Article

2007-04-23 Fifth Column

Kennedy Toady, Anti-Vietnam Author David Halberstam Dies In Car Crash

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Posted by Anonymoose 2007-04-23 19:15|| || Front Page|| [11 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 From the Wiki:

...In the mid 1960s, Halberstam covered the Vietnam War for The New York Times. While there, he gathered material for his book The Making of a Quagmire: America and Vietnam during the Kennedy Era. In 1963, he received a George Polk Award for his reporting at the New York Times. At the age of 30, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the war. He is interviewed in the 1968 documentary film on the Vietnam War entitled In the Year of the Pig.

Halberstam put an enormous effort into his book about Kennedy's foreign policy decisions about the Vietnam War, The Best and the Brightest. Synthesizing material from dozens of books and many dozens of interviews, Halberstam focused on the odd paradox that those who crafted the U.S. war effort in Vietnam were some of the most intelligent, well-connected and self-confident men in America -- "the best and the brightest" -- and yet those same men were unable to imagine and promote any but a bloody and disastrous course in the Vietnam War.

Thousands of readers began The Best and the Brightest feeling that the U.S. must pursue the war in Vietnam until "victory" was achieved, but became convinced by Halberstam's book that the U.S. lacked the backbone to stand up for itself and should withdraw from Vietnam...

Posted by Anonymoose 2007-04-23 19:17|| 2007-04-23 19:17|| Front Page Top

#2 It's like that Demo Congresswoman; if you can't say something nice about the dead...

Posted by Mac 2007-04-23 19:19|| 2007-04-23 19:19|| Front Page Top

#3 The Powers That Be was excellent.
So was The Fifties.
The Best and the Brightest was pretty good, and I thought it well worth reading.
The baseball book was ok.
I've read a couple of others but disremember them at the moment. (I did not read his book on Bobby Kennedy, but will now.)

He was, in my opinion, the best of his kind; he chronicled his time, with extensive research and an easy-to-read style. I never once had to restrain myself from throwing the book through the window because of flagrant spin or outright lies. You knew who he admired and why, and it was not entirely without justification. The same applied to those he despised. I respect that.

I'll miss him. A lot of us will.

Posted by Glenmore">Glenmore 2007-04-23 20:02|| 2007-04-23 20:02|| Front Page Top

#4 if you can't say something nice

As Dorothy Parker used to say:

"If you can't think of anything nice to say, come sit here by me."

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-04-23 20:08|| 2007-04-23 20:08|| Front Page Top

#5 That's a pretty good obit, Glenmore.

Posted by Steve White">Steve White 2007-04-23 20:09|| 2007-04-23 20:09|| Front Page Top

#6 If I remember correctly, Bill James' view of his baseball book was not as charitable. I trust Bill better as a baseball historian.

There is an irony in this: David Halberstam dies in a car crash; his brother, Dr. Michael Halberstam, died while crashing his car. Michael had been shot by a jewel thief, you see, and in his last moments on Earth he ran over the thief with his car.

Posted by Eric Jablow">Eric Jablow 2007-04-23 20:21|| 2007-04-23 20:21|| Front Page Top

#7 Thousands of readers began The Best and the Brightest feeling that the U.S. must pursue the war in Vietnam until "victory" was achieved, but became convinced by Halberstam's book that the U.S. lacked the backbone to stand up for itself and should withdraw from Vietnam...

The book was published in 1972?

Posted by Shipman">Shipman 2007-04-23 23:10|| 2007-04-23 23:10|| Front Page Top

#8 U.S. must pursue the war

maybe they meant should have pursued.

Posted by Shipman">Shipman 2007-04-23 23:22|| 2007-04-23 23:22|| Front Page Top

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