Finally I have an understanding of the political and military evolution of our tragic involvement in Vietnam. By that very defense, by all the publicity, he had become controversial. You Save 10%. By the end of the book the reader may still not find the answer, but what he or she will find is a lesson in human folly and how the illusion of superior ability can lead one to arrogance, or perhaps less, over-confidence, but ending in hubris nevertheless. . Third parties may also place cookies through this website for advertising, tracking, and analytics purposes. A few months after I arrived in the US, Saigon fell to the communists. The book is the story of the generation who arrived in Washington in 1960 with the Kennedy administration, one of the most talented groups to have held the levers of power in the country's history: the best and the brightest. Naval Air Squadron. The Best and the Brightest is David Halberstam's masterpiece, the defining history of the making of the Vietnam tragedy. Yet it seemed as if history had come their way: just as they had predicted, the Russians proved untrustworthy and ungentlemanly (by 1944 there had been growing tensions between Roosevelt and some of his national security people over Soviet postwar aims; the national security people had held a view more parallel to that of Churchill) and had tried to expand in Europe, but Western democratic leadership had turned them back. He was the private man in the public society par excellence. symptoms are devastating: sudden unprovoked attacks of anxiety-accompanied by skipping and racing of the heart, shortness of breath, lightheadedness, dizzy spells. Tables of contents shine in formal reports and documents of more than 10 pages. I don't spend as much time on Vietnam as I should but it was one of the unraveling factors that brought us where we are today. Log in to update your newsletter preferences. However,I couldn't quite pinpoint why Powell thought Obama should read it, so I had no choice but to read it again (joy). He lived in a world where young men made their way up the ladder by virtue not just of their own brilliance and ability but also of who their parents were, which phone calls from which old friends had preceded their appearance in an office. His profiles of the major figures, such as Robert McNamara, Dean Rusk, and MacGeorge Bundy, are both enlightening and disheartening. In the intervening years, I have re-read the book a couple of times. Lovett himself would talk of those years in the late forties as almost miraculous ones, when the American executive branch and the Congress were as one, when the Marshall Plan, the Point Four program and NATO had come about and been approved.The men of that era believed, to an uncommon degree, that their view of history had been confirmed; only a very few questioned it. This tale is told from the commanding heights of powerful men who driven by very human frailties and flaws plowed the US into a quagmire costing 60,000 American lives and millions in Indochina. He was concerned about the weather, that the old man not be exposed to the cold or to the probing questions of freezing newspapermen, that he not have to wait for a cab. Outstanding book, as is anything that I have read by Halberstam. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. Select entire table or page numbers only and click OK to regenerate the table of contents from your headings. He was above petty divisions, so he could say of his friends, as so many of that group could, that he did not even know to which political party they belonged. The key for JFK, and eventually Lyndon Baines Johnson, was the people he surrounded himself with — the titled The Best and the Br. Fine historical research and reporting. Along the way we learn the backgrounds, motivations and impact of key figures: Robert McNamara, Dean Rusk, John Paton Davies, McGeorge Bundy, William Bundy, Walt Rostow, Dean Acheson, George Ball, Averill Harriman, Clark Clifford, Roger Hilsman, John McNaughton, Maxwell Taylor, Paul Harkins, William Westmoreland, Robert Kennedy and of course JFK and LBJ. "The Best and the Brightest" by David Halberstam appears on a number of lists of the most important nonfiction books of the twentieth century. On the stump, both connected with people on an gut level. Even worse is the ... Atlantis. they can to create a true meeting of independent Premium.
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