Cronkite (88 page)

At one juncture, this biography was considerably longer. Determined to keep the page count down to a manageable level, I received critical copyediting help from Trent Duffy of New York and Judith Steen of Santa Cruz. When this book needed hard cuts at the end of the line, Roger Labrie, a fantastic line editor, helped me slash anecdotes and tighten the prose for a final round. My friends Emma Juniper of Arizona and Kristen Hannum of Colorado always worked the graveyard shift on my behalf.

The keeper of the Nixon Tapes, Luke Nichter at Texas A&M University, directed me to relevant Nixon-Colson conversations, thereby saving me untold hours of labor. Everybody at the John Glenn School of Public Policy at the Ohio State University (including Senator Glenn) helped me perfect the Mercury program pages. The Paley Center for Media at 25 West Fifty-second Street has a fine collection of content broadcast on radio and television.

Chris Callahan, dean of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, provided me with reams of information pertaining to his outstanding program. It’s hard to overestimate what a great place the Cronkite School has become for young people to learn the art of TV reporting. The school publishes
The Cronkite Journal
. Melanie Alvarez does a terrific job as executive producer of Cronkite NewsWatch. Aaron Brown, former CNN anchorman, now the Walter Cronkite Professor of Journalism at ASU, offered revelatory commentary to me about his old friend.

My friends at the American Society of News Editors, Carnegie Corporation of New York, National Public Radio, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation do so much to keep U.S. journalism history alive and well in America. All these nonprofits deserve our deep gratitude. As does Lally Weymouth of the
Washington Post
, for her stellar Fourth of July parties on the Hamptons.

Mark Updegrove, director of the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, helped me track down the original transcripts of the LBJ-Cronkite interviews. Karen Herman of the Archive of American Television in North Hollywood, California, provided me with important documents in their holdings. Gil Schwartz, personal assistant to CBS CEO Les Moonves, was exceedingly helpful on a number of occasions. Michael Freedman allowed me to participate in a very illuminating media conference at George Washington University, along with Marvin Kalb and Sam Donaldson. Freedman is a walking media history encyclopedia who shared numerous documents with me. Phil Gries’s privately owned audiotape collection of landmark moments in TV history was a wonderful resource as well. Bill Whitehurst of Austin also deserves special mention for allowing me to use an amazing batch of Cronkite family photos that were originally given to him by Helen Cronkite (the CBS anchorman’s mother).

Others on the honor roll include Stephanie Ambrose Tubbs, Debby Applegate, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Cindy Shogan, John Northington, Jim Powers, Bob Armstrong, Linda Aaker, David Friend, Graydon Carter, John Ross, Cullen Murphy, David Leebron, Howard and Suzanne Monsour, Daniel Kirschen, Kabir Sehgal, Ed Forgotson, Lorrie Beecher, John Cole, Todd and Sharon Kessler, Walter Isaacson, Joe Klein, Frank and Mary Landrieu, Ellen Futter, Mark Madison, Gerry Goldstein, Jessica Yellin, Mary Walsh, Brian Lamb, Laura Leipert, Rachel Sibley, Tom Helf, Jimmy Buffett, Carol Blue, Yvette Vega, Mickey Hart, Jann Wenner, Will Dana, Wynton Marsalis, Jim Irsay, Duvall Osteen, Mac Lehrer, Doug Whitner, Mark Bilnitzer, Dave Morton, Scott O’Neill, Bob Asman, Susan Swain, and John L. Lewis. And to Linton and Jan Weeks (in loving memory of Stone and Holt).

My friends at HarperCollins did a terrific job preparing this biography for publication. President and CEO Brian Murray, a fellow Georgetown University graduate, was hugely supportive of my writing on Cronkite from the outset. Likewise, both publisher Jonathan Burnham and president and publisher Michael Morrison were always steadfast behind the project. The hyper-diligent editor Tim Duggan, a longtime buddy, oversaw all aspects of production. We’ve become a team with amazing shorthand. I admire him tremendously. He’s the modern publishing industry’s gold standard of excellence. His facile assistant, Emily Cunningham, operates much like a one-woman assembly line, keeping the process always moving forward with minimal complaints. She is a talented pro. Late in the game Duggan brought in Rob Fleder (freelance editor) to help pare down the manuscript; he was superb. In the production department, David Koral worked diligently with me on a series of draft manuscripts to make this book as error free as possible. He’s an accomplished tradesman. Whenever I publish a book, I insist that Kate Blum be the publicist. She makes going on a national tour and doing media appearances fun.

My mother deserves credit for saving drawings I did as a seven-year-old in Atlanta, Georgia, depicting CBS News, Cronkite, and the Vietnam War. They serve as raw testimonials to the impact TV had on young people on the era. When we moved from Georgia to Ohio in 1968, my admiration of Cronkite stayed with me. There is a picture of me in the Bowling Green
Sentinel-Tribune
February 9, 1972, serving as anchorman for “News Six” (sixth-grade news). When asked by the reporter what I wanted to be when I grow up, my answer was “Walter Cronkite” or “a
s
ports announcer.” My sister, Leslie Brinkley, has been a TV reporter for ABC affiliate KGO in San Francisco since 1988.

Most of
Cronkite
was written in my home office in Austin. Every Monday to Friday after my wife, Anne, had dropped our three kids at Eanes Elementary School, she returned with breakfast and helped me for hours transcribing interviews and making travel arrangements. Whatever was needed. She is the best. With a surge of blood-pride rising from my heart, I hope our three children—Benton, Johnny, and Cassady—will get to read about the TV broadcaster who meant so much to Dad while he was growing up in Atlanta and northwest Ohio.

—Douglas Brinkley

Austin • Houston • Cambridge • New York

March 5, 2012

Sources and Notes

The Walter Cronkite Papers at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin are voluminous. They are kept in fairly well-organized files. Cronkite was a Depression-era packrat. He didn’t throw out much, so scholars have to pan through the 263 linear feet of the collection to find the gold. Throughout the notes, I refer to this collection as WCP-UTA. It’s truly astonishing how many interviews Cronkite gave over the years to reporters. To have cited them all or included them would have been an exercise in futility. The Rosetta Stone of the collection is clearly Cronkite’s correspondence with his wife, Betsy, during World War II. Walter Cronkite IV (the anchorman’s grandson), a recent graduate of New York University, and history professor Maurice Isserman are editing the correspondence into a book for National Geographic.

Two oral history interviews of Cronkite conducted by Don Carleton were extremely helpful. One was done for the Briscoe Center and the other for the Archive of American Television. Carleton is the co-author of the indispensable
Conversations with Cronkite
(2010). Out of all the books cited in the notes, Cronkite’s own
A Reporter’s Life
(1996) was by far the most valuable. A full bibliography would be far too long, but all the relevant secondary sources can be found in the notes. Every American should read three wonderful biographies of Murrow: Joseph E. Persico’s
Edward R. Murrow: An American Original
(1988); Alexander Kendrick’s
Prime Time: The Life of Edward R. Murrow
(1969) and A. M. Sperber’s
Murrow: His Life and Times
(1986). In learning about Cronkite my admiration for Murrow grew leaps and bounds.

Stanley Cloud and Lynne Olson’s marvelous
The Murrow Boys
(1997) should be mandatory reading in every journalism school and workshop.

Anybody interested in CBS News history should read Sally Bedell Smith’s
In all His Glory: The Life of William S. Paley; The Legendary Tycoon and His Brilliant Circle
(1990); Ralph Engelman’s
Friendlyvision: Fred Friendly and the Rise and Fall of Television Journalism
(2009); and Paul Gary Gates’s
Air Time: The Inside Story of CBS News.
Six memoirs from old CBS News hands deserve special mention: Fred Friendly’s
Due to Circumstances Beyond Our Control
(1999); John Laurence’s
A Cat from Hue: A Vietnam Story
(2002
.);
Bill Leonard’s
In the Storm of the Eye: A Lifetime at CBS
(1987); Leslie Midgley’s
How Many Words Do You Want? An Insider’s Story of Print and Television Journalism
(1989); Richard Salant’s
Salant, CBS, and the Battle for the Soul of Broadcast Journalism: The Memoirs of Richard S. Salant
, ed. Susan Buzenberg and Bill Buzenberg (1999); and Roger Mudd’s
The Place to Be: Washington, CBS, and the Glory Days of Television News
(2008).

The CBS News Reference Library in New York is an amazing depository of all things related to the history of the network. I received dutiful help, time and again, from Cryder Bankes and Carole Parnes. Here is where all of Cronkite’s broadcast scripts and logbooks are kept. It’s an amazing depository of the history of TV news. In addition to the WCP-UTA and the CBS News Reference Library, the following manuscript collections are important to those interested in Cronkite:

American University—Washington, D.C.

Ed Bliss, CBS News

Columbia University—New York

Fred Friendly, CBS News and public broadcasting

Roone Arledge, ABC News and ABC Sports

Georgetown University—Washington, D.C.

Frank Reynolds, ABC News

George Washington University—Washington, D.C.

Richard C. Hottelet, CBS News

Mutual Radio News holdings

Library of Congress—Washington, D.C.

Eric Sevareid, CBS News

Lyndon Johnson Library—Austin, Texas

Lyndon Johnson Papers

New Canaan Public Library—Connecticut

Richard S. Salant, CBS News and NBC News

Saint Bonaventure University—New York

Douglas Edwards, CBS News

Smith College—Massachusetts

Pauline Frederick, ABC News and NBC News

Syracuse University—New York

Mike Wallace, non-CBS interview material from 1959–1961

Tufts University—Massachusetts

Edward R. Murrow, CBS News

University of Maryland—College Park

Arthur Godfrey, CBS

Neil Strawser, CBS News

Plus the National Public Broadcasting Archives and the Westinghouse Radio Archives

University of Michigan—Ann Arbor

Mike Wallace, CBS News

University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill

Charles Kuralt, CBS News

Nelson Benton, CBS News

University of Wisconsin/Wisconsin Historical Society—Madison

Robert W. Asman, CBS News and NBC News

Burton Benjamin, CBS News

Jules Verne Bergman, CBS News and ABC News

David Brinkley, NBC News and ABC News

Charles Collingwood, CBS News

John Charles Daly, ABC News

Chet Huntley, NBC News

H. V. Kaltenborn, NBC News and others

Edward P. Morgan, ABC News

Robert Pierpoint, CBS News

David Schoenbrun, CBS News

Howard K. Smith, CBS News and ABC News

Av Westin, CBS News and public broadcasting

Perry Wolff, CBS News

University of Wyoming—Laramie

Reid Collins, CBS News

Hugh Downs, NBC News, ABC News, and public broadcasting

Washington and Lee University—Lexington, Virginia

Roger Mudd, CBS News and NBC News

Washington State University—Pullman

Edward R. Murrow, CBS News

Private Collections

Robert W. Asman—Washington, D.C.

William “Bill” Small—New York

Alfred Robert Hogan—Washington, D.C.

Bernard Shaw—Washington, D.C.

Ron Bonn—San Diego

Don Michel—Anna, Illinois

Robert Feder—Highland Park, Illinois

Michael Freedman—Washington, D.C.

Mervin Block—New York

John Laurence—Haslemere, United Kingdom

Morley Safer—New York

Lew Wood—Los Angeles

Brian Williams—New York

Sandy Socolow—New York

Alan Weisman—New York

Tom Johnson—Atlanta

Kay Barnes—Kansas City

Linda Ann Mason—New York

Christiane Amanpour—New York

B
IOGRAPHICAL GLOSSARY

Adler, Marlene:
Cronkite’s chief of staff from 1991 until his death in 2009. She managed his post–CBS News career and was his adviser, confidante, and friend.

Aldrin, Buzz (1930– ):
NASA lunar module pilot of
Apollo 11
. In 1969 he became the second man to walk on the Moon after following Neil Armstrong out of the
Eagle
module to collect lunar samples.

