The Best and the Brightest
The Best and the Brightest (1972) is an account by journalist David Halberstam of the origins of the Vietnam War. The title may have come from a line by Percy Bysshe Shelley in his work "To Jane: The Invitation" (1822):
- Best and brightest, come away!
Shelley's line may have originated from English bishop and hymn writer Reginald Heber in his 1811 work, "Hymns. Epiphany":
- Brightest and best of the sons of the morning,
- Dawn on our darkness, and lend us thine aid.
==Individuals mentioned==
The Americans
Presidents
Cabinet
- Dean Rusk - Secretary of State
- Robert McNamara - Secretary of Defense
- McGeorge Bundy - Special Assistant for National Security Affairs
Advisors
- John Kenneth Galbraith
- George Ball - Undersecretary of State
- Nicholas Katzenbach - Undersecretary of State
- Walt Whitman Rostow - deputy to McGeorge Bundy
- Maxwell Taylor - military advisor to JFK
- John Theodore McNaughton - Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs
Military
- General Maxwell Taylor - Consultant to the President and Chairman of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board
The Vietnamese
The Soviets
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The Best and the Brightest is also the name of a 1998 Star Trek novel.