Canisdirus

Heh...hardly.

What happened was during the TET offensive...NVA troops got close to Danang ...but were beaten back with heavy losses.
So what...
So...most of the credentialed journalists were in Danang...and they wet their pants.
The word was passed on prematurely...and Walter (with network permission) ran with it.

But the Vietnamese have already said they were close to throwing in the towel.
They simply could not maintain their losses.

Lest we forget the US lost over 53k troops during a 7 year period.

NVA lost...somewhere around 2 million.

fourlocks Loc: Londonderry, NH

Yup; you always trust him and Huntley & Brinkley to give you good, honest reporting.

Remember Cronkite's series, "The Twentieth Century"? Those would now be interesting from a historical point of view. He also had a short series trying to envision the future called, "The Twentyfirst Century." One episode showed a "car from the future" using little hand controls to steer because power steering no longer meant a big steering wheel was necessary. A shot and a miss with that one.

He kinda lost it when President Kennedy was assassinated and when Armstrong landed on the moon. He was a big fan of the space program and might have been a little less than neutral when reporting on it.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

And I would suggest also “I protest” by David Douglas Duncan, the great photojournalist (who was also a Marine) who covered WWII, Korea and VietNam. He was embedded with the Marines at the siege of Khe Sanh

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

I was in DaNang, and you seem to forget that during Tet, Saigon, DaNang, Hue City, Khe Sanh and dozens of regional capitals were attacked. It wasn’t just the journalists that were surprised, the American commanders and troops were surprised also because no one thought they could launch such a coordinated offensive. No question the North lost many more men than us, but just like other wars (Afghanistan comes to mind) where we have spent years training and supporting a besieged government, the ARVNs were incapable of holding back the north or winning the support of the majority of the populous and crumbled as soon as we pulled out.

The American military is the finest in the world, but we have a tough time fighting an asymmetrical war on foreign soil when the local military and government cannot defend themselves. This has been proven time and time again.

And since this thread has morphed into a debate on VietNam, let me tell you a personal story. While in DaNang, I became acquainted with an ARVN Officer. One Monday morning, I was in downtown DaNang and drove him to his unit’s Monday morning formation. I was amazed at how large the company was - maybe 150 men. When I remarked on this to the officer, he said: “most only come to Monday morning formation and then go back to their jobs and lives - we really only have about 25 full time soldiers”. If the ARVNs had been as dedicated to their cause as the NVA, VC and “uncle Ho”, the war might have had a different ending.

rdemarco52 Loc: Wantagh, NY

And you never knew that he was a dedicated liberal. He just did his job and told us what happened, with no slant.

ecblackiii Loc: Maryland

Actually, Walter Cronkite was the man responsible for initiating the change from reporting the news to slanting the news. His was at the time considered the most respected journalism source and when he changed his mind and began to oppose the Vietnam War, his CBS news program was primarily responsible for turning the tide of public support against the war. His program then began biasing the reporting to denigrate the US soldiers fighting the war and portraying the war as hopeless through misleading stories and false representation. I was in Vietnam when that politicizing of the war began and saw the difference between reality and what was portrayed in Cronkite's news.

PhotogHobbyist Loc: Bradford, PA

I remember him doing the news and also the program he did on weekends, "You Are There" giving lessons in history by using actors and interviewing noted people from history.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

I’d be interested to know how you watched the CBS evening news in VietNam -I certainly never saw American TV in the time I was there, and our news came from the Stars and Stripes.

To suggest that the VietNam war was lost because of TV reporting by a few journalists is a stretch, even for the far, far right wing and doesn't comport with the facts.

BurghByrd Loc: Pittsburgh

Today's news is for profit hence the constant feeding of dissention and opinion polls.

Mike from Point

sadly missed. Wish present newspapermen would look back and learn.

ecblackiii Loc: Maryland

You jumped to conclusions and offered no facts yourself--just a dismissive personal putdown.

CBS Evening News was, at the time, unquestionably the most powerful voice in news. Walter Cronkite was
even called "the most trusted man in America." What CBS Evening News, under Cronkite's editorship, broadcast was widely accepted by the public. In addition, like copycats, other news outlets followed Uncle Walter's lead, for their own benefit. The result was a sharp change in public opinion--from support of the war to opposition to the war.

therwol Loc: USA

It's one thing to engage our military to help our allies who are fighting for their lives as we did in Europe twice. It's another thing to wage war on behalf of people who can't and won't engage themselves. Everything we did in Vietnam and Afghanistan ended up being for nothing in the end, and many lives were lost for nothing.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Not a put down and nothing personal or dismissive (you will find if you review my 14,000 + posts, that I never indulge in ad hominem attacks)- just a simple and valid question - how do you know what Walter Cronkite said on TV while you were in VietNam? Still waiting for an answer.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

👍👍👍 Exactly!

ecblackiii Loc: Maryland

Again, you jumped to a conclusion. I never said I watched Cronkite while in Vietnam. I was in Vietnam during the Tet offensive. Before going to Vietnam, I watched Cronkite almost every evening of the week. After returning from the Vietnam tour I watched Cronkite again and saw how his views and the reporting had changed. According to historical accounts, the actual date that Cronkite flipped was February 27, 1968, when he returned from his post-Tet visit to Vietnam and ended his broadcast with an editorial report written for him by his executive producer, Ernest Leiser. In that broadcast editorial, Cronkite said, "... 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."...