View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. Why does Isaacson claim MacArthur's plans were blocked?
(a) Because the foreign policy elite feared losing influence if a military success ended the conflict in Korea.
(b) Because the Administration had a strict policy of keeping American soldiers within the boundaries of South Korea.
(c) Because the Administration feared communist aggression within the continental United States.
(d) Because the bombing of the bridges might provoke the Chinese to take harsher actions.

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

4. 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 believed America's monopoly on nuclear weapons could check Soviet aggression, but Soviet nuclear power made him doubtful.
(c) Truman decided that the best way of confronting the Soviets would be with a massive military build-up of both nuclear and conventional forces.
(d) Truman saw the futility of the destructive nature of nuclear weapons and attempted to begin a policy of non-intervention.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Isaacson report to have been the reaction to communist tactics against the Marshall Plan?

2. What does Isaacson claim that Averell Harriman and his Wall Street contemporaries believed to be the best guarantee for American security?

3. What does Isaacson claim to be the the Soviet's view of keeping security?

4. Why did President Eisenhower relieve Bob Lovett from the Defense Department, according to Isaacson?

5. When and where was the first atomic bomb used on Japan?

Short Essay Questions

1. How many coups were conducted in Vietnam in less than a year between 1963 and 1964, 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 scandal does Isaacson report to have come to the Truman Administration's state department in January 1950?

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

5. 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?

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

7. What was the focus of George Kennan's "Long Telegram" according to Isaacson?

8. What does Isaacson report to have been General Douglas MacArthur's proposal to stop the flow of Chinese Soldiers into the war between North and South Korea?

9. What does Isaacson claim to be Stalin's reaction to the Marshall Plan?

10. What does Isaacson claim to be the North Vietnamese offensive that made the Johnson Administration realize America needed to get out of the Vietnam War?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,064 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample