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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. Which president does Isaacson report Dean Acheson served as Assistant Secretary of State?

2. What does Isaacson suggest was a practical challenge that Truman faced when he began his presidency?

3. What does Isaacson claim to be the reason that Harriman and Dean Acheson supported making post-war loans to the Soviets?

4. What does Isaacson claim to be the goal of the "Wise Men"?

5. What does Isaacson claim to have been America's foreign policy following WWI?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who does Isaacson identify as the two men that Secretary of War Henry Stimson called the "Heavenly Twins"?

2. How did Averell Harriman and Robert Lovett come to work together after WWI, according to Isaacson?

3. What were the circumstances through which John McCloy came into contact with Averell Harriman and Robert Lovett after WWI, according to Isaacson?

4. What does Isaacson report to be the difference between George Kennan's approach to training for the foreign service and that of Chip Bohlen?

5. What did Isaacson report regarding a meeting between Averell Harriman and Max Beaverbrook that foretold the change in the balance of power between England and the United States?

6. How does Isaacson claim that Robert Lovett's father started in his work for E.H. Harriman?

7. What does Isaacson report that George Kennan believed Marxism offered to Soviet Russian leaders?

8. Why did Russian soldiers dismantle German factories and send the assets back to their homeland at the end of WWII according to Isaacson?

9. Which of the "Six Wise Men" does Isaacson indicate attended Harvard Law School?

10. What does Isaacson claim to be Averell Harriman's qualification for Skull and Bones?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Connections with the Soviet Union became a connecting point between each of the "Wise Men" and other world leaders. Detail how the "Wise Men" established connections with the Soviet Union, what leaders affected their connections with it, and events that shaped their future perspectives of the Soviet Union.

Essay Topic 2

The "Wise Men" made decisions that they knew would have affects on the voting public. Identify three such decisions, the elections that they influenced and the candidates whom they were intended to assist. Use support from the book to validate your positions.

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)

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