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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who was Kennedy's military analyst on the 1961 fact-finding mission?
(a) Maxwell Taylor.
(b) Robert McNamara.
(c) McGeorge Bundy.
(d) Chester Bowles.

2. What were Eleanor Roosevelt's feelings about Kennedy?
(a) She distrusted his Catholicism.
(b) She did not entirely trust him.
(c) She admired his leadership.
(d) She resented his inexperience.

3. What issue did Joseph McCarthy use to energize voters?
(a) Communism conspiracies.
(b) Tax cuts.
(c) Civil rights.
(d) Arms reduction.

4. Why hadn't Roosevelt stopped the French from returning to Indochina after the war, in Halberstam's account?
(a) There was no post-war plan to prevent them.
(b) He did not have the authority to.
(c) He could not get a censure from the United Nations.
(d) He needed France for its support of American monetary policy.

5. When did Kennedy become well known in Washington?
(a) In his race for Senate.
(b) When he first entered politics.
(c) During the Cuban Missile Crisis.
(d) In the 1960 campaign.

6. Whose input did the French and Americans ignore about Vietnam, in Halberstam's account?
(a) Lower-level officers.
(b) Generals.
(c) Military advisers.
(d) Diplomats.

7. What does Halberstam say Americans were united about in the early 1960s?
(a) The need to grant civil rights.
(b) The need to establish military supremacy.
(c) The need to fight Communism.
(d) The need to balance the budget.

8. What committee had Kennedy served on in the Senate?
(a) Military Affairs Committee.
(b) Banking and Finance Committee.
(c) Judiciary Committee.
(d) Foreign Relations Committee.

9. Why did Robert Lovett demur about being appointed in the Kennedy administration?
(a) He had health problems.
(b) He was in financial trouble.
(c) He did not like Kennedy.
(d) He was newly a father.

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

11. What state does Halberstam say the Vietcong were in when Kennedy sent the fact-finding mission in 1961?
(a) They were committed and had good leadership.
(b) They were using guerilla tactics ineffectively.
(c) They were fragmented and plagued with in-fighting.
(d) They had opposition in the civilian populace.

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

13. Where does the book open?
(a) Washington, D.C.
(b) Vietnam.
(c) Kennedy's family home in Massachusetts.
(d) Kennedy's Georgetown townhouse.

14. What rule does Halberstam say Kennedy was following in trying to appoint a Secretary of State?
(a) Someone who had a strong intuition.
(b) Someone who had not made many mistakes or offended too many people.
(c) Someone who had learned from his mistakes and had diplomatic experience.
(d) Someone who didn't look back at bad decisions, but plowed ahead.

15. Where does Halberstam say McNamara found people to work under him as Secretary of Defense?
(a) The auto industry.
(b) Academia.
(c) England.
(d) Boeing.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Halberstam say McNamara had done while he was at Ford?

2. What does Halberstam say Americans were disunited about in the early 1960s?

3. What position did the Kennedy administration take with regard to nuclear disarmament?

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

5. When did the problem with the Buddhist monks begin?

(see the answer keys)

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