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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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) John McCloy and Charles Bohlen.
(b) Charles Bohlen and George Kennan.
(c) Robert Lovett and George Kennan.
(d) Averell Harriman and Dean Acheson.

2. What does Isaacson report eventually came of the idea of a "Western Union" military alliance?
(a) It became the European Union (EU).
(b) It became the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
(c) It became the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
(d) It became the United Nations (UN).

3. What did the Johnson Administration offer to Vietnamese communists if they pulled back on their invasion of South Vietnam in the summer of 1965, according to Isaacson?
(a) No political or military intrusion into North Vietnam and diplomatic recognition of the North Vietnamese government.
(b) A bombing halt, local elections with Viet Cong participation, and withdrawal of all foreign troops.
(c) An end to American intervention in the region, open trade relations, and withdrawal of American bases throughout the Pacific.
(d) An immediate agreement to peace terms that settled the border between North and South Vietnam.

4. 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) A "head-in-the-sand" mentality in flyover country over the urgency of turning back international communism.
(b) Economic realists who were able to point out the long-term consequences of taxing labor to support foreign interventions.
(c) "A spirit of malaise" that blinded the public to understand America's role as the "indispensable nation."
(d) Isolationism and a "let Europe go" mood.

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

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) As a clerk to Supreme Court Justice William Howard Taft.
(b) While he was on the Yale crew coached by Averell Harriman.
(c) During a campaign to shake America out of its post WWI "isolationism."
(d) In China to mediate an end to the civil war between Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Tse Tung.

7. 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 a contest between the forces of darkness and light."
(d) 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."

8. What does Isaacson report to have been the reaction to communist tactics against the Marshall Plan?
(a) Congress began to realize that the battle against communism was going to be long and costly.
(b) The American public began looking for similar activities within their communities.
(c) The Truman Administration had the evidence of the corrosive nature of communism to convince the country its steps were the right ones.
(d) Congress initiated the House Un-American Activities Committee.

9. How did the U.S. Government consider North Korea's invasion of South Korea, according to Isaacson?
(a) As a sign that the U.S. had no other choice but to be involved with all the governments of the world to turn back the communist threat.
(b) As the beginning of a life or death struggle against international communism.
(c) As a warning sign to world war.
(d) As a sign that the age of interventionism was over.

10. 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) "Target visually bombed with good results."
(c) "Is this all it's cracked up to be?"
(d) "My God. What have we done?"

11. How did George Kennan contribute to Acheson's effort to win support for Greece and Turkey, according to Isaacson?
(a) Kennan found a Russian exile to meet with congressmen to detail the plans of the Soviet government for overtaking all of Europe.
(b) Kennan took a film crew to make a documentary of the desparation of Greece and Turkey.
(c) Kennan lent the cause credibility by showing how doing so would be an application of his popular document of containment.
(d) Kennan wrote a speech that gave undeniable arguments in support for the cause.

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

13. 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.

14. When and where was the first atomic bomb used on Japan?
(a) August 6, 1945 on Hiroshima.
(b) August 6, 1945 on Tokyo.
(c) August 7, 1945 on Nagasaki.
(d) August 7, 1945 on Hiroshima.

15. Where does Isaacson indicate two crises confronted the Kennedy Adminstration in 1961?
(a) Laos and Berlin.
(b) Vietnam and Czechoslovakia.
(c) Iran and Israel.
(d) Peking and Moscow.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. Who was the Republican upon whom the Truman Administration focused to win support for the Marshall Plan, according to Isaacson?

3. Who does Isaacson claim Dean Acheson supported for the 1960 Democrat Presidential Nomination?

4. What does Isaacson suggest shaped President Johnson's views on dealing with Soviet Communism?

5. Who does Isaacson report to have offered proposals that the United States develop an intelligence-gathering system?

(see the answer keys)

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