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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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) President Truman.
(d) General Douglas MacArthur.

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

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

4. How did the U.S. Government consider North Korea's invasion of South Korea, according to Isaacson?
(a) As a sign that the age of interventionism was over.
(b) 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.
(c) As a warning sign to world war.
(d) As the beginning of a life or death struggle against international communism.

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

6. What area of the world did Averell Harriman try to encourage the Johnson Administration to show more interest according to Isaacson?
(a) Central America.
(b) Africa.
(c) The Middle East.
(d) East Europe.

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

8. 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 expose the weakness of America's "dollar diplomacy."
(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) A possible takeover of Greece by communists as a result of a civil war.

9. 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) Averell Harriman.
(b) Dean Acheson.
(c) Robert Lovett.
(d) John McCloy.

10. 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 courted the press to show the film of Russia's nuclear explosion to convince the public of the urgent need for increased military spending.
(c) He sent out the "Wise Men" to conduct town hall meetings to explain the danger facing the country from Soviet nuclear weapons.
(d) He polled his cabinet and based his response on its concensus.

11. Why does Isaacson suggest Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union and Mao Tse Tung of China gave support to North Korea's invasion of South Korea?
(a) They hoped to show the superiority of communism over democracy.
(b) They hoped that victory in Korea would begin the "Domino Theory" of communist world-wide revolution.
(c) They hoped that the U.S. would consider the conflict to be a local affair.
(d) They hoped that the U.S. would put itself in financial turmoil by singly funding what appeared to be a long war.

12. 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 personal cause of free American talent overcoming international slavery."
(b) Clifford understood the rivalry had, "...to be framed as a contest between the forces of darkness and light."
(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 potential threat to the freedom and security of every individual in the country."

13. Who does Isaacson claim blocked MacArthur's plans for slowing the flow of Chinese soldiers into the Korean War?
(a) Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Lovett.
(b) White House Liaison with the Korean command George Kennan.
(c) Under Secretary of State Dean Acheson.
(d) President Harry Truman.

14. What does Isaacson report that Clark Clifford wrote in a campaign memo to use the Soviet Crisis to help President Truman's re-election campaign for 1948?
(a) "In times of crisis, the American citizen tends to back up his President."
(b) "Never waste a good crisis."
(c) "This gives us the opportunity to make voters fear a change at this time."
(d) "Great wars define great leaders."

15. 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 Russians equipped by China.
(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 communist sympathizers from throughout Asia seeking to ignite the international revolution.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was the only concession the Japanese requested for its surrender to end WWII, according to Isaacson?

2. Why was the Johnson Administation's plan to settle the Vietnamese conflict rejected, according to Isaacson?

3. How does Isaacson detail how the last of the "Six Wise Men" whom President-Elect Kennedy called affected Kennedy's decision for Secretary of State?

4. What did Gen. MacArthur recommend, according to Isaacson, to stem the flow of Chinese soldiers into North Korea?

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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