Cronkite (98 page)
Authors: Douglas Brinkley
Tags: #General, #United States, #Biography & Autobiography, #Biography, #Television Journalists - United States, #Television Journalists, #Editors; Journalists; Publishers, #Cronkite; Walter, #Editors; Journalists; Publishers.; Bisacsh
354 Dick Salant, former president of CBS News from February 1961 to March 1964:
Jack Gould, “Friendly’s Farewell,”
New York Times
, February 17, 1966.
355 Friendly’s “brilliant, imaginative, and hard-hitting guidance”:
Rick Du Brow, “Television in Review,” UPI, February 16, 1966.
355 “money changers in the temple”:
Engelman,
Friendlyvision
, p. 225.
355
New York Times
even ran Friendly’s resignation letter:
“Text of Friendly’s Letter of Resignation,”
New York Times
, February 16, 1966.
355 He wasn’t sycophantic, but he valued the reasoned analysis of Stanton:
Engelman,
Friendlyvision
, p. 225.
355 “I have been partial to CBS because of my friendship”:
Dwight D. Eisenhower to Fred Friendly, February 15, 1966, Fred Friendly Papers, Rare Book Manuscript Library, Columbia University. Also see Engelman,
Friendlyvision
, p. 228.
356 “ranked with God and Country in their scheme of things”:
Leonard,
In the Storm of the Eye
, pp. 139–40.
356 “Salant,” Midgley recalled, “always preached”:
Midgley,
How Many Words Do You Want?
pp. 236–37.
356 His replacement was the soft-spoken Leslie Midgley:
Midgley,
How Many Words Do You Want?
p. 236.
356 “If he saw some story on NBC”:
Midgley,
How Many Words Do You Want?
p. 241.
357 By 1964, Clark’s pronounced antiwar views had led him to quit:
Eric Page, “Blair Clark, 82, CBS Executive Who Led McCarthy’s ’68 Race,”
New York Times
, June 8, 2000.
357 “Walter thought that Clark was too antiwar”:
Author interview with Andy Rooney, March 15, 2011.
358 “I still have no idea why they selected me”:
Bob Greene, “Goodbye and Good Luck,”
New York Times
, September 4, 2006.
358 “I was shocked when Salant told me”:
Author interview with Arnold Zenker, June 27, 2011.
358 “I did not go to work. And CBS pulled in this guy”:
Cronkite and Carleton,
Conversations with Cronkite
, p. 281.
358 David Brinkley, for his part, was philosophically opposed:
Brian Lamb interview with David Brinkley,
Book Notes
, December 10, 1995 (transcript).
358 nothing but “18,000 singers, dancers and jugglers”:
Robert E. Dallos, “Huntley and Brinkley United—Briefly,”
New York Times
, April 4, 1967.
358 Cronkite told reporters he remembered how hard it was:
Michael J. Socolow, “Anchors Away,”
Journalism History
29, no. 2 (Summer 2003): 50–58.
359 Cronkite stayed out despite the
CBS
Evening News
losing ground:
Jack Gould, “TV: Strike and Ratings,”
New York Times
, April 1, 1967.
359 “Chet Huntley Slaps at TV Strike” ran the banner:
“Chet Huntley Slaps at TV Strike,”
El Paso Herald-Post
, March 31, 1967.
359 “Good evening, this is Walter Cronkite, filling in”:
Robert E. Dallos, “ ‘Tonight’ Goes on Without Carson,”
New York Times
, April 12, 1967.
360 Cronkite received louder, longer applause than Ed Sullivan:
Richard K. Shull, “TV’s Celebrities Can Come from Any of Many Corners as Fans Mix Up the Media,”
Arizona Republic
, June 25, 1967
360 “It’s not as though Walter were a movie star”:
Betsy Cronkite as told to Lyn Tornabee, “My Husband: The Newscaster.”
360 “It is also irrelevant and inappropriate”:
“Ax TV News Star System—Brinkley,”
Press and Sun-Bulletin
(Binghamton, NY), February 16, 1966.
360 “was a little like Lyndon Johnson attacking Texas”:
Reston, “New York: Say It Isn’t So, Fred.”
361 “It was about beating our rivals”:
Author interview with Ed Fouhy, November 8, 2011.
361 “This practice changed in 1967”:
Jack Laurence to Douglas Brinkley [nd].
361 Salant wrote a highly confidential memo:
Michael J. Arlen,
Living Room War
(New York: Penguin, 1982).
362 “His expression was one of worry”:
Jack Laurence to Douglas Brinkley [nd].
362 “Spend,” Salant snapped, “whatever it takes”:
Author interview with Ed Fouhy, November 7, 2011.
