PBS Newshour Extra

Because there were few restrictions on reporters going to the frontlines in Vietnam, the American public saw up close and personal encounters between US forces and the enemy. Many times, the reporting ran counter to the government’s narration of the war and revealed evidence that the war effort was failing.

In 1968, the “most trusted man in America,” as legendary news reporter Walter Cronkite was known, delivered a commentary citing why the US should pull out of the Vietnam War. For a journalist famed for his objective reporting, it was notably out of character for Cronkite to express his personal opinion during a newscast.

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Directions

Read Walter Cronkite’s commentary on the Vietnam War in 1968, and answer the questions in the boxes below. To hear Cronkite’s speech and his reflections on it years later, listen to this National Public Radio broadcast here.

Parting words from Walter Cronkite: His famous Vietnam commentary, originally aired on a special CBS News broadcast Feb. 27, 1968. NPR

Questions

1. What experiences did Cronkite have to base his conclusions on the state of the Vietnam War?

2. Explain in your own words what Cronkite is saying in the first paragraph.

3. Explain how he uses the evidence in his first paragraph to arrive at the conclusion he expresses in the third paragraph.

4. After Cronkite’s commentary on the status of the war, President Lyndon B. Johnson was reported to have said, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost middle America.” Where in Cronkite’s statement do you feel Johnson might have “lost” middle America?

Vietnam: Search for the Truth

1954–1975

Primary Sources

The Vietnam War

As It Was Reported

US As Cold War Superpower

Political Cartoon

Free Speech

Tinker v. Des Moines Supreme Court Case

Walter Cronkite’s Vietnam Speech

Commentary in Journalism

Daniel Ellsberg

The Pentagon Papers

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