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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. 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) Robert Lovett.
(c) John McCloy.
(d) Averell Harriman.

3. How does Isaacson suggest the Soviet Union's possession of nuclear weapons changed President Truman's perspective on checking Soviet aggression?
(a) Truman realized that the struggle between communism and freedom would be costly and desperate.
(b) Truman decided that the best way of confronting the Soviets would be with a massive military build-up of both nuclear and conventional forces.
(c) Truman saw the futility of the destructive nature of nuclear weapons and attempted to begin a policy of non-intervention.
(d) Truman believed America's monopoly on nuclear weapons could check Soviet aggression, but Soviet nuclear power made him doubtful.

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

5. What State Department official does Isaacson report to have been determined to bring the United States into a "Western Union" military alliance?
(a) John Hickerson.
(b) Robert Lovett.
(c) Theodore Achilles.
(d) Donald Maclean.

6. Who does Isaacson report that President Johnson wanted to serve as Ambassador to Vietnam in 1964?
(a) John McCloy.
(b) McGeorge Bundy
(c) George Ball.
(d) Dean Rusk.

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

8. Who eventually took the position of Ambassador to Vietnam, according to Isaacson?
(a) Dean Acheson.
(b) Robert Lovett.
(c) General Maxwell Taylor.
(d) McGeorge Bundy.

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

10. Isaacson reported that the Soviet Union's actions in East Europe helped the Truman Administration achieve what two political goals?
(a) They brought the country to understand the necessity of confronting communism and helped the Administration win support for its budget demands.
(b) They helped gain support for the Marshall Plan and for more military spending.
(c) They helped concentrate power within the presidency and give general support for the foreign policy elite to act without scrutiny.
(d) They helped to convince the general public that the communists were out for world domination and win trust for the wisdom of his foreign policy advisors.

11. What does Isaacson record came of Kennan's concern regarding confronting Soviet Communism?
(a) It was taken by the House UnAmerican Activities committee to guide its efforts to prosecute communist activities throughout the country.
(b) It became the foundation for using American embassies as the hub of spying activities against foreign subversives.
(c) An "office of special projects" was started in the CIA.
(d) It was shelved by higher members of the Truman Administration but acted upon by the Eisenhower Administration.

12. Why did Dean Acheson believe the U.S. should get involved in the war between North and South Korea, according to Isaacson?
(a) To save the Western Alliance in Europe.
(b) To preserve strategic positions in the Far East.
(c) To preserve the doctrine of containment.
(d) To prove to Stalin and Mao that all of their imperialistic actions would be confronted.

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

14. Who was asked to approach President-Elect Kennedy's choice for Secretary of State to offer him the position, according to Isaacson?
(a) Bobby Kennedy.
(b) Robert Lovett.
(c) David Bruce.
(d) Dean Acheson.

15. 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) Isolationism and a "let Europe go" mood.
(c) "A spirit of malaise" that blinded the public to understand America's role as the "indispensable nation."
(d) Economic realists who were able to point out the long-term consequences of taxing labor to support foreign interventions.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What does Isaacson define as the main political challenge to the Truman Administration encouraging Congress to support financial aid to Greece and Turkey?

3. What scientist suggested the United States should respond to the Soviet Union's possession of the A-bomb by producing more powerful bombs?

4. What does Isaacson claim to have become the consensus of the "Wise Men" concerning Vietnam in their advice to President Johnson?

5. What concern does Isaacson claim motivated Under Secretary of State Dean Acheson to encourage America's financial support for Greece?

(see the answer keys)

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