Vietnam and the Presidency: Keynote Address

David Halberstam gave the keynote address at a conference on Vietnam and the presidency. In his remarks he focused on the decision to go to war, his experiences as a war and foreign correspondent, and his impressions of the Kennedy administration.

Mr. Halberstam won the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the Vietnam War for The New York Times and is the author of The Best and The Brightest, the acclaimed critical history of how and why the United States went to war in Vietnam.

“Vietnam and the Presidency” was the first national conference sponsored by all the presidential libraries, from Hoover to Clinton, and the National Archives. Leading historians, key policymakers of the era, and journalists who covered the war examined the antecedents of the war, presidential decision-making, public opinion, lessons learned, and the influence of the Vietnam experience on subsequent U.S. foreign policy. close