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Summary: Excellent study of self-deluding war criminals
Comment: This is a wonderful study of the dreadful people who committed the crime of aggression against Vietnam. It shows how they fooled themselves, and others too, that theirs was some noble mission, to save other nations from communism. In fact, it was a crime, resulting in the killing of three million innocent Vietnamese, who were killed trying to save their country from a savage, unjustified and illegal assault. So, not the best - probably among the worst representatives of their society - and the brightest - hardly!
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Summary: The best political history of the Vietnam War
Comment: This is an amazingly good political history of the machinations of the JFK and LBJ administrations and their involvement in Vietnam. Full of detail about the policy makers, military top brass, bureaucrats etc and contains a large amount of analysis of the decision making process and its influences and outcomes.
The book is rather lengthy and yet does not cover the events following Nixon's election in 1968, which is a shame.
Despite this, however, the 'Best and the Brightest' is one of my favourite books and I have since bought other titles by the author and found them excellent, if not up to quite the same standard.
Belongs on the shelf next to 'Bright Shining Lie', 'Fire in the Lake', and Karnow's 'Vietnam: a History'. First class.
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Summary: The best of its genre, EVER
Comment: I am a political history junkie. I read everything I can get my hands on that deals with that subject. And Halberstam's book is, IMHO, simply the best book ever written in that category. He analyzes our involvement in Viet Nam by analyzing the personalities, motivations, and fears of the individuals who made the decisions. This results in a far more human approach to the subject than is usually found in books of this kind - and in my opinion leads to a more accurate depiction of what happened.And the writing - Oh, the writing! I read this book 25 years ago, and I can still remember full paragraphs almost word for word. In one page of well chosen anecdotes, he can brilliantly bring to life a Lyndon Johnson or a Robert MacNamara, and make the reader feel as if he knew those public figures personally. Even if you're not as interested in the Viet Nam war or political history as I am, this book should be on your reading list. The word "great" is properly reserved for a very small number of works, but "The Best and the Brightest" belongs in that category.
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Summary: A large and superb book focused on the origins of the war
Comment: A large-scale work focused on the origins of the war, this book was the first of its kind by far -- published in 1972, it was written without the benefit of the Pentagon Papers. It's also entirely unreferenced, which would be troubling except for the fact that its conclusions have mostly stood up to the test of time. The depth is impressive, one of the results of its large size; at about 400,000 words, it is larger than any Vietnam War history I know of. (Karnow's "Vietnam: A History," for example, is about 330,000 words.) Especially good are the unusually detailed portraits of the principal figures involved in the origins, including Bob McNamara, President Johnson, Dean Rusk, President Kennedy, Mac Bundy, and Max Taylor. It ends with Nixon's 1968 election.Besides being a great historical resource, this book shows the amazing degree to which the problems and deceptions surrounding Vietnam were known in the late 1960's. Although many useful Vietnam histories have been published in the last five years, they add only marginally to what was known and written by Halberstam and others thirty years ago.
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Summary: Absolutely stunning in its analysis and presentation
Comment: This book is not for the faint-hearted. David Halberstam, who personally witnessed and suffered from the incompetence of the US and ARVN forces during a crucial period in the mid-1960s, has produced an overwhelming case study in poor political judgement, outmoded military thinking, and above all arrogance. Reading this book at the time of the US-led bombing of Serbia in mid-1999, and reflecting back on Halberstam's account of the US decision to bomb North Vietnam and the inevitable intervention of ground troops following that, I couldn't help thinking: does anyone out there ever bother to learn from our past mistakes? Our politicians and military leaders should be made to read this book, and read it again, until its messages sink home.
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