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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How did the Pentagon recommend the government should respond to the Soviet Union's possession of nuclear weapons, according to Isaacson?
(a) The Pentagon recommended an increase in A-bomb production.
(b) The Pentagon recommended increased presence and support for conventional war to avoid a nuclear confrontation.
(c) The Pentagon recommended increased budgets for all possible strategies so the country could be kept safe from communist aggression.
(d) The Pentagon recommended a national campaign to inform citizens of the need for increased military spending to keep the communist threat at bay.

2. Who does Isaacson report to have committed the U.S. to active ground war in Korea?
(a) Dean Acheson.
(b) The U.S. Congress.
(c) General Douglas MacArthur.
(d) President Truman.

3. What does Isaacson record that Mao claimed to be the source of Chinese soldiers in North Korean combat units?
(a) Mao claimed that they were communist sympathizers from throughout Asia seeking to ignite the international revolution.
(b) Mao claimed they were Chinese volunteers who were protecting Chinese hydroelectric plants along the Yalu River.
(c) Mao claimed that China was not involved, that there were no Chinese soldiers in Korea.
(d) Mao claimed that they were Russians equipped by China.

4. Who does Isaacson report to have offered proposals that the United States develop an intelligence-gathering system?
(a) General Hoyt Vandenberg.
(b) Dean Acheson.
(c) James Forrestal.
(d) George Kennan.

5. What does Isaacson report that members of the Truman Administration suggested caused the political opposition to the Truman Doctrine to confront Soviet Communism wherever it was asserted?
(a) Isolationism and a "let Europe go" mood.
(b) "A spirit of malaise" that blinded the public to understand America's role as the "indispensable nation."
(c) A "head-in-the-sand" mentality in flyover country over the urgency of turning back international communism.
(d) Economic realists who were able to point out the long-term consequences of taxing labor to support foreign interventions.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who does Isaacson claim blocked MacArthur's plans for slowing the flow of Chinese soldiers into the Korean War?

2. Which of the "Six Wise Men" was chosen by President Johnson to assume authority over all diplomatic efforts to end the war in Vietnam according to Isaacson?

3. Why was General MacArthur fired according to Isaacson?

4. What does Isaacson claim to have become the consensus of the "Wise Men" concerning Vietnam in their advice to President Johnson?

5. Who does Isaacson report to be the first of the "Six Wise Men" whom Kennedy sought out for advice after his election to the presidency in 1960?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was the suggestion that Dean Acheson made regarding the future of freedom if Turkey and Greece fell into the influence of Soviet Communism, according to Isaacson?

2. To what event did President Truman compare the Soviet clampdown on Czechoslavakia in 1948, according to Isaacson?

3. What does Isaacson claim Winston Churchill offered as a suggestion for a solution to Soviet expansionism in his "Iron Curtain" speech in Missouri?

4. What does Isaacson claim Clark Clifford wrote in a campaign strategy memo regarding the affect of the Soviet clampdown on Czechoslovakia on the reelection chances of President Truman?

5. According to Isaacson, what caused President Truman to remove General Douglas MacArthur from his command over the conduct of South Korean forces in the Korean War?

6. How does Isaacson report England was affected by the end of WWII?

7. What does Isaacson report to be the entry into the logbook of the Enola Gay to record the dropping of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima?

8. Who did President Kennedy choose to act as his chief negotiator at the International Control Commission talks on Laos, according to Isaacson?

9. What does Isaacson claim to be the North Vietnamese offensive that made the Johnson Administration realize America needed to get out of the Vietnam War?

10. Who does Isaacson claim that Dean Acheson supported for the 1960 Democrat Presidential nomination over John F. Kennedy?

(see the answer keys)

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