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. What had happened to reduce the Communism threat by the time McNamara took over as Secretary of Defense?
(a) Cuba had instituted its own version of Communism.
(b) McCarthy had purged Communists from American politics.
(c) Communism had failed in North Korea.
(d) Russia and China had split.

2. Whom did Kennedy want to act as Secretary of State?
(a) He was going to act as his own Secretary of State.
(b) He was going to abolish the position of Secretary of State.
(c) Adlai Stevenson.
(d) Chester Bowles.

3. What position did the Kennedy administration take with regard to nuclear disarmament?
(a) Kennedy wanted to make sure that the U.S. and Russia had comparable arsenals.
(b) Kennedy wanted to show Kruschev that he was tough.
(c) Kennedy wanted to eliminate nuclear weapons altogether.
(d) Kennedy wanted to reduce the number of nuclear weapons to a reasonable number.

4. How does Halberstam say McNamara learned about the affairs in Vietnam?
(a) By seeing for himself.
(b) By reading reports.
(c) By conducting academic studies.
(d) By talking to people.

5. How does Halberstam say Dean Rusk felt about his interview with Kennedy for the Secretary of State job?
(a) Not well.
(b) Superbly.
(c) He felt he had not been articulate enough.
(d) He did not know whether he could serve under Kennedy.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did Kennedy represent to Eleanor Roosevelt's followers?

2. Whose input did the French and Americans ignore about Vietnam, in Halberstam's account?

3. Whom had Eleanor Roosevelt wanted Kennedy to appoint as Secretary of State?

4. What issue had Kennedy and Dean Rusk had to discuss when Dean Rusk was offered the Secretary of State job?

5. What state does Halberstam say the Vietcong were in when Kennedy sent the fact-finding mission in 1961?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was the Kennedy administration's stance with regard to Russia?

2. Who was Chester Bowles, and what did Kennedy get by tapping Bowles to be an adviser?

3. Why didn't the U.S. gain the loyalty of the Vietnamese peasants?

4. Whom did Kennedy consider for the position of Secretary of State?

5. What kind of reports does Halberstam say the U.S. got from Vietnam?

6. What did Kennedy's representatives report back after their 1961 fact-finding mission?

7. Describe U.S. engagements in Vietnam in the 1950s.

8. Who was Kennedy, and how did he become well known?

9. What does Halberstam say was McNamara's relationship with Kennedy?

10. Why does Halberstam say Chester Bowles' popularity faded?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 880 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample