Posted on 01/15/2006 4:20:31 PM PST by wagglebee
Former CBS anchor Walter Cronkite, whose 1968 conclusion that the Vietnam War was unwinnable keenly influenced public opinion then, said Sunday he'd say the same thing today about Iraq.
"It's my belief that we should get out now," Cronkite said in a meeting with reporters.
Now 89, the television journalist once known as "the most trusted man in America" has been off the "CBS Evening News" for nearly a quarter- century. He's still a CBS News employee, although he does little for them.
Cronkite said one of his proudest moments came at the end of a 1968 documentary he made following a visit to Vietnam during the Tet offensive. Urged by his boss to briefly set aside his objectivity to give his view of the situation, Cronkite said the war was unwinnable and that the U.S. should exit.
Then-President Lyndon Johnson reportedly told a White House aide after that, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America."
The best time to have made a similar statement about Iraq came after Hurricane Katrina, he said.
"We had an opportunity to say to the world and Iraqis after the hurricane disaster that Mother Nature has not treated us well and we find ourselves missing the amount of money it takes to help these poor people out of their homeless situation and rebuild some of our most important cities in the United States," he said. "Therefore, we are going to have to bring our troops home."
Iraqis should have been told that "our hearts are with you" and that the United States would do all it could to rebuild their country, he said.
"I think we could have been able to retire with honor," he said. "In fact, I think we can retire with honor anyway."
Cronkite has spoken out against the Iraq war in the past, saying in 2004 that Americans weren't any safer because of the invasion.
Cronkite, who is hard of hearing and walks haltingly, jokingly said that "I'm standing by if they want me" to anchor the "CBS Evening News." CBS is still searching for a permanent successor to Dan Rather, who replaced Cronkite in March 1981.
"Twenty-four hours after I told CBS News that I was stepping down at my 65th birthday I was already regretting it and I've regretted it every day since," he said. "It's too good a job for me to have given it up the way that I did."
This is the guy who was for 30 years sold to the American people as the "most credible man in America."
For people like Cronkite to pretend the above didn't happen and that we "lost" an unwinnable war is criminal leftism.
BTW, cute little scene isn't it? Walt's boss just happened to ask him to drop his objectivity "this one time" and tell the whole nation a bunch of leftist hogwash. Think the boss would have wanted the opposite opinion aired?
Ah yes. Walter, the crazy uncle in the basement reliving the Civil War...
Makes me glad that we didn't get a TV until I was in high school and then we couldn't get CBS.
To hell with them, they're not worth the effort.
Typical elitist leftist America hating drivel.
Which is exactly what he convinced the left to do to the South Vietnamese.
Cronkite frauded us for years because he had the podium.
Why would anyone in this day and age ever take him seriously?
"Was [Cronkite] a Red Diaper baby in drag?"
An excellent question. When I was in Vietnam I hated his f---ing guts even then. The North Vietnamese watched CBS, too, and got aid and comfort from it.
But as to your question: Ol' Crankcase was all gung-ho for the Allied side in WWII, but like many libs, only I repeat only because the glorious Soviet Union was our co-belligerent (the enemy of our enemy, but only after the Nazis doublecrossed them).
I'll betcha ol' Uncle Walter was lukewarm about our fighting communism in the Korean War.
Someday he will be answering for that horror.
Crankeit needs a good freeping!
Be nice to people with senility.
He is the Jimmy Carter of news broadcasting - truth on the scaffold, error forever on the throne.
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Anti-Freedom WALTER CRONKITE's TV Boss =
Anti-Freedom TV Producer DON HEWITT,
...of '60 Minutes' TV Propaganda Fame for decades to come.
And America hasn't been the same since.
For...
the Enemy is now Within...
and always has been.
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He still wants to be popular at leftist cocktail parties in New York and LA. He wants the adulation of the younger generation of leftists.
Exactly what I think.
Dear Walter: You are an ass. Please shut up before your do further damage to your country.
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WALTER CRONKITE =
2008 Anti-Freedom Presidential Candiate HILLARY's No. 1 TV Defensive Linebacker
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