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A quiz that matters
Foreign-policy experts come up with the real questions George W. Bush should answer.
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[12/10/99]

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At the Dec. 2 debate in New Hampshire, Fox News Channel moderator Brit Hume asked Bush what he reads, and Bush cited a biography of Dean Acheson, who was secretary of state for President Harry Truman. His aides later identified the book as "Acheson: The Secretary of State Who Created the American World," by James Chace, a highly regarded expert on international affairs.

That's certainly egghead reading material. But at the next debate, when CNN's Judy Woodruff asked Bush what lessons he had drawn from Acheson's career in foreign affairs, he barely answered the question, offering only familiar bromides from his stump speech, such as "we must promote the peace" and "free trade brings ... hope and prosperity."

Moments later, Sen. John McCain, in a less than subtle dig, called attention to Bush's vacuous response by making a specific reference to Acheson: "When Dean Acheson walked into Harry Truman's office in June of 1950 and said, 'North Korea's attacked South Korea,' Harry Truman didn't take a poll. Harry Truman knew what we had to do."

Actually, according to Chace's book, Acheson phoned Truman, who was in Missouri, with the news, and it took Truman a full day to decide how to respond. But give McCain a B-minus for improvising an answer that placed Acheson, more or less, in his correct context.

Who would have guessed that Dean Acheson would be a campaign issue 28 years after his death? Luckily, Bush still has a chance to redeem himself on this front. Below is a pop quiz based on the Acheson biography. We invite the Texas governor to take the test (without, of course, looking at the answers that follow). If nothing else, a decent score would put to rest any doubts about Bush's reading comprehension skills.

Questioners in future debates should feel free to steal from the list that follows, as well.

1) When Acheson was a student at Yale, what was his grade point average?

2) To what was Acheson referring when he said he had visited "one of these mad and not a little degrading spectacles [and] nothing would induce me to do it again"?

3) In 1933, Acheson was appointed undersecretary of the Treasury to serve beneath Treasury Secretary William Woodin. How did Woodin obtain his position? How much banking experience did Woodin have? What did Woodin's appointment reveal about U.S. politics?

4) After falling out of favor with President Roosevelt, why did Acheson not ally himself with the Republican Party?

5) Of what job did Acheson say, "there is only one test -- who can best pilot the ship in ... crisis?"

6) According to Chace, what was Acheson's credo?

a) "I am ready to lead."
b) "Look at my record."
c) "Not compromise but decision."
d) "I want to accomplish something."

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