Alter, Jonathan (1957– ):
Editor of
Newsweek
magazine from 1983 to 2011. After interviewing Cronkite for
Rolling Stone
in 1987, Alter became good friends with the anchorman and his wife.

Anders, William (1933– ):
NASA lunar module pilot of
Apollo 8
. He flew, along with Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, around the Moon ten times on Christmas Eve 1968.

Arledge, Roone (1931–2002):
Chairman of ABC News from 1977 until his retirement in 1988. Arledge created
20/20
and
World News Tonight
for the network and was responsible for wooing David Brinkley from NBC to ABC in 1981.

Armstrong, Neil (1930– ):
NASA commander of
Apollo 11
. In 1969 he became the first man to walk on the Moon. After stepping out of the
Eagle
and onto the Moon, he uttered the famous line “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Ashford, Mike (1938– ):
Longtime owner of McGarvey’s Saloon and Oyster Bar in Annapolis, Maryland, and Cronkite’s frequent sailing companion from the 1980s onward.

Asman, Bob (1926– ):
Producer of CBS’s
The Twentieth Century
from 1957 to 1961 and producer of special-events coverage for NBC News until his retirement in 1993.

Barnes, Ben (1938– ):
Former Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives from 1965 to 1969, lieutenant governor of Texas from 1969 to 1973, and lifelong friend of Walter Cronkite.

Barnes, Kay (1938– ):
Walter Cronkite’s cousin. Cronkite helped Barnes campaign to become the first female mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, in 1999. She won the election and served as mayor from 1999 to 2007.

Bleckman, Izzy:
CBS cameraman who worked with Cronkite for years. He accompanied Cronkite on his 1972 trip to China (as part of the Nixon administration’s press pool) and worked on
Universe
. Bleckman also served as Charles Kuralt’s cameraman for the entirety of his “On the Road” run.

Benjamin, Burton (1917–1988):
Longtime writer, director, and producer for CBS News, where he worked for twenty-nine years until his retirement in 1985. He served as executive producer of the
CBS Evening News
from 1975 to 1978, collaborated with Walter Cronkite on
The Twentieth Century
, and was tasked with the internal investigation of the
CBS Reports
documentary “The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception” in 1983.

Bernstein, Carl (1944– ):
Journalist who, along with Bob Woodward, did the most important news reporting on Watergate for
The
Washington Post
. Cronkite relied on Bernstein and Woodward’s investigative work during Watergate for his own
CBS Evening News
broadcasts.

Bibb, Porter (1937– ):
Former White House correspondent for
Newsweek
and the first publisher of
Rolling Stone
magazine.

Bliss, Ed (1912–2002):
A second-generation member of the Murrow Boys and news editor for Edward R. Murrow, Fred W. Friendly, and Walter Cronkite during Cronkite’s twenty-five-year career at CBS.

Bonn, Ron (1930– ):
Journalist who served as senior producer of the
CBS Evening News
with Walter Cronkite
for five years (most notably during its coverage of the Apollo missions and the 1968 Chicago convention protests) and helped to create
Universe
. Bonn worked for NBC News for twelve years and helped produce the Cronkite reports
The Drug Dilemma: War or Peace?
and
Family Matters: Or Does It?
for the Discovery Channel.

Bradley, Ed (1941–2006):
CBS correspondent from 1967 until his death in 2006. He was hired by Bill Small to work at CBS’s WTOP in Washington, D.C., in 1974 and reported for
60 Minutes
for over two decades (beginning when Dan Rather left the program to anchor the
CBS Evening News
in 1981).

Braver, Rita (1948– ):
CBS News correspondent hired by CBS’s Washington, D.C., bureau in 1972 and a friend of Walter Cronkite. She, along with producer Bud Benjamin, accompanied Cronkite to a memorable 1977 inaugural ball in which he forgot his tickets.

Brinkley, David (1920–2003):
Newscaster for NBC and ABC from 1943 to 1997. Brinkley cohosted
The Huntley-Brinkley Report
on NBC from 1956 until 1970.

Brokaw, Tom (1940– ):
Newscaster for NBC who hosted the
Today
show from 1976 to 1982 and the
NBC Nightly News
from 1982 to 2004.

Brown, Aaron (1948– ):
ABC correspondent from 1991 to 1999 and host of CNN’s
NewsNight with Aaron Brown
from 2001 to 2005. He is best known for his coverage of the September 11 attacks, which occurred on his first day on air at CNN (and which Cronkite watched from Rome as the events unfolded).

Buchanan, Pat (1938– ):
Opposition researcher and speechwriter for the Nixon administration from 1966 to 1974. In 1973, Pat Buchanan’s brother, Henry, sued CBS News for libel after the
CBS Evening News
aired a story accusing him of laundering money for the Nixon administration.

Buffett, Jimmy (1946– ):
Famous singer-songwriter and close friend of Cronkite’s. He sang and played the ukulele for Cronkite in his final days and performed at his Lincoln Center memorial.

Carleton, Don (1947– ):
Executive director of the University of Texas at Austin’s Dolph Briscoe Center for American History (the site of Cronkite’s archive) and author of
Conversations with Cronkite
. He conducted a sixty-hour oral history interview with Cronkite in the 1990s that formed the basis of
Conversations
as well as Cronkite’s memoir,
A Reporter’s Life
.

Chung, Connie (1946– ):
CBS correspondent hired by Bill Small to work in the Washington bureau in 1971. She left CBS in 1983 to become an anchor on NBC, but returned to CBS in 1989 to co-anchor the
CBS Evening News
with Dan Rather until 1995.

Collingwood, Charles (1917–1985):
CBS correspondent and host of
Eyewitness to History
. Collingwood was one of the Murrow Boys and the first U.S. reporter allowed into North Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

Collins, Michael (1930– ):
NASA command module pilot of
Apollo 11
. In 1969 he orbited the Moon in
Columbia
while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made the first-ever landing on the surface of the Moon.

Colson, Charles (1931– ):
Special counsel to Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1973. Colson is heard frequently on the Nixon White House tapes, discussing Cronkite’s coverage of the president and the Vietnam War. Colson served a prison sentence in 1974 for obstruction of justice in the Daniel Ellsberg case and went on to found the Prison Fellowship Ministries in 1976.

Cooper, Gordon (1927–2004):
One of seven astronauts selected for NASA’s Project Mercury. Cooper piloted
Mercury-Atlas 9
in 1963, spending more than thirty-four hours in space and orbiting Earth twenty-two times.

Couric, Katie (1957– ):
Broadcast journalist who co-anchored the
Today
show with Matt Lauer from 1991 to 2006 and often contributed to
Dateline NBC
. She replaced Dan Rather as the anchor of the
CBS Evening News
in 2006, but left the program in 2011 to develop her own daytime talk show for ABC.

Cronkite, Betsy Maxwell (1916–2005):
Cronkite’s wife, a graduate of the University of Missouri and a former journalist at the
Kansas City Journal-Post
. Betsy Maxwell and Walter Cronkite met in 1936 while both were working at KCMO, and they wed in 1940. They were married for almost sixty-five years and had three children together.

Cronkite, Helen Fritsche (1892–1993):
Walter Cronkite’s mother. Walter maintained a very close relationship with his mother throughout his life, especially after she filed for a divorce from his father in 1932.

Cronkite, Mary Kathleen (1950– ):
Walter Cronkite’s second child, known as Kathy. An actress and author, she married lawyer Bill Ikard in 1980. The couple have two children, William Ikard and Jack Ikard.

Cronkite, Nancy Elizabeth (1948– ):
Walter Cronkite’s first child. A yoga teacher.

Cronkite, Walter Sr. (1893–1973):
Walter Cronkite’s father. Walter Cronkite Sr., a dentist, and Helen Fritsche were married in 1915. They divorced in 1932 as a result of his alcoholism. Walter Cronkite’s relationship with his father was strained for many years following his parents’ divorce.

Cronkite, Walter III (1957– ):
Walter Cronkite’s son, known as Chip. He and actress Deborah Rush married in 1985 and have two sons together, Walter Cronkite IV and Peter Cronkite. He was a founding producer of Cronkite, Ward and started Cronkite Productions.

Cronkite, Walter IV (1988– ):
Son of Walter Cronkite III and Deborah Rush and grandson of legendary newsman Walter Cronkite. He was hired by CBS’s Washington, D.C., bureau as a broadcast associate in 2011.

Edwards, Douglas (1917–1990):
First American network news anchor, anchoring
Douglas Edwards with the News
(later known as the
CBS Evening News
) from 1948 to 1962. Edwards was Walter Cronkite’s predecessor and eventually moved back to CBS Radio.

Ellsberg, Daniel (1931– ):
Rand Corporation analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers to various newspapers in 1971. Ellsberg sat down with Cronkite for a CBS News exclusive interview in June of that year, a move that was met with harsh criticism from the Nixon administration.

Fager, Jeffrey (1954– ):
Longtime CBS News executive. Fager served as the executive producer of the
CBS Evening News with Dan Rather
from 1996 to 1998 and then as executive producer of
60 Minutes
from 2004 to 2011, when he was named the first ever chairman of CBS News.

Feder, Robert (1956– ):
Founder of the Walter Cronkite Fan Club, who began a lifelong friendship with Cronkite. From 1980 to 2008, Feder was the TV/radio columnist at
The Chicago Sun-Times
. He is now the media critic for
TimeOut Chicaago
.

Freedman, Mike (1952– ):
Former reporter for
CBS World News Round-Up
and general manager of CBS Radio News. As general manager of CBS Radio News he produced the thirty-part series “Walter Cronkite’s Postscripts to the 20th Century” and suggested that Cronkite announce the news of the Clinton impeachment verdict on CBS Radio in 1998.

Friendly, Fred (1915–1998):
CBS News president from 1964 to 1966. Friendly and Edward R. Murrow created the documentary television program
See It Now
. He advanced public broadcasting, was integral to the establishment of PBS, and resigned from CBS in 1966 when the network replaced U.S. Senate hearings about the Vietnam War with an episode of
I Love Lucy
.

Gralnick, Jeff (1939–2011):
Journalist who held major roles at CBS, NBC, and ABC. He was a founding producer of CBS’s
60 Minutes
, reinvented the
NBC
Nightly News
, and produced news coverage for all NASA missions through
Apollo 11
.

Hart, Mickey (1943– ):
Drummer for the Grateful Dead from 1967 to 1971 and 1974 to 1995. Hart and Cronkite became close friends after Hart was assigned to score a documentary Cronkite was working on about the America’s Cup. Hart performed, along with Jimmy Buffett, at Cronkite’s memorial service at Lincoln Center in 2009.

Hewitt, Don (1922–2009):
CBS television executive and producer of
60 Minutes
. He set an important precedent in 1960 by producing the first televised presidential debates.

Hottelet, Richard (1917– ):
Correspondent for United Press during World War II and one of the Murrow Boys. Murrow hired Hottelet to work at CBS in 1944. He remained with the network for forty-one years.

Huntley, Chet (1911–1974):
Newscaster for NBC from 1955 to 1970. He hosted
The Huntley-Brinkley Report
from 1956 until his retirement in 1970.

Johnson, Tom (1941– ):
Executive vice president of LBJ’s Texas Broadcast Corporation who allowed Cronkite to break the story of President Johnson’s death in 1973. After LBJ’s death, he served as president and publisher of the
Los Angeles Times
and then as president of CNN from 1990 to 2001.

Kalischer, Peter (1915–1991):
CBS correspondent from 1957 to 1978. Kalischer won the Overseas Press Club award in 1963 for his coverage of the military coup that killed Ngo Dinh Diem, the president of South Vietnam.

Kuralt, Charles (1934–1997):
CBS writer from 1957 to 1959 and correspondent from 1959 until his retirement in 1994. His is best known for his “On the Road” segments, which appeared on the
CBS Evening News
with Walter Cronkite
beginning in 1967, and as the first anchor of
CBS Sunday Morning
, a position he held from 1979 to 1994.