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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. What event does Caputo recall that further dims the idea of glamor in war?

2. In the evening, why are the peasant girls rushing down the road to their village?

3. What does Lemmon tell Caputo that Sullivan is doing when he gets shot?

4. What does Caputo say about the significance of a single death in war?

5. How does the adjutant's quarters look as Caputo returns to Vietnam?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the news that makes Caputo sorry he is not there instead of being in Okinawa?

2. What really causes the aloofness to Caputo at the base camp?

3. After a group of VC disappears once again, what does Caputo want to believe?

4. What mistake happens when they fire a three-point-five at the sniper who got Sullivan?

5. How do Caputo and his 40-odd men get transported to the war zone?

6. What happens to the machine-gunner named Parker as they wait for a convoy?

7. When does Caputo have his first realization of someone trying to kill him?

8. Why does the C-130 make a sudden steep assault-dive on the way to the war zone?

9. What is the first month like after the battalion reaches Vietnam?

10. How does Caputo describe the way a soldier fighting in the jungle should act?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The charges against Caputo and his men would have gone completely unnoticed had the village not lodged a complaint. Write a paper in which you give your opinion about the role of political expediency in deciding when and against whom to prosecute. Discuss whether you think the event involving Le Dung was an isolated incident.

Essay Topic 2

There was a great deal of resistance to erecting the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D. C. Part of that was because many returning veterans, like Caputo, sympathized with the anti-war movement in America. Do some research on that movement and write your opinion about it. If you had lived in that time, which side of the argument would you have been on?

Essay Topic 3

Self-preservation is a big consideration for anyone. In the case of Vietnam, there was no way to look at a person and know if he or she was South Vietnamese or VietCong. Write your opinion about the moral dilemma of having to make such a determination and whether it is right to err on the side of personal safety.

(see the answer keys)

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