Halberstam slams Tet anology

Talking recently with Bob Garfield, David Halberstam, who covered Vietnam for the New York Times and wrote The Best and the Brightest, had a thing or two to say about Tom Friedman’s much-hyped assertion that, “Iraq today … seems like the jihadist equivalent of the Tet offensive.” BOB GARFIELD: Do you think Tom Friedman was right? ...

606512_friedman6.jpg
606512_friedman6.jpg

Talking recently with Bob Garfield, David Halberstam, who covered Vietnam for the New York Times and wrote The Best and the Brightest, had a thing or two to say about Tom Friedman's much-hyped assertion that, "Iraq today ... seems like the jihadist equivalent of the Tet offensive."

Talking recently with Bob Garfield, David Halberstam, who covered Vietnam for the New York Times and wrote The Best and the Brightest, had a thing or two to say about Tom Friedman’s much-hyped assertion that, “Iraq today … seems like the jihadist equivalent of the Tet offensive.”

BOB GARFIELD: Do you think Tom Friedman was right?

DAVID HALBERSTAM: I am puzzled reading the Tom Friedman column, which, for someone who’s a very careful, skilled and thoughtful journalist, seems extremely careless in his references to Tet. I think it’s poorly done on what happened to Tet, and poorly compared to what is happening today.

BOB GARFIELD: And yet, George Stephanopoulos hits the President with the question, is this the Tet Offensive of Iraq? And the President shrugs and says, uh, maybe.

DAVID HALBERSTAM: [W]hat’s interesting about the stuff coming out of the Stephanopoulos/Bush interview is that I don’t know what either of them is really saying in terms of placing this in the context of Tet, and what they think Tet means. The President has been exceptionally weak on the history of the Vietnam War…. I mean, I can’t tell exactly what the President is saying, and certainly I don’t have any sense that Stephanopoulos has defined it particularly well or turned to anybody who knew anything much about Vietnam. So it seems to me to be weak reporting, and as far as I can tell, a rather vague answer.”

More from Foreign Policy

Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.
Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.

Chinese Hospitals Are Housing Another Deadly Outbreak

Authorities are covering up the spread of antibiotic-resistant pneumonia.

Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.
Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.

Henry Kissinger, Colossus on the World Stage

The late statesman was a master of realpolitik—whom some regarded as a war criminal.

A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.
A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.

The West’s False Choice in Ukraine

The crossroads is not between war and compromise, but between victory and defeat.

Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi
Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi

The Masterminds

Washington wants to get tough on China, and the leaders of the House China Committee are in the driver’s seat.