Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Halberstam discussed his experience covering the Vietnam War and shared his thoughts on America after 9/11 during a question-and-answer session with Elon students Thursday, Jan. 16. Details...
Halberstam’s hour-long session in Whitley Auditorium gave students and faculty a chance to ask a variety of questions about his career, which began at newspapers in Mississippi and Tennessee during the civil rights movement. Later, as a New York Times reporter, he covered the military conflict in the Congo and the Vietnam War. Halberstam said the power of the New York Times was “enormous” in covering the war and allowed him to write about the true course of the war, a course that was not favorable to the administration of President John F. Kennedy. He described a particular incident that occurred in October 1963, just a month before Kennedy’s assassination.
“Kennedy did not want Vietnam on the front burner, as he was getting ready to run for re-election against Goldwater in 1964,” Halberstam said. He said Kennedy asked the Times to “get Halberstam off my back,” referring to Halberstam’s stories which showed the U.S. was not winning the war. “I was pushing to the front page what was a first-class foreign policy failure.”
Halberstam said the world, and the U.S. especially, has changed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but that it will recover. “America is different now and we must stay wise and stay strong.” He said the worldwide sympathy that was so prevalent toward the U.S. in the days following the attacks has started to wane. “I think there was a great deal of sympathy for us after September 11. But (President George W. Bush) is not a good speaker, and the way he speaks is scary to many Europeans.” Halberstam said while most Americans understand Bush, Europeans see his style and policies as a reflection of his Texas roots and “a frontier type of justice.”
The author of 13 books on The New York Times bestseller list, Halberstam said he “does not think there should be a rush to war” in Iraq. He believes the conflict in Iraq has more to do with ideology and “baggage left over from the first Bush administration” than America’s desire to control the region’s oil resources.
In an afternoon news conference, Halberstam discussed his concerns about the trend toward large chain companies having ownership of multiple newspapers. “Large chains are not good for the newspaper business because all they are interested in is driving up the stock. And so you end up doing slim stuff and you view the customer not as the person who buys the paper, but as the person who buys the stock.”
Halberstam discussed his 2001 best-selling book, “War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton, and the Generals,” during a speech later in the day in McCrary Theatre. His speech was part of the Baird Pulitzer Prize Lecture series, which brings some of the nation’s most accomplished writers and journalists to campus.