Pick ONE question(one bullet point) from section 1 and section 2. Each question (bullet point) must be answered in no less than 4 paragraphs. Answers should be double-spaced and when finish with section 1, section 2 question (bullet point) must be a different page and titled Section two question #

Please answer one question from each section. Your answers should be typed, doubled-spaced, and will generally be no less than three to four page in length per essay.

Section I (100 points) –

• Grade the accomplishments of the New Deal. Evaluate its performance using President Roosevelt’s three state goals of relief, recovery, and reform. To what extent, was the New Deal successful in ending the Great Depression? If not, why? Who benefited the most and the least from its programs? In what ways, can it be considered a watershed in American history?
• How and why did the world move towards war in the 1930s? Why were western governments unwilling to counter aggression in Europe and in Asia? Why did the United States initially remain neutral, and what events eventually pushed it towards war? What lessons did future American policymakers learn from the “failure of appeasement?”
• What were the elements of American grand strategy in World War II? How and when did the United States decide to mobilize for war? What impact did this have on the conflict? Discuss the key operational milestones that led to American victory in Europe and in the Pacific. How did American strategic calculations affect the ending of the war, especially the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan?

Section II (100 points) –

• How and why did the wartime alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union deteriorate into the Cold War? How did ideological differences contribute to the desperate and total nature of the conflict? Describe the underpinnings of the containment doctrine, and the various ways in which it came to be applied. How did the country’s prosecution of the Cold War impact American society?
• How and why did the Civil Rights movement develop after 1945? What was the impact of World War II and the Cold War on either accelerating or decelerating progress towards civil rights? Describe the tactics, organization, and membership of major civil rights organizations like SCLC and SNCC. What other groups were important in the struggle for civil rights? In what areas did the Civil Rights movement achieve its greatest success, and where did it run into obstacles that caused it to stall?
• How and why did the United States become involved in the Vietnam War? What were its goals when it entered the conflict, and how did they change over time? Discuss some of the political and military misjudgments made by the United States in fighting the war. How did these errors contribute to a growing anti-war movement in the country? Was the war winnable for the United States? If so, how should it have been fought differently?