00:00:01.140 - 00:00:27.130

mhm Okay, mm hmm. Live from San Francisco. It's channel five people are talking with Ann Fraser and Ross McGowan, mm hmm. Well thank you very much. Good morning and welcome to people are talking. So if I were to say the phrase and that's the way it

00:00:27.130 - 00:01:04.980

is, who would you think of walter Cronkite? You've got it. Ladies and gentlemen, would you welcome the most trusted man in America mr walter Cronkite. Mhm Oh yeah, thank you. Thank you very much for being here. It's a delight

00:01:04.990 - 00:01:19.010

to have you in san Francisco and on our show it's great to be with you. It's always wonderful to be in san Francisco. World's favorite city. It is lovely, isn't it? You have been called the most trusted man in America. Is that a heavy burden? Well,

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it should be I suppose, but it's not really because I think any journalist carries a heavy burden of responsibility anyway and all journalists are trying to be trusted quite clearly. That's the name of the game. So there's really you can't put any heavier burden on than

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that we all share And that's that's just the way it is. Do you remember when you were a kid, what you wanted to be a journalist you did as a kid. It was not a dentist. Huh. Well I started out obviously wanted to be a fireman

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and uh went on from there to aviator and a few other things But but by the time I was 13 years old, I wanted to be a newspaper man. I have heard that you wanted to be a mining engineer. Well there was a brief flurry of

00:02:05.000 - 00:02:19.250

that created naturally. I would want to be a mining engineer living in Houston texas on top of one of the great oil domes of all the world. I wouldn't want to be a mining, but the, it didn't last that lasted through first year physics when I

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couldn't figure out how a pulley works. I figure if you don't know how poorly works you're gonna go down in the mine. No, I really didn't take that very seriously. I asked you if you wanted to be a dentist because that was your father was a

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dentist, is that correct father? My grandfather and my uncle, my uncle on the other side of the family actually we had a lot of dentists in the family and that was enough. You never were drawn to that profession at all. Not at all. And now you

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went to the University of texas and dropped out your junior year because I was already fully employed. I was working a full full eight hours and more a day helping to cover the state legislature in Austin where the university is working for the United Press, the

00:03:03.730 - 00:03:22.480

Scripps Howard newspapers and uh, I was studying political science at the university and also working there on the daily Texan at, at night. Uh and uh as I studied political science, I found that my political science professors were asking me more questions about what was going

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on at the state capitol. Then I was asking them in class and I didn't get to class too often. I was a very bad student. Very poor student. I don't advise that for anybody. I've regretted it ever since. Did you go back for your degree? No,

00:03:37.280 - 00:03:53.460

but you work for United Press for awhile. So you were in 11 years in the written part of journalism before broadcast worked for newspapers for four years in the United Press for 11. So I had 15 years of newspapering and press service. Where now during World

00:03:53.460 - 00:04:10.130

War two, you worked primarily in London during the, before we got onto the continent. I was in London uh throughout for the United Press. And my main assignment was covering the air war, which was the big war out of London then there wasn't any ground combat

00:04:10.130 - 00:04:25.540

of course to cover. And that was very exciting three years, I can tell you that. And I flew with the eighth Air Force and the R. A. F. The personalities you must have met during that time. Personalities. Well, George Patton. Oh yes, well, well that was

00:04:25.540 - 00:04:42.210

after we got on the continent. They had knowing Patton but in the Air force jimmy Stewart of course was one of the real heroes of the air war. And he even today is shy about it, although he came over as colonel leading a group flying fortresses

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of liberators. And and it was a, you know major combat job. He flew with them. He led the raids and he for a long time would not let a newspaper man onto his base because he did not want to profit by by publicity in trying to

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do his war job. And we finally convinced him that he should let us on his base because he was denying his own men any chance to get their names in the papers as well as keeping his own name out. Clark gable was over briefly as an

00:05:18.030 - 00:05:37.060

Air Force captain flying with the, with the, he made a couple of missions. Oh, doing pictures for the Air Force pictorial service. We met a lot of people in those days. If I remember right jimmy jimmy Stewart. He's probably retired now. But he got up to

