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List Price: $24.95 |
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Customer Ratings: 4.5 (from 62 reviews) |
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| Editorial
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Product Description
David Halberstam’s masterpiece, the defining history of the making of the Vietnam tragedy, with a new Foreword by Senator John McCain.
Using portraits of America’s flawed policy makers and accounts of the forces that drove them, The Best and the Brightest reckons magnificently with the most important abiding question of our country’s recent history: Why did America become mired in Vietnam, and why did we lose? As the definitive single-volume answer to that question, this enthralling book has never been superseded. It is an American classic. |
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| Product Details |
| Author: |
David Halberstam |
| Binding: |
Hardcover |
| Creator: |
John McCain |
| Dewey Decimal Number: |
973.92 |
| EAN: |
9780679640998 |
| Edition: |
20th |
| ISBN: |
0679640991 |
| Label: |
Modern Library |
| Languages: |
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| List Price: |
| Amount: |
2495 |
| Currency Code: |
USD |
| Formatted Price: |
$24.95 |
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| Manufacturer: |
Modern Library |
| Number Of Items: |
1 |
| Number Of Pages: |
816 |
| Package Dimensions: |
| Height: |
170 |
| Length: |
800 |
| Weight: |
180 |
| Width: |
550 |
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| Product Group: |
Book |
| Publication Date: |
2001-09-04 |
| Publisher: |
Modern Library |
| Release Date: |
2001-09-04 |
| Studio: |
Modern Library |
| Title: |
The Best and the Brightest |
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| Customer Reviews |
Customer Rating: 5
Review Date: 2009-06-11
1 out of 1 found this review helpful.
Summary: Best ever on Vietnam
I recommend this book to any of us who served in the lost cause in Vietman. Well written and informative. One of the best books I have ever read. A must reading for our Presidents and leader in the future. |
Customer Rating: 5
Review Date: 2009-05-22
1 out of 1 found this review helpful.
Summary: Simply Phenomenal
The Best and the Brightest has been the most illuminating and trenchant work I've found yet on American political and foreign policy during the 1950s and 1960s. For those people, like me, who were too young to have grown up during the period, it provides a thrilling narrative of the events and the people of that time. Although based on meticulous journalistic effort, the book reads more like a political thriller novel - with the catch that it is all true, that every twist and turn actually happened in our government. Most importantly, it shows clearly how the history of the 1940s and 1950s was so critical to decisions made in the 1960s; the accompanying implication that the history of the last 50 years matters enormously to our current policy-makers should not be lost on anyone. Read it for the wisdom that ultimately arises from failure, for the history of a great nation wrestling with its own hubris, and for the lessons it so clearly has for us in the present and in the future - read it. |
Customer Rating: 5
Review Date: 2008-12-07
1 out of 3 found this review helpful.
Summary: "Stop (Vietnam) War, Make Friends, Do Business"---VC tourist
June, 1969, I arrive in Bangkok, Thailand for a 9 month TOD at
Ramasun Station---a small, high tech ASA listening post.
Barhopping in Bangkok that night before I'm to be flown to
my duty station in NE Thailand I come across some happy
Orientals who invite me to their table.
Turns out the 'Happy Orientals' say they're NVA and VC
and are taking a well deserved vacation from war.???
We talk and drink and have a good time.
One of the younger 'VC' says: "You good Joe. We friends
in Bangkok. Why not be friends in Vietnam? Stop war.
Do business. Have fun. Make love, not war."
"You not going to win in Vietnam. You take village,
then you leave, we come back, you take village, you
leave...Unless you stay in village, you going to lose.
Why your leaders make you do this?" said another older
'VC'.
Since I had a 'TOP SECRET' clearance, I reported my
conversations to my superiors before I was to leave
for Ramasun.
'Ho hum' was the attitude of the debriefing officer.
He wouldn't even let me write down my experience.???
Was this a test? Or was this so common that more
data was just extra icing.
Anyway, after 9 months in Thailand, talking with locals,
talking with fellow troopies who'd been in Vietnam,
most of us came to the conclusion that we were losing
tactically and strategically and the best thing to do
was to let Vietnam be free before more US troops were
killed in a Vietnamese War of Independence because
the longer we were there, the bigger the bloodbath
as the new nation would stabilize.
We Intel Grunts often wondered if the real 'hot poop' got to our
leaders. Reading the Pentagon Papers and Best and Brightest
tell me that they were getting the straight dope from the
field; but, just couldn't believe it and progressed with
the war as if the Vietnamese were Americans and that
we were doing God's work to stop Godless Communism, etc...
I was disgusted then and got out of the Army in 1970.
I am disgusted now that our Fearless Leaders like Bush and
friends and our moronic tactics in Iraq.
The similarities to our Vietnam are eerie.
We can have victory over the Islamic fanatics that makes
the US strong, uses fewer lives of our young, etc...but,
our leaders aren't listening.
Good read. Just solidifies my longtime beliefs.
Bill Bryan |
Customer Rating: 5
Review Date: 2008-10-10
0 out of 0 found this review helpful.
Summary: In the end They did get it wrong!!
I read this book way back in 1974 when an old Army buddy Lt. Tom Couch told me to read it.
I am a Veteran of the War in Southeast Asia. I can attest to the happenings during my tour of South Vietnam. I quickly learned that the War as it was being played out during the years of 1971-1972 was a losing proposition. We were wasting all our assets for a Country who in truth wanted to be left alone.
Halberstam has set in cement his views of a conflict that was invented in the minds of the powers to be in Washington. LBJ was the actual catalyst in the venture. In retrospect LBJ reminds me of a fellow Texan George Bush who reacts the same way 30 years later. Think about that, it is a true comparison.
Although JFK had ventured into this Southeast Asian scenario, Halberstam feels that JFK would not have escalated this conflict. Maybe Yes, Maybe No!!
The hubris of McGeorge Bundy and Robert McNamara would rush LBJ into the War to end Communism in Southeast Asia. This is what LBJ wanted to hear. Damn the torpedoes, full ahead!!!!!!
In the meantime General Harkins was perpetuating a fraud on the U.S.A. in stating we controlled all the aspects of the Vietnam Conflict. He indeed did not tell the truth of the happenings in the fields of South Vietnam. We indeed were not winning.
Later General Westmorland continued this masquerade. The U.S. sent over 500,000 troops into the quagmire of Vietnam. These governing Whiz Kids in Washington were indeed wrong. So now Old Friend, please learn from this ignorance. The beat goes on. Do we ever really learn.
Halberstam understood way back in the 1960's, we also should learn that the best and the brightest really knew nothing!! They were wrong!!!
This is a great read and I rate it 5 Stars. If I could I would rate it 6 Stars. Bloody Good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Customer Rating: 5
Review Date: 2008-06-19
1 out of 1 found this review helpful.
Summary: The Best and the Brightest
An excellent review of the origins and causes of the Vietnam conflict and a must read for the serious historian to understand the liberal, leftist viewpoint. To be fair in one's analysis however, the author's views need to be contrasted to a viewpoint from the right. A good comparative work is Vietnam at War: The History 1946-1975 by Phillip Davidson. Some where in between the views of these authors probably lies the truth. |
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