CBS Evening News Anchor Walter Cronkite Broadcasts His “Report from Vietnam”

“To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of 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. . . . 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.” –Walter Cronkite

After his trip to Vietnam in early 1968, anchorman Walter Cronkite broadcasts his coverage of the Tet Offensive. Cronkite concludes his report with a personal commentary, voicing his skepticism of official assertions of military progress.

Hundreds of reporters, photographers, and cameramen from around the world are covering the war, often under combat conditions. The evolution of television and communication technologies help make Vietnam the first “living-room war,” and images and reports of the fighting can reach the American public within hours. As many as 66 journalists are killed covering the war.

Early in the conflict, most journalists support President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Vietnam policies. But as public frustration with the war mounts by 1967, many have grown skeptical of officials’ assertions of progress. The 1968 Tet Offensive is a turning point in this regard. Many in the press view it as a glaring contradiction of claims that the United States is winning.¹