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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why was the Johnson Administation's plan to settle the Vietnamese conflict rejected, according to Isaacson?
(a) The Congress rejected it.
(b) The New York Times criticized it.
(c) Middle America feared communist expansion.
(d) The South Vietnamese government rejected it.

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

3. What does Isaacson cite as "...perhaps the most dramatic and significant (conversion) of any postwar American statesman"?
(a) The conversion of Harry Truman from being a non-interventionist to being an internationalist.
(b) The conversion of John McCloy to being an internationalist to being an isolationist.
(c) The conversion of Averell Harriman from a market capitalist to seeing the value of socialism in some systems.
(d) The conversion of Dean Acheson to a hard-line stance on dealing with the Soviets.

4. What was the organization that eventually replaced the Office of Strategic Services, according to Isaacson?
(a) The Secret Service.
(b) The Federal Bureau of Investigation.
(c) The Central Intelligence Agency.
(d) The Office of Homeland Security.

5. How did communist cells throughout Europe respond to the Marshall Plan?
(a) They would attempt to disrupt governments and try to bring them down.
(b) They started programs of social support for European laborers to win political support for their agendas.
(c) They began a program of counterfeiting currencies to cause an inflationary cycle.
(d) They posed as businesses that received funds that were then put into programs to promote communism.

6. What does Isaacson claim to have been the primary purpose of the telegram to President Truman with the warning of Soviet aggression?
(a) To become the basis for a propaganda campaign that helped to condense power within the foreign policy elite.
(b) To assist military chiefs in Congressional testimony.
(c) To support a greater role for military actions against communist aggression.
(d) To give support for more military spending in the battle to confront communism.

7. How does Isaacson suggest that President Kennedy hoped to avoid war in Laos?
(a) By supporting economic development throughout South East Asia.
(b) Through back channel negotiations with leaders of the Soviet Union.
(c) By calling on the support of allies in the area to come to America's aid for the war that was rapidly developing.
(d) With help from the British in reviving the International Control Commission.

8. What does Isaacson claim that Averell Harriman and his Wall Street contemporaries believed to be the best guarantee for American security?
(a) The establishment of democratic and representative governments everywhere.
(b) Withdrawing from international affairs and focusing on building up American markets.
(c) Providing financial support to allies that were targets for Soviet expansionism.
(d) Increased defense spending to force the Soviet Union to enter an unsustainable arms race.

9. Which two of the "Six Wise Men" does Isaacson report were called to brief the Kennedy Administration on the two crises that faced them?
(a) Averell Harriman and Dean Acheson.
(b) John McCloy and Charles Bohlen.
(c) Robert Lovett and George Kennan.
(d) Charles Bohlen and George Kennan.

10. How does Isaacson report that Clark Clifford understood the rivalry between the U.S. and the Soviet Union had to be framed to make the general public support confronting the Communists?
(a) Clifford understood the rivalry had, "...to be framed as a potential threat to the freedom and security of every individual in the country."
(b) Clifford understood the rivalry had, "...to be framed as a personal cause of free American talent overcoming international slavery."
(c) Clifford understood the rivalry had, "...to be framed as fearfully as possible to cajole the general public to put unquestioning support for the wisdom of its government."
(d) Clifford understood the rivalry had, "...to be framed as a contest between the forces of darkness and light."

11. 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) John McCloy.
(b) George Kennan
(c) Averell Harriman.
(d) Dean Acheson.

12. Who does Isaacson claim John F. Kennedy called for advice on responding to a congratulatory telegram from Nikita Khrushchev the day after Kennedy was announced the winner of the 1960 election?
(a) Dean Acheson.
(b) Robert Lovett.
(c) Averell Harriman.
(d) Chip Bohlen.

13. What role did Frank Wisner play in Kennan's plans for confronting Soviet expansionism?
(a) He became a European mediator between activists and their targets.
(b) He became a policy director for the Truman Administration in its effort to discover communist subversion activities.
(c) He ran the "Department of Dirty Tricks" within the CIA.
(d) He became the congressional liaison for the Truman Administration informing it of Congress' mood for the international activities to contain communism.

14. 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 increased presence and support for conventional war to avoid a nuclear confrontation.
(b) The Pentagon recommended increased budgets for all possible strategies so the country could be kept safe from communist aggression.
(c) The Pentagon recommended a national campaign to inform citizens of the need for increased military spending to keep the communist threat at bay.
(d) The Pentagon recommended an increase in A-bomb production.

15. Who was the Republican upon whom the Truman Administration focused to win support for the Marshall Plan, according to Isaacson?
(a) Republican House Leader, Charles Halleck.
(b) Senator Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan.
(c) Congressman Richard Nixon of California.
(d) Congressman Joseph McCarthy of Minnesota.

Short Answer Questions

1. 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?

2. What were the three questions President Truman wrote regarding America's confrontation with Soviet aggression?

3. What does Isaacson write of what became of the "Six Wise Men" after Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president in 1952?

4. What event does Isaacson claim one of the "Six Wise Men" used to encourage President Johnson to get tougher in Vietnam?

5. How does Isaacson suggest the Soviet Union's possession of nuclear weapons changed President Truman's perspective on checking Soviet aggression?

(see the answer keys)

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