Test Bank America’s Longest War The United States And Vietnam, 1950-1975 6th Edition by George Herring

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Test Bank For America’s Longest War The United States And Vietnam, 1950-1975 6th Edition by George Herring

America’s Longest War, 6e (Herring) 

Chapter 2   Our Offspring: Nation Building in South Vietnam, 1954-1961

1) To the Eisenhower Administration, all of the following were significant weaknesses to the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO) EXCEPT

A) its failure to include regional neutral nations such as Burma, India, and Indonesia.

B) restrictions in the Geneva Accords that prevented Laos, Cambodia, and South Vietnam from participating formally.

C) the alliance’s “western colorization.”

D) the failure of the member nations to commit themselves to even “meet common danger.”

Answer:  D

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2) Which of the following problems beset the South Vietnamese government in 1954?

A) a war-ravaged economy

B) antiquated governmental institutions

C) an absence of popular support both in the countryside and among non-Communist nationalists

D) continued Vietminh control of key territory

E) All of these

Answer:  E

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3) In August 1954, a National Intelligence Estimate rated the chances of creating a stable and effective government in South Vietnam as

A) excellent.

B) likely, but at a great cost.

C) all but assured.

D) poor.

E) possible with British assistance.

Answer:  D

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4) Which of the following personal characteristics most accounted for Ngo Dinh Diem’s rise to power in South Vietnam in the mid 1950s?

A) His long standing support for anti-Communist Vietnamese independence.

B) His strong ties and good relationships with past French colonial rulers.

C) His keen sensitivity to the needs and aspirations of South Vietnam’s peasants.

D) His well-thought-out plan to modernize South Vietnam.

E) All of these.

Answer:  A

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5) Which of the following best describes the attitudes of France towards U.S. support for the Diem Regime in 1955?

A) relief and joy

B) dismay and disapproval

C) hope and optimism

D) uncompromising opposition

Answer:  B

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6) Which of the following sects was organized much like the mafia and actually controlled the police force in Saigon?

A) the Cao Dai

B) the Viet Minh

C) the Hoa Hao

D) the Binh Xuyen

Answer:  B

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7) Washington shifted from giving Diem lukewarm support to backing him strongly in 1955 because

A) Diem ably resolved South Vietnam’s tremendous economic difficulties.

B) Hanoi agreed to recognize Diem’s government.

C) Diem’s army won a surprising victory over the sects.

D) Diem won the blessings of South Vietnam’s influential Buddhist hierarchy.

E) All of these.

Answer:  C

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8) Throughout the late 1950s, the fundamental goal of American policy in South Vietnam was to

A) maintain South Vietnam as a barrier against Communist expansion.

B) neutralize Southeast Asia in the ongoing Cold War.

C) effect a rapprochement with Ho Chi Minh.

D) use South Vietnam as a base for launching air attacks against the People’s Republic of China.

Answer:  A

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9) From 1955 to 1961 American economic and military aid to South Vietnam totaled approximately

A) $15 million.

B) $55 million.

C) $550 million.

D) $1.5 billion.

E) $15 billion.

Answer:  D

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10) From 1955-1961, the vast majority of American assistance to South Vietnam went toward

A) establishing a viable, democratic government based on majority rule.

B) creating a strong army to counter North Vietnam’s powerful military.

C) spreading American values among South Vietnam’s impoverished peasants.

D) building a modern industrial economy.

Answer:  B

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11) The South Vietnamese Army that the Military Assistance Advisory Group inherited from their French predecessors suffered from all of the following challenges, EXCEPT

A) they lacked trained and educated officers.

B) they suffered from a lack of national spirit.

C) they lacked in organization, training, and equipment.

D) they were limited to a force of 10,000.

Answer:  D

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12) The commercial-import program suffered from

A) its failure to ease inflation or offset South Vietnam’s foreign exchange deficit.

B) its tendency to focus on financing artificially high living standards rather than on developing industry or agriculture.

C) the high proportion of assistance it provided to North Vietnam.

D) the Eisenhower Administration’s unwillingness to commit sufficient funds to Vietnam.

E) All of these.

Answer:  B

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13) Diem used his political philosophy—”personalism”—to

A) bring together Vietnam’s many diverse ethnic groups.

B) build popular support for democratic values.

C) justify his vision of a modern Vietnam.

D) rationalize opening a dialog with Ho Chi Minh.

Answer:  C

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14) The “reeducation centers” that Diem established in the late 1950s

A) imprisoned thousands of Communists and non-Communists, and helped fuel steadily increasing discontent in South Vietnam.

B) affected only a handful of people.

C) won the loyalty of “stay-behind” Communists through free education and the extension of rural aid.

D) were the centerpiece of Diem’s effort to achieve full literacy in South Vietnam by 1965.

Answer:  A

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15) Despite South Vietnam’s vulnerability, Hanoi chose not to pursue reunification in the late 1950s because

A) periodic border skirmishes with China compelled North Vietnam to station most of its troops on its northern border.

B) Hanoi feared that America would respond to any aggression with nuclear weapons.

C) Ho Chi Minh believed that Vietnam should only be reunified by peaceful means.

D) Hanoi faced daunting postwar reconstruction and nation-building problems including popular resistance to its program of land reform.

E) All of these.

Answer:  D

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16) How did American military strategy change in South Vietnam in 1960?

A) The U.S. increased its troop strength to 250,000.

B) The United States stationed nuclear weapons near Saigon.

C) The U.S. moved from counterinsurgency to conventional warfare.

D) The U.S. moved from conventional warfare to counterinsurgency.

Answer:  D

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17) Diem’s “agroville” program proved to be

A) a stunning success that rallied the peasants to the government and thereby eroded support for the National Liberation Front (NLF).

B) a complete flop that bred widespread resentment among peasants angry at being removed from their homes and separated from the sacred burial grounds of their ancestors.

C) a well-funded but poorly administered program that produced mixed results.

D) popular with South Vietnam’s rural people, but a failure because of insufficient government support.

E) more successful politically than economically.

Answer:  B

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18) In 1960, Ambassador Elbridge Durbrow

A) argued that America should force Diem to implement broad reforms in exchange for further military aid.

B) attempted to persuade a reluctant Diem to declare martial law and to centralize his authority.

C) backed a plot to replace Diem with a government dominated by the military.

D) called publicly for direct American control of South Vietnam.

E) urged President Eisenhower to end America’s commitment to South Vietnam.

Answer:  A

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19) Despite Diem’s weakening position, this nation temporarily eclipsed South Vietnam as the Cold War’s principal Southeast Asian battleground in 1960.

A) Thailand

B) The Philippines

C) Burma

D) Cambodia

E) Laos

Answer:  E

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