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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who does Isaacson report to have offered proposals that the United States develop an intelligence-gathering system?
(a) Dean Acheson.
(b) James Forrestal.
(c) George Kennan.
(d) General Hoyt Vandenberg.

2. What was the major contributing factor to causing the fate of the "Six Wise Men" after the election of Eisenhower?
(a) The plans made by the "Wise Men" were proving to have disastrous economic consequences for the country.
(b) After nearly 25 years of depression, war, and turmoil, Americans demanded a return to policies of non-intervention.
(c) It was the first time the Republicans held power in 20 years and they wanted to start with their people in power.
(d) The general public began to see America's foreign policy elite had been reserving power to itself with the continual appeals for wars.

3. What does Isaacson claim to have been the primary purpose of the telegram to President Truman with the warning of Soviet aggression?
(a) To give support for more military spending in the battle to confront communism.
(b) To become the basis for a propaganda campaign that helped to condense power within the foreign policy elite.
(c) To assist military chiefs in Congressional testimony.
(d) To support a greater role for military actions against communist aggression.

4. Who does Issacson report to have written a telegram that claimed fear that war could come, "with dramatic suddenness"?
(a) Former Secretary of War Henry Stimson.
(b) General Douglas MacArthur.
(c) George Kennan.
(d) General Lucius Clay, the Military Governor of Germany.

5. What was the document that Isaacson claims to be the blueprint for national security policy through the 1960's?
(a) The Acheson memo.
(b) The Pumpkin Papers.
(c) NSC-68.
(d) The "Long Telegram."

6. 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?
(a) No political or military intrusion into North Vietnam and diplomatic recognition of the North Vietnamese government.
(b) An end to American intervention in the region, open trade relations, and withdrawal of American bases throughout the Pacific.
(c) An immediate agreement to peace terms that settled the border between North and South Vietnam.
(d) A bombing halt, local elections with Viet Cong participation, and withdrawal of all foreign troops.

7. What does Isaacson suggest shaped President Johnson's views on dealing with Soviet Communism?
(a) The views of Dean Acheson as he served as a congressman in the late 1940's.
(b) The viciousness with which Joseph Stalin purged political enemies throughout his reign.
(c) Johnson's desire to show his power against that of the leaders of the Soviet Union.
(d) Johnson's admiration for the Truman Administration's confrontation of communist imperialism.

8. When does Isaacson report communist North Korea invaded South Korea?
(a) June 24, 1950.
(b) June 6, 1949.
(c) June 6, 1944.
(d) June 25, 1959.

9. To whom did President Kennedy look in an attempt to peacefully settle the conflicts in Laos?
(a) Averell Harriman.
(b) George Kennan.
(c) Robert Lovett.
(d) Dean Acheson.

10. What event at the end of 1967 does Isaacson suggest influenced the Johnson Administration that America had to withdraw from Vietnam?
(a) Antiwar protests threatening college campuses.
(b) Public opinion polls showing Johnson could not be re-elected if Vietnam was not settled.
(c) Race riots protesting the disproportionate number of Black soldiers stationed in Vietnam compared to their percentage of the population.
(d) The Tet Offensive.

11. According to Isaacson, why did did George Kennan oppose the development of more powerful nuclear weapons?
(a) Kennan believed the confrontation with communism was a social battle, not military.
(b) Because Kennan felt the Soviets were paranoid and a bigger bomb would make them more dangerous.
(c) Kennan believed that confronting the Soviets with conventional forces would avoid nuclear annihilation.
(d) Kennan felt that communism was unsustainable especially when its systems were attempting to build empires.

12. 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 to convince the general public that the communists were out for world domination and win trust for the wisdom of his foreign policy advisors.
(c) They brought the country to understand the necessity of confronting communism and helped the Administration win support for its budget demands.
(d) They helped gain support for the Marshall Plan and for more military spending.

13. What does Isaacson report that members of the Truman Administration suggested caused the political opposition to the Truman Doctrine to confront Soviet Communism wherever it was asserted?
(a) Isolationism and a "let Europe go" mood.
(b) Economic realists who were able to point out the long-term consequences of taxing labor to support foreign interventions.
(c) A "head-in-the-sand" mentality in flyover country over the urgency of turning back international communism.
(d) "A spirit of malaise" that blinded the public to understand America's role as the "indispensable nation."

14. How does Isaacson suggest the Soviet Union's possession of nuclear weapons changed President Truman's perspective on checking Soviet aggression?
(a) Truman believed America's monopoly on nuclear weapons could check Soviet aggression, but Soviet nuclear power made him doubtful.
(b) Truman realized that the struggle between communism and freedom would be costly and desperate.
(c) Truman saw the futility of the destructive nature of nuclear weapons and attempted to begin a policy of non-intervention.
(d) Truman decided that the best way of confronting the Soviets would be with a massive military build-up of both nuclear and conventional forces.

15. What does Isaacson suggest to be the result of George Kennan's "Long Telegram"?
(a) It caused a harmful foreign policy debate within the Truman Administration that led to international paralysis.
(b) It formulated the containment theory which was embraced by Washington.
(c) It made Kennan persona non grata to his superiors within the State Department.
(d) It caused his old friend, Dean Acheson to advise him to discuss his ideas with him before he put things on paper.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What were the three questions President Truman wrote regarding America's confrontation with Soviet aggression?

3. What does Isaacson write of what became of the "Six Wise Men" after Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president in 1952?

4. 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?

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

(see the answer keys)

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