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Brigadier general, I believe in the reserves. He became brigadier during the war. And later you met once we got on the continent. George Patton, what was he like? Well, he was a character. Most of the things he said to me at one time or another wouldn't

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bear repeating on him family program. Uh, he was, he was tough. I had 11 real brush with with him, uh, during the Battle of the bulge. The the habit of the correspondence at that time we did it, we did our briefing back at headquarters and then

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we've gotten our jeeps and went up forward wherever the action was for the day. Sometimes we'd be up there two or three days and sometimes we'd come back at night to file our stories. And this day I was on the way back from the front uh

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and a long convoy were bouncing along a very rough road and he was a stickler for everybody always wearing a helmet, whether you're in the lines or behind the lines, you had to wear a helmet and I was had my helmet on naturally. And we hit

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a bump. My helmet fell off, bounced off, bounced along the side of the road and then into a field. And I had our GI driver pull over to the side and I hopped out and was going to get my helmet when I saw this array of

00:06:56.340 - 00:07:13.230

signs in every known language, beware mines. Achtung mining, you know, all over the place, I said, wait a minute, I can get another helmet. I got back in the jeep and we're driving along and there I was without the helmet on. And suddenly we heard the

00:07:13.230 - 00:07:28.900

sirens behind as he traveled with a little convoy of his own of Outriders fore and aft. And uh and uh and red lights and all the all the paraphernalia and here we heard them coming and the convoy is trying to separate and let him through And

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he came by us at at what was a fast rate of speed on that rough road, maybe 20 mph went by and as he did, they pulled to a stop right in front of us. And this colonel aid, jumped out of the patents jeep. He came

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back and he leaned into the my jeep and said said, alright soldier name, rank, serial number outfit. And I said, well I'm a correspondent, his face fell, clearly had a disciplinary problem. Now not to that point, he's gonna have me shot. So he said, well what's

00:08:04.670 - 00:08:25.590

your name? And I gave him my name and outfit the United Press. He said stay here. And went back. And I saw him talking to Patent, couldn't couldn't tell. It was said that he was saying we had we had correspondent on her. He said Patch Colonel,

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mhm confined to the colonel gets in the jeep and they drive off. That was very disappointed that he wasn't gonna be able to hang me. Did you ever talk to Patent after that? Oh yeah, I saw him quite a quite a bit. He was, he was

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a great guy for a conversation. He was quite genial in conversation, He was tough and uh and being tough, he won the loyalty of his men to a degree that it was quite surprising for anybody was such a disciplinarian. But men in combat like that they

00:09:02.820 - 00:09:24.110

understand that that that kind of discipline leads to efficiency and uh and probably success in combat and perhaps uh say for imagine going into combat, you want a strong leader. You sure do combat politics and everywhere else, Yes, walter Cronkite is here because he and another

00:09:24.110 - 00:09:37.360

man by the name of Ray Ellis have co authored a book. You actually wrote the text. Ray Ellis did the water colors for this. Wonderful, excuse me. A wonderful book called West Wind. As we go, we're going to meet Ray a little later in the program.

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But as we go to break, we're going to see some of the work out of this particular book. We'll be right back with more walter Cronkite. Stay tuned. Yeah, It takes me way. Mm hmm. Fantasy. All cut up. Every word is a symphony, Won't you believe

00:10:29.910 - 00:11:12.000

me? Mhm. Mm hmm. Yeah. Mm hmm. No visiting this morning with walter Cronkite. You know, you mentioned earlier and you talked about jimmy Stewart and his squadron and and trying to keep the press away from it. So it didn't

00:11:12.000 - 00:11:28.470

impair his operations. How do you feel about the press involvement today and all the information that we get from, you know, the Persian gulf. All the information. Just one thing quickly. It wasn't impairing his operations so much as he didn't want any personal publicity in his

00:11:28.470 - 00:11:47.240

war effort and much more honorable. I think the reason for it. I'm concerned about the situation because we have de facto censorship in Saudi Arabia. Uh, the correspondents are only permitted to go where the military decides they may go. They have to apply to go anywhere

