Mr. Maurer
American History III 6.0
Name: ________________________
Questions from “1946 – 1952: The Best Years” – Day 1
1.
a. In his famous speech in Fulton, Missouri, what did Winston Churchill warn Americans
about?
b. How did Joseph Stalin react to Churchill’s speech?
2.
a. What troubles did G.I.’s returning from World War II find back home?
b. What programs did the U.S. government put in place to help them?
c. What helped stimulate the U.S. economy in the late 1940s?
3. How did Bill Levitt’s development change America?
4. How did President Truman advance the cause of Civil Rights in America?
5. Why was the U.S. so concerned about the economic and political situation in Europe after
World War II?
6. Describe the Marshall Plan. How did it contrast with the way the Soviet Union treated Eastern
Europe after World War II?
Questions from “1946 – 1952: The Best Years” – Day 2
1. When Joseph Stalin cut the supply lines into West Berlin, how did the United States react?
What was the ultimate outcome?
2. What Soviet accomplishment of 1949 increased American fear of the Soviet Union and
intensified the Cold War?
3. What setback did the U.S. see in China in 1949?
4. Why did America get involved in the Korean War?
5. What effect did fear of communism have on American society?
6. What new development in entertainment began changing America in the early 1950s?
7. On your own paper, identify each of the following people or events and their role in American
history in the period from 1945 – 1953.
Harry Truman, William Levitt, the Baby Boom, Jackie Robinson, Douglas Macarthur,
Mao Zedong, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, Joseph McCarthy, the House Un-American Activities
Committee