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A quiz that matters
Foreign-policy experts come up with the real questions George W. Bush should answer.
By Douglas McGray
[12/13/99]

Who killed Betty Van Patter?
A letter from an old friend stirs up passions from one of the most disturbing, yet little-known, crimes of the New Left era. It happened exactly 25 years ago.
By David Horowitz
[12/13/99]

Revenge of the nerd
Steve Forbes' poll numbers in New Hampshire slowly rise even though the media ignores him.
By Jake Tapper
[12/11/99]

Clueless in Seattle
The real legacy of the WTO protests is a rising tide of populism -- try telling that to politicians swapping platitudes on global trade.
By Arianna Huffington
[12/10/99]

Who were those masked anarchists in Seattle?
The media has blown the story, but there's a growing fringe of activists who believe property destruction isn't "violent," and are bent on convincing the rest of us.
By L.A. Kauffman
[12/10/99]

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8) Whom did McGeorge Bundy, national security advisor to President John F. Kennedy, describe this way: "[He] seldom went beyond the counsel he had to choose from. He was not an initiator but a chooser; the buck stopped here, but he waited for the buck to arrive"? Hint: Keep your eye on the buck.

9) Explain the Bretton Woods agreements. Keep your answer to sound bite length.

10) True or false: When Truman in 1947 issued the Truman Doctrine, a challenge to Communism, and declared "it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures," he and Acheson meant this literally and intended to stick to these words regarding U.S. actions around the world.

11) Which of the following took the position in 1948 that the "United States has little strategic interest in maintaining the present troops and bases in Korea" and advised Washington to accept Soviet domination of Korea and send aid instead to "countries of greater strategic importance"?

a) the American Communist Party
b) Sen. Prescott Bush
c) Gen. Dwight Eisenhower
d) the New York Times editorial board

12) When confronted with a hard decision -- what to say about accused Soviet spy Alger Hiss, whose brother had been a law partner of Acheson -- did Acheson rely on advisors and consultants?

13) When Acheson spoke before the American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1950, he decried Sen. Joe McCarthy's anti-communist witch hunt and concluded his remarks on this subject with the words of poet John Donne: "Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore ..." Complete the quote Acheson used. (Hint: The lines do not rhyme.)

14. When Acheson briefed President-elect Eisenhower in 1952, what foreign policy problem did he have no solution for?

15) How did Acheson describe President Kennedy's Bay of Pigs operation against Cuba?

a) "poorly planned"
b) "worth trying"
c) "a bungled toy-soldier campaign mounted by a playboy"
d) "asinine"

16) During the Cuban missile crisis, the Pentagon proposed a strong military response that could have led to an invasion of Cuba. Why did that nearly lead to nuclear war?

17) What lesson of the Korean War did Acheson believe applied to the Vietnam War?

18) In 1967, Acheson, who was an informal advisor to President Lyndon B. Johnson, suspected he was not being provided accurate information about the war in Vietnam, and he stormed out of a White House meeting with the president. Afterward, a Johnson aide called Acheson and asked why he had left so abruptly. What was Acheson's reply?

19) What books did Acheson like to read? You will receive extra credit for drawing lessons applicable to the present from any of them.

Next page | And now for the answers ...