The Best and the Brightest
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The Best and the Brightest
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Narrated by:
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Mark Bramhall
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By:
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David Halberstam
About this listen
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 As the definitive single-volume answer to that question, this enthralling book has never been superseded.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 AudioListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about The Best and the Brightest
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- John Sumner
- 19-04-18
Wonderful read
Incredibly in depth review of US involvement in Vietnam which was always fascinating and never boring.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 15-02-24
The research
Meticulous and painstakingly researched. However, the lengthy profiles of the participants - some minor players - parodied the war itself. Long passages of tedious boredom, punctuated with the odd snip of interest.
The book only came alive for me at the Gulf of Tonkin incident which is some 28 hours in.
Researched and written in the late sixties and early seventies when the war was at its height the narrative about the war stumbled at around 65 - 66.
I think the author achieved what he set out to - and full marks to him - but on the whole it’s not easy listening.
4 stars
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 17-02-24
Thorough exposition
Details and all the key players. Maybe it was possible to carry out the thesis of where things went wrong (intellectual hubris) in a bit of a shortened road, but the level of detail and amount of sources lends a lot of credibility to the project.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 01-06-23
Do what is right … not easy ….
This book is a brilliant presentation of the dangers of the rigorous reliance hubris vs the rigorous adherence to balanced analysis. This work is a must read for all those in a position to make critical decisions that effect lives … in all of its forms.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Eugene Sledge
- 22-05-19
The sadness, lies, delusion and hubris.
Required reading for anyone capable of thinking for themselves. Tragic and absolutely riveting.
Supreme Halberstam.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- N. Bowdren
- 23-04-19
fascinating
It's hard to believe that America did the exact same again in regards to Iraq and the weapons of mass destruction. only this time they sucked the British with them . It seems history does repeat itself.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 06-09-20
Utterly brilliant book
This book is sensationally good. One of the best uses of 34 odd hours of my life. Rich narrative, profoundly convincing, deeply sad. Definitive book on the Vietnam War and how the US got bogged down in it and the failings that led to that.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- michael Billington
- 23-04-22
A classic which lives up to its reputation
The title has entered the popular culture and while often used in the wrong context, the reason it has is this book. Often the word classic is used to casually to describe a book/audiobook but not in this instance. It provides a close examination of the men,and they were all men,who as members of first the Kennedy and then Johnson administrations made the decisions which led to the United States becoming quagmired in the Vietnam War.
While more documents have been released and new perspectives have been explored since this book was first released the basic argument it presents and the descriptions of the characters of the various decision makers remain, I feel, reasonably accurate. A well rounded audiobook which does not jump straight into the issue of Vietnam without giving background on how the U.S came to be where it was in 1961 when JFK took office is very informative.
While subsequent information makes one or two descriptions of certain persons seem overly kind, primarily John F. Kennedy whose actual decisions and public statements left his successor with very few options. instead too much space is given to JFK and his private doubts. But this is a minor criticisim of what I found to be a well narrated and fascinating audiobook about the hubris of the powerful.
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