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

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

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

4. 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 caused his old friend, Dean Acheson to advise him to discuss his ideas with him before he put things on paper.
(c) It caused a harmful foreign policy debate within the Truman Administration that led to international paralysis.
(d) It formulated the containment theory which was embraced by Washington.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Isaacson claim the Truman Administration learned of the Soviet Union's possession of nuclear weapons in September, 1949?

2. What did Winston Churchill recommend as a solution to the challenge of growing Soviet Power?

3. What does Isaacson report that President Truman did to decide America's response to the Soviet Union's possession of nuclear weapons?

4. 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?

5. What does Isaacson cite as "...perhaps the most dramatic and significant (conversion) of any postwar American statesman"?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. 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?

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

4. 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?

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

6. 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?

7. 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?

8. 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?

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

10. What affect did the Soviet aggression in Czechoslovakia have on Truman's effort to win Congressional approval of the Marshall Plan, according to Isaacson?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,146 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample