Word: halberstam
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Viet Nam reporting by David Halberstam. Neil Sheehan and Malcolm Browne contributes to the downfall of the Diem regime...
...cast of characters-politicians, journalists, civilians, combatants-at once supply historical continuity and act as a kind of tragic chorus. Journalists like Jean Lacouture and David Halberstam recount the development and deepening of the war. Meanwhile the screen shows scenes of John Foster Dulles promulgating his doctrine of "collective security" and French troops vanquished at Dienbienphu. There are glimpses of wartime savagery on both sides, and there is even some comic relief, as when Madame Nhu announces "About that question of the rubber stamp parliament: I have repeatedly said, 'But what's wrong to rubber-stamp the laws...
...narrative moves swiftly. Maintaining an even, detached perspective, Halberstam generates a momentum that carries the reader headlong into the stonewall shock of the book's last sentence. "Then he descended to acknowledge his victory, to talk about the violence and divisiveness, and to let a nation discover in his death what it had never understood or believed about him during his life...
...literary flair, Halberstam's Odyssey lacks the historical detail of 55 Days-The Last Campaign of Robert Kennedy, by Jules Witcover (Putnam's; $6.95). As chief political writer for the Newhouse newspapers, Witcover, 41, saw more of the campaign than Halberstam, and what he failed to see he diligently traced through those who did. Written chronologically (from January 1968 through the June funeral), 85 Days abounds in unreported behind-the-scenes incidents and anecdotes. The author notes, for example, that Kennedy seriously urged TV Newscaster Walter Cronkite to run for Senator in New York. He vividly re-creates...
Despite a weakness for the gratuitous aside ("That was Gene McCarthy; he didn't know when he was licked"), Witcover usually keeps his feelings for Kennedy in check: his high esteem for the man comes through all the stronger because he also criticizes some of his actions. Taking Halberstam's Hamlet comparison a step further, Witcover sees...