2008 AP UNITED STATES HISTORY FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS

UNITED STATES HISTORY

SECTION II
PART A
(Suggest writing time—45 minutes)

Directions: The following question requires you to construct a coherent essay that
integrates your interpretation of Documents A-H and your knowledge of the period
referred to in the question. High scores will be earned only by essays that both cite
key pieces of evidence from the documents and draw on outside knowledge of the
period.

1. In what ways did the Cold War depend on and influence United
States domestic and/or international policy? Analyze and explain
the importance of each set of factors in pushing the United States
into the conflict and holding the nation there for the length of time
it did.

Document A:

“Herblock” Soviet Union Cartoon

 Document B:

Herblock Vietnam Cartoon

Document C

Source:

Says the Berlin Airlift, under the direction of our Air Force is an
achievement of historic and far-reaching significance, by the
Joint efforts of our Army, Navy, and Air Force together with the
forces of Great Britain and France. It expresses the unity of the
western nations in the cause of peace. Says OPERATION
VITTLES has assured the world of our faith in our ideals and at
this Christmas Season the American people are thinking of
them and their loved ones and wishes for them a Very Merry
 Document D

Document E

Source: “Enemies from Within”, a speech by Joseph McCarthy,

1950

Today we can almost physically hear the mutterings and

rumblings of an invigorated god of war. You can see it, feel it,
and hear it all the way from the Indochina hills, from the shores
of Formosa, right over into the very heart of Europe itself. The
one encouraging thing is that the “mad moment” has not yet
arrived for the firing of the gun or the exploding of the bomb
which will set civilization about the final task of destroying
itself. .. The reason why we find ourselves in a position of
impotency is not because our only powerful potential enemy
has sent men to invade our shores . . . but rather because of
the traitorous actions of those who have been treated so well
by this Nation. It has not been the less fortunate, or members
of minority groups who have been traitorous to this Nation, but
 Document F

Source: Memo from President Eisenhower to John Foster Dulles,

1953

Among other things, we should describe the capabilities now

and in the near future of the H-bomb, supplemented by the A-
bomb. We should patiently point out that any group of people,
such as the men in the Kremlin, who are aware of the great
destructiveness of these weapons--and who still decline to
make any honest effort toward international control by
collective action--must be fairly assumed to be contemplating
their aggressive use…This would be a deterrent--but if the
contest to maintain this relative position should have to
continue indefinitely, the cost would either drive us to war--or
into some form of dictatorial government. In such

Document G

Source: The New York Times, “Administration Now Shifts Its

Emphasis on Foreign Aid”, by James Reston, 1947

“When Secretary of State [John] Marshall returned from the

recent meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers in Moscow,”
Mr. Acheson told his audience in Cleveland, “he did not talk to
us about ideologies or armies. He talked about food a fuel and
their relation to industrial production, and the relation of
production to the organization of Europe and the relation of
organization of Europe to the peace of the world.”…The
Administration is not happy about the emotional response
here…to the Truman Doctrine. Consequently, a conscious effort
is being made now to emphasize the positive economic
problems of restructuring Europe rather than the military and
Document H

Source: President Eisenhower’s State of the Union Address,

1957

The recent historic events in Hungary demand that all free nations
share to the extent of their capabilities in the responsibility of
granting asylum to victims of Communist persecution. I request
the Congress promptly to enact legislation to regularize the status
in the United States of Hungarian refugees brought here as
parolees. I shall shortly recommend to the Congress by special
message the changes in our immigration laws that I deem