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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What was Kennedy in the process of doing at the beginning of the book?
(a) Winning the election for president.
(b) Campaigning for president.
(c) Serving on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
(d) Assembling an administration.

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Halberstam say was the state of tensions within the White House as involvement in Vietnam escalated?

2. Which issue was NOT confronting the nation when the Kennedy administration took office?

3. How did McNamara achieve his goals while he was at Ford?

4. When did Kennedy first send advisers to Vietnam?

5. Why hadn't Roosevelt stopped the French from returning to Indochina after the war, in Halberstam's account?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did the meeting between Lovett and Kennedy play in the press?

2. What was the Kennedy administration's image with the American people?

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

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

5. What was the American government's relationship with Diem in 1961?

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

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

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

9. How did the fall of China and the Cold War affect the Kennedy administration?

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

(see the answer keys)

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