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The Best and the Brightest

The Best and the Brightest

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Written by David HalberstamAuthor Alerts: Random House will alert you to new works by David Halberstam

  • Format: Trade Paperback, 720 pages
  • Publisher: Ballantine Books
  • On Sale: October 26, 1993
  • Price: $18.00
  • ISBN: 978-0-449-90870-9 (0-449-90870-4)
Also available as an abridged audiobook download and an eBook.
about this book

Republished on its 20th anniversary–with a special introduction that examines the Vietnam experience in light of subsequent events–The Best and the Brightest stands as the definitive source on the origins of America’s involvement in Vietnam. This critically-acclaimed work masterfully captures an era as it gives us unforgettable portraits of the well-intentioned men–Robert McNamara, McGeorge Bundy, and George Ball, among others–who orchestrated our disastrous engagement with Vietnam during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Here is a story as relevant today as it was 20 years ago–and all the more compelling because of the historical perspective.

"[Robert McNamara] contends the story of how 'the best and brightest' got it wrong in Vietnam has not been told. But David Halberstam, who applied that ironic phrase to his rendering of the tale twenty-three years ago, told it better."--Max Frankel, The New York Times Book Review

"An admirable and necessary book."--Newsweek