[from 2008] Walter Cronkite, Vietnam, and the Decline of Media Credibility

American Thinker ^ | February 27, 2008 | Lee Cary

[ETL]

Walter Cronkite’s remarks at the end of his February 27, 1968 evening news broadcast, four decades ago today, were a watershed in the history of the MSM’s credibility.  

Unless you’re at least 55 years old, you probably don’t remember that CBS broadcast 40 years ago.  The most trusted man in America had recently returned from Vietnam where he hosted a documentary on the VC/NVA TET (New Year) offensive that began January 31, 1968.  Back in NYC, he closed his program that night by introducing “an analysis that must be speculative, personal, [and] subjective.”  Among his comments were these:

Who won and who lost in the great Tet offensive against the cities?  I’m not sure.  The Vietcong did not win by a knockout, but neither did we.  The referees of history may make it a draw.

It seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate.

But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.  (Emphases added)

Most evenings Cronkite ended his broadcasts with “And that’s the way it is.”  That night he ended with a more somber, “This is Walter Cronkite. Good night.”

Today, it’s hard to fully appreciate the stature and status Cronkite held in 1968.  He was the successor in fame to the demigod persona that had been Edward R. Murrow.  When President Johnson heard of Cronkite’s comments, he was quoted as saying, “That’s it.  If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost middle America.”

In January 2006,  Cronkite said his statement on Vietnam was his proudest moment.  When asked then if he would give the same advice on Iraq, Cronkite didn’t hesitate to say “Yes.”

At the time, Cronkite’s pronouncement added credibility and importance to all the network anchors.  His was a stunning exercise of media power.  But, in the perspective of history, the outcome of his pronouncement is not universally recognized as having been positive.  He overtly and figuratively stepped out from behind the microphone to add his personal commentary to the news.  We had not seen this before.  By doing so, Cronkite issued an implicit license to his journalistic colleagues to interject personal opinions into their factual reporting of the news.  The difference is that Cronkite clearly labeled it as personal opinion, while many MSM news personalities today weave their opinions into reporting. His sentiment registered with many, perhaps most, of his viewers that night.  He changed opinions by offering his own.  But in hindsight, his analysis was wrong – dead wrong for some.

Generally, the “referees of history” have not rendered the TET offensive a military draw.  The VC/NVA suffered unexpectedly high casualties, from which it took years to recover.  In particular, the ranks of the Viet Cong were decimated.  General No Nguyen Giap, the Supreme Commander of the Viet Minh (NVA) forces said, in a 1989 interview with CBS’s Morley Safer,

“We paid a high price, but so did you…not only in lives and material…After Tet the Americans had to back down and come to the negotiating table, because the war was not only moving into…dozens of cities and towns in South Vietnam, but also to the living rooms of Americans back home for some time. The most important result of the Tet offensive was it made you de-escalate the bombing, and it brought you to the negotiation table.  It was, therefore, a victory…The war was fought on many fronts.  At that time the most important one was American public opinion.” (The Vietnam War: An Encyclopedia of Quotations, Howard Langer, 2005)

The Vietnam War did not end in a stalemate, particularly for those S. Vietnamese who, at risk and often loss of life, loyally supported the U.S. Armed Forces (not all did, but very many did).  We left them in a lurch, cut off their military aid, and watched while they suffered the consequences when the North Vietnamese blatantly ignored the negotiated resolution (they never intended to honor) that Cronkite advocated.  

Many of those of us who served in Vietnam do not look upon its ending as reflecting “honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy.”  A compelling case can be made that we should never have sent troops to Vietnam in the first place.  But we did. And then, after nearly 60,000 U.S. deaths and countless Vietnamese casualties, we bugged out. There’s no way to put an honorable face on that unavoidable truth.

Once upon a time, I lived for awhile not far from a village called Ba Chuc in An Giang Province in the Mekong Delta.  After the U.S. evacuated Vietnam, there was nothing to stop old animosities between the Cambodians and Vietnamese from turning hot.  Here’s a description of what happened in Ba Chuc.

“On April 30, 1977, Pol Pot’s troops launched a surprise attack on 13 villages in eight Vietnamese border provinces. Ba Chuc was the hardest hit. The massacre was at its fiercest during the 12 days of occupation, April 18-30, 1978, during which the intruders killed 3,157 villagers. The survivors fled and took refuge in the pagodas of Tam Buu and Phi Lai or in caves on Mount Tuong, but they were soon discovered. The raiders shot them, slit their throats or beat them to death with sticks. Babies were flung into the air and pierced with bayonets. Women were raped and left to die with stakes planted in their genitals.”

There were two survivors to the massacre. 

Cronkite didn’t cover it on the CBS evening news.

As judged by subsequent events, Cronkite was wrong.  And over time, his words became a watershed marking the place where the gradual erosion of the MSM’s credibility began.  

[Republic]

Walter either lied or was himself misled...even with his trip over. Our American troops WON every single battle in Vietnam...EVERY SINGLE BATTLE.

And when we withdrew...millions and I mean MILLIONS were slaughtered as the communist N. Vietnamese moved fully into S. Vietnam and into next door neighbot-Cambodia.

We did not need to QUIT, we needed to RESOLVE TO WIN, something liberals can only do in elections.

Old Walter got into reporting on body bags returning instead of the actual news of the major battles, and even those were cast through the sorry lens of liberals who believe that their freedom was entirely free and that we have no responsibility to help those who yearn for freedom around the globe.

[pgkdan]

Cronkite was a traitor...is a traitor. He admits now to having always been a globalist and always working for globalism. Especially as a new anchor. He screwed the South Vietnamese and every American service person who ever served in Viet Nam and rendered useless the sacrifice made by those who died or were wounded. He stabbed the Viet Nam vet in the back.

[ETL]

Well said. Thank you.

[Hildy]

You are correct and, as usual, he is a liberal hero. Whenever I see his name being used as a tribute to journalism, I want to barf.

[Gay State Conservative]

Chronkite has made absolutely clear,in recent years,who and what he is.If he had done so *while* he was "America's Anchorman" we would have won in Vietnam because nobody would have paid any attention to him.He would have been seen as just another Olberman or Matthews."Gee,I get this thrill up my leg whenever I hear Gene McCarthy speak".

Chronkite is directly responsible for at least some of our casualties in Vietnam..as well as those among the South Vietnamese... and he's also directly responsible for the extra 10-15 years the Soviet bloc was able to stand...for if we had won in Vietnam the USSR would have fallen much sooner.

Chronkite is,no doubt,an atheist...like most prominent RATS but I'm convinced that he has a *very* unpleasant surprise in store for himself.

[The Great RJ]

At least Uncle Walter made it relatively clear he was giving his opinion. In today’s media outright lies and Obama White House propaganda are reported as real news slavishly “backed-up” with phony facts or outright fabrications.

[Hildy]

All I ever could remember from the time I was a little girl was my late, brilliant Dad referring to Cronkite as Colonel Blimp

I didn't realize how spot on that was until I was much older.

[ETL]

While we're on the subject of influential "Americans" undermining our efforts to defeat the communists in Vietnam...

"...if the United States were to set a date for withdrawal the prisoners of war would be returned."-J.F. Kerry

"Under questioning from the Committee, Kerry referred to the democratically elected government of South Vietnam -- our allies -- as a "dictatorial regime, the Thieu-Ky-Khiem regime," while respectfully calling the North Vietnamese communist regime we were fighting by its oxymoronic official name, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and the murderous Viet Cong's political arm by their preferred "Provisional Revolutionary Government.":
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/lindachavez/lc20040428.shtml
___________________________________________________________

June, 1970 -- Kerry joins Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), a national veterans group that is part of the Peoples Coalition for Peace and Justice. The PCPJ is a broad coalition of local and national organizations, including the Communist Party, USA, "committed to conducting demonstrations aimed at ending the war in Indochina, and poverty, racism and injustice at home." The VVAW, CCI and PCPJ all have headquarters at 156 Fifth Avenue in New York City. VVAW Executive Secretary Al Hubbard, a former Black Panther, is also on the coordinating committee of the PCPJ. Hubbard soon appoints Kerry to the VVAW's Executive Committee, bypassing the normal election process.
http://www.wintersoldier.com/index.php?topic=Timeline
___________________________________________________________

Fact: The Black Panthers were revolutionary communists...

From the Maoist Internationist Movement:
[1960s/original] Black Panther Party [BPP] Archives
From the article: REVOLUTIONARY HEROS

"On May 1st, May Day [1969], the day of the gigantic Free Huey rally, two of Alioto's top executioners vamped on the brothers from the Brown Community who were attending to their own affairs. These brothers, who are endowed with the revolutionary spirit of the Black Panther Party defended themselves from the racist pig gestapo.

Pig Joseph Brodnik received his just reward with a big hole in the chest. Pig Paul McGoran got his in the mouth which was not quite enough to off him.

