the best and the brightest  <p><b>david halberstam’s masterpiece, the defining history of the making of the vietnam tragedy, with a foreword by senator john mccain. </b></p> <p><b>"a rich, entertaining, and profound reading experience.” (</b><b><i>the new york times</i></b><b>) </b></p> <p>using portraits of america’s flawed policy makers and accounts of the forces that drove them, <i>the best and the brightest</i> 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 as the definitive single-volume answer to that question, this enthralling book has never been superseded.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. </p> <p>“the most comprehensive saga of how america became involved in vietnam.... it is also the <i>iliad</i> of the american empire and the <i>odyssey</i> of this nation’s search for its idealistic soul. <i>the best and the brightest </i>is almost like watching an alfred hitchcock thriller.” (<i>the boston globe</i>) </p> <p>“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.” (<i>los angeles times</i>) </p> <p>“a fascinating tale of folly and self-deception... [an] absorbing, detailed, and devastatingly caustic tale of washington in the days of the caesars.” (<i>the washington post book world</i>) </p> <p>“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.” (<i>newsweek</i>) </p> <p>“a story every american should read.” (<i>st. louis post-dispatch</i>)</p>