00:11:47.240 - 00:12:06.830

they want. Then they have to have an escort with them. They can't talk to the soldiers on their own without an officer standing right there. That's certainly limits the soldiers ability to us to even to, even with the promise of anonymity, say what he's really going

00:12:06.830 - 00:12:28.350

through in Saudi Arabia. Uh, and that's, that's unfortunate. I've I'm for military censorship. I think we should have had it in Vietnam uh, there that we need obviously to not say what our disposition of forces are, where they're being committed and how many people are involved,

00:12:28.350 - 00:12:48.260

what our intentions are. That's military secrecy. That should be preserved. But we're not in that type combat situation in Saudi Arabia yet. And any time you you employ military censorship, you've got to be very, very careful. It doesn't lapse over into political censorship and I'm afraid

00:12:48.260 - 00:13:04.340

that some of that is involved today in Saudi Arabia. How about our situation when we were in Grenada and Panama was our government terribly, terribly handled terribly. We we we don't know today really, the full Grenada story, we don't know today. The full Panama story. Did

00:13:04.340 - 00:13:26.430

we did we know the full story in Vietnam. Do you think, Oh, yes, I think you got the full story in Vietnam. Uh, yes, you did. But now, because of Vietnam, the military is, and the politicians are handling their their incursions elsewhere. A little differently. Uh,

00:13:26.440 - 00:13:48.570

the Grenada was absolute sin against the american people. We talk about our boys, our military, our forces, our policy. Well, it is ours. It's ours in a democracy. It's not theirs. And if they're committing our boys to action and endangering their lives and taking their lives,

00:13:48.570 - 00:14:05.260

were entitled to know everything we can possibly know about that except just those things I mentioned a moment ago, which involved military security. And that wasn't the case in these, in these two operations. When you're on the air as you were, you have to kind of

00:14:05.260 - 00:14:27.040

keep your political and personal opinions to yourself. But once you retired from CBS on your speaking tours, you became more vocal about your liberal feelings. Did you have any misgivings about letting people know how you feel? No, I I don't, I don't know. I'm not ashamed

00:14:27.040 - 00:14:43.360

of any positions I take. In fact, I'm rather proud of If if it's courage and using it. Say what I think with, I think it has any impact on anybody. There's no sense in offending people if you, if you don't have a purpose to it. But

00:14:43.740 - 00:15:13.720

I, my wife said I came out of the closet a closet liberal or something and a statement to an organization called People for the american way Shortly after the election of 88. And what I did there was criticize the fact that the republicans had made made

00:15:13.720 - 00:15:35.750

Liberal a dirty word. And unfortunately Dukakis had not defended his position as a liberal. He did not admit to being a liberal. Well, that's ridiculous. A liberal is a perfectly acceptable uh political doctrine, if you please philosophy, if not doctrine, uh liberal and Liberal does not

00:15:35.750 - 00:15:53.340

mean leftist either. That's the thing that I think the opposition tried to make liberal and leftist the same word and it's not so a Liberal is one to my mind who makes up his or her mind on the basis of the issues. Is liberal in the

00:15:53.340 - 00:16:10.270

sense of not being doctrinaire. Uh And if that means a little bit more to the left than to the right, but not leftist as a dirty word, uh why not, why not admit it? Uh and stand up for what you believe to be right? Did you

00:16:10.270 - 00:16:25.610

ever get in a situation where because of your position, you personally knew a lot of the newsmakers, whether it before in dignitaries or presidents or politicians, where either it was difficult for you to report the news about them or to be impartial in an interview with

00:16:25.610 - 00:16:53.580

them because you knew them too Well. It's a very good question. Uh Subconsciously, I think that perhaps news people are inclined to to b a little less aggressive with with a person they like, whether they're personal friends or just somebody who's persona they like. Uh it's

00:16:53.580 - 00:17:11.590

harder to be tough with them. Obviously it's easier to be tough with the person that you really would like to get it if you please. But I don't think that that really affects the total impartiality that that has to be applied. Uh It I mean, I

00:17:11.590 - 00:17:34.780

mean, I think that the good journalist overcomes that subconscious desire and and goes ahead and drives and guess what he or she wants. Mhm. We watched you on that historic day in 1963 when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Can you remember that day still vividly? No,

