David Halberstam was an American writer, journalist, and historian, known for his extensive work on the Vietnam War, politics, history, the Civil Rights Movement, business, media, American culture, and sports journalism. He was awarded the distinguished Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 1964.

Halberstam graduated from Harvard University in 1955 with a degree in journalism. He began his career at the Daily Times Leader in West Point, Mississippi. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, while writing for The Tennessean in Nashville, Tennessee, he reported on the beginnings of the American Civil Rights Movement.

In the mid-1960s, Halberstam covered the Vietnam War for The New York Times, where he gathered material for his book The Making of a Quagmire. Tragically, Halberstam was killed in a car crash in 2007 while conducting research for a new book.