The Color of Truth: McGeorge Bundy and William Bundy: Brothers in Arms

Without hesitation I've put this book on my short list of recommendations for anyone who wants to learn more about the Vietnam War. Not at the top simply because it assumes some prior knowledge about many of the players involved and the historical events described but it should be included, (I think), with books by Halberstam, Sheehan, etc. Why? The Bundy brothers were at the center of most if not all the policy and military decisions concerning Vietnam made during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations - McGeorge as Special Assistant to the President on National Security Affairs to both JFK and LBJ - William working under McNamara, (Defense) and then Dean Rusk, (State). This book/author does an excellent job of putting these decisions in the context of the Bundy brothers' background, upbringing, education, intellect, loyalty and sense of duty, i.e. all the things a biography should do. Will the reader agree with all the decisions the Bundys made? ...Of course not. In fact one may disagree with every decision each or both of them did make but this book gives the reader an appreciation or at least an understanding as to how and why they came about. (As an aside, most of the questions/doubts concerning Vietnam policy made in hindsight, were raised contemporaneously by one or both of the Bundys -just another piece to this enigmatic puzzle.) Regarding the book's perspective/objectivity, I have no complaints and found the author admirably evenhanded - Although there are some anecdotes concerning peripheral individuals, (i.e. Henry Kissinger), which do not show them in the most positive light and may even raise a smirk from the reader. Finally although this review has centered on the Bundys and Vietnam this book chronicles much more, both before and after the Vietnam War - Henry Stimson, military service, the CIA, McCarthyism and the Cold War, Harvard and Yale, Cuba, the Ford Foundation - but in the interest of brevity I hope I've made my point.

THE COLOR OF TRUTH: MCGEORGE BUNDY AND WILLIAM BUNDY, BROTHERS IN ARMS: A BIOGRAPHY is essential reading for anyone trying to understand American foreign policy in the twentieth century. This book is well-researched and full of previously-undisclosed information. It also provides two portraits of what "establishment liberalism" was, how it developed, and its consequences. In the process, some of the most fascinating moments in American history are illuminated, most of the time unfavorably.From their respective military careers in WWII to their numerous positions in academia, government, and the non-profit sector, these two brothers were at the center of a huge web of personal and professional contacts in the American establishment. They were in many ways, the best, but also very flawed. This biography reveals those flaws, and the consequences of their failures.This book is very dense, especially during the sections dealing with the question of Vietnam, and an acquaintance with the brothers' own corpus of work is helpful and increases the potency of the book's analytical edge. It should be required reading for anyone interested in government policy, because it reveals how decisions are made, and how human beings think.

I happened upon this book in a bookstore in New York. I'm not going to say it changed my life: it would take a lot for a biography to do that. But for what it is: a biography of two men who were raised to hold the reins of power, than did so in one of this countries most difficult periods, the book is balanced, insightful, and enlightening. I was a bit worried going into the book that Bird, a frequent contributer to the Nation, would perform an unbalanced hatchet-job on these two men-- who must of course be seen with their redeeming qualities. And he does. This is a well-researched, well-put together book. It is a must read for anyone interested in Vietnam, the Kennedy Administration, or foreign affairs in general.

This book is very readible, and full of information, reflecting the seven years or so of its preparation. And the Bundy brothers come through in this book as I knew them. There is a lot of useful information about the Vietnam and Strategic Weapons scene. The book reveals, to those unfamiliar with Government, the existential reality of high officials caught up in group-think with very little time to think themselves and unable to do more to dissent than provide waffling papers for their superiors.

Bird guides his reader through Ameican history with a masterful hand, using the the fascinating biographries of the Bundy bothers as his prism. The writing is elegant, the history is first-rate and the portraiture illuminating. I know of no better book to discover the unhappy story of US behavior in the Cold War than Kai Bird's The Color of Truth