Too Good to Be Forgotten: Changing America in the '60s and '70s

By David Obst

"Whether it be My Lai, Watergate, The Pentagon Papers, or any of the other tumultuous events of that era, Obst seems to be in the middle of it. To understand this period, Too Good To Be Forgotten is a must read." --Seymour M. Hersh "Hooray and Hallelujah David Obst is finally telling all of his secrets about publishing, politics, and the kind of journalism spawned by Watergate. Read this book and head for the bunker." --Kitty Kelley "David Obst is as crazy as the period he writes about. His stories make me both proud and ashamed to be part of his generation." --P. J. O'Rourke "Occasionally lucid. Doubtless the most compelling book about David Obst yet written in this century." --Taylor Branch "God knows many of them are fools, and most of them will be sellouts, but they're a better generation than we were. Since when are youths not allowed to be asses?" --Lillian Hellman on the '60s Generation Few people saw as much or knew as many of the primary figures of the '60s and '70s as David Obst. A journalist in the maelstrom of the anti-war movement, he helped break Seymour Hersh's Pulitzer Prize-winning My Lai Massacre story. A behind-the-scenes operator, he baby-sat the Pentagon Papers for Daniel Ellsberg. And as the hottest literary agent of the period, Obst quickly sewed up deals with the Watergate intelligentsia, including Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein and John Dean. Given his insider status, Obst offers some intriguing speculation on the identity of Deep Throat. Obst's knack for being at the center of every interesting story makes Too Good To be Forgotten a rare, you-are-there joy ride across the political and cultural frontier of that era. Surviving a youth of nuclear drop drills, Sputnik, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, Obst went on to study Chinese in Taipei. There, while working as an impromptu translator for GIs trying to pick up women in a local bar, he heard the truth about what was happening in the Vietnam War. Returning to America, he immersed himself in the anti-war movement and the countercultural zeitgeist of the '60s. Through Obst's eyes, we see the casual mix of idealism and excitement of the times: the 1968 Democratic Convention, where he barely escapes the beatings of Chicago police in Lincoln Park; the People's Park protests in Berkeley where he gets a face full of tear gas while trying to impress a comely woman; the Black Panther rally, where he receives a "Honkies for Huey" button; and the 1972 Republican Convention where Abbie Hoffman slips him an illegal substance that hits at the very moment Richard Nixon steps to the podium to accept the nomination. A definitive look at the baby boomers' coming of age, Too Good To be Forgotten puts you right in the thick of some of the defining moments of the time the kids tried to take the country away from the grown-ups. David Obst provides us with the memoir of a generation.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471295388
• ISBN13: 9780471295389
• Release Date: September 1998
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Length: 282 Pages
• Weight: 1.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Amazing experiences of a brilliant jounalist

The author wonderfully describes his experiences during the tumultous years of 60s-70s and skillfully weaves his observations about all the events. The book is a very easy and quick read. But the best part is the information it packs about all the events of those times (Vietnam and My Lai, Chicago convention, Watergate..), the government's reaction and the effect on student psyche. What will leave the reader amazed at the end of the book is, how a person could have been at so many places at the "right" time! A truly wonderful work!

A book that must be read by those under 30.

This book was written by a man who has done and seen things that most of us only witness in the movies. It is exciting as well as touching and informative and a must read by those of us under 30 who want to enjoy ourselves while learning about one of the most exciting times in our country's history. This book should be recommended reading for every college student. I loved it!!!!!!

A charming, revealing book about America and growing up.

Obst's book is charming and revealing of not only himself but his -- our -- times. Although the media have focused on his "DEEP THROAT" revelations (and beat up on him unfairly, I think), the real story is how this "Forest Gump/Zelig" guy moved through all our lives and what he saw. The love story(ies) are touching, and the portraits of people like Ellsberg and Sy Hersh are important historically.

Fascinating insights told with great humor

The Chinese curse, "may you live in interesting times," couldn't apply more aptly than in Obst's tale of his life experiences during the formative stages of the boomer generation. His stories, told with a refreshing sense of humor, provide new insights about an entire generation. As a boomer myself, the attitudes he describes -- fearing atom bomb attacks, opposing the Viet Nam War and the adult generation that brought it to us, openness about sex and drugs -- bring feelings of nostalgia and, as O'Rourke suggests, embarrassment at the same time. This is a quick and enjoyable read about someone who began as a quite ordinary guy from Culver City, and ended up at the center of the My Lai Massacre story with Seymour Hersh, the Chicago 68 Yippies riot with Jerry Rubin and Abbe Hoffman, the Pentagon Papers with Daniel Ellsberg, and Watergate with Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, Robert Redford, and even John and Mo Dean. He's Forrest Gump, all right, but with a reflective 60's kind of attitude.

If only they assigned this in high school history...

I was born too late to experience the sixties and seventies firsthand. But Obst's book seems, well, *real* -- it's a firsthand account unblemished by the cynicism and disillusionment that I sense in other chronicles of that era. He also has this subtle humor that makes the book a pleasure to read...a vestige of '60s insouciance, perhaps. In any case, Obst was uncannily *there* -- an active participant in the counterculture. He was at the Chicago riots, the People's Park protests at Berkeley, a Black Panther rally. He was integral in breaking the My Lai massacre story and the Pentagon Papers. And he has some extremely interesting insider speculation on the identity of Deep Throat. If only they assigned "Too Good To Be Forgotten" in high school history class -- the stories about Yippies, Watergate, My Lai, Ellsberg -- I surely would have remembered learning about this then.