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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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?
(a) Dean Acheson.
(b) John McCloy.
(c) George Kennan
(d) Averell Harriman.

2. Why did President Eisenhower relieve Bob Lovett from the Defense Department, according to Isaacson?
(a) Because Lovett was considered untrustworthy based upon his relationship with Alger Hiss.
(b) Because the Eisenhower Administration planned to cut spending on conventional forces and rely totally on nuclear weapons for defense.
(c) Because Lovett was found leaking policy decisions to his Democrat friends outside the administration.
(d) Because Lovett was a Democrat and Republicans demanded party loyalty while they had control of Congress.

3. What does Isaacson report to be the entry in the Enola Gay log book by co-pilot Robert Lewis after the explosion of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima?
(a) "This thing is over."
(b) "My God. What have we done?"
(c) "Target visually bombed with good results."
(d) "Is this all it's cracked up to be?"

4. What concern does Isaacson claim motivated Under Secretary of State Dean Acheson to encourage America's financial support for Greece?
(a) A possible takeover of Greece by communists as a result of a civil war.
(b) That an economic collapse in Greece would lead to a general economic collapse throughout Europe.
(c) That an economic collapse in Greece would be widely seen as a failure of market systems.
(d) That an economic collapse in Greece would expose the weakness of America's "dollar diplomacy."

5. Who does Issacson report to have written a telegram that claimed fear that war could come, "with dramatic suddenness"?
(a) Former Secretary of War Henry Stimson.
(b) George Kennan.
(c) General Douglas MacArthur.
(d) General Lucius Clay, the Military Governor of Germany.

6. When had Dean Acheson worked with Secretary of State George Marshall, prior to Marshall's appointment to the State Department, according to Isaacson?
(a) While he was on the Yale crew coached by Averell Harriman.
(b) As a clerk to Supreme Court Justice William Howard Taft.
(c) In China to mediate an end to the civil war between Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Tse Tung.
(d) During a campaign to shake America out of its post WWI "isolationism."

7. How did Isaacson claim Acheson described the division of the world between the United States and the Soviet Union during the crisis facing Greece and Turkey?
(a) "...a test of free will against coercion."
(b) "...a contest between freedom and slavery."
(c) "...an unbridgeable ideological chasm."
(d) "...a struggle between totalitarianism and democracy."

8. What does Isaacson report that President Truman did to decide America's response to the Soviet Union's possession of nuclear weapons?
(a) He appointed a three-man national security committee.
(b) He sent out the "Wise Men" to conduct town hall meetings to explain the danger facing the country from Soviet nuclear weapons.
(c) He courted the press to show the film of Russia's nuclear explosion to convince the public of the urgent need for increased military spending.
(d) He polled his cabinet and based his response on its concensus.

9. What was the document that Isaacson claims to be the blueprint for national security policy through the 1960's?
(a) The "Long Telegram."
(b) The Acheson memo.
(c) NSC-68.
(d) The Pumpkin Papers.

10. After Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president in 1952, who does Isaacson state became Secretary of State?
(a) John Foster Dulles.
(b) Richard Nixon.
(c) Averell Harriman.
(d) Adlai Stevenson.

11. Who were two of the "Six Wise Men" that Isaacson reported had withdrawn their support for the war in Vietnam by the summer of 1967?
(a) George Kennan and Charles Bohlen.
(b) Robert Lovett and Averell Harriman.
(c) John McCloy and Dean Acheson.
(d) John McCloy and Robert Lovett.

12. What does Isaacson suggest shaped President Johnson's views on dealing with Soviet Communism?
(a) Johnson's desire to show his power against that of the leaders of the Soviet Union.
(b) The views of Dean Acheson as he served as a congressman in the late 1940's.
(c) The viciousness with which Joseph Stalin purged political enemies throughout his reign.
(d) Johnson's admiration for the Truman Administration's confrontation of communist imperialism.

13. According to Isaacson, why did did George Kennan oppose the development of more powerful nuclear weapons?
(a) Kennan believed that confronting the Soviets with conventional forces would avoid nuclear annihilation.
(b) Kennan believed the confrontation with communism was a social battle, not military.
(c) Kennan felt that communism was unsustainable especially when its systems were attempting to build empires.
(d) Because Kennan felt the Soviets were paranoid and a bigger bomb would make them more dangerous.

14. After the atomic bombs had been detonated in Japan, what does Isaacson indicate to be the next challenge for the government in the post-war era?
(a) Finding work for all the veterans.
(b) Preserving Germany's industrial capacity.
(c) Restoring Europe's economy.
(d) Taking steps to control atomic weapons.

15. What does Isaacson claim to have become the consensus of the "Wise Men" concerning Vietnam in their advice to President Johnson?
(a) "There should be no question of making whatever combat force increases were required."
(b) "The results in Vietnam will determine the course of the world well into the future."
(c) "Our policy of containment will collapse if we fail in Vietnam."
(d) "This has become a quagmire and we need to leave."

Short Answer Questions

1. How did communist cells throughout Europe respond to the Marshall Plan?

2. How does Isaacson claim the Truman Administration learned of the Soviet Union's possession of nuclear weapons in September, 1949?

3. Who does Isaacson report to have committed the U.S. to active ground war in Korea?

4. What event at the end of 1967 does Isaacson suggest influenced the Johnson Administration that America had to withdraw from Vietnam?

5. How did the U.S. Government consider North Korea's invasion of South Korea, according to Isaacson?

(see the answer keys)

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