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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What did Isaacson claim to be Kennan's strong areas in his training?
(a) International Law and economics.
(b) Language interpretation and religious studies.
(c) International Law and German.
(d) Protocol and foreign cultures.

2. What does Isaacson claim the six men profiled in The Wise Men represent?
(a) Ivy League colleges.
(b) Moderate Republicans.
(c) The American Establishment.
(d) New Democrats.

3. Who was the State Department's Liaison with the White House during the transfer of power from Roosevelt to Truman?
(a) Charles Bohlen.
(b) George Kennan.
(c) John McCloy.
(d) Dean Acheson.

4. Where did John McCloy attend College according to Isaacson?
(a) Oxford.
(b) Harvard.
(c) Yale.
(d) Amherst.

5. Which two of the "Wise Men" does Isaacson claim understood the importance of trade and global involvement from their careers on Wall Street?
(a) Averell Harriman and Robert Lovett.
(b) Chip Bohlen and Robert Lovett.
(c) George Kennan and Dean Acheson.
(d) John McCloy and Dean Acheson.

6. What is the reason Isaacson suggests that John McCLoy's mother encouraged him to tutor children of her wealthy clients during summers away from school?
(a) So he could be networking for a good career.
(b) Because he would be better able to continue his advanced studies while working with younger children.
(c) It was his mother's way of assuring he would make the right social contacts.
(d) Because the pay was better than taking one of the part-time jobs in the city.

7. After Roosevelt and Churchill made their agreement, what became the responsibility of Averell Harriman?
(a) To act as a strong man against Stalin's bluntness.
(b) To direct the shift in the balance of power between England and the United States.
(c) To travel to Moscow to offer aid to the government of the Soviet Union in their confrontation against Germany.
(d) To direct the formation of foreign policy from Washington.

8. What Assistant Secretary of War does Isaacson cite as fearing American isolationism after WWII?
(a) Robert Lovett.
(b) Dean Acheson.
(c) John McCloy.
(d) Averell Harriman.

9. What does Isaacson report to be the warning the Allied powers gave to the Japanese regarding the dropping of the atomic bomb?
(a) Ads placed in Japanese newspapers warning of coming destruction.
(b) Radio interruptions of Japanese airwaves that warned the Japanese of America's possession of, "a weapon of mass destruction."
(c) Communiques made to Japanese leaders through their various channels of communication.
(d) A vague clue in the Potsdam proclamation describing "immeasurably greater" powers and that, "The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction."

10. What does Isaacson claim to the Lovett's and Harriman's most important innovation to the industry for which they were prepared by Judge Lovett?
(a) Establishing radio relay stations to deliver messages to ambassadors in foreign lands.
(b) Using ticker tape to relay changes in stock prices.
(c) Using airplanes to quickly relay messages to ambassadors in foreign lands.
(d) Developing streamlined diesel locomotives pulling sleek aluminum coaches.

11. Who encouraged the United States to rearm and come out of what Isaacson claims to be a period of isolationism following WWI?
(a) Averell Harriman.
(b) John McCloy.
(c) Henry Stimson.
(d) Dean Acheson.

12. According to Isaacson, what event took place between Harriman and the person with whom he was sharing responsibility that foreshadowed the role of the two countries they represented in their places in Western leadership?
(a) Harriman and John Lovett developed plans for deciding who would get Allied war support without input from Britain.
(b) Harriman had a confrontational argument with Leon Trotsky regarding financial aid.
(c) Harriman and Beaverbrook had an animated clash during which Harriman insisted that England and the U.S. would determine jointly the distribution of war resources, rather than England alone.
(d) Harriman and John McCloy developed Allied policy positions without referring to the Soviets.

13. For what purpose had Robert Lovett's father been grooming him and Averell Harriman since their graduation from college, according to Isaacson?
(a) To help him run his investment banks.
(b) To become new masters of the emerging high finance sector of the economy.
(c) To help him run the Union Pacific railway empire.
(d) To move into foreign service for the government.

14. What was one of the first challenges facing the Truman Administration in dealing with the Soviet Union after WWII, according to Isaacson?
(a) Blocking the Soviet Union from attempting to set terms of peace with Japan.
(b) Trying to prevent the Soviet Union from taking German industrial equipment and charging reparations against Germany.
(c) Slowing the influence of Soviet communism over the Maoist movement in China.
(d) Dealing with Soviet front groups in the United States.

15. What does Isaacson claim to be the reason that Harriman and Dean Acheson supported making post-war loans to the Soviets?
(a) Both saw the loans as a means of gaining bargaining leverage with the Kremlin.
(b) Both realized that the Soviet economy was unproductive and felt that loans could nudge the Soviets to a market economy.
(c) Both considered that the friendship of the Soviets could be bought.
(d) Both considered loans to be a show of good faith that the U.S. was willing to work with the Soviets in spite of ideological differences.

Short Answer Questions

1. What decision did Harriman influence Stalin to make, according to Isaacson, to get around the decision of Secretary Stettinius?

2. What does Isaacson claim to be the purpose of the club that Bohlen joined?

3. What does Isaacson report Vice President Harry Truman was doing when news of President Roosevelt's death was first leaked?

4. In what town does Isaacson claim that George Kennan was born?

5. What approach did Wall Street favor regarding the future of Germany's industrial base during plans for the post-war era, according to Isaacson?

(see the answer keys)

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