U.S. History Practice Test: The Cold War Era (1945-1991)
- The Cold War Era (1945-1991)
- 10 questions
- 12 minutes
These 10 questions cover how the United States confronted the Soviet Union from 1945 until 1991. Many answers connect back to one idea, containment, so ask how each event tried to stop communism from spreading.
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Question 1
The U.S. Cold War policy of "containment," described by diplomat George Kennan, aimed to
Correct answer: C
Containment meant resisting Soviet expansion wherever it threatened, without starting a direct war. It shaped U.S. policy from the late 1940s on.
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Question 2
In 1947 the Truman Doctrine first offered U.S. aid to which two countries threatened by communist pressure?
Correct answer: A
Truman asked Congress for aid to Greece, which faced a communist insurgency, and to Turkey, which faced Soviet pressure. The doctrine promised support to free peoples resisting outside control.
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Question 3
What was the main purpose of the Marshall Plan, begun in 1948?
Correct answer: D
The Marshall Plan gave billions of dollars in economic aid to help Western Europe recover. Leaders believed poverty made communism more attractive. The occupation zones were set up earlier, in 1945.
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Question 4
In 1948 the Soviet Union blocked all road and rail routes into West Berlin. How did the United States and its allies respond?
Correct answer: B
The Berlin Airlift supplied West Berlin by air until the Soviets lifted the blockade in 1949. The Berlin Wall was built much later, in 1961, by East Germany.
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Question 5
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), formed in 1949, is based on which promise?
Correct answer: D
Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty commits members to collective defense. It was the first peacetime military alliance the United States joined outside the Western Hemisphere.
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Question 6
How did the Korean War (1950-1953) end?
Correct answer: A
Fighting stopped with an armistice in July 1953, not a peace treaty, and the border stayed close to where the war began. U.S. troops remained in South Korea afterward.
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Question 7
In the early 1950s, Senator Joseph McCarthy became famous for
Correct answer: C
McCarthy charged that communists had infiltrated the State Department and the Army, ruining careers with little proof. The Senate censured him in 1954, and "McCarthyism" came to mean reckless accusation.
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Question 8
After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, in 1957, the U.S. government
Correct answer: B
Sputnik made Americans fear they were falling behind. Congress created NASA in 1958 and passed the National Defense Education Act to support science, math and language study.
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Question 9
What did the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, passed by Congress in 1964, do?
Correct answer: A
After reports of attacks on U.S. ships, Congress gave Johnson broad authority to respond, which he used to expand the war. Congress repealed it in 1971; the draft ended in 1973.
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Question 10
Which event in December 1991 marked the end of the Cold War?
Correct answer: D
The Soviet Union broke up into 15 independent states at the end of 1991. Saigon fell in 1975, NATO was founded in 1949, and Korea is still divided.
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