Sunday, January 14, 2018

'Lost' Cronkite broadcast reveals 180-degree war flip

Via Billy

wnd-Tet-Offensive-LOGO-v1
'Viet Cong suffered military defeat,' anchor reported days before history-making commentary

Editor’s note: With the 50th anniversary of the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, WND takes a fresh look at the way CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite’s famous 1968 editorial altered U.S. public opinion about the war – a broadcast that was untrue, turning a monumental defeat for the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces into a propaganda victory. This is the first of a three-part series.

A newly discovered CBS News clip broadcast by Walter Cronkite while still in Saigon following the Tet Offensive reveals the influential newsman had a much different perspective on the battle than he expressed in the history-making commentary he delivered after returning to New York days later. 

Anyone who had reached the age of awareness when Cronkite delivered his famous live editorial Feb. 27, 1968, knew the significance of what “the most trusted man in America” was saying: The U.S. had lost the Vietnam war. President Lyndon Johnson’s famous reaction told the story: “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost middle America,” he is reported to have said.

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“First and simplest, the Viet Cong suffered a military defeat,” he reported. “Its missions proved suicidal. If they had intended to stay in the cities as a negotiating point, they failed at that. The Vietnamese army reacted better than even its most ardent supporters had anticipated. There were no defections from its rank, as the Viet Cong apparently had expected. And the people did not rise to support the Viet Cong, as they were also believed to have expected.”

The video was discovered by Fred Koster, an independent filmmaker who directed the Vietnam film “Ride the Thunder,” based on the book of the same name by author-producer Richard Botkin. Since that movie did not deal directly with the events of the Tet Offensive, Koster and Botkin put the Cronkite clip aside, later sharing it with WND before the 50th anniversary of the Tet Offensive being observed this month.

More with video @ WND

6 comments:

  1. That Fracking Piece of Shite. God! I hate Walter C(ommunist)onkite!

    Hope he's in a nice roasty warm place having pineapples shoved up his bum while dressed in a French maid's outfit.

    The Tet Offensive was a massive victory for South Vietnam and for the coalition forces fighting for them (USA, Australia, South Korea.) Their friggin leaders even admitted it after the peace talks. Cronkite sold us out, sold the Viets (both South and North (if the north could ever have been liberated from the commies.)

    Jerk.

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  2. Hi Brock!!,
    'Think I may have mentioned to you about my Navy daze back when!! USS Princeton LPH-5. 'Nam 68!! We picked up, late may, Golf Co 2/26 Marines!!! They were the ones at "the duck farm"... These guys are my friends!!!!! So, they said," We kicked Charlie's ass!!!!!" And when the "world news reports" came back with the opposite??? 'Talk about some pissed off troops!!!! Got 5 daze vac to go to nc for st. Pats!!! Will try to swing by if only for a afternoon!! Will keep you posted!! St. Pat's....61 daze!!!
    Skybill

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    1. Talk about some pissed off troops!

      I bet.

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      got 5 daze vac to go to nc for st. Pats! Will try to swing by if only for a afternoon!! Will keep you posted!

      Where are you going in NC? I'm in Tarboro now, not Cape Carteret and I've got you down on my calendar. Good deal!

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  3. It was an interesting piece, but what it lacks is a connection between Cronkite's assessment of a North Vietnamese defeat during Tet and his later broadcast where he announced the best we can do is "a stalemate". What happened between the two events and why? How did a positive outcome from Tet equal a negative outcome for the war? We'll probably never know.

    General Brady's assessment of the Burn's documentary on Vietnam was similar to my own. Brady built a story, sucked people in, and then supported his own conclusions. Based on previous experience Brady knew the press was dishonest. Why he expected Burns to act differently is puzzling. Brady made one point that I hadn't considered. In fifteen or twenty years when the Vietnam veterans are gone, Brady's documentary will become the definitive, and accepted, treatise of the war. There will be no dissenting view. That's scary.

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    1. is a connection between Cronkite's assessment of a North Vietnamese defeat during Tet and his later broadcast where he announced the best we can do is "a stalemate".

      As I remember this was mentioned but without a conclusion.

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      There will be no dissenting view. That's scary.

      Most assuredly. Thanks

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