The Best and the Brightest

"[President] Kennedy understood the gaps in [Robert] McNamara; even if he was brilliant, he was not wise. When Kennedy told him to bring back an answer on a question, McNamara would work diligently, come back, and present the answer to the question. If Kennedy noted that this was not the answer he wanted, McNamara would disappear and come back with the right answer this time... Kenny O'Donnell, who had become one of McNamara's more constant critics within the government and who would later argue vociferously with Bobby Kennedy that most of the mistakes of the Kennedy era had stemmed from McNamara...

It is not a particularly happy chapter in his life, he did not serve himself nor the country well, he was, there's no kinder or gentler word for it, a fool."

McNamara vs. Iacocca (Ford v Ferrari)

As an aside thought but while reading David Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest I couldn't help but make an observation. Halberstam wrote:

But after he left, Lee Iacocca, who would eventually succeed him said that Bob McNamara had damn near ruined Ford by pushing that Falcon, too simple a car, with too small a profit for the company. Iacocca symbolized exactly the opposite of McNamara in the auto world... Lee brought in the Mustang, a car designed for the American consumer in just the way McNamara's cars were not.

It occurred to me that in the Matt Damon, Christian Bale movie Ford v Ferrari neither McNamara or Lee Iacocca is portrayed although Henry Ford II plays a significant role. Guess if either McNamara or Iacocca was portrayed it might have taken the film down a significant rabbit hole that was not central to the plot.

By the way - I enjoyed both the book and the movie.

EDIT: Mea culpa! Iacocca was portrayed in the movie. I just overlooked him several times. My bad.

The Best and the Brightest

"That McNamara's role was major, the he was by default usurping the role of the Secretary of State, did not faze him. He was intelligent, forceful, courageous, decent, everything in fact but wise...

If it just been a matter of getting the right goods to the right villages, we would have won; unfortunately, what we were selling was not what they were buying. This man, whose only real experience had been in dealing with the second largest automotive empire in the world, producing huge Western vehicles, was the last man to understand and measure the problems of a people looking for their political freedom."

In the words of President Lyndon Johnson, "I forgot he had only been president of Ford for one week."

The Best and the Brightest

"[General] Harkins began by corrupting the intelligence reports coming in. Up until 1961 they had been reasonably accurate, clear, unclouded, by bureaucratic ambition... in effect the Administration created a situation where it lied to itself...

His [Harkins] two main distinctions during his years years in service in Vietnam would be, first, that his reporting consistently misled the President of the United States, and second, that it brought him to a point of struggle with a vast number of his field officers who tried to file realistic (hence pessimistic) reports. But even here the fault was not necessarily Harkins'. In all those years he felt that he was only doing what Max Taylor wanted, and there was considerable evidence that this was true, that his optimism reflected back-channeled directives from Taylor...

General Paul Donal Harkins, fifty-seven, was a man of compelling mediocrity...

'He wasn't worth a damn, so he was removed,' [Secretary of Defense] McNamara would say of him later, 'you need intelligent people.' Of course McNamara failed to explain why Harkins had held his position for almost two and a half years."

The Best and the Brightest

The Vietminh did much to get rid of the colonial French from Vietnam after WW II while the politicians in the south did just the opposite. Many fought on the side of the French or profited from the war to expel them. Was it any surprise we would have an issue with "hearts and minds" when we appeared for all purposes to just be taking the place of France and installing our own politicians?

Under President Eisenhower when Dienbienphu fell to the Vietminh - bombing by US forces would rightly have been seen as an act of war. And Eisenhower rightly did not take the bait. President Kennedy opened that door a crack and slowly it swung wide open.

Those in power when the French again took over after WW II knew America should not get involved militarily. At best they'd be on the side of a colonial power when we were the poster child for anti-colonialism and the costs were likely to be more along the lines of the Philippines insurrection from 1899 to 1913 than the Korean conflict. Besides Americans were emotionally exhausted from both WW II and Korea.

