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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 office did President-Elect Kennedy offer to the first of the "Six Wise Men" whose counsel he sought?
(a) Ambassador to Russia.
(b) Ambassador to NATO.
(c) Chief of Staff.
(d) Secretary of State.

2. What does Isaacson cite as "...perhaps the most dramatic and significant (conversion) of any postwar American statesman"?
(a) The conversion of Averell Harriman from a market capitalist to seeing the value of socialism in some systems.
(b) The conversion of John McCloy to being an internationalist to being an isolationist.
(c) The conversion of Dean Acheson to a hard-line stance on dealing with the Soviets.
(d) The conversion of Harry Truman from being a non-interventionist to being an internationalist.

3. 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) A "head-in-the-sand" mentality in flyover country over the urgency of turning back international communism.
(b) Isolationism and a "let Europe go" mood.
(c) Economic realists who were able to point out the long-term consequences of taxing labor to support foreign interventions.
(d) "A spirit of malaise" that blinded the public to understand America's role as the "indispensable nation."

4. Who were two of the "Six Wise Men" that Isaacson reported had withdrawn their support for the war in Vietnam by the summer of 1967?
(a) George Kennan and Charles Bohlen.
(b) John McCloy and Dean Acheson.
(c) Robert Lovett and Averell Harriman.
(d) John McCloy and Robert Lovett.

5. 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) Kennan believed that confronting the Soviets with conventional forces would avoid nuclear annihilation.
(c) Because Kennan felt the Soviets were paranoid and a bigger bomb would make them more dangerous.
(d) Kennan felt that communism was unsustainable especially when its systems were attempting to build empires.

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. What did Gen. MacArthur recommend, according to Isaacson, to stem the flow of Chinese soldiers into North Korea?

3. Where does Isaacson indicate two crises confronted the Kennedy Adminstration in 1961?

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

5. Who was the Republican upon whom the Truman Administration focused to win support for the Marshall Plan, according to Isaacson?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

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

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

4. 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?

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

6. What does Isaacson claim Clark Clifford wrote in a campaign strategy memo regarding the affect of the Soviet clampdown on Czechoslovakia on the reelection chances of President Truman?

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

8. Why did Truman's most trusted foreign advisers, including Robert Lovett, George Kennan, Chip Bohlen, and Dean Acheson, oppose the formation of a Jewish State in Palestine, according to Isaacson?

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

10. What Southeast Asian country did President Eisenhower tell President-Elect Kennedy was the "key" to keeping communism from overtaking all of Southeast Asia according to Isaacson?

(see the answer keys)

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