View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Whose staff does Halberstam say outlined three responses to the American bombing campaign?

2. How did Lyndon Johnson want to be remembered, in Halberstam's account?

3. Who does Halberstam say eventually took on the role of setting the tone for Vietnam policy?

4. Why does Halberstam say that September and October of 1963 were good for the Kennedy administration?

5. What does Halberstam say was the Joint Chiefs of Staff's perception of the problem in Vietnam?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did the Johnson administration tell America as it committed more troops to Vietnam?

2. What was Rolling Thunder and what was its purpose?

3. What does Halberstam say McNamara found in Vietnam when the Johnson administration took over?

4. Describe what Halberstam calls 'the Bundy trip' to Vietnam.

5. What was the result of the first direct confrontation with Vietcong and American troops?

6. What was the result of the Spring Offensive?

7. What were the alternatives the staff in Vietnam laid out for Maxwell Taylor when he visited Vietnam in the fall of 1964?

8. Who expressed doubt about the Vietnam war, and what happened to their opposition?

9. What does Halberstam say was Johnson's approach to paying for the war?

10. What program did Maxwell Taylor call for in the paper he wrote on his way back from Vietnam?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Kennedy was a young president, and he was thought to be inexperienced. What was Kennedy's relationship with the past, and with politicians who went before him? What did he take from them, and which of their policies was he intent on changing?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

Using the hindsight gained by "The Best and the Brightest", would you say that the war in Vietnam was a local conflict that could have been left to resolve itself, or would you say that if left unaddressed, Vietnam would have been one of the dominoes in a string of nations the Communists took over? Put another way: would the internal tensions in Vietnam have dogged the Communists just as badly as they dogged the Americans and the American-backed South Vietnamese government, if the Vietcong had ever acquired power there?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 831 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample