AP News, April 24th, 2007
"The world has lost one of our greatest journalists. Our heartfelt sympathy goes to David's family." _ Arthur Sulzberger Jr., chairman, The New York Times Co.; publisher, The New York Times
___
"David Halberstam was a giant of contemporary journalism. His accidental death is a blow not only to his family and numerous friends, but also to the profession of journalism which he practiced superbly over a lifetime. Halberstam was the brightest light of the Vietnam reporting generation." _ former CNN correspondent Peter Arnett, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1966 for his coverage of Vietnam for the AP
___
"I have often said that without the members of the media, the Civil Rights movement would have been a bird without wings, and David helped us fly so high. He was a dogged and determined journalist, but the people he wrote about trusted him. They trusted that he would get the story right, and they believed he would be fair." _ Rep. John Lewis, whose career as a student civil rights activist Halberstam wrote about in "The Children"
___
"He was passionate about things. As a journalist he was very different from the rest of us. Not everybody went along with him, but he believed it was his duty to change things." _ retired AP photographer Horst Faas, who shared a house in Saigon with Halberstam during the early days of the Vietnam War and won a Pulitzer Prize for war photography in 1965
___
"He was a brilliant journalist who set the standard during the war in Vietnam for courageous and accurate reporting. ... He was wonderful company and I always learned something when I talked with him." _ Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., a Vietnam veteran who also knew Halberstam from Nantucket, Mass., where both had vacation homes
___
"He was spellbinding. He was just an outstanding man." _ Boston Red Sox great Johnny Pesky, 87, whose 1940s playing days with Ted Williams, Dom DiMaggio and Bobby Doerr were chronicled by Halberstam in his 2003 book "The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship"
