Monday, April 23, 2007

RIP, David Halberstam

David Halberstam is dead at the age of 73 after being in a car crash.

Halberstam is one of my favorite writers, I have read five of his books. His October 1964 routinely shows up in any "Top Ten Fave Books of All-Time" lists I make from time-to-time. That book is about the 1964 World Series between the New York Yankees and the St. Louis Cardinals. Baseball had been integrated for almost twenty years. The Cardinals (and the National League as a rule of thumb) had been actively pursuing black ballplayers, while the Yankees were slow to do so. Hence - in the Series a young, fast team beat one that relied on aging power. This was also the crashing end of the Yankees dynasty until the late seventies. Halberstam doesn't just detail the seven games of the Series, he goes into detail about the whole 1964 season for both teams and delves into many of the players' pasts. This book is highly recommended for all baseball fans.

While reading the AP story I linked above, I liked this part about when Halberstam was a journalist in Vietnam:

Halberstam later said he initially supported the U.S. action there but became disillusioned. That was apparent in his 1972 best-seller, "The Best and the Brightest," a critical account of U.S. involvement in the region.

Neil Sheehan, former Saigon bureau chief for United Press International and author of "A Bright Shining Lie," a Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the war, recalled how Halberstam once called a general at home to get permission to fly to the site of a U.S. defeat. At a briefing the next day, a brigadier general scolded "pitiful, lowly young reporters" for having the temerity to call a general at home.

"General, you do not understand," Halberstam responded, according to Sheehan. "We are not corporals. We do not work for you. ... We will call a commanding general any time at home we need to get our job done."

The general was flabbergasted, Sheehan said.

Halberstam "stayed the course and he kept the faith in the belief in the people's right to know," said George Esper, who spent 10 years in Vietnam with the AP and was Saigon bureau chief when the city fell. "In the end, and I think we can all be very proud of this, he was proven right. The bottom line was that David was more honest with the American public than their own government."