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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Halberstam say happened that strained the relationship between Diem and the Buddhists?
(a) The government seized land and temples from the Buddhists.
(b) The government raided the pagodas and blamed it on the army.
(c) The Buddhists martyred themselves in opposition to the government.
(d) The Buddhists instigated confrontations with the army.

2. Who was named to head the U.S. command in Saigon in January 1962?
(a) Maxwell Taylor.
(b) Paul Harkins.
(c) Robert McNamara.
(d) Chester Bowles.

3. What does Halberstam say was the problem with the Kennedy administration's pragmatism?
(a) It was grounded in academic theory.
(b) It was not backed with muscular diplomacy.
(c) It did not have real-world experience.
(d) There were too many crises at once.

4. Whom did Kennedy ask to be Secretary of State instead of Adlai Stevenson?
(a) McGeorge Bundy.
(b) Dean Rusk.
(c) Chester Bowles.
(d) Robert McNamara.

5. What does Halberstam say McNamara had done while he was at Ford?
(a) Innovated in the design of the production process.
(b) Created a fiscal crisis.
(c) Raised the quality of the product without raising the cost.
(d) Busted a unionization attempt.

6. What does Halberstam say McNamara learned that he had to do in order to argue against nuclear weapons?
(a) Discredit military analysts in favor of nuclear weapons.
(b) Make a good argument for conventional weapons.
(c) Demonize his opponents.
(d) Make emotional appeals to the electorate.

7. How did Kennedy see Adlai Stevenson?
(a) He saw Adlai Stevenson as lazy.
(b) He saw Adlai Stevenson as indecisive.
(c) He saw Adlai Stevenson as principled.
(d) He saw Adlai Stevenson as an ideologue.

8. What was Kennedy's position on the Cold War policies of his predecessors?
(a) He was going to improve on them.
(b) He was going to continue them.
(c) He did not want to follow them.
(d) He was going to end them.

9. When did Kennedy first send advisers to Vietnam?
(a) May 1962.
(b) February 1962.
(c) June 1963.
(d) October 1961.

10. How did the Kennedy administration see the war in Vietnam?
(a) As a gift to Asian allies.
(b) As a boon to the military contractors.
(c) As a war against Communism.
(d) As a diversion from domestic problems.

11. What does Halberstam say McNamara tried to do with his fact-finding missions to Vietnam?
(a) Conceal the deteriorating conditions.
(b) Provide a forum for dissenting soldiers.
(c) Protect the President.
(d) Publish the truth.

12. How many troops were in Vietnam when Kennedy was assassinated?
(a) 20,000.
(b) 3,000.
(c) 5,000.
(d) 200,000.

13. Which situation had the biggest effect on the Kennedy administration in 1961?
(a) China policy.
(b) The financial crisis.
(c) The Bay of Pigs.
(d) The Gulf of Tonkin incident.

14. Why didn't Kennedy offer the position of Secretary of State to J. William Fulbright?
(a) Fublright was too young and inexperienced.
(b) Fulbright did not have the support of Negroes or Jews.
(c) Fulbright was too old and conservative.
(d) Fulbright had some unresolved scandals in his past.

15. What did the Geneva Convention decide in Vietnam?
(a) It determined how prisoners of war would be exchanged.
(b) It established a procedure for holding elections.
(c) It divided the country in two, a north and a south.
(d) It sanctioned the north for its attacks on the south.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did Robert Lovett represent for Kennedy?

2. What did the Kennedy administration represent to America?

3. What had happened to reduce the Communism threat by the time McNamara took over as Secretary of Defense?

4. Why didn't Kennedy offer the position of Secretary of State to David Bruce?

5. Why was Chester Bowles assigned to a different position?

(see the answer keys)

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