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The Best and the Brightest

By: David Halberstam
Narrated by: David Clennon
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Publisher's Summary

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 As the definitive single-volume answer to that question, this enthralling book has never been superseded.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.

Please note: This is the abridged edition. An unabridged audiobook is also available.

©1973 David Halberstam (P)2007 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic Reviews

“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)

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