The Big Question

How did Americans challenge the rigid social expectations that characterized the early Cold War period? What was the relationship between domestic changes of the 1960s and the US's changing foreign policy?
Section 1: Short Answer (30 points)
Write multi-sentence responses for the prompts below. Be specific and give examples from the history we have learned.
A. Read the statement below and then analyze what it is saying about being a young person in the United States in the 1960's. Use these questions to help you write a commentary of 3-5 sentences: (10 points)
What events and changes in American society does the writer refer to?
How is this document an example of the `youth culture' at the time?
"When we were kids the United States was the wealthiest and strongest country in the world; the only one with the atom bomb. . . . As we grew, however, our comfort was penetrated [filled] by events too troubling to dismiss [forget about]. . . . The Southern struggle against racial bigotry [racism], compelled [took] most of us from silence to activism. Second . . . the Cold War, symbolized by the presence of the Bomb, brought awareness that we ourselves, and our friends, and millions of abstract "others" . . . might die at any time."

—Port Huron Statement, Students for a Democratic Society

B. In 1963, Betty Friedan wrote a book describing a problem facing middle-class American women. What problem did she describe, and why did she say women suffered from it? (10 points)

C. The United States became more aware of the environment and also experienced its first energy crisis in the 1970's. Answer the questions below related to this. (10 points)
What is OPEC and how did it play a role in the Energy Crisis of 1973?
What environmental issues has the U.S. been struggling to address ever since 1970?

The relationship between the domestic changes in the country and the changing foreign policy is the fact that the war affected the country's domestic economy and social environment.

The summary of the extract

The extract tells us that as a child, An American was afraid that the war their country was fighting might lead to their death through bomb attacks.

Also the excerpts tells us that the youths lent their voice in the country then through activism and that the US had a lot of internal issues like racism.

2. The book that Betty wrote was to describe the pervasive dissatisfaction that a lot of women had after the second world war.

3. OPEC is an organization that is made up of the petroleum producing countries in the world.