The Best and the Brightest
by David Halberstam · first published 1972
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5HN commenters
2014–2026first – last mentioned
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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 As the definitive single-volume answer to that question, this enthralling book has never been superseded.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.From the Hardcover edition.
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Also recommended: "The Best and the Brightest" (https://www.amazon.com/Best-Brightest-David-Halberstam/dp/04...) The title refers to individuals who at the time were widely admired -- including of course Robert McNamara. These individuals were of…
on “‘I Could Solve Most of Your Problems’: Eric Schmidt’s Pentagon Offensive” ↗…also reminded me that real adventure necessitates risk. The Great War for Civilisation - Robert Fisk Taught me that whatever I know about foreign conflict, I know nothing about foreign conflict. The Best and the Brightest - David Halberstam Provides a template for how the US government embarks upon adventures abroad. Taught me how stupid tremendously smart people can be when you get them all together in one room.
on “Ask HN: What book(s) changed your life?” ↗…the poor and redistributing them upward to the wealthy, and suppressing popular revolutionary movements that professed to want to even things out. (I recently re-read David Halberstam's magisterial The Best and the Brightest about the origins of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, including backing the French efforts to stay as the colonial power after liberation from Japanese occupation. Highly recommended.) > And when I was a…
on “Mitch McConnell: We Cannot Repeat the Mistakes of the 1930s” ↗Take a look at David Halberstam's book The Best and the Brightest. The people who made bad policy decisions with respect to Vietnam were among the finest products of the American educational system of that era.
on “Signal Intelligence Helped Shoot Down a Third of North Vietnam’s MiG-21s” ↗…Douglas MacArthur's advice to President Kennedy — not to put troops on the ground in Asia — didn't carry the day. [0] Those interested in this debacle should read David Halberstam's magisterial book The Best and the Brightest. [1] [0] https://thediplomat.com/2018/10/a-new-take-on-general-macart... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_and_the_Brightest
on “Hanoi's humble beer glass and the memory of a nation” ↗Can't remember where I read this (David Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest?), but in the 1930s, a nonagenarian Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) told a young lawyer, "young man, you are speaking to a man who once spoke to a veteran of the Revolution"; IIRC, in the…
on “Farmer born in 1842 talks about life and change (1929) [video]” ↗…novelty, we hate change.) Robert A. Heinlein said, "Never argue with the weather"; in the modern world, population migration falls into that category. Footnote: I'm re-reading David Halberstam's book The Best and the Brightest, about the origins of American involvement in the Vietnam War — which was a subject of not a little personal interest to me and my generation back then. It's saddening to read again how U.S. policymakers'…
…But we can question whether you've realistically assessed the likely cost and effort required to restrict global migration in today's world. (That's why in a previous comment I cited Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest about the well-intentioned but, ultimately, catastrophically-naïve policy decisions that got the U.S. into Vietnam in the 1960s.) If King Canute were alive today, he'd likely smile knowingly at our conundrum;…
…has cost several trillion dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives but made a few people very wealthy while destabilizing a whole region and leading to much blowback. See also, from Wikipedia, "The Best and the Brightest (1972) is an account by journalist David Halberstam of the origins of the Vietnam War published by Random House. The focus of the book is on the foreign policy crafted by academics and intellectuals who…
on “A few words on Doug Engelbart (2013)” ↗