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 As the definitive single-volume answer to that question, this enthralling book has never been superseded.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 ...
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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 As the definitive single-volume answer to that question, this enthralling book has never been superseded.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.
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Add this copy of The Best and the Brightest to cart. $1.99, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Brownstown, MI, UNITED STATES, published 1983 by Penguin Books.
Add this copy of The Best and the Brightest to cart. $1.99, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 1983 by Penguin Books.
Add this copy of The Best and the Brightest to cart. $1.99, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1983 by Penguin Books.
Add this copy of The Best and the Brightest to cart. $1.99, fair condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 1983 by Penguin Books.
Add this copy of The Best and the Brightest to cart. $2.00, good condition, Sold by More Than Words rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Waltham, MA, UNITED STATES, published 1983 by Penguin Books.
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Add this copy of The Best and the Brightest to cart. $2.04, fair condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 1983 by Penguin Books.
Add this copy of The Best and the Brightest to cart. $2.20, good condition, Sold by The Maryland Book Bank rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from baltimore, MD, UNITED STATES, published 1983 by Penguin Books.
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Very good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
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Very good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
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Very Good. Very Good condition. A copy that may have a few cosmetic defects. May also contain light spine creasing or a few markings such as an owner's name, short gifter's inscription or light stamp.
Whether or not you lived through the Viet Nam war, this history is a must read. I have to admit it is VERY detailed and a broader history would be helpful in some instances, but it is worth time and effort. Not a book you'll read cover to cover at once, at least not in my opinion, but one everyone should attempt to add to their understanding of our political and foreign affairs.
Charlton
May 14, 2009
Revealing look at Kennedy administration
The people, policies and decisions that inexorably brought this nation into a land war in Vietnam are revealed in this historical novel by David Halberstam. The powerful political figures working behind the scenes in Democratic and Republican presidential adminstrations following WWII are brought to life. Not simply an examination of the historical who, what, when and where but also the how and why that brought the United States into the Vietnam War. It examines the people who made up Kennedy's White House staff against the backdrop of U.S. policies in Asia, contrasting the views of foreign service officers in the field against the political pressure brought on with the birth of the Cold War. Halberstam draws the reader into a world of powerful, privileged men making decisions that would affect our nation's foreign policy to this day.
CharleyinTX
Mar 19, 2009
Great read
Everyone should read this book. Applies to today as well as then.
Really a great book.
Bevan
Jan 1, 2009
classic
Great book about a true American hero. And, tells the real story about why we lost the Vietnam war.
WmTN
Sep 11, 2008
Another Screeching Diatribe
Halberstam was a professional iconoclast. His views on politics and war run from the naieve to the rediculous. If one compares this book with, say, Palmer's "summons of the Trumpet," one would wonder whether the two books were about the same war. At one point in a later book Halberstam tell his readers that there were (are) two kinds of communisim, the bad old Stalinist version and the pure aggrarian reformers, as in VietNam and North Korea. He apparently does not know of Kruschev's "wars of nantional liberation" that provided the fig leaf for massive Soviet aid to North VietNam. Lots of passion, little of History.
