David Halberstam Interview (page: 5 / 5) Pulitzer Prize for Journalism	Print Interview

It must also give you a great satisfaction, knowing that you can help make a difference in the world.

David Halberstam: I think you have to be very careful thinking about that. I think it is nice to want to do that.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I think you want to be part of a public arena where you believe, as I do, that an informed society is a better society, can make better judgments, and I think that helped in Vietnam and later with a book I did on the competition from Japan. I think you do it for those reasons. You do it, but there are so many other values. Doing something that you like, something that you value, something that -- even though it is not as, say, sexy as being a television reporter or makes as much money -- remains with a resonance within the society, allows you to feel good about yourself, pride in your craftsmanship that you're serious and that you can still learn. It is a very, very satisfying life. I can't imagine anything more satisfying. I can imagine careers that would make more money, but I can't imagine anything that would make me feel better about myself.

[ Key to Success ] Perseverance

We ask many of our honorees about the meaning of the American Dream. You spoke earlier of being a "child of the immigrant story."

David Halberstam: I'm the second generation born in this country. My grandfather and grandmother on both sides came over, and my parents were the children of immigrants, and each was virtually the only member of a large family that went to college. That is not entirely true, but it is perilously close to true. I think my father really got to go to college and medical school because he was a medic in World War I. So...

Get the Flash Player to see this video. The immigrant dream is very powerful in our family. America gave you a chance to be who you wanted to be. I think a lot of people take this for granted in America. They assume every other country is like this, and America, there's a couple of things that I think are critical to the American Dream. One is that one generation comes here and doesn't have the skill or the language and therefore has to sacrifice, but critical to their reason for sacrificing is the idea that the next generation will live better than they did in the old country and will rise above them. It's a great, great powerful thing, the ability to rise in one generation above what your parents were. The other thing -- and I think people really do take this for granted -- is the idea that in America you can invent yourself and be who you want. You don't have to be a prisoner of the past. To an astonishing degree in Europe, in the Old World or other parts, if your father was a peasant, you're a peasant. If he worked on the railroad, you're supposed to work on the railroad. If he was a tailor, you're a tailor. If he went to the École Polytechnique and was a high-level engineer, you can go to the École Polytechnique. But in America, that's not true. We really can be whatever we want, and it's just built into this country. Because of the great university system, because of the open education, there really is a sense that whatever it is you want to be, you can be, and I think that is more powerful now than ever.

[ Key to Success ] The American Dream

Some people think the country has changed, because we have certain tensions in the city. It's not true. We used to be a beacon to Europe, and there was an emigration from northern and southern Europe to the United States, from east to west. Now we are a beacon to the whole world, because of greater communication with CNN and because of the 747. The whole world sees the American Dream and comes here.

There isn't a cab driver in New York that isn't from the Indian subcontinent I sometimes think, and if you ask them why they are here, it is because of their children. They could bear the life in the old country, but they want something better for their children. That dream is more powerful I think than ever. It is just amazing.

I see it every day in New York. It used to be, when you talked about "America, the melting pot," you had Italians, Jews, Poles, some blacks coming up. Now it is the third world, with all the burdens of that and all the excitement of it. So I think that dream is very powerful. I have been a beneficiary of it, and I would love to see others continue to have the possibilities that I have had.

Thank you so much. That was most eloquent.

David Halberstam: Thank you.

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