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THE LOSS OF DAVID HALBERSTAM by Amb.
RICHARD HOLBROOKE (MaximsNews.com,
U.N.)
UNITED NATIONS - / www.MaximsNews.com@U.N./
- 02 May 2007 – When
we met in May of 1963 in Saigon, David Halberstam was only 29, but he was
already the dominant figure among an influential group of journalists who
reported what they observed even when it contradicted the version of the war put
out by the military.
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This
was daring stuff; only 18 years after World War II, reporters were not
supposed to question senior American military commanders.
It
was such a serious matter that President John Kennedy asked New York Times
Publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger to reassign Halberstam, a request
Sulzberger rejected.
In
the decades since, Halberstam and his colleagues often have been blamed by
right-wing commentators and some military officers for the loss in
Vietnam, on the grounds that their reporting undermined domestic support
for the war.
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This
is, of course, nonsense; in war, success speaks for itself. Spin may delude the
public for a while, but not indefinitely -- and meanwhile people die.
The
basic truth is simple: Halberstam's reporting was right, and the official
version was not.
I
can still see David the first time we met: Everything that evening seems now to
have foreshadowed his future and our complicated but lasting friendship.
A
week after I arrived in
Saigon
, as a young Foreign Service officer on his first overseas assignment, I
presented David with a letter of introduction from a mutual friend.
With
his characteristic generosity, he invited me to dinner at one of Saigon's best
French restaurants, bringing along his closest friend, UPI bureau chief Neil
Sheehan, who later described the evening in his book "A Bright Shining
Lie."
They
seemed a generation older and wiser than I, but -- and I realize this now with
astonishment -- all of us were in our 20s.
They
were tall and intense and noisily exuberant. They knew they were covering the
biggest story in the world, with very few competitors.
They
knew the official version was wrong, and they were going to get the truth out --
not to bring down the American mission but to help it find its way.
At
that time they still supported the war. They wanted those who were lying to the
public, both the corrupt South Vietnamese government and American military
commanders, to be held accountable.
They
especially despised the senior commander, World War II veteran Paul D. Harkins,
and after giving me some advice ("Don't trust anything those bastards tell
you"), David and Neil spent most of the evening denouncing Harkins.
After
some wine, they conducted a mock trial of the four-star general for incompetence
and dereliction of duty.
In
his rumbling, powerful voice, David pronounced Harkins "guilty" of
each charge, after which Neil loudly carried out the "sentence":
execution by imaginary firing squad against the back wall of the
restaurant.
As
others listened with astonishment, I looked around in alarm, certain that if I
was recognized, my career would be over before it had begun.
In
late October 1963, in a fever pitch of excitement, David and Neil took me to
lunch and, whispering conspiratorially, told me that a coup against the Saigon
government would begin right there and then.
Every
few minutes one of them would run outside to look for troops marching on the
presidential palace.
When
lunch ended without a coup, Neil left for a brief vacation in
Tokyo
and David stayed on. The coup happened a week later, exactly the way they had
predicted, and David won a Pulitzer for his work that year.
He
moved on, leaving the Times to write a book that would change forever
perceptions of the American elite. No book of its sort has had a greater impact
since.
He
called it "The Best and the Brightest," and it is still a revelation,
and, in the age of
Iraq
, unexpectedly relevant.
Studying
the background and values of the men around Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson,
Halberstam created a brutal portrait of people far too sure of themselves,
certain that they knew what was best for the nation and the world -- but
woefully ignorant of the distant land to which they were sending young American
soldiers.
In
long, overpowering sentences, he conveyed deep anger and a sense of
betrayal.
As
with Harkins, he wanted to hold high officials accountable. His primary targets
were Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara and national security adviser McGeorge
Bundy, two of the smartest men ever to serve in government.
By
the time Halberstam finished exposing their arrogance and ignorance, they were
never perceived the same way again.
He
wrote a second book in what amounted to a continuing study of
America
and war, "War in a Time of Peace," on Clinton and the Balkans, and
before his death
last week had just completed a third, on the Korean War, that will come out this
fall.
One
can only imagine what he might have written about
Iraq
.
Amb.Holbrooke@MaximsNews.com
~~~~~
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