“This book . . . is likely to stand as the definitive record of the American use of armed force in [the 90s] . . . a tour de force of reportorial narration” (The New York Times).
In The Best and the Brightest, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist David Halberstam pulled back the curtain on the personalities and discussions that led America into the war in Vietnam. In War in a Time of Peace, he once again enters the halls of power to chronicle the inner workings of American foreign policy in post–Cold War America.
Evoking the internal conflicts, unchecked egos, and power struggles within the White House, the State Department, and the military, Halberstam shows how the decisions of men who served in the Vietnam War, and those who did not, have shaped America’s role in global events. He provides fascinating portraits of those in power—Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Kissinger, James Baker, Dick Cheney, Madeleine Albright, and others—to reveal a stunning view of modern political America.
<B>David Halberstam</B> (1934-2007) was the author of twenty-two books, including fifteen bestsellers. Born in New York City, Halberstam spent much of the 1960s as a reporter for the <I>New York Times</I>, covering the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement. His Vietnam reporting earned him both a George C. Polk Award and a 1964 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. <I>Vanity Fair</I> dubbed Halberstam "the Moses of American journalism," and the subjects of his books reflect his passion and range: war, foreign policy, history, and sports.<br><br><I>The Best and the Brightest</I> (1962), his sixth book, a critique of the Kennedy administration's Vietnam policy, became a #1 bestseller. His next book, <I>The Powers that Be</I>, a study of four American media companies, was hailed by the <I>New York Times</I> as a "prodigy of research." Many of Halberstam's books explored themes in professional sports, including bestsellers <I>The Teammates</I>, a portrait of the friendship between baseball players Ted Williams, Dominic DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky, and Bobby Doerr, and <I>The Education of a Coach</I>, a profile of New England Patriots' Coach Bill Belichick.