There have been quite a few good histories of the American involvement in Vietnam, including Neil Sheehan's "A Bright and Shining Lie," Sidney Karnow's "Vietnam: A History," Michael Herr's "Dispatches," and Frances Fitzgerald's "Fire in the Lake". The one which really exposed American policy mistakes, however, was David Halberstam's "The Best and the Brightest."
Halberstam went on to write many other books, including several about sports, but it was his histories which will have an impact long after his sudden death yesterday in a car crash.
I own five of his books and have read several others. He was the kind of reporter who believed in story, not just in laying out the facts. He went well beyond the journalistic axiom "who, what, when, where and why," and tried to weave the answers to all those questions into a sensible narrative.
He'll be missed.
Update: Glenn Greenwald has excerpts of Halberstam's speeches and essays explaining just how much we'll miss him.
Posted by Linkmeister at April 24, 2007 01:15 PM | TrackBack