Among those dazzled by the Administration team was Vic-President Lyndon Johnson. After attending his first cabinet meeting he went back to his mentor Sam Rayburn and told him with great enthusiasm how extraordinary they were, each brighter than the next, and that the smartest of them all was that fellow with the Stacomb on his hair from the Ford Motor Company, McNamara. "Well, Lyndon," Mister Sam answered, "you may be right and they may be every bit as intelligent as you say, but I'd feel a whole lot better about them if just one of them had run for Sheriff once." It is my favorite story in the book, for it underlines the weakness of the Kennedy team, the difference between intelligence and wisdom, between abstract quickness and verbal facility which the team exuded, and true wisdom, which is the product of hard-won, often bitter experiences. Wisdom for a few of them came after Vietnam.
-David Halberstam, from his Introduction to The Best And The Brightest
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