For at least a good portion of his career, the network TV news was only a fifteen-minute program. I cannot recall when it went to a half-hour, but the only times Cronkite was on the air for more than a few minutes at a time were during space missions and a few special events like the Kennedy assassinations.
According to old newsmagazines, the switch to half-hour broadcasts took place right after the assassination of Kennedy in November 1963. There had been plans to do so before the assassination, but the assassination hastened the move.
He played a key role in sabotaging our nation's sacrifices in Viet Nam.
Yes.
That is why I could not possibly care less about the destiny of Walter Cronkite; one wonders how much blood is on his hands because he wilfully and purposely lied about the war in Vietnam, misleading the American public.
Among his lies were that most Americans wished us to desert Vietnam, a lie fortified by broadcasts giving undue coverage to the "anti"-"war" side, and hardly any to the other side.
But such perception omits that many "anti"-"war" political candidates were defeated in 1968, among them the superdoves Wayne Morse (D-Oregon) and Ernest Gruening (D-Alaska).....and that as late as 1971, less than 25% of the American public wanted us to cut and run from Vietnam.
Walter Cronkite has lived a long life, his declining years in untold affluence and comfort; one thinks often of the young who died needlessly in Vietnam because of his lies.
