A Tribute to David Halberstam

Nantucket lost a friend and neighbor, David Halberstam. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author spent many summers on the island. Join Plum as we revisit some conversations we had with him over the last few years.

From the pages of The Atlantic: “The Power and the Profits: Part II,” by David Halberstam

In February 1976, The Atlantic published an article by David Halberstam, entitled “The Power and the Profits: Part II," which explored how three presidents influenced and were influenced by TV, how TV made Vietnam into an electronic war, and how TV dealt with Watergate.

Read the full text here.

 

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From the pages of The Atlantic: “CBS: The Power and the Profits,” by David Halberstam

In January 1976, The Atlantic published the first half of Halberstam’s piece, “CBS: The Power and the Profits” William Paley, CBS, and the story of how TV became both a shaper and creator of politics.

CBS: The Power and the Profits

In the fall of 1974, in his seventy-fourth year, William S. Paley, a lion in winter pretending it was Indian summer, took time off from running one of the world's great commercial empires to attend the funeral of a younger colleague. Bill Paley liked less and less going to funerals, but in this case the deceased was Hubbell Robinson, and Hub had been in programming. Above all else, programming was close to Paley's heart, the part of broadcasting he loved most. That Hubbell Robinson's second tour of duty at CBS had not ended entirely happily (very few major careers at CBS end happily) was forgotten. (Some ten years earlier Hub had been outlining a program schedule with Jim Aubrey when Aubrey had said, "Hub, you're through." Hub, a gentle soul by comparison with most CBS executives, mistakenly thought Aubrey meant he was through only with that day's planning session.)

 

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From the pages of The Atlantic: “How the Economy Went Haywire,” by David Halberstam

In September 1972, The Atlantic published Halberstam’s piece, “How the Economy Went Haywire.”

How the Economy Went Haywire When the bill came due for the Vietnam War, someone had to pay it, and keep paying.

In 1954 General Matthew Ridgway, Army Chief of Staff, had carefully programmed exactly what would be needed to fight the Viet Minh and to help the French in Indochina. The cost for one year would be an estimated $3.5 billion. President Eisenhower thereupon called in his economic advisers and Secretary of the Treasury George Humphrey. "George, what would all this do to the budget?" he asked. Humphrey thought for a few moments and then gave a quick answer: "It'll mean a deficit, Mr. President." In a way, thought one man present at the meeting, any idea of intervening in Indochina died at that moment.

 

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The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam

A non-fiction classic, The Best and the Brightest is included on the Bookmark 2007 reading list as a tribute to the late David Halberstam, who was among the greatest journalists of his generation. After beginning his writing career as a newspaperman, eventually covering Vietnam for The New York Times, Halberstam went on to write more than 20 books, many of them top bestsellers. The Best and the Brightest is probably Halbertam’s most important book, and surely his best-known—and it is also the most germane to our present moment. “The Iliad of the American Empire and the Odyssey of this nation’s search for its idealistic soul,” as The Boston Globe put it, The Best and the Brightest is the riveting, horrifying account of how America’s leaders dragged the nation into quagmire in Vietnam. The book’s relevance now is obvious—and it brings valuable historical perspective to contemporary debates about Iraq, the American empire, and the American soul.