The Best and the Brightest

By: David Halberstam

Narrated by: Mark Bramhall

Length: 37 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

David Halberstam’s masterpiece, the defining history of the making of the Vietnam tragedy, with a 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 As the definitive single-volume answer to that question, this enthralling book has never been superseded.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.

“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)

©2002 David Halberstam (P)2017 Random House Audio

How all the Best and Bravest were lost to History.

What a marvelous tomb built out of tight and intimate character sketches. These were the men that Kennedy assembled to fill his table at Camelot. These were the same men Johnson kept on to help him shepard in his Great Society. These were the, mostly young, men with their panache and style and computer sharp minds who had ushered in a new way of thinking about bureaucracy and armament and diplomacy and helmsmanship of the American craft of State. And these were the very same men who lied their way into the barbarous and genocidal folly that was the beginning of the end of America’s greatness in the century that was otherwise hers, the Vietnam War. This huge book, so well sourced and thought through, such a rollicking tour of duty through the halls of government and all its winding back alleys, so vast in its perusal of persuasion and its insights into invective, left me with a pressingly prescient notion for our current corrosive state of affairs: when power only tells power what it wants to hear, then power often proudly makes the sagest of mistakes. McNamara’s IBM was only as wise as the lies fed into it.

I could not keep my ears away from this book

Having been of draft age during the war i and my generation were saddened and disgusted by our country's increasing decline into a maelstrom from which it could not seem to emerge. The frustration we felt was at the burning core of the social unrest of the 60's.
With this book, which i started reading in college, the historical fault lines and the tensions upon the key actors is now put into its proper perspective. This book is Halberstam's magnum opus.
I highly recommend to listeners his book THE COLDEST WAR which was written long after THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTESTMany of thesame forces were at work both in Korea and Viet Nam

A must read

If you have interest in the Vietnam War, or any war entered on hubris and misconceptions, this is your book.

The Tragic History of Where America Went Wrong

This book offers not only portraiture but deep background on the men that led the US to war in Vietnam.

Vietnam is necessary history

David focuses on the guys at the top. This is not a glorification of war.
War is complex and unpredictable. Containment is not possible.
This war affected my generation in a big way. Listening to this book is part of an attempt to learn why we thought blowing up Vietnam was a good idea.
This book covers the beginning and middle, but not the end.

an american tragedy

its been said '"those who cant't remember the past are doomed to repeat it." and that ,"the past does not repeat exactly ,but it rhyms." the truth behind those statements and human beings tendency to keep making the same kind of mistakes again and again; makes books such as these indispensible. great book.

The Best Political History of Viet Nam

If you could sum up The Best and the Brightest in three words, what would they be?

Excellent writing, fantastic reader.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Best and the Brightest?

The background of the Kennedy involvement.

What about Mark Bramhall’s performance did you like?

Steady and smooth.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, It would take over a whole day.

Any additional comments?

I will by the "Prequel" about Korea

Amazing

The detail provided by the author as to how the USA got into the war was amazing. The men who managed the war both in the military and politics were bright. However, they were drawn into the war by a cancer that could not be cured.

The best audiobook I've ever heard

There's not much more to say about the overwhelming brilliance of Halberstam's masterpiece, it's required reading for any thoughtful person anywhere. The audiobook, though...just wow. Mark Bramhall simply knocks the cover off the ball with this remarkable performance. Even if you think you're only marginally interested in the material, he'll make you care about every minute of it. Spectacular.

Before there was "groupthink"

Anyone with interest in what is happening *now* would do VERY well to pick up this $56+ masterwork for a credit or free trial w Audible. The book is 37 hours long, never boring. The facts contained here are jaw dropping, literally. Halbertam's body of work is generally amazing. This book is that book where I must use the M word: MASTERWORK. The delivery is duly dry and inspired: reader lets the facts do the work. Probably the best value four a credit I've used in 14 years w Audible.