The Best and the Brightest

By David Halberstam

Categories: History

The Best and the Brightest (1972) is David Halberstam's history of how the United States went to war in Vietnam. Halberstam profiles the Kennedy and Johnson advisers—Robert McNamara, McGeorge Bundy, Dean Rusk and others—whose credentials and confidence helped steer the country into escalation. The book became a landmark study of elite decision-making and hubris in American foreign policy during the Cold War.

Recommended by 1 person

• Fareed Zakaria: “This week's book of the week is one that Stephen Bannon is apparently recommending that all in the White House read, David Halberstam's "The Best and the Brightest," a brilliant critique of America's stumble into Vietnam. Bannon, like many others, believes the book is a case against the brainy experts, as the title implies. Actually, if you read it, you'll see that it is an indictment of the arrogance of America's top officials who were blinded by anti-Communist ideology and ignored and dismissed the advice of the real experts, Foreign Service officers, historians, scholars who knew Vietnam and China, the region, the history, the countries, the cultures, and who argued against America's policy from the start -- in any event, a classic of journalism.”