Released FBI Documents Detail Walter Cronkite’s Aid of Vietnam War Protesters

[kpete]

Source: Mediaite


Released FBI Documents Detail Walter Cronkite’s Aid of Vietnam War Protesters
by Jon Bershad

Yahoo News has just reported on some previously-unreleased FBI documents which contain fairly shocking allegations against the late Walter Cronkite, host of the CBS Evening News for 19 years and one of the most respected journalists of all time. The documents include the claims of a confidential informant who once told the FBI that Cronkite aided a group of student Vietnam War protesters by giving them advice and even going as far as to promise them CBS resources for their cause.

While it is well known that Cronkite was against the war (in fact, his famous editorial against it in February of 1968 is often credited with turning the tide of public opinion against the war), the claims in the documents allege a heretofore unheard of connection between a political group and a news organization of the time. The informant told the FBI that he believed Cronkite had held a 45 minute long phone conversation with a leader of a protest group (whose name is redacted in the file) in which the anchor told the protester how to raise the group’s profile by getting Maine senator Edmund Muskie to speak at their demonstrations. The most stinging allegation is that Cronkite promised to rent an official CBS helicopter to fly Muskie to the event.

From the FBI documents:

“(Redacted) told group he had been to CBS Channel Six in Orlando prior to meeting to speak to newsmen about Vietnam moratorium activities. related that while at TV station, Walter Cronkite, nationally known radio and television commentator, spoke to him by telephone for approximately forty five minutes and that Cronkite reportedly told that CBS would have thirty six hours of coverage on Vietnam moratorium with “open mike” to give demonstrators a chance to be heard. Cronkite noted, according to , that Senator Edmund Muskie would be in Orlando, Fla., November 13 instant for Democratic fund raising dinner. According to , Cronkite suggested that attempt to Muskie to come to Cape Kennedy to speak at Kelly Park rally to be held November thirteen instant. Cronkite allegedly told that CBS would rent helicopter to take Muskie to and from site of rally at Kelly Park.”

Yahoo News spoke to Chip Cronkite, the son of the famous newsman, who said the allegations were highly unlikely, stating “It doesn’t have the ring of a reliable story to me. Particularly at a time when FBI informants often told the FBI what they wanted to hear. I think it would be outside of what we know about Walter Cronkite and CBS News’ practices.”


Read more: http://www.mediaite.com/online/released-fbi-documents-detail-walter-cronkites-aid-of-vietnam-war-protesters/

[onehandle]

1. Commie Pinko Hippie.

I say that as a term of endearment.

[Captain Hilts]

2. "Claims...." "...he believed Cronkite...." A lot of shim words here. nt

[dflprincess]

3. I think Chip Cronkite is right

I'm sure after Uncle Walter came out against the war there were people in the government who would have loved to bring him down. Had there been any real substance to these allegations you can bet they would have been made public in 1968.

[tomm2thumbs]

4. it is rumored, or so I hear, perhaps, eh?

substance is what is lacking

[aquart]

26. Yep.

And it's not like this info would make me admire him less. Other way, really.

[Downwinder]

5. How about releasing the FBI documents about the FBI working

against Vietnam War Protesters.

[skyounkin]

11. Shhhhhhhh!!!

That's illegal...so of course the FBI wasn't doing it!!

>.>

[boppers]

25. Er, did you miss that?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO

[imnKOgnito]

6. Of Course, FOX News

FOX News engages in exactly this type of thing on a daily basis but they don't call it a shocking news story. They call it 'Fair and Balanced'.

[dbmk]

7. "fairly shocking allegations"

= interesting information in non-MSM language.

[Twillig]

23. "shocking allegations AGAINST"

I say 'for.'

I wouldn't say 'shocking.'

And as for 'allegations,' I say let it be true!

:patriot:

[Tempest]

8. Being a newsman does not mean you give up your rights

Cronkite had every right to participate in any cause or organization he saw fit.

There has never been any question of impropriety or bias in Cronkite's reporting. He told it like it was.

[truthisfreedom]

9. So what? Who else put resources into trying to stop a murderous unjustifed war?

If true, it makes me love him even more.

