that the Soviet Union is both aggressive and insecure?
2.
What
evidence does Vladimir Novikov offer to support his claim
that the United States is out to “dominate” the world?
3.
Describe
the three major global conflicts that made up World War II. What was the
American, British, and Soviet roles in each of these conflicts?
4.
How
did the immediate postwar years differ for “average” Soviets and “average”
Americans? What accounts for these sharply differing experiences?
5.
Why
did Stalin initiate a blockade of Berlin? Why did this turn out to be a bad
move on his part?
6.
According
to Karl Mautner’s account, “The View from Germany,” who
seemed better prepared to get their way in Berlin once World War II ended – the
Soviets or the Americans? Why was this the case?
7.
How
were economic recovery and political stability related? How did
achieving both in Europe also help to contain communism? (Leffler)
8.
Why
did US desire to spur economic recovery in Japan also focus Washington’s
attention on the nations of Southeast Asia?
How did this show that concerns about “core” areas had to take into
account conditions in “peripheral” areas? (Leffler)
9.
Why
did the US decide to oppose Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam even though Washington knew Ho had the support of the majority of the Vietnamese
people? How was this specific policy decision related to Truman’s “grand
strategy”? (Leffler)
10.
Why
was Stalin worried about continuing U.S. presence in Europe? How did this
presence interfere with his envisioned “grand strategy”? (Pechatnov)
11.
Why
was Stalin more scared of the Marshall Plan than he was of the Truman Doctrine?
(Pechatnov)
12.
What
steps did Stalin take to insure Soviet influence was dominant in postwar Poland
and Romania? (Naimark)
13.
What
role did the secret police play in the Sovietization
of Eastern Europe? How, according to Naimark, were
the Soviets able to assure their dominance even before the Communists actually
seized power? (Naimark)
14.
Zubok and Pleshakov
suggest that Stalin cynically “played” Mao during the Korean War. Why do they
believe this?
15.
How
did MacArthur’s Inchon invasion change the course of the Korean War? (Byrnes)
16.
Why
did Truman believe he could not allow the North Korean invasion to go
unanswered? (Byrnes)
17.
What
were Khrushchev’s various motivations for placing missiles in Cuba? (Hershberg)
18.
Why
did the Kennedy administration move from an air strike to a blockade when
considering an appropriate response to the Soviets’ placing of missiles in
Cuba? (Hershberg)
19.
What
role did the American Jupiter missiles in Turkey play in the Cuban Missile
Crisis? (Hershberg)
20.
During
the Cuban Missile Crisis, how did Khrushchev’s first and second letters to
Kennedy differ in tone and substance? Why did Kennedy choose to respond to the
first letter and ignore the second one? (Primary sources)
21.
What
were the terms of settlement for the Cuban Missile Crisis? Why was Fidel Castro
– unlike Kennedy and Khrushchev – so angry at how the crisis ended?
22.
Why
was 1954 a significant year in the unfolding of the Vietnamese conflict?
23.
Why
was Ho Chi Minh a more popular leader than Ngo Dinh
Diem?
24.
In
what fundamental ways did Vietnamese culture differ from American culture?
25.
Why
were the Vietnamese villagers more likely to support the Vietcong than the
Republicans and the Americans?
26.
The
Vietcong won support from the peasants because the cadres promised they would
protect and preserve the peasants’ culture. To what extent did the VC fighters
make good on this promise?
27.
Why
did both the Viet Minh and the Vietcong play down Communism in favor national
unity and freedom from foreign intervention when they were appealing to the
Vietnamese people for support?
28.
Why
does Hayslip’s father believe the war is the enemy
rather than the North, the VC, or the Americans?
29.
In
what ways did Le Ly Hayslip’s views of Americans
evolve from her first encounter with them as a young girl to her eventual
departure from South Vietnam with an American soldier?
30.
How
did village life in Ky La change as a result of the
escalating war between the Vietcong and the Americans?
31.
How
did moving from the village to the city during the Vietnam war
change Vietnamese peasants like Le Ly?
32.
How
did the war affect Vietnamese women in especially negative ways?
33.
Drawing
on the material in Hayslip’s memoir, make a case for
what you believe were the most profound changes that occurred in Vietnam as a
result of the war.
34.
When
Hayslip returns to Vietnam, what changes in
Vietnamese society does she find most rroubling?
35.
What
was the 100 Flowers Campaign and how was it related to the anti-rightist
campaign?
36.
How
did the Great Leap Forward campaign affect China? Why did Mao play less of a
prominent role in Chinese politics immediately after the campaign?
37.
Identify
three prominent ways in which the Communist Party changed the daily lives of
rural and urban Chinese.
38.
Did
it seem that the Communist Party encouraged the Chinese people to value
equality or to strive to “get ahead”? How did one “get ahead” in Chinese
society after 1949?
39.
Identify
three prominent ways that Chairman Mao and the Chinese Communist Party were
able to retain the support of the Chinese people.
40.
How
did the Communist Party use fear and propaganda to protect its monopoly on
political power in China?
41.
Why
were “intellectuals” generally considered “enemies” by
the Communist Party? Why were intellectuals like Liang’s father at a
disadvantage if they wanted to stay out of trouble?
42.
Why
did Mao send middle class urban intellectuals into the villages to become
peasants during the Cultural Revolution?
43.
Why
did Liang Heng find that the “criminal” class
actually had more freedom that most other Chinese citizens?
44.
How was Chairman Mao able to win the devotion,
and even love, of the Chinese people?
45.
Why
did the Party insist that those who had “non-Chairman Mao thoughts” engage in
self-criticism?
46.
What
was “eating socialism”? How did this practice demonstrate the flaws in the
Communist system in China?
47.
How
did Chairman Mao exploit young people in order to secure and retain his own
power?
48.
Identify
three significant ways in which China changed after the death of Chairman Mao,
49.
How
was the Chinese Communist Party able to remain in power after 1989 when so many
other Communist Parties around the world lost power?
50.
How
did Chinese and Western commentators assess the events in Tiananmen Square
differently?