Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author and honorary Dartmouth graduate David Halberstam arrived in Hanover yesterday to start his 11-day Montgomery Fellowship.
The third and final Montgomery Fellow this term, Halberstam will live in the Montgomery House on Rope Ferry Road during his stay at the College, from Feb. 17 until Feb. 28.
He has a full schedule while on campus, including several visits to classes and a speech titled "Looking Back on Vietnam: the Collision of Politics with History," at 4 p.m. today in Cook Auditorium.
In a telephone interview with The Dartmouth last night, Halberstam said his speech will focus on "the influence of domestic politics on the choices America made in foreign policy," and how this affected the course of the Vietnam War.
He said he will discuss why information that could have led to better choices about the war was "disregarded or suppressed."
In addition, Halberstam will be at the Dartmouth Bookstore tomorrow afternoon to sign copies of one of his books, "The Next Century," which was on the New York Times best-seller list in 1992.
Halberstam said he also intends to continue some of his own work, ice-skate and attend one of the White Oak Dance Project performances featuring Mikhail Baryshnikov.
He said his favorite part of visiting the College is "being with young people." In a previous interview, Halberstam told The Dartmouth he was "looking forward to the informality of the school."
Halberstam was last on campus as the keynote speaker for the 1996 Commencement ceremony, when he received an honorary doctor of letters degree. In his speech, he encouraged graduates to take risks and follow their true interests rather than look for stability or instant fortune once out of college.
Halberstam gained widespread recognition for his reporting on the Vietnam War, which won him the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting in 1964.
From 1960 to 1967, he was a journalist for The New York Times and he covered stories in such distant locations as the Congo, Vietnam, Warsaw and Paris.
Aside from "The Next Century," he is also the author of over a dozen books, including "The Best and the Brightest," "The Powers That Be," "The Reckoning," "The Summer of '49," "The Fifties" and "October, 1964."
Halberstam's other awards include the George Polk Memorial Award, the Louis Lyons Award, the Page One Award for his Congo reporting and the Overseas Press Club Award.
The Montgomery Fellowship was established in 1977 by Kenneth and Harle Montgomery. It brings prominent figures from a wide variety of fields to the College, where they can interact with students, give lectures and continue their own research.
