The Best and the Brightest, David Halberstam
The Best and the Brightest, David Halberstam
15 Rating(s)
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The Best and the Brightest

Author: David Halberstam

Narrator: David Clennon

Abridged: 3 hr

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/08/2007


Synopsis

David Halberstam’s masterpiece, the defining history of the making of the Vietnam tragedy, with a new Foreword by Senator John McCain.

"A rich, entertaining, and profound reading experience.”—The New York Times

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 As the definitive single-volume answer to that question, this enthralling book has never been superseded.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.

Praise for The Best and the Brightest

“The most comprehensive saga of how America became involved in Vietnam. . . . It is also the Iliad of the American empire and the Odyssey of this nation’s search for its idealistic soul. The Best and the Brightest is almost like watching an Alfred Hitchcock thriller.”—The Boston Globe

“Deeply moving . . . We cannot help but feel the compelling power of this narrative. . . . Dramatic and tragic, a chain of events overwhelming in their force, a distant war embodying illusions and myths, terror and violence, confusions and courage, blindness, pride, and arrogance.”—Los Angeles Times

“A fascinating tale of folly and self-deception . . . [An] absorbing, detailed, and devastatingly caustic tale of Washington in the days of the Caesars.”—The Washington Post Book World

“Seductively readable . . . It is a staggeringly ambitious undertaking that is fully matched by Halberstam’s performance. . . . This is in all ways an admirable and necessary book.”—Newsweek

“A story every American should read.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch

About The Author

David Halberstam was a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and the author of numerous books, including The Best and the Brightest, The Powers That Be, The Reckoning, Summer of '49, Playing for Keeps, and War in a Time of Peace. He died in April 2007.David Clennon is an American actor from Waukegan, Illinois. He studied at the Yale School of Drama and became a member of their professional acting company. Clennon is best known for his performance as Palmer in John Carpenter's The Thing and his Emmy Award–winning turn on the HBO series Dream On.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Aaron on August 08, 2012

The main question about World War 1 that Barbara Tuchmann's seminal The Guns of August was trying to answer was "How did this happen?" How did all these complacent European countries, many of whose leaders were related, with no clear reason to go to war, and with uncounted amounts of wealth in trade......more

Goodreads review by Tim on January 31, 2022

How can brilliant and accomplished people make such terrible decisions? The Best and the Brightest, which focuses on the JFK and LBJ years of the Vietnam War, explores this question. Relative to other books about the war, the book gives special emphasis to the JFK years and his leadership team, as......more

Goodreads review by Brian on July 25, 2022

Tragic in the truest sense. It shows the cost of huebris and reminds us that even the best of our leaders cannot really see the end from the beginning. Real leaders with equal parts curiousity to ask question after question and the skeptism to evaluate answers from all angles are rare indeed.......more

Goodreads review by Larry on August 16, 2011

The short version of the book: Boys will be boys! This is a baby boomer book. The idealism of the Kennedy presidency seems very much like the idealism of the Obama campaign and early presidency. Some reviewers have compared how the U.S. got into Vietnam with how we got into Iraq: Congressional action......more

Goodreads review by Chris on April 23, 2025

Some 50 years after first reading “The Best and the Brightest” by David Halberstam I was aghast on rereading it how wrong so many seemingly intelligent people could have been about the Vietnam War. Prior to JFK taking office in 1961 there were so many warning signs to keep out of Vietnam’s struggle......more


Quotes

"A rich, entertaining, and profound reading experience.”The New York Times

“The most comprehensive saga of how America became involved in Vietnam. . . . It is also the Iliad of the American empire and the Odyssey of this nation’s search for its idealistic soul. The Best and the Brightest is almost like watching an Alfred Hitchcock thriller.”The Boston Globe

“Deeply moving . . . We cannot help but feel the compelling power of this narrative. . . . Dramatic and tragic, a chain of events overwhelming in their force, a distant war embodying illusions and myths, terror and violence, confusions and courage, blindness, pride, and arrogance.”Los Angeles Times

“A fascinating tale of folly and self-deception . . . [An] absorbing, detailed, and devastatingly caustic tale of Washington in the days of the Caesars.”The Washington Post Book World

“Seductively readable . . . It is a staggeringly ambitious undertaking that is fully matched by Halberstam’s performance. . . . This is in all ways an admirable and necessary book.”Newsweek

“A story every American should read.”St. Louis Post-Dispatch