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The Best and the Brightest cover art

The Best and the Brightest

By: David Halberstam
Narrated by: David Clennon
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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 As the definitive single-volume answer to that question, this enthralling book has never been superseded.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. 

Please note: This is the abridged edition. An unabridged audiobook is also available.
©1973 David Halberstam (P)2007 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.
  • Abridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History
United States Military Anthropology Politics & Government Social Sciences
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Critic reviews

"[The] most comprehensive saga of how America became involved in Vietnam." ( The Boston Globe)
"[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 23 years ago, told it better." ( New York Times Book Review)
"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)

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a insightful analysis

I thought I knew a bit about the US involvement in the Vietnam war but having listened to this I realise how little I knew and how wrong my understanding was. This an excellent study of how a war that no one wanted came about and I feel still has relevance to present day.

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