''The Nightingale's Song'' is a 1995 book by ''

Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local, regional, national, and international news. Founded in 1837, the newspaper was owned by Tribune Publish ...

'' journalist Robert Timberg. It relates the military and political careers of five graduates of the

United States Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (USNA, Navy, or Annapolis) is a United States Service academies, federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as United States Secre ...

, most of whom served during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

in either the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...

John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American statesman and United States Navy, naval officer who represented the Arizona, state of Arizona in United States Congress, Congress for over 35 years, first as ...

, Bud McFarlane,

Oliver North Oliver Laurence North (born October 7, 1943) is an American political commentator, television host, military historian, author, and retired United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel. A veteran of the Vietnam War, North was a National Sec ...

John Poindexter John Marlan Poindexter (born August 12, 1936) is a retired United States naval officer and Department of Defense official. He was Deputy National Security Advisor and National Security Advisor during the Reagan administration. He was convicte ...

, and

Jim Webb James Henry Webb Jr. (born February 9, 1946) is an American politician and author. He has served as a United States senator from Virginia, Secretary of the Navy, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs, Counsel for the United States ...

. Timberg himself was also a Naval Academy graduate and served in Vietnam with the Marine Corps, where he was badly wounded. The book examines how both the Annapolis and the Vietnam experiences shaped the different characters portrayed, and how it foreshadowed their political careers, and for some, their involvement in the Iran-Contra affair. ''The Nightingale's Song'' received generally strong reviews, with Geoffrey Norman in '' American Way'' stating that the individual narratives taken collectively "become something greater than the sum of their parts. They take the reader on an odyssey across some of the hardest terrain of recent American history." ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' listed it as a "Notable Book of the Year" and ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' magazine selected it as one of the year's five best works of nonfiction. Its sales were modest. In 1999, while Senator John McCain was campaigning for the Republican Party's nomination for president, Timberg excerpted the portions of ''The Nightingale's Song'' pertaining to McCain, augmented them with some early and recent biographical material, and put together another book, ''John McCain: An American Odyssey''. It was in turn subsequently reissued by the Free Press in 2007, in conjunction with McCain's 2008 presidential nomination campaign, with a new foreword containing some updates on McCain in the 2000s.

References

External links

''Booknotes'' interview with Timberg on ''Nightingale's Song'', August 27, 1995
1995 non-fiction books Vietnam War books Books about politics of the United States United States Naval Academy Books about John McCain Iran–Contra affair Non-fiction books about the United States Marine Corps Non-fiction books about the United States Navy Touchstone Books books {{Vietnam-war-book-stub