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

2. Who does Isaacson claim that Dean Acheson, Robert Lovett, and John McCloy suggested for President-Elect Kennedy's Secretary of State?
(a) Bill Fulbright.
(b) Paul Nitze.
(c) Dean Rusk.
(d) David Bruce.

3. How does Isaacson claim President Truman planned to fight for support for the Marshall Plan in Congress?
(a) By advising Democrat congressmen to amend planks of the plan to popular legislation so it would eventually get passed out of the notice of political opponents.
(b) By vetoing every spending bill until the plan was accepted in Congress.
(c) By calling for an emergency session of Congress and winning support for an "interim aid" bill.
(d) By campaigning across the country to rally popular support for the effort.

4. Why did President Eisenhower relieve Bob Lovett from the Defense Department, according to Isaacson?
(a) Because Lovett was considered untrustworthy based upon his relationship with Alger Hiss.
(b) Because the Eisenhower Administration planned to cut spending on conventional forces and rely totally on nuclear weapons for defense.
(c) Because Lovett was a Democrat and Republicans demanded party loyalty while they had control of Congress.
(d) Because Lovett was found leaking policy decisions to his Democrat friends outside the administration.

5. 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.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Isaacson record came of Kennan's concern regarding confronting Soviet Communism?

2. Who does Isaacson report to be the first of the "Six Wise Men" whom Kennedy sought out for advice after his election to the presidency in 1960?

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

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

5. What role did Frank Wisner play in Kennan's plans for confronting Soviet expansionism?

Short Essay Questions

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

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. What was the focus of George Kennan's "Long Telegram" according to Isaacson?

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

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

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

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

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. 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?

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?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,087 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample