View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What was the organization that eventually replaced the Office of Strategic Services, according to Isaacson?

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

3. Why was the Johnson Administation's plan to settle the Vietnamese conflict rejected, according to Isaacson?

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

5. What does Isaacson claim to have become the consensus of the "Wise Men" concerning Vietnam in their advice to President Johnson?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

6. Who does Isaacson claim that Dean Acheson supported for the 1960 Democrat Presidential nomination over John F. Kennedy?

7. 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?

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

9. What does Isaacson report to be the concern of Robert Lovett regarding the operations of the CIA under President Eisenhower?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

George Kennan and Chip Bohlen used their very different personalities and skills to climb the ranks of the foreign service to eventually enter the inner circles of the Roosevelt Administration. Compare and contrast the diverse personalities and skills of Kennan and Bohlen and detail how they complemented each other to become major influences on policies concerning the Soviet Union.

Essay Topic 2

Harry Truman committed American soldiers to fight the war in Korea without a Congressional declaration. What are the constitutional requirements for committing American soldiers to war? How did the Truman Administration justify the action to Congress? Who benefited from this decision? What have been the long-term effects of using American soldiers to fight undeclared wars beyond the oversight of Congress? Who carries the responsibility for these effects, the presidency or Congress?

Essay Topic 3

Throughout WWII Joseph Stalin was depicted in The Wise Men as an unreliable ally and he was considered a threat to American interests after the war. Yet when the destructiveness of the atom bomb was exposed, members of the Truman Administration considered making the Soviet Union part of a system of regulating the use of the weapon and even considered sharing the technology with the Soviets. What were the reasons for inviting the Soviets to share strategic information regarding atomic weapons with the U.S.? Are these reasons contradictory to the distrust that the six "Wise Men" had for Stalin and the Soviets? How so or how not? Did the eventual development of nuclear weapons in the Soviet Union act to preserve peace or lead to justifications for more military build-up? Explain your answers with information from the book.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 960 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample