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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What were the three questions President Truman wrote regarding America's confrontation with Soviet aggression?
(a) "What is our move when Russia moves? Should we move first? Who pulls the trigger?"
(b) "Can the communists really support such a spread of empire? Does communism have any real chance of surviving in our system? How much is this going to cost the government?"
(c) "Will Russia move first? Who pulls the trigger? Then where do we go?"
(d) "Can we afford to confront the Soviets? Will the voters support us? Can the country survive more wars?"

2. 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 a national campaign to inform citizens of the need for increased military spending to keep the communist threat at bay.
(c) The Pentagon recommended increased presence and support for conventional war to avoid a nuclear confrontation.
(d) The Pentagon recommended an increase in A-bomb production.

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

4. Why was General MacArthur fired according to Isaacson?
(a) Because MacArthur's belligerence had become a threat to world peace.
(b) Because MacArthur was seen as unable to lead with the changes in technology and the enemy at hand.
(c) MacArthur made statements criticizing China's strength and suggesting Chiang Kai-shek could open a second front against China with an invasion on the mainland.
(d) Because MacArthur's popularity within the U.S. was a threat to the Administration's efforts to control the direction of the war in Korea.

5. What does Isaacson suggest to be the result of George Kennan's "Long Telegram"?
(a) It made Kennan persona non grata to his superiors within the State Department.
(b) It formulated the containment theory which was embraced by Washington.
(c) It caused a harmful foreign policy debate within the Truman Administration that led to international paralysis.
(d) It caused his old friend, Dean Acheson to advise him to discuss his ideas with him before he put things on paper.

Short Answer Questions

1. 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?

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

3. Who does Isaacson claim that Dean Acheson, Robert Lovett, and John McCloy suggested for President-Elect Kennedy's Secretary of State?

4. What office did President-Elect Kennedy offer to the first of the "Six Wise Men" whose counsel he sought?

5. What does Isaacson report eventually came of the idea of a "Western Union" military alliance?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who were the first two of the "Six Wise Men" to remove themselves from advising President Johnson because they could no longer support America's involvement in Vietnam, according to Isaacson?

2. What was the suggestion that Dean Acheson made regarding the future of freedom if Turkey and Greece fell into the influence of Soviet Communism, according to Isaacson?

3. What does Isaacson claim Winston Churchill offered as a suggestion for a solution to Soviet expansionism in his "Iron Curtain" speech in Missouri?

4. What does Isaacson claim Clark Clifford wrote in a campaign strategy memo regarding the affect of the Soviet clampdown on Czechoslovakia on the reelection chances of President Truman?

5. What was Dean Acheson's view regarding America's involvement in Vietnam, according to Isaacson?

6. What does Isaacson claim made President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, attractive to the eastern foreign policy Establishment?

7. To what event did President Truman compare the Soviet clampdown on Czechoslavakia in 1948, according to Isaacson?

8. Who did President Kennedy choose to act as his chief negotiator at the International Control Commission talks on Laos, according to Isaacson?

9. According to Isaacson, what caused President Truman to remove General Douglas MacArthur from his command over the conduct of South Korean forces in the Korean War?

10. What does Isaacson report to be the entry into the logbook of the Enola Gay to record the dropping of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima?

(see the answer keys)

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