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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who does Isaacson claim that Dean Acheson, Robert Lovett, and John McCloy suggested for President-Elect Kennedy's Secretary of State?
(a) Bill Fulbright.
(b) David Bruce.
(c) Dean Rusk.
(d) Paul Nitze.

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

3. Who does Isaacson report to be the last of the "Six Wise Men" whom President-Elect Kennedy called before he made his choice for Secretary of State?
(a) Dean Acheson.
(b) John McCloy.
(c) Robert Lovett.
(d) Averell Harriman.

4. What office did President-Elect Kennedy offer to the first of the "Six Wise Men" whose counsel he sought?
(a) Ambassador to NATO.
(b) Chief of Staff.
(c) Ambassador to Russia.
(d) Secretary of State.

5. What did Winston Churchill recommend as a solution to the challenge of growing Soviet Power?
(a) Improving working conditions to prevent labor upheavals.
(b) Forming NATO .
(c) An Anglo-American alliance.
(d) Economic warfare.

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

7. To whom did President Kennedy look in an attempt to peacefully settle the conflicts in Laos?
(a) Robert Lovett.
(b) George Kennan.
(c) Averell Harriman.
(d) Dean Acheson.

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

9. 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 budgets for all possible strategies so the country could be kept safe from communist aggression.
(b) The Pentagon recommended an increase in A-bomb production.
(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 increased presence and support for conventional war to avoid a nuclear confrontation.

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

11. Who did President Eisenhower choose for his Ambassador to Russia, according to Isaacson?
(a) Dean Acheson.
(b) Averell Harriman.
(c) Chip Bohlen.
(d) George Kennan.

12. 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?
(a) Averell Harriman.
(b) Dean Acheson.
(c) Robert Lovett.
(d) George Kennan.

13. 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) "...an unbridgeable ideological chasm."
(b) "...a contest between freedom and slavery."
(c) "...a struggle between totalitarianism and democracy."
(d) "...a test of free will against coercion."

14. 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) Because Kennan felt the Soviets were paranoid and a bigger bomb would make them more dangerous.
(c) Kennan felt that communism was unsustainable especially when its systems were attempting to build empires.
(d) Kennan believed the confrontation with communism was a social battle, not military.

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

Short Answer 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?

2. What does Isaacson claim to be Dean Acheson's views on Vietnam?

3. When does Isaacson report communist North Korea invaded South Korea?

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

5. Where does Isaacson indicate two crises confronted the Kennedy Adminstration in 1961?

(see the answer keys)

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