The revolutionary brothers escaped the huge swarm of pigs with dogs, mace, tanks and helicopters, proving once again that "the spirit of the people is greater than the man's technology."

To these brothers the revolutionary people of racist America want to say, by your revolutionary deed you are heroes, and that you are always welcome to our camp."

Source: Maoist Internationist Movement
Article: REVOLUTIONARY HEROS (May 11, 1969):
http://web.archive.org/web/20060717050055/http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/bpp/index.html
___________________________________________________________

November 22, 1970 -- During a fund-raising tour for GI deserters, Vietnam Veterans Against the War and the Black Panthers, Jane Fonda is quoted in the Detroit Free Press as telling a University of Michigan audience:

"I would think that if you understood what communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees that we would someday become communist," and "The peace proposal of the Viet Cong is the only honorable, just, possible way to achieve peace in Vietnam."
http://www.wintersoldier.com/index.php?topic=Timeline
___________________________________________________________

Photo link: "Jane Fonda and John Kerry at an anti-war rally in Valley Forge, Pa. (Leif Skoogfors/Corbis)"
[note: we're not permitted to post this pic without permission from the photographer. this is a different photo than one at top -etl]
http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/kerry.asp

The photo is genuine. Here is what Jane Fonda herself had to say about it:

"My reaction is that the American people have had it with the big lie. Any attempt to link Kerry to me and make him look bad with that connection is completely false. We were at a rally for veterans at the same time. I spoke, Donald Sutherland spoke, John Kerry spoke at the end. I don't even think we shook hands."

Source for quote: same snopes article linked above
___________________________________________________________

Ramsey Clark, former U.S. attorney general under democrat LBJ with convicted terrorist enabler/commie lawyer, Lynne Stewart, at an "anti-war" rally in Harlem NY on March 19, 2005, the 2nd anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. The event was organized by the Workers World Party and "Troops Out Now". TON is an "anti-war" (pro-communist) Workers World Party front group.
http://www.workers.org/march19/index2.html
___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

John Kerry and the VVAW--Hanoi's American Puppets?
"Two recently discovered documents captured from the Vietnamese communists during the Vietnam War strongly support the contention that a close link existed between the Hanoi regime and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) while John Kerry served as the group's leading national spokesman."
http://www.wintersoldier.com/staticpages/index.php?page=puppets
___________________________________________________________

Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) Complete FBI files:
http://www.wintersoldier.com/index.php?topic=VVAWFBI

[dead]

There were two survivors to the massacre. Cronkite didn’t cover it on the CBS evening news.

What a douchebag.

[Republic]

I agree. Walter cheated his large American audience night after night with his own demented bias. If ONLY I had known then what I know now.

[Larry381]

Check out this story from the NY Post, but especially check out the reader's comments:

Cronkite

[BallyBill]

I'm no Cronkite fan, but I think I'll let him die in peace. Unlike most of the victims his kind left at the mercy of barbaric animals.

[ETL]

but especially check out the readers' comments

Thanks! Lots of great ones there!

[pgkdan]

Whenever I see his name being used as a tribute to journalism, I want to barf.

You and me both.

[Swede Girl]

Cronkite turned from being a news reporter to a news critic. In my opinion, he has blood on his hands from his actions and words. Ask any Cambodian or South Vietnamese. Ask the Montagnards. Ask any soldier who fought for their freedom, and then had to desert them - often to a fate worse than death - due to Cronkite and all of the liberals who failed to see the big picture.

If Cronkite and his ilk could have their way, they would do the same to Iraq.

[tophat9000]

Tet was real a “Battle of the Bulge” moment and base on the same logic...

The German did not expect to win from the battle.. it was to affect policy on the allies to get a political concession to get that stalemate....

From time and distance Tet and the Battle of the Bulge look about the same in a military perspective

Uncle Walter gave the NV what the German didn't get, that propaganda helping hand to break the will on the home front

[OneWingedShark]

Interesting summary and analysis.

[ETL]

Uncle Walter gave the NV what the German didn't get, that propaganda helping hand to break the will on the home front

Thanks. That's what it's all about for these lefties in influential positions: breaking the will of the American people.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Walter Cronkite and the Ivy League universities are the strongest evidence in existence that the Left is secretly run by the old Eastern Seaboard Conservative (now Liberal) Establishment ideologically descended from Alexander Hamilton (and as Hamiltonian I take absolutely no joy in saying that). Gun control advocacy is another (the government that is the alleged bet noire of the International Left is the one government the Left doesn't want overthrown).

Cronkite should demand a salary from the Birch Society.