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Best & Brightest


Hi,

Sorry it took so long to get back on this, but...

I went and checked the book in the bookstore as I had a vague memory of
reading it in high school. Yep, it's the same book I read in '74 in a
government class.

David Halberstam's "Best and Brightest" was an excellent book on the Vietnam
War and the political wrangling that got us into it - *for 1972*.

This book has never been updated and near as I can find nobody has taken the
time to compare its line of argument and innuendo with the last 26 years of
data that has come to light. In particular it makes no mention, and because
of time travel limitations shouldn't be expected to, of the wealth of data
on the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam Conflict that has come to light
in the last 3 years because these classified materials weren't released yet.
This material is available via the Kennedy Library and the LBJ Library. It
includes internal memos and similar material that Halberstam did not have
any knowledge of. Of paritcular note to the thesis that some espouse that
Kennedy intended to increase the force level is a memo to the combined
chiefs of staff to remove ALL US forces from SE Asia. This memo was signed
just weeks before Kennedy was assassinated. Every indication is that LBJ
would have honored that had the Ya Drang Valley (the 7th Cavalry almost had
another Little Bighorn) not occurred in '64. After this tactical defeat (both
US and Viet forces claimed it as a strategic win) the US level of forces in
the area went through the roof.

This book is good for a historical perspective only, if you're interested
in understanding what happened from 1962 - 1963 with Kennedy and 1963+ with
LBJ then this is not the book to go to. It is simply out of date.

A general rule of thumb in doing historical research:

If the reference is not a primary and it is over 5 years old and has not
been updated then it is suspect.


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