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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 does Halberstam say was going to cause the realities of the war to be made public?

2. Who did President Johnson send to Vietnam to investigate the situation there?

3. What position did Maxwell Taylor begin to support as a result of his late 1964 trip to Vietnam?

4. What does Halberstam say was the military's opinion after the start of Rolling Thunder?

5. What does Halberstam say was the purpose of operation Rolling Thunder?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happened during the second Gulf of Tonkin incident?

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

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

4. What was Dean Rusk's role in Vietnam after Kennedy's assassination?

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

6. What was President Johnson's position with regard to bombing?

7. What happened during the Gulf of Tonkin incident?

8. What issues were discussed as there started to be struggles over Vietnam strategy in mid-1965?

9. Who was interested in overthrowing Diem?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson's strategies for handling the war in Vietnam. How did they negotiate the complex mixture of voices within the U.S. government in similar ways? How were they different? How did the changes in conditions in the U.S. and in Vietnam account for Johnson's different strategies?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

Describe Halberstam as a biographer and historian. What are his preoccupations? What does he not consider? What are his narrative techniques, and what literary techniques does he use to describe the people and actions that comprise "The Best and the Brightest"?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 782 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample