Posted on 07/19/2009 5:59:39 AM PDT by kellynla
WASHINGTON Walter Cronkite is dead at 92 but most Americans, many of whom considered him "the most trusted man" in the country during his reign as CBS News anchor still don't know what motivated him and how he secured such an influential and lofty position.
He was like a grandfatherly institution in the early days of TV. People believed him. Uncle Walter wouldn't lie, America believed.
Thus, when he gave his opinions, they had impact. One example was his report on the Tet offensive in Vietnam, which is credited with swinging the tide of opinion against the war.
Even in his death, however, nobody has addressed how and why an otherwise obscure figure at the time was elevated to become the most prominent anchorman on television.
The story was told publicly in the July 10, 2000, edition of the Nation, a Marxist-oriented journal, in a report on death of Blair Clark, who served as editor of the Nation from 1976 through 1978: "Whether it was calling on Philip Roth to recommend a Nation literary editor or persuading CBS News president Richard Salant to make Walter Cronkite anchor of CBS Evening News, Blair had a gift for the recognition and recruitment of excellence."
Clark was not only the editor of the Nation, he was also heir to the Clark thread fortune, a Harvard classmate and friend of John F. Kennedy, a buddy of Washington Post Editor Ben Bradlee and the manager of Eugene McCarthy's 1968 campaign for the Democratic Party presidential nomination.
He veered back and forth between politics and journalism seamlessly as an associate publisher of the New York Post, a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, vice president and general manager of CBS News and yet remained a fixture in Democratic Party politics throughout his career.
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
Yes, all true, but the American people aren’t up to the task. The Nathan Hales are of no more.
Walter Cronkite and the Liberal Media were against the Viet Nam war since 1969.
When Cronkite “reported” on CBS in 1969 that because of the Tet Offensive in Viet Nam, “the war was lost”; he was not reporting the truth.
The truth is, we NEVER lost a major battle in the Viet Nam war including the Tet Offensive.
The truth is, that we handed the Viet Cong and the NVA some of their worst defeats during the Tet Offensive.
And Cronkite “jumped the shark” in 1969 and became complicit and instrumental in the antiwar movement which was orchestrated on colleges & universities by the Communist Party during the 1960’s.
The Communists KNEW they were losing the war in Viet Nam and they KNEW that the only way to prevent America from winning the war was to create antiwar sentiment in America.
While the media and politicians will be slobbering all kinds of praise on Walter Cronkite this weekend and beyond; I just want you to know the FACTS.
Yes, Cronkite was a very good reporter and I hope he made amends with his Maker before he died, but he was no American patriot during the Viet Nam war and he certainly wasn't honest in his "reporting.”
Many American Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen & Marines were maimed and killed needlessly because JFK, LBJ and Democrat Party put us in a war that we could not win because we fought that war with “one hand behind our back”. And Cronkite & many others in the American media were complicit in the loss of the Viet Nam war because of their disingenuous reporting.
The vast majority of the media today is inundated with students of the 60’s who were indoctrinated by anti-American, anti-military, antiwar Leftists/Socialists/Marxists Journalism professors who were against the Viet Nam war. And as a result, we live in a country that gets their “news” today on television networks like ABC, CBS, NBC and newspapers like the New York Times & the L.A. Times whose editorial boards and news staffs are loaded with Liberals who are blatantly anti-military, antiwar and many times anti-American to the point of editorializing not only on the op-ed pages but in their news “reporting.”
JFK put us in the Viet Nam war and LBJ increased our presence but refused to allow us to WIN the war.
On more occasions than I care to remember; I led patrols across rice paddies and up mountains chasing the VC and NVA only to be ordered to return to our base camp after we had reached the Laotian border. You can't win a war unless you are committed to beating your enemy into defeat and final surrender.
And the Viet Nam War was the Korean War redux.
Finally, My Lai was an aberration and I can tell you unequivocally that there were no “mass murders or mass tortures” occurring during the Viet Nam war as was “reported” by the media.
John Kerry “testi-lied” before a congressional committee when he returned from Viet Nam in 1971 after only serving three months of his one year tour of duty.
He received orders back to the States by lying about so-called combat injuries he received while in Viet Nam and was awarded three Purple Hearts for injuries he did not receive in combat.There was a rule in place at the time that allowed anyone who received three Purple Hearts could be sent back to the States before finishing their tour of duty. John Kerry couldn't get out of Viet Nam fast enough. And Kerry lied about wounds he claimed he received on days that he was not involved in any enemy contact. For the record, I challenged Kerry some years ago on his military combat record but he refused to respond. Figures...once a coward, always a coward!
The Liberals in the media will be reporting and writing articles & books contrary to the FACTS regarding the Viet Nam war.
So don't be fooled by the praise laid on Walter Cronkite who is the “Father of American Liberal Media.”
I just wanted to “set the record straight” and inform you of the FACTS because I WAS THERE. I was a Marine Corps S-2 Intelligence NCO who not only had access to Intelligence reports but I also personally wrote many of those reports and was awarded combat medals and promotions for my work. So I KNOW the FACTS.
The Viet Nam war was lost in America NOT Viet Nam!
Semper Fidelis,
Kelly
bookmark
B T T T
The Battle of the Coral Sea was a tie.
It wasn't until Midway that we started winning.
Would Walter have advised giving up in April of 1942 and abandoning the Pacific to the Japanese Empire?
In those days, our "exit strategy" was "unconditional surrender" by the enemy; as opposed to now when our "exit strategy" is "unconditional surrender" by us.
AMEN!
Cronkite was pond scum...even to the end.
Lets not forget the allied forces of South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and South Viet Nam as well as the U.S.N., U.S.M.C. & U.S.A.F.
Semper Fi,
Kelly
“I’m glad to sit here at the right hand of Satan.” And there he sits.
Walter Cronkeit = Minister of Propaganda.. Czar of Hooey.. Commisar of BullSqueeze..
And, if one showed up, the enemedia would bury the story anyway, or make him out to be a criminal.
I don’t think Americans have ever really been fond of war. But, it used to be when we committed to it - we were in it to win. I don’t want to sound to corny - but in a very real way the best thing we can give to our young warriors is the knowledge that we as a nation are committed to their victory. I am ashamed that as a nation, we seem more concerned with Michael Jackson’s death than with those young souls who gave all for us in Afghanistan. We all need to remember that our I Pods, McMansions, boats and our freedoms all have one common element. Our freedom and prosperity were paid for in blood.-—JM
As perhaps FR's most unabashed, unapologetic Hamiltonian, I have long been embarrassed by the way the coasts and the heartland have switched political positions over the past century or so. Do you suppose William McKinley was gay?
I hope you don’t mind. BIG SMILE
“Save the besieged troops at Khe Sanh !!!! Screamed the images from Life magazine on down...... Besieged my butt.
The battle for Khe Sanh was your standard run of the mill mouse trap with the cheese being this little forward base seemingly cut off from support.
The NVA thought they had this in the bag and committed thousands of little guys to win world wide bragging rights.
While Cronkite and Life showed the base being rocketed , the bodies on the wire started to pile up.....and the pile kept growing as death fell from the skies and wiped out the attacking waves.
Think of the movie Zulu........now multiply the enemy kia by about a zillion and you get the idea what was really going on over there during that time period.
We had never been able to get enough of the little short guys together.....it was the Khe Sanh cheese that did it.
I read that rats feeding off the bodies on the wire were returning deeper into N. Vietnam and spreading diseases...I remember bubonic plague was a term mentioned.....
No mother, father, brother, sister or child wants their loved one to be used as bait to draw the enemy out in large numbers, better to present the Alamo image to the public.......now you know the truth.....in my opinion :)
Khe Sanh was one of the truly great military victories....screw Cronkite and Life magazine. If we could have tweetered to the American Public........you get the idea.”
You are right of course. I did not say US Army. I guess I should have said Tet was a military victory.
You're probably correct. In fact, the Hollywood commies, who got their marching orders from Stalin, were ordered to not write any scripts critical of Hitler during the Soviet/Nazi non-aggression pact. Much pressure was put on Lillian Hellman (big-time commie) to keep her play Watch on the Rhine from being filmed. When she wrote it, the Russians and Nazis were at each other throats. Once the two countries made nice, the play became an embarrassment.
After Hitler invaded Russia, it became cool again to dis the Nazis.
My dad always maintained the two worst things America did was:
1. Go off the gold standard.
2. Listen to Walter Cronkite.
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