Coincidentally and ironically, I was revisiting David Halberstam's "The Best and the Brightest" last evening when the news of his tragic passing came.
You can read the obituary tributes in the next few weeks but the best way to know anything about David Halberstam is to read David Halberstam. He analyzed, reported, and documented 20th Century America, the American Century, as a journalist, sociologist, historian, and even as a die-hard sports fan.
The year before last my best friend asked me to go with him to a Halberstam lecture in Washington. Halberstam was supposed to autograph books after the talk and my friend wanted autographs in two books, "Summer of '49", his account of that year's Yankees-Red Sox rivalry; and "October 1964", covering the Yankees/Cardinals World Series, nevermind that the talk was about American foreign policy in Vietnam and Iraq.
Book signing sessions can get touchy, some authors will only sign books that are purchased at the session and then only one to a customer. We had a long strategy discussion and decided that my friend would go first with "Summer of '49" and I would get back in the line about 5 spaces with "October 1964". As the line moved forward we could determine if anyone was being turned away. The line was relatively short and the good-natured Halberstam signed everything put before him. When my friend's turn came, Halberstam immediately brightened and started asking questions like, "Who was your favorite team?" leading to further sports dialogue that lasted several minutes. By now, I panicked because all I know about baseball is that there are three outs and nine or so innings--I was just a flunky carrying the book. It all worked out, when my turn came Halberstam sparkled again and wanted to talk baseball. My friend stepped in and took over for me while Halberstam signed the book.
One of the points that he made that night in his speech revealed how he was treated in the early days of the Vietnam war when his journalistic reports disputed the glowing optimistic reports of the government:
"The crueler the war gets, the crueler the attacks get on anybody who doesn't salute or play the game," Halberstam said. "And then one day, the people who are doing the attacking look around and they've used up their credibility." Houston Chronicle, April 24, 2007
He was talking about events almost 50 years in the past!
Greenwald posts some well chosen excerpts from Halberstam's comments about the craft of journalism.
It's been our great, good fortune to have a a few giants such as Halberstam walk among us.
He was right, there are good essays in there.