[Demoiselle]

14. I agree, truthisfreedom. If he did any of it, cheers!

[MiniMe]

10. It was during J Edgar Hoover's reign over the FBI

I don't trust anything that comes out of the FBI at that time.

[LiberalFighter]

19. Don't trust anything that comes out of the FBI now.

But 1000% more when Hoover ran it. That guy was a sleaze.

[bemildred]

12. LOL. What amazing drivel. nt

[Demoiselle]

15. You're right,bemildred. Are you a Pogo fan by any chance?

I'm thinking of my favorite bats, Bewitched Bothered and Bemildred...

[bemildred]

20. Yes. It took me some time to create that avatar.

:hi:

[Demoiselle]

21. I wish Walt Kelly was still producing that strip!

Think what he could have done with Bush I and II, and Cheney, and Palin, and, and....

I love your avatar.

[bemildred]

22. Yup, it would be a rich feast if Mr Kelly was still around to comment. nt

[pattmarty]

13. Well, let's see here. This is over 40 yrs and Cronkite died a couple.............

................of years ago. I would say this is just a "little" suspect coming out "just after" he died so he can't defend himself and the time lapse is highly suspect

[Raine]

16. The helicopter seems ridiculous

I could believe he may have possibly given advice over the phone about news coverage. That could've been very generic advice like "get yourself a well known politician and the media is more likely to cover your event etc etc".

[marshall]

17. Old media had a huge influence on both public opinion and action

Obama realizes this, and uses new media to his advantage.

And this is why the powers that be in the media are screaming like stuck pigs.

[marshall]

18. Old media had a huge influence on both public opinion and action

Obama realizes this, and uses new media to his advantage.

And this is why the powers that be in the media are screaming like stuck pigs.

[eppur_se_muova]

24. Released FBI Documents Detail Allegations from Nameless Source -- much better title. nt

[unhappycamper]

27. WALTER CRONKITE’S “WE ARE MIRED IN STALEMATE”

WALTER CRONKITE’S “WE ARE MIRED IN STALEMATE” BROADCAST, FEBRUARY 27, 1968
November 26, 2009 in Life During Wartime | by wtishler

As the TET offensive continued into February, the anchorman for the CBS evening news, Walter Cronkite, traveled to Vietnam and filed several reports. Upon his return, Cronkite took an unprecedented step of presenting his “editorial opinion” at the end of the news broadcast on February 27th. “For it seems now more certain than ever,” Cronkite said, “that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate.” After watching Cronkite’s broadcast, LBJ was quoted as saying. “That’s it. If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost middle America.”

Tonight, back in more familiar surroundings in New York, we’d like to sum up our findings in Vietnam, an analysis that must be speculative, personal, subjective. Who won and who lost in the great Tet offensive against the cities? I’m not sure. The Vietcong did not win by a knockout, but neither did we. The referees of history may make it a draw. Another standoff may be coming in the big battles expected south of the Demilitarized Zone. Khesanh could well fall, with a terrible loss in American lives, prestige and morale, and this is a tragedy of our stubbornness there; but the bastion no longer is a key to the rest of the northern regions, and it is doubtful that the American forces can be defeated across the breadth of the DMZ with any substantial loss of ground. Another standoff. On the political front, past performance gives no confidence that the Vietnamese government can cope with its problems, now compounded by the attack on the cities. It may not fall, it may hold on, but it probably won’t show the dynamic qualities demanded of this young nation. Another standoff.

We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds. They may be right, that Hanoi’s winter-spring offensive has been forced by the Communist realization that they could not win the longer war of attrition, and that the Communists hope that any success in the offensive will improve their position for eventual negotiations. It would improve their position, and it would also require our realization, that we should have had all along, that any negotiations must be that — negotiations, not the dictation of peace terms. For it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate. 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.

To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past. To suggest we are on the edge of defeat is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory, conclusion. On the off chance that military and political analysts are right, in the next few months we must test the enemy’s intentions, in case this is indeed his last big gasp before negotiations. But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.

This is Walter Cronkite. Good night.


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