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The Best and the Brightest (Abridged) Audiobook
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(4.00) - 3,558 listener ratings
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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. "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 As the definitive single-volume answer to that question, this enthralling book has never been superseded.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
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"This is David Halberstam's most famous and important book, but not his best insofar as his writing style improved with time. It is an attempt to understand the bad decision making which led to the defeat of the USA in Southeast Asia, focusing on our invasion of Vietnam. The question is narrowly pointed, moral dimensions barely mentioned, but clearly of ongoing relevance since the lessons he adduces have still not taken effective hold."
— Erik (4 out of 5 stars)
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“Halberstam’s conclusions are not original…but his ability to interrelate the decisions and the policy-making processes with the makers’ personalities and intellectual biases results in a tour de force of contemporary political journalism.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Awards
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A #1 New York Times bestseller
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Winner of the 1972 Cornelius Ryan Award
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A Kirkus Reviews Pick of 10 Classics That Never Grow Old
The Best and the Brightest Listener Reviews
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" painfully slow, but I finished. I was never excited to read this book, something just wasn't that good about it. "
— Dan, 2/8/2014 -
" Too bad our current administration didn't properly learn the lessons from this war, it might have helped not mess up another country. "
— Big_al, 1/26/2014 -
" WHen I read this book, I learned a huge amount about how individuals, their strengths and weaknesses, can play into a larger system of dysfunction. It's a great portrayal of that. "
— Martha, 1/19/2014 -
" Good, interesting look at American history and the JFK era and the administrations around that time. I'm not a big history buff, so if I found it good enough to finish, then it has some redeeming qualities. "
— Adam, 1/11/2014 -
" Greatest book ever written about the reasons why we were in Vietnam, but a guy who was in-country when it all began. "
— David, 1/6/2014 -
" Clear prose combined with Halberstam's insight and compelling story telling. If you want to know how and why the Vietnam debacle came to be, this book is excellent. "
— Cathy, 1/1/2014 -
" Phenomenal telling of the inner workings of the administration responsible for our deepening involvement in Vietnam. "
— Dave, 12/25/2013 -
" essential, to learn and really understand our government and its ways of working. a tough book to get through for me. it really confirmed my belief that we still live in an extremely patriarchal society. "
— Shawna, 12/6/2013 -
" I usually like Halberstam, but I thought he was a bit too snitty in this book about the geniuses who got us into various messes like Vietnam. His book on the Korean War was more compelling. "
— Robert, 12/1/2013 -
" Kind of slow in some parts and there are a ton of figures and a ton of titles to remember (was Rusk Secretary of State or of Defense, j/k), but that's to be expected from a non-fiction account of any white house staff. Really informative overall. "
— Wes, 11/20/2013 -
" Masterful character study of Kennedy's Best and Brightest intellectual cabinet members who led us into Vietnam and refused to admit its failure until it was too late. "
— Daniel, 11/19/2013 -
" I can't remember a single word from this book, but it was pretty funny when ZB demanded I get a mattress because she was tired of "waking up on the floor with only this dirty sheet and Tom Brokaw books to comfort me". That's how I roll, babe! "
— Nick, 5/9/2013 -
" A narrative quagmire, not helped by the 'dog-chasing-its-own-tail' character introductions. Still, provides key insights into how the cream of our political leadership and talent can go awry, no matter how much hope is involved. "
— Puneet, 4/6/2013 -
" One of the top 10 books you must read to understand the American experience in Vietnam. "
— Greg, 3/29/2013 -
" Best portrait of the highly-regarded but limited men who ran the Kennedy and Johnson administrations and how they led us into the catastrophe that was the Vietnam War. I recommend it to everybody "
— Brendan, 1/26/2013 -
" Like I need to add anything to this acclaimed work..amazing history and profiles and painfully relevant. Hubris, Pre-Iraq. "
— John, 8/2/2012 -
" OK, I've had this one going for a while. It's definitely good - he won the pulitzer for this book - but it's long and the print is really small. I may never finish. "
— Sean, 1/27/2012 -
" Want to know just what happened and how/why. Read this book and get an insiders look into D.C. politics and all the players involved in the Vietnam war. "
— Eric, 10/27/2011 -
" Big narrative and big characters. Halberstam's macho/epic style can hurt him, but this book - about the stupid ways people can get thier country into war - is still relevant today. "
— Greg, 7/7/2011 -
" Explains the political mistakes that led to the Vietnam war. "
— Mark, 6/16/2011 -
" Ok, I finally got around to read this history of how we got into the Vietnam quagmire (I know that I am many wars behind, alas). The good news is that this book has not aged and remains as interesting, vibrant and to the point as ever. "
— Marianne, 6/1/2011 -
" Too much detail. I suppose if I grew up in this era I would find all the characters more interesting. I enjoyed it, but did a fair amount of skimming. It is amusing to read about how frightened our leaders were of a communist takeover. "
— Ben, 4/20/2011 -
" Worth remembering what happened especially these days. "
— Scot, 2/17/2011 -
" The other face of Vietnam. How wars are created by the best and the brightest and how power and sucess occurs in USA. A real and excellent portrait of an era of American history which repeats itself. "
— Nelly, 2/16/2011 -
" I usually like Halberstam, but I thought he was a bit too snitty in this book about the geniuses who got us into various messes like Vietnam. His book on the Korean War was more compelling. "
— Robert, 1/30/2011 -
" Densely detailed journalist history of how the US got involved in the tar baby of Vietnam, how it affected the Kennedy administration, and how it helped destroy Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and lead to the worst inflation since the Civil War.<br/>Recommended.<br/> "
— Tom, 1/28/2011 -
" One of the best books ever written on Kennedy & Johnson years of the Vietman War. "
— John, 1/15/2011 -
" one of best books written about the lead up and execution of the Viet Nam war "
— Johnbh46, 11/26/2010 -
" Closer to 4 than 3 the definitive Vietnam story "
— Geno, 5/13/2010 -
" Want to know just what happened and how/why. Read this book and get an insiders look into D.C. politics and all the players involved in the Vietnam war. "
— Eric, 5/11/2010 -
" A great insight into the causes and thinking by Kennedy officials leading the US into Vietnam. "
— Mark, 5/5/2010
About David Halberstam
David Halberstam graduated from Harvard, where he had served as managing editor of the daily Harvard Crimson. It was 1955, a year after the Supreme Court outlawed segregation in public schools. Halberstam went south and began his career as the one reporter on the West Point, Mississippi, Daily Times Leader. He was fired after ten months there and went to work for the Nashville Tennessean. When the sit-ins broke out in Nashville in February 1960, he was assigned to the story as principal reporter. He joined the New York Times later that year, winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1964 for his early reports from Vietnam. He has received every other major journalistic award, and is a member of the Society of American Historians.