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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 does Isaacson claim to be George Kennan's biggest concern regarding Soviet Communism?
(a) Its ability to adjust and change its public approaches based upon efforts to contain it.
(b) The appeal to the working class being taxed to support international efforts.
(c) Populist indignation at elites.
(d) Subversion, not invasion.

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

3. When had Dean Acheson worked with Secretary of State George Marshall, prior to Marshall's appointment to the State Department, according to Isaacson?
(a) While he was on the Yale crew coached by Averell Harriman.
(b) In China to mediate an end to the civil war between Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Tse Tung.
(c) As a clerk to Supreme Court Justice William Howard Taft.
(d) During a campaign to shake America out of its post WWI "isolationism."

4. 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 sent out the "Wise Men" to conduct town hall meetings to explain the danger facing the country from Soviet nuclear weapons.
(c) He polled his cabinet and based his response on its concensus.
(d) 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.

5. What does Isaacson report to be the entry in the Enola Gay log book by co-pilot Robert Lewis after the explosion of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima?
(a) "My God. What have we done?"
(b) "Is this all it's cracked up to be?"
(c) "This thing is over."
(d) "Target visually bombed with good results."

Short Answer Questions

1. Who does Isaacson record to be the first Democrat candidate for president in 1952 after President Truman announced he would not seek re-election?

2. What does Isaacson record came of Kennan's concern regarding confronting Soviet Communism?

3. What was a personal factor that made the "Six Wise Men" unpopular to the general public, according to Isaacson?

4. What does Isaacson suggest to be one of the largest factors in America's rise to prominence after WWII?

5. Who does Isaacson report that President Truman chose to administer the European Recovery Plan (The Marshall Plan) in Europe?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Isaacson report England was affected by the end of WWII?

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 did Isaacson identify as George Kennan's recommended next phase for dealing with communist expansionism after he felt that his plan for containment was working?

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

5. Why did the Truman Administration consider making an atomic arms control "covenant" with the Soviet Union, according to Isaacson?

6. Why does Isaacson suggest that Dean Acheson recommended Dean Rusk to President-Elect Kennedy for Secretary of State?

7. What scandal does Isaacson report to have come to the Truman Administration's state department in January 1950?

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

9. How does Isaacson explain the changes in the military policy of the Truman Administration once it became clear the Soviet Union had nuclear weapons?

10. How many coups were conducted in Vietnam in less than a year between 1963 and 1964, according to Isaacson?

(see the answer keys)

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