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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. Whom did Kennedy want to act as Secretary of State?

2. Which cabinet member was opposed to the Bay of Pigs invasion?

3. What did the Kennedy administration represent to America?

4. Why didn't Kennedy offer the position of Secretary of State to McGeorge Bundy?

5. Who was Kennedy's military analyst on the 1961 fact-finding mission?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What three plans does Halberstam say the U.S. was considering in Vietnam in 1961?

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

4. What does Halberstam say Kennedy was confronted with at the beginning of "The Best and the Brightest"?

5. What did Lovett and Kennedy discuss during their meeting?

6. How did the situation in Vietnam unfold?

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

8. What was McNamara's stance with regard to nuclear weapons?

9. Who was Robert A. Lovett, and what does Halberstam say he signified for Kennedy?

10. What crises confronted the Kennedy administration in 1961?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a critical review of "The Best and the Brightest": what does Halberstam do well, and what parts of the book are not well-executed? Considering recent revelations regarding the war, how prescient was Halberstam in his history?

Essay Topic 2

Analyzing the evidence from Halberstam's text, describe the change that took place in American minds as a result of the Vietnam War. Put another way: Compare and contrast the administrations that preceded Kennedy's administration, and the Nixon administration, which followed the Johnson administration. How does Halberstam describe the different cultures that existed before and after the Vietnam war?

Essay Topic 3

Did the Vietnam War mark a change in American ideology? Was the concept of natural rights changed or abandoned? Was Vietnam a war like other wars America had fought, or was it unprecedented? How did the U.S. government's response to the opposition to the war change the nature of citizenship and political activity in America?

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