362 “Salant and Cronkite, by 1967, didn’t think the war was going to end”:
Author interview with Bill Plante, November 7, 2011.
363 Kuralt’s “On the Road” feature would run on a trial basis:
Charles Kuralt,
On the Road with Charles Kuralt
(New York: Fawcett, 1995). See also
Charles Kuralt’s America
(New York: Anchor, 1996) and
Charles Kuralt’s American Moments
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999).
363 “two-minute cease-fires” from the tumultuous era:
“Travels with Charley,”
Time
, January 19, 1968.
364 As Midgley noted, Kuralt liked to talk to “oldsters”:
Midgley,
How Many Words Do You Want?
p. 243.
364 Together they toyed with the idea of buying a string of radio stations:
Author interview with Don Shelby, November 19, 2011.
364 “controlled by the Vietcong”:
Chester Pach, “The Way It Wasn’t: Cronkite and Vietnam,”
History News Network
(blog affiliated with George Mason University), July 21, 2009.
365 “No one had a clear idea”:
Morley Safer to Douglas Brinkley, January 13, 2012.
365 “bird and Bobby watching”:
Author interview with Andy Rooney, March 15, 2011.
365 “where the end begins to come into view”:
Larry Berman,
Lyndon Johnson’s War: The Road to Stalemate in Vietnam
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1991), p. 116.
365 “LBJ, just bypassing Stanton, would telephone Cronkite directly”:
Cronkite and Carleton,
Conversations with Cronkite
, p. 215.
Twenty-Two
: The Tet Offensive
367 “I thought we were winning the war!”:
Oberdorfer,
Tet!
p. 158.
367 Johnson’s “light at the end of the tunnel” drivel:
Powers, “Walter Cronkite: A Candid Conversation.”
367 “He now knew they were spot-on”:
Author interview with Andy Rooney, March 15, 2011.
367 “Vietnam was America’s first television war”:
Oberdorfer,
Tet!
p. 158.
367 “mind wide open”:
Walter Cronkite to Robert Manning, October 7, 1987.
368 “I wanted to be there for the clash”:
Mark Kurlansky,
1968: The Year That Rocked the World
(New York: Random House, 2005), p. 58.
368 “try and present an assessment of the situation”:
Cronkite,
A Reporter’s Life
, p. 256.
368 The time had come to weigh in:
Matusow,
The Evening Stars
, p. 128.
368 “Walter said he couldn’t possibly do an editorial”:
Phil Scheffer to Jack Laurence, August 15, 2009.
369 “You’re getting pretty heavy”:
Kurlansky,
1968: The Year That Rocked the World
, p. 59.
369 Salant and Cronkite settled on doing a prime-time
CBS News Special Report
:
Author interview with Sandy Socolow, September 17, 2010.
369 “It was an Orwellian trip”:
Halberstam,
The Powers That Be
, p. 512.
370 “Sphinx to pundit”:
Kurlansky,
1968: The Year That Rocked the World
, p. 59.
370 “see for himself what’s happened in South Vietnam”:
“Cronkite to Present Views on Vietnam,”
Lexington Daily News
, February 23, 1968.
371 Cronkite and his team now headed to Hué:
Cronkite,
A Reporter’s Life
, p. 256.
372 “The battle was still on in Hué”:
Cronkite and Carleton,
Conversations with Cronkite
, p. 211.
372 the “real” meaning of Tet was coming into focus:
James S. Robbins,
This Time We Win
(New York: Encounter Books, 2010), p. 252.
373 “It was quiet”:
Miller and Schechner, “Walter Cronkite, Broadcasting Lengend, Dies at 92.”
373 Cronkite’s best source in Vietnam was Abrams:
Halberstam,
The Powers That Be
, p. 513.
373 “It was sickening to me”:
Oberdorfer,
Tet!
pp. 249–50.
373 “My decision was not difficult to reach”:
Cronkite,
A Reporter’s Life
, p. 257.
374 “Walter said he wanted to know what was really going on”:
Todd Gitlin, “And That’s the Way It Was,”
The New Republic
, July 17, 2009.
374 “its soldiers were killing more of the enemy”:
John Laurence,
The Cat from
Hué
(New York: PublicAffairs, 2002), p. 291.
374 However, Laurence argued, the North Vietnamese weren’t going to give up:
Jack Laurence to Douglas Brinkley [nd]. See also Halberstam,
The Powers That Be
, p. 513.
375 “I watched the helicopter gunships circling the city”:
Cronkite to Manning, September 3, 1987.
375 “He held his cards close”:
Jeff Gralnick to John Laurence, February 17, 2010.
