David Halberstam: The Best and the Brightest
Like many an aspiring young journalist of my generation, I wanted to be like David Halberstam when I grew up.
The prolific Halberstam, who died yesterday at age 73 in a car crash in Menlo Park, California, was one of a small handful of reporters who saw through the deceits and obfuscations of U.S. military commanders in Vietnam early in the war and wrote that the corrupt South Vietnamese government would be brought to ground by the Communist guerrillas and North Vietnamese sooner or later.
Halberstam shared a Pulitzer Prize in 1964 for his New York Times dispatches, which infuriated generals and politicians who accused him of being unpatriotic and harming the troops. Such accusations reverberate loudly today in debates over whether the news media is accurately covering the Iraq war.
Halberstam’s The Best and the Brightest and Frances FitzGerald’s Fire in the Lake, both published in 1972, are to my mind the two finest works on the roots of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam quagmire and cautionary tales that, of course, were not heeded by the architects of the Iraq disaster.
There is no higher praise than that former Times columnist Anthony Lewis bestowed on Halberstam:
It’s obvious that he was probably the greatest journalist of his generation. He had a core integrity that gave him credibility and power, whether he was writing about basketball or Vietnam it carried an enormous amount of weight. He was a sweet man—loyal, kind, thoughtful. I just didn’t know anybody who is a better representation of journalism.
I didn’t exactly become a David Halberstam when I did grow up, but he taught me a valuable lesson that became my mantra during a long journalism career:
Don’t merely write what happened, explain what it means and why the reader should care about it.
10 Responses to “David Halberstam: The Best and the Brightest”
I was shocked and saddened to learn of the premature death of this fascinating and accomplished fellow American but beg to differ with your take on his contribution to what happened in Viet Nam.
In the light of hindsight and historical perspective, most scholars today believe the Tet Offensive was a win for us, but Walter Cronkhite et al, driven by their own agenda of defeat, convinced the citizens we were losing and thereby drained the nation’s will to win:
http://sisu.typepad.com/sisu/2006/10/there_are_so_ma.html
Sissy Willis:
I don’t think we disagree on what happened, only why and who caused it to happen.
Halberstam predicted an eventual collapse of South Vietnam. That happened. I quite agree, as I think would he, that Tet was a propoganda victory for the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese but was a military defeat.
Blaming Halberstam or Uncle Walter for what happened in 1968, let alone 1975, is shooting the messenger pure and simple.
Halberstam saw things clearly and was a gifted writer.
I highly recommend War In a Time of Peace.
Rest in peace.
This is the second time in several years that we have lost a great NYT’s journalist to a senseless tragedy. The other occurred in DC when David Rosenbaum was beaten by muggers and then misdiagnosed as a drunk at Howard University Hospital and allowed to perish, waiting for attention.
Oh don’t be a defeatist, there is still Geraldo.
lol
WA- The accidental death of a renowned NYT’s journalist and author is funny to you?
kritter,
WA is one of those whose posts I pay no attention to any longer. A wingnut is a wingnut, whichever side of the political spectrum they come from.
Isn’t there a minimum age requirement for this site?
I’m wondering about parental permission for WA.
Jim S, Doma- unfortunately, I agree with both of you. WA shame on you.
[...] I’m reviving this late great TMV feature in honor of David Halberstam, whom I remembered in a post earlier today. [...]