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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What made McGeorge Bundy an effective administrator?
(a) He did not brook opposition.
(b) He could sense what others were thinking and what they needed.
(c) He had a rigid sense of principle.
(d) He listened to others and used their ideas.

2. Why didn't Kennedy formulate a China policy, in Halberstam's account?
(a) His China advisor had not been confirmed.
(b) China was not a high priority.
(c) China was experiencing a revolution.
(d) He didn't have time.

3. 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 was newly a father.
(d) He did not like Kennedy.

4. What policy did Rostow support in Vietnam?
(a) A policy of rapprochement.
(b) An appeasement policy.
(c) An aggressive anti-Communist policy.
(d) Battleship diplomacy.

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

6. Where was the war going badly, at the time when the White House was losing faith in Diem?
(a) In the Mekong Delta.
(b) Around Saigon.
(c) In Pleiku.
(d) In Quang Nam.

7. What did the fact-finding mission discover at about the time of the problem with the Buddhist monks?
(a) The North was expanding its recruitment.
(b) Vast corruption.
(c) The U.S. was unprepared for guerilla warfare.
(d) Diem was not on top of the situation.

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

9. Which problem did NOT arise for the Kennedy administration during 1961?
(a) Escalation of problems in Laos.
(b) Arms race.
(c) Financial crisis.
(d) Bay of Pigs invasion.

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

11. What does Halberstam say the U.S. government had to rely on once it had advisers in Vietnam?
(a) Strategists in the Pentagon.
(b) Reports from the military.
(c) Reporters and aid workers.
(d) Diplomatic accounts from Vietnam.

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

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

14. Why was Chester Bowles assigned to a different position?
(a) He had quarreled with Bobby Kennedy over who was in charge in Kennedy's absence.
(b) He had been caught saying embarrassing things on an open mic.
(c) He had leaked confidential information to the press.
(d) He had disgraced himself by having an affair with one of his pages.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. How did Kennedy's followers feel about Chester Bowles' ideas?

2. How big a margin did Kennedy win the presidency by?

3. How did the Kennedy administration see the war in Vietnam?

4. What had Robert Lovett been before entering government?

5. What was Kennedy's relationship with the press during his presidential campaign?

(see the answer keys)

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