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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. After the atomic bombs had been detonated in Japan, what does Isaacson indicate to be the next challenge for the government in the post-war era?

3. When does Isaacson report communist North Korea invaded South Korea?

4. What area of the world did Averell Harriman try to encourage the Johnson Administration to show more interest according to Isaacson?

5. Upon whom does Isaacson claim that Stimson relied to help him achieve his goal regarding the control of the atom bomb?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. 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?

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

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

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

6. 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?

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

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

9. How did President Truman respond to the North Korean invasion of South Korea on June 24, 1950, according to Isaacson?

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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The Truman Administration was at odds with General Douglas MacArthur even before he took command over the UN troops in Korea. The attitudes of the administration demonstrated themselves with the order to MacArthur forbidding him from bombing bridges between China and Korea across which Chinese soldiers and equipment were traveling to support North Koreans. Was the conduct of the Truman Administration and the "Wise Men" an extension of President Truman's spoken disdain for MacArthur, or did MacArthur cause his own problems with the Truman Administration. Use comments and decisions by members of the Truman Administration and the "Wise Men" pertaining to or directed at MacArthur as well as MacArthur's actions and statements to support your position.

Essay Topic 2

The "Wise Men" joined President Johnson in taking a hard line on Vietnam and committing more than 500,000 combat soldiers to that war. Why did Vietnam cause the social and political turmoil that overtook the U.S.? What were the human and economic costs of the Vietnam war to the U.S.? Were the positions the "Wise Men" took regarding Vietnam consistent with their record or had they lost some foresightedness of how the war would affect the rest of the country? Use information from the book and outside sources to support your position.

Essay Topic 3

Much of what the "Wise Men" helped to develop during the Cold War (NATO, the CIA, foreign aid spending, the military industrial complex) still exists today despite the fact that the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989 and China has abandoned communism as an economic and governing model. Consider how these institutions and strategies are being used in the "War on Terror," and the reasons current leaders say this is a necessary global war and compare them to claims of the "Wise Men" for confronting the global threat of communism. Use evidence in the book and from outside sources in this comparison give your opinion on one of three options:

a. The efforts of the "Wise Men" to develop the tools to protect America's interests around the world were for the sake of the people of the U.S. and they are still being used for the same today.

b. The intentions of the "Wise Men" were to protect the U.S. but they have recently been used to expand the power of people in the government over the lives of American citizens.

c. The "Wise Men" used their access to the foreign policy bureaucracy to draw power to themselves and the foreign policy establishment and they continue to be so used today.

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