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

2. What does Halberstam say conditions were like in South Vietnam by the end of 1964?

3. When does Halberstam say that McNamara realized he had been misled about the conditions in Vietnam?

4. When does Halberstam say the President's thinking about bombing began to change?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What does Halberstam say began to change in early 1964?

4. What was the result of the Spring Offensive?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How did American support influence Diem and Khanh? Did it make them more or less legitimate in the eyes of the Vietnamese? If there were problems caused by overt American support, say also what roles were played by Vietnamese society and by the personalities of Diem and Khanh.

Essay Topic 3

How does the containment of the 1960s differ from the preemptive foreign policy of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. How has American foreign policy changed since the 1960s?

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