By the time President Kennedy was elected - Americans were more rested, China had been "lost" to the Communists, and the US was now an acknowledged Super Power. Plus we were willing to believe in illusions. To paraphrase Richard Feynman, "The easiest person to fool is yourself." David Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest tells the story of how America fooled ourselves into the Vietnam war.

Dense history but worth the time.

Halberstam Upper Level History

Just a thought but you could make a whole year of college upper level modern history classes from some of the books of David Halberstam. For example:

History 301: From World War II to Vietnam. The class would be based on Halberstam's book The Fifties and his book The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War.

History 302: The start of the Vietnam War to Japan taking over the US auto market. This class would be based on Halberstam's The Best and Brightest and his book The Reckoning. 

These two classes would span the better part of four decades of US history over a single college year. There would be plenty of historical details to review and Halberstam is considered liberal royalty by many - so that should ease the courses being adopted by various universities. Halberstam has become more controversial as the years go by so all of the items from the books should give plenty of subjects and differing takes for historical papers.

So let it be written so let it be done.

Quotes forToday

 Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.

Have a new Quotes for Today up on my Substack. As I've mentioned doing this as a way to thank those who have Subscribed. If you are a Subscriber - you should have received an email. Thanks.

Quotes for Today

Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.

Have a new Quotes for Today up on my Substack. As I've mentioned doing this as a way to thank those who have Subscribed. If you are a Subscriber - you should have received an email. Thanks.

The Fifties - David Halberstam

"'You can't say anything in a fifteen second speech,' [Rosser] Reeves quoted [Harlan] Cleveland as saying. Then Reeves dissented: 'As a man who has been responsible for five hundred millions of dollars' worth of advertising I know more about this than you do.' There was a pause in their conversation; Reeves was sure he had his man now. 'Harlan' he asked. 'Do you remember that old radio speech of Franklin Roosevelt - his first acceptance speech?' Cleveland said he remembered it. 'And the phrase about the only thing we have to fear is fear itself?' Again Cleveland assented. 'Harland,' Reeves said, locking the trap. 'That's a fifteen second spot.' Now he pushed forward. 'Do you remember the speech Churchill gave at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri? What did he say there?' 'That an Iron Curtain had descended on Europe,' Cleveland said. What else did he say? Reeves pushed. Cleveland could not remember. 'That was a fifteen second spot from Churchill,' Reeves said." - The Fifties by David Halberstam

Quotes for Today

Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.

Have a new Quotes for Today up on my Substack. As I've mentioned doing this as a way to thank those who have Subscribed. If you are a Subscriber - you should have received an email. Thanks!

Reminder of What Made Belichick Great

Via Mike Lombardi

But for all their differences, the Democrats had a certain glue. They won, and in victory there was patronage and power, a combination that transcended ideology. For the Republicans there was only the taste of ashes. They had been out of office since 1932. The shadow of the Depression still hung over them, and the Democrats were still running against Herbert Hoover, portraying the Republicans as the party of cold uncaring bankers. - David Halberstam The Fifties

You can see certain similarities to today. Back 70-years ago the Democratic Party was divided into Northern liberals and Southern Jim Crow wings, yet they still voted en-bloc. The previous unsuccessful Republican candidate was viewed as a traitor to his own party for being too nice and accommodating to the Democrats (back then it was Thomas Dewey while today its Mitt Romney). And the previous Republican President was viewed as the boogey man threatening the very fabric of our Republic (back then it was Hoover while today it's Trump). 

A political outsider was needed back then to put the country back on the right course and the nation was lucky that Dwight Eisenhower was available to serve that role. Who might be our outsider today?

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Is it just me or does it seem like some of the early Tom Cruise movies like Risky Business and All the Right Moves have just disappeared into the ether? You hardly ever hear about those movies anymore or see them on TV or on any of the streaming services. Strange... MLB to end 70-year relationship with Topps. Tradition means nothing anymore to those who run the game. Citizens should ban together for a class-action suit to prevent MLB from ever referring to itself as "America's Pastime" ever again... Some Ancient Indian wisdom says your should never eat your next meal until you feel hunger pangs. The feeling of hunger is your body's signal to you that the previous meal has been digested and that your body is ready for you to eat again. Simple wisdom but so wise... My idea of multi-tasking is reading in the morning while drinking hot coffee or reading at night while drinking a cold beer... In light of what's happening in Afghanistan - I have the urge to re-read David Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest for perspective (though I highly doubt anyone in the Biden Administration could be called either "the best" or "the brightest" with a straight face)...  