00:17:34.780 - 00:17:51.320

I don't think I do remember what happened again. Yes, of course. I remember vividly every second of it. And the fact that you wept on the air. Yeah, sure. I showed it to you. I've done that before. I've done that over dog stories and I'm a

00:17:51.320 - 00:18:06.810

softie that way. But certainly over the death of president Kennedy. Yeah, that was tough too to get the words out when I had to say that officially that they had announced he was dead. I had been holding it pretty well up to that moment and then

00:18:06.810 - 00:18:20.320

I choked up a bit and I didn't really weep. But but it was I was choked up for a second. And I think all of us remember exactly where we were when we heard that story. And you were showing the emotion all of us felt around

00:18:20.320 - 00:19:01.450

the country. And I don't I never saw I've seen any reason to disguise one's emotions on the air. We're all human. I I I think the person doesn't have any emotions as the one I would suspect we'll be right back. Yeah. Mhm, mm hmm. Mhm,

00:19:04.440 - 00:19:29.850

mm hmm. Yeah, walter Cronkite with us this morning. You have how many Children? Three? And they do what Uh one is a sort of freelance writer and and she's kind of dilettante, intellectual and Martha's vineyard. She teaches school occasionally, works the library occasionally and and rights

00:19:30.120 - 00:19:49.840

upon Martha's vineyard. I say the vineyard out here and that people think that she's sitting among the bunch of grapes. The island is Martha's vineyard island off of off of Cape Cod. I have that my second daughter is uh is uh in austin texas, married to

00:19:49.840 - 00:20:08.360

a very successful lawyer there. And she also does a radio call in talk show and a television show once a week. She's a very attractive girl. She's been on in movies and so forth, Very bright. She has two Children and my son is in New York.

00:20:08.740 - 00:20:28.480

He's professionally a film editor right now. The executive of a film production company that is about to do a Videotape Encyclopedia, The 20th Century big project. He's married to a lovely little actress. Debra and Rush had a couple of Tony awards and Tony nominations, I should

00:20:28.480 - 00:20:47.260

say. How did your celebrity status affect your family? I think probably seriously, I don't know because I don't know what it would have been like if I hadn't had the celebrity status were very closely knit family. Very loving family. I feel sure. But I don't I

00:20:47.270 - 00:21:04.850

can't imagine it hasn't affected the Children in some ways. Uh, they have had a life of some privilege in the sense that we want to go to Disney world and suddenly the public relations people are whisking us through the lines, privileged status. That that is not

00:21:04.850 - 00:21:25.680

a good idea for anybody, but if it's available, should take it back. I love the honesty. That's a very honest answer. I think I think your daughter Kathy wrote in her book about being wonderful being with a young man sitting on the couch. It was a

00:21:25.680 - 00:21:44.520

romantic evening. Do you do you know the story where they're hugging and kind of nuzzling each other and that's that's the whole thing. She's in the background. It's and that's the way it is. My father's voice on television. I can't get away from him. And it

00:21:44.520 - 00:22:08.070

kind of ruined the moment, I guess when you know, I think that probably happened a couple of times. Your wife, Betsy, you and Betsy been married. How long? 50 years This year is the 50th? It's indeed something to applaud. But you ought to be applauding Betsy

00:22:08.070 - 00:22:27.530

ross. She once said in the, I think Mccall's article that the reason that the success of your marriage was that you still laughed at each other's jokes, that you still, I laugh at her jokes because I have a very short memory. Yeah, I've heard them all

00:22:27.530 - 00:22:44.300

many times. I'm sure they impressed me every time. She is an exceedingly witty woman. If I could just get Betsy to write, for heaven's sake. She graduated the University of Missouri Journalism school. She was a newspaper woman, but she won't write at all anymore. And if

00:22:44.300 - 00:22:59.580

I could get her to write, I could really seriously retire. She'd be a great success at it. She's she's just exceedingly woody. When you went out, when you were ahead of CBS Evening News and you were a reporter and walter Cronkite went out to cover a

00:22:59.580 - 00:23:15.090

news story. Did you ever find that by the fact you were there