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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. Whose theories had been used as the basis for expanded militarization in the late 1940s?

2. What issue did Joseph McCarthy use to energize voters?

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

4. What state does Halberstam say the Vietcong were in when Kennedy sent the fact-finding mission in 1961?

5. How long had Ho Chi Minh's communism associations been known to the U.S., in Halberstam's account?

Short Essay Questions

1. Whom did Kennedy consider for the position of Secretary of State?

2. Describe the atmosphere in America when Kennedy took office.

3. Describe the confrontation in Laos.

4. Who was McGeorge Bundy, and what was his role in the Kennedy administration?

5. Who was Dean Rusk, and what was his role and place in the Kennedy administration?

6. What were Americans beginning to say with regard to Diem after the Buddhist monk problems began?

7. How did the White House eventually try to limit the military?

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

How did the Vietnam war affect the U.S. government's bureaucratic organization? Analyze Halberstam's history and describe the changes that were made in the roles and structure of the government as a result of or in reaction to the situation in Vietnam. How did Kennedy and Johnson create special positions or grant special powers to individuals around them? How did the system of checks and balances work in relationship to the privacy and secrecy of the war planners?

Essay Topic 3

John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama share certain similarities, insofar as they were both young and charismatic leaders with relatively little experience, but represented a new way of doing things. Compare and contrast the early political careers and elections of these two presidents. How were they temperamentally similar? How did they relate to the old guard? How were their ascensions different?

(see the answer keys)

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