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Elon Musk this week announced that Tesla Solar Panels and Solar Roof will only be sold as a package with Powerwall batteries. I predicted this about a year ago. Many of the Tesla products make natural packages which are good for the consumer and also good for Tesla's bottom line... The Biden Administration is not doing a good job with India. A horrible job actually... The government's reaction to Covid-19 can be honestly summered up as "We're confused and afraid so we're going to take away your freedoms." That's it - that's been their whole reaction... Another natural package for Elon Musk would be to integrate a SpaceX Starlink receiver into the Tesla Semi and offer mobile Internet as a service for all Semi trucks sold... People aren't getting into journalism for the money because there isn't any (anymore). In the past gifted writers like David Halberstam did get into journalism (Halberstam most notably as a correspondent in Vietnam). But today "the best and the brightest" are seeking career paths elsewhere. Makes you wonder if the best and brightest aren't going into journalism then what does that make those who are?... 

The Best and the Brightest

"There had been something of a gentleman's agreement among those who might be called The Good Journalists of Washington that the Kennedy Administration was one of excellence, that it was for good things, and against bad things, and that when it did lesser things it was only in self-defense."  - David Halberstam The Best and the Brightest

"One of the things which surprised me was how thin most of the newspaper and magazine reporting of the period was, the degree to which journalists accepted the norms of the government and, particularly in the glamorous Kennedy era, the reputation of these new stars at face value. Credit was given more readily for educational prowess and for academic achievement than for accomplishment in government." - David Halberstam The Best and the Brightest

The above are taken from David Halberstam's  introduction to the 1992 re-publishing of the book. The two paragraphs also easily could have been describing how the media covered the Obama Administration 48-years later. There's also no doubt in my mind if the media had their way it would also be the blueprint for how the Biden Administration would be covered. There's two glaring issues with that though - there's nobody that's going to describe the Biden Administration as "glamorous." Also the number of people who will buy what the media is peddling is much, much less than it was in 1960 or 2008.  

The role of the media is not to inform the public. It never was.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Bob Ryan has posted sporadically (to be kind) on his new blog but I must say that I think his blog posts are actually better and more interesting than his columns for the Boston Globe (and that is saying something). Maybe it is because Ryan writes about what he wants to write about on his blog while he writes what he's assigned to write for the Globe (I know he has leeway at the Globe but he still has assignments). His latest post on the funeral of David Halberstam is very moving (and interesting)... Manny Ramirez is now tied with Fred McGriff for 37th place all-time on the RBI list with 1,550. Manny needs 15 more HR to catch the Crime Dog in home runs. McGriff has 493 career dingers which ties him for 22nd on the all-time list with Lou Gehrig. I think McGriff is under appreciated. Next up on the RBI list for Manny is Willie McCovey who has 1,555 RBI... Tiger Woods is an 11/4 favorite to win the US Open this weekend. Phil Michelson is his closest opponent according to the odds. Michelson is listed at 10-1 and Jim Furyk is at 14-1. You can find the full odds here... Adam Dunn is on pace for 38 HR but also 220 strikeouts. Are the 38 HR really worth the cost of the 220 SO? Baseball-Reference.com lists his nickname as "the Big Donkey" - is that really true? That seems a bit harsh. Baseball-reference.com lists the most similar hitter to Dunn as Ron Kittle but Adam Dunn doesn't even show up in Kittle's most similar batters (Steve Balboni is his most similar batter). I find that odd...

David Halberstam

I was saddened at the news of the loss of David Halberstam but I did not write anything about it. Bob Ryan gives an appreciation of the talent that was David Halberstam much better than I could (even if I took years to write it).

If you excuse me - I have to go find where I left my copy of The Best and the Brightest.