Posted on 07/17/2009 5:15:12 PM PDT by Mmogamer
Broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite has died at age 92, The New York Times reports.
It was right after he met with Westmoreland and other military leaders who briefed him about how the Tet Offensive was a complete failure and the Vietcong had been basically wiped out and that the NVA barely had defensive capabilities left. He went on national television and told the American Public (who trusted him completely and to who the whole idea of media bias was completely foreign concept) and said the following:
Tonight, back in more familiar surroundings in New York, we'd like to sum up our findings in Vietnam, an analysis that must be speculative, personal, subjective. 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. Another standoff may be coming in the big battles expected south of the Demilitarized Zone. Khesanh could well fall, with a terrible loss in American lives, prestige and morale, and this is a tragedy of our stubbornness there; but the bastion no longer is a key to the rest of the northern regions, and it is doubtful that the American forces can be defeated across the breadth of the DMZ with any substantial loss of ground. Another standoff. On the political front, past performance gives no confidence that the Vietnamese government can cope with its problems, now compounded by the attack on the cities. It may not fall, it may hold on, but it probably won't show the dynamic qualities demanded of this young nation. Another standoff.
We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds. They may be right, that Hanoi's winter-spring offensive has been forced by the Communist realization that they could not win the longer war of attrition, and that the Communists hope that any success in the offensive will improve their position for eventual negotiations. It would improve their position, and it would also require our realization, that we should have had all along, that any negotiations must be that -- negotiations, not the dictation of peace terms. For it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate. This summer's almost certain standoff will either end in real give-and-take negotiations or terrible escalation; and for every means we have to escalate, the enemy can match us, and that applies to invasion of the North, the use of nuclear weapons, or the mere commitment of one hundred, or two hundred, or three hundred thousand more American troops to the battle. And with each escalation, the world comes closer to the brink of cosmic disaster.
To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past. To suggest we are on the edge of defeat is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory, conclusion. On the off chance that military and political analysts are right, in the next few months we must test the enemy's intentions, in case this is indeed his last big gasp before negotiations. But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.
This is Walter Cronkite. Good night.
Thus starting a long line of un-elected 'news' men who would dictate US Foreign policy based on his or her own political beliefs by telling Americans what they should think while claiming to be un-biased.
BTW-—I surely think you can laugh at the timing. I mean, I am sure many in the press corp have done the same, quietly.
You bet he was. He almost singlehandedly destroyed American morale -- and he did it with a lie.
LOL
I watch DIY a lot. I have ever since election night last November. It's soothing and politics free.
You’re Jim Thompson? OMG.........
I hate to break it to you but the Lord Jesus Christ says there is no purgatory:
Luke 16:19 - 31
I could not remember the CBS guy before Walter "Communist North Viet Nam's most trusted man in America" Cronkite but I do remember NBC's John Cameron Swayze when he became the first anchorman on network news.
Mr. Swayze latter stepped aside for a couple of kids, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, in 1956. :)
Hope you knew that.. (still ROFL)
Walter Cronkite, by pretending the enemy defeated us with its Tet Offensive, demoralized America and invigorated that enemy.The resulting deaths of thousands of Americans, of millions of Asians, will be on the Cronkite Dossier being reviewed as we type and read.
Actions have consequences.
Dark actions have dark consequences.
Karma for Cronkite coming up.
And that's the way it is.
May He have mercy for Cronkite's ignorant "good intentions." He was a decent man, deluded, but AFIK not a liar.
Roger that.
I stole it fair and square from IncPen.
With sounds better, but I hear ya.
Looks like Walter's death will take the spotlight off the Murderer Ted Kennedy. Good old Teddy dodging another one.
that’s how I feel....
He really betrayed our country with his influence. THIS was the beginning of the Liberal media crap...the so called “journalists”.
I am now turning off the TV
...
BTW, good job Mr. “thompson” ..glad you are removing the posts that are emotional and would just hurt Freep.
I have never seen so many posts removed so fast..but that’s ok.
I hate to break it to you but the Lord Jesus Christ says there is no purgatory:
Luke 16:19 - 31
I have a nice Man O’ War cigar in the humidor that just seems right for the occasion. If it ever stops raining, I’ll go outside and fire it up.
I used to know a guy who listened to Douglas Edwards on a tiny radio station in Troy, Alabama.
At least that is what he said.
Its not hate just Facts.
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