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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. What movement regarding the war does Halberstam say started at the University of California in Berkeley?

2. When did McNamara say the U.S. would be out of Vietnam, when he visited the country?

3. What plan was the U.S. government preparing for by the end of 1964?

4. What does Halberstam say was the conclusion of the study that analyzed the results of a bombing attack against the north?

5. How does Halberstam say the Americans responded when the Vietcong attacked Pleiku?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does Halberstam say Maxwell Taylor said were the three issues confronting the U.S. in its Vietnam planning?

3. What were the questions people were asking on the issue of bombing the North?

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

5. What was the intelligence community's assessment of Rolling Thunder?

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

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

8. What does Halberstam say the effect of the Vietnam war on the American people was?

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

10. Who was interested in overthrowing Diem?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

What must McGeorge Bundy or Robert McNamara or President Johnson have thought about the Vietnam war? Write a journal entry as if you were them.

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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This section contains 848 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample