Though he brushes off such labels, legendary journalist and historian David Halberstam has been called a four-star general among the ranks of journalists for his extensive social commentary on American power and politics.
A Pulitzer prize winner for his reporting during the Vietnam War and author of 11 bestsellers, Halberstam was once the managing editor for The Harvard Crimson, Harvard's daily newspaper. In an interview with The Dartmouth, Halberstam discussed his impressions of the war in Iraq.
The Dartmouth: In your book "The Best and the Brightest," you noted that the Kennedy administration initially went into Vietnam to insure re-election at home and preserve the Democratic party's power. Do you think similarities can be drawn to the Bush administration's current decision to go into Iraq?
David Halberstam: I don't think that's true of Iraq...I don't think that's true of Bush. I do think there are some similarities, but I think you have to be very careful about comparing Vietnam -- it's apples and oranges. There is a danger in both [Vietnam and Iraq] that our military superiority in the long run can be counterbalanced by the other side's political superiority; their ability to recruit in the larger region.
The phrase I've been using...is that we are in danger of punching our fist into the largest hornet's nest in the world. The danger is that we are going to be doing [Osama] bin Laden's recruiting for him, that we will be a lightning rod for all the other misery and unhappiness that exists in the Middle East whether it's from lack of education, good jobs, swirling resentment.
TD: Some media outlets are reporting that military officials have underestimated the Iraqis' ability to resist coalition forces. Do you think this is an accurate appraisal of the situation?
DH: I never thought we would be treated as liberators, maybe just from my experience in Vietnam. I'm surprised that senior people in the government believed that. They've been watching "Patton," but they should be watching "The Battle of Algiers."
I think there was a sense that the Iraqis would fight the same way [they did in the first Persian Gulf war], that it would go equally quickly and that there would be a large Iraqi uprising on our behalf. I think there is evidence that they could be using their army in different ways, breaking up into smaller units, into guerilla forces or semi-guerilla forces, coming at us from the rear rather than from the front. The lack of support in the region has prevented us from using our high technology before the start of the ground war. It's clearly not going to be as easy an enemy as the last time, the last war.
TD: You've quoted material written after Vietnam by current Secretary of State Colin Powell in which he noted that once he himself was in charge, he would not allow the country to go into a war again without the full support of the American citizenry. Do you think the administration now has that support?
DH: My sense from going around the country for the last couple of months is that the support is not there, there is an inordinate amount of discomfort and the support is thinner than it seems it should be for a president at this time. There's real doubt and uneasiness on the part of lots of Americans because [Iraq] is a different, distant place, and there is a political resonance that is hostile. There was sort of a Powell doctrine post-Vietnam that demanded all these varied parts, these components. It's not yet in place. Certainly the uniformed military people clearly want more men, the civilians overrule them, and in addition I think [Powell] is probably wary about the degree of support in the country. He's a man who's lost a lot of arguments inside the administration. My instincts are that his reservations on Iraq are not dissimilar to mine.
TD: Can you comment on current student campus activism during the Vietnam War as opposed to during this war?
DH: I'm going to pass on that, if I can. There's no way to compare, the two eras are completely different, the economy is different. I'm going to pass.
TD: There has been much recent press regarding the use of the media as propaganda tools, especially with the recent ejection of NBC and National Geographic Explorer journalist Peter Arnett. What do you think about this subject?
DH: There's always a struggle to use reporters as propaganda for your side; both sides have tried to do that. My sense is generally that you're getting a good report about what's been going on on the ground.