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

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

• 
  Joe

  RE-READ
  
  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 and it deals with other times and topicsd, 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.
• 
  Gavin

  This was an amazing book that really hooked me into what was going on during the '50s-60s. McGeorge and William Bundy had the family access and the smarts to go far in the world. Both served admiarably during WWII, and with government thereafter. Both were extremly erudite and desired for their abilities.
  
  McGeorge was National Security Advisor for President Kennedy. He did a satisfactory job, but from Bird's work it appears that he wasn't always showing his cards. William, his older brother, was a deputy to Kennedy, and then an Assistant Secretary of State for Kennedy, again, like McGeorge, not always forthright about his views.
  
  To sum it all up, these two were able to make some great change in America on small things, but if they had been able to finesse the Vietnam war we might regard them as truly the best and brightest.
  
• 
  Jemera Rone

  What a fabulous biography! The brothers' elite education and Brahmin origins only supplemented their high IQs. Thus the term, " the best and the brightest." I well remembered Mac George's role in the Vietnam war, but I had forgotten about his shake-up of NYC politics when, after reading Gunnar Myrdal, he threw the Ford Foundation's considerable resources into trying to enccourage black activism. This earned him the animus of the NYC teachers' union and undoubtedly contributed to the creation of the term "limousine liberal." He has been redeemed somewhat from the cloud under which he has so long labored.
• 
  Timothy McCluskey

  This is an excellent book for many reasons least of which it is well written. The Bundy Brothers were brilliant and exceptionally well educated but for all their knowledge and training they were absolutely tone deaf to any culture other than that of New England and by extension America. As a result they were totally unable to understand the interests of Southeast Asians. All of which lead to the debacle of Viet Nam.
• 
  Kirk Bower

  Very well written. Great look at the Bundy brothers "behind-the-scenes" influences on foreign affairs in JFK and LBJ's administration. I believe it shines much light on the height of the cold war.
• 
  Christopher

  Thorough and excellent. Won't be surpassed.
• 
  Debbie

  chapter on the Ford Foundation but only deals with domestic initiatives during his presidency of the org