376 “You know, Walter was Mr. Unflappable”:
Author interview with Robert Vitarelli, March 8, 2011.
376 “His calmness was eerie”:
Author interview with Robert Vitarelli, March 10, 2011.
376 “It was Walter’s writing”:
Author interview with Jeff Gralnick, June 11, 2010.
376 “every word”:
Murray Fromson, e-mail to Sandy Socolow, February 17, 2010.
377 In the course of the prime-time show Cronkite made a powerful case:
Daniel Hallin, “Vietnam on Television,” Museum of Broadcast Communications, Chicago.
377 Cronkite faced a personal crossroads in Vietnam:
Diane Sawyer, “A Challenge for Tomorrow,” in Louis B. DeFleur,
Murrow Heritage: Challenge for the Future
(Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1986), p. 106.
377 “we’d like to sum up our findings in Vietnam”:
“Final Words: Cronkite’s Vietnam Commentary,” NPR, July 18, 2009, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106775685.
379 Apple had written a long article:
R. W. Apple, “The Making of a Stalemate,”
New York Times,
Summer 1967
.
379 the public would turn against Johnson’s war:
Michael J. Arlen, “The Air (On Television): Television’s War,”
The New Yorker
, May 27, 1967.
379 “That short editorial helped”:
Walter Cronkite, “Changing Attitudes Toward War in Vietnam,” NPR, August 7, 2002.
379 His opinion was quoted in the press, and it opened the door:
Jack Gould, “U.S. Is Losing War in Vietnam, N.B.C. Declares,”
New York Times
, March 11, 1968.
379 “The whole Vietnam effort may be doomed”:
Kurlansky,
1968: The Year That Rocked the World
, p. 61.
379 “When Walter said the Vietnam War was over”:
Frank Rich, “The Weight of an Anchor,”
New York Times
Magazine
, May 19, 2002.
379 “I was very disgusted with the media, particularly CBS”:
William Westmoreland oral history interview, U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.
379 As the CBS special aired that February 27, President Johnson was traveling:
Joseph Campbell,
Getting It Wrong: Ten of the Greatest Misreported Stories in American Journalism
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010), p. 89.
379 “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost the country”:
Douglas Martin, “Walter Cronkite, 92, Dies; Trusted Voice of TV News,”
New York Times
, July 17, 2009.
380 There are a few alternative versions of what LBJ supposedly said:
Kurlansky,
1968: The Year That Rocked the World
, pp. 61–62.
380 “Believe me, the shock waves rolled through government”:
Small,
To Kill a
Messenger
, p. 123.
380 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which he now feared was “null and void”:
Barbara Tuchman,
The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam
(New York: Ballantine Books, 1984), p. 352.
381 “Cronkite’s step out of character”:
Gitlin, “And That’s the Way It Was.”
381 “Walter Cronkite sounds like a Pentagon spokesman”:
Brian Lamb,
Booknotes: America’s Finest
Authors on Reading, Writing, and the Power of Ideas
(New York: Times Books, 1997), p. 194.
381 Bensley was wounded:
“CBS Man Wounded Twice,”
New York Times
, March 5, 1968.
381 Since Cronkite’s visit, fourteen U.S. correspondents and cameramen had been wounded:
“Newscasting: The Men Without Helmets,”
Time
, March 15, 1968.
381 “Nowhere in Vietnam was safe”:
Author interview with Russ Bensley, January 17, 2012.
382 “It is only a matter of time before Chet Huntley and David Brinkley”:
Jack Gould, “Should Huntley and Brinkley Don Leotards?”
New York Times
, February 11, 1968.
382 Cronkite’s analysis of Tet was premature:
Robbins,
This Time We Win
, p. 253.
383 As Diane Sawyer noted, not since Murrow lifted Senator Joe McCarthy:
James Walcott, “Round Up the Cattle!”
Vanity Fair
, June 2003, p. 86.
383 “Johnson did talk about Cronkite going to Vietnam”:
George Christian, telephone interview with David Culbert, September 17, 1979, transcript, LBJ Presidential Library and Museum, Austin, TX.
384 “We were held to such a rigid set of values”:
Author interview with Ed Fouhy, November 7, 2011.
384 “It was an egotistical thing for us to do”:
Kurlansky,
1968: The Year That Rocked the World
, p. 63.
384 “The doctrine required broadcast station licensees”:
Jack Shafer, “Why I Didn’t Trust Walter Cronkite,”
Slate
, July 21, 2009; http//www.slate.com/ articles/news_and_politics/press_box/2009/07/why_i_didnt_trust_walter_cronkite.single.html (accessed December 6, 2011).
