The Best and the Brightest

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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.

Contents 1 Individuals mentioned 1.1 The Americans 1.1.1 Presidents 1.1.2 Cabinet 1.1.3 Advisors 1.1.4 Military 1.2 The Vietnamese 1.3 The Soviets

[edit] Individuals mentioned

[edit] The Americans

[edit] Presidents

• Dwight D. Eisenhower
• John F. Kennedy
• Lyndon Johnson

[edit] Cabinet

• Dean Rusk - Secretary of State
• Robert McNamara - Secretary of Defense
• McGeorge Bundy - Special Assistant for National Security Affairs

[edit] 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

[edit] Military

• General Maxwell Taylor - Consultant to the President and Chairman of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board

[edit] The Vietnamese

• Ho Chi Minh

[edit] The Soviets

• Nikita Khruschev

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The Best and the Brightest is also the name of a 1998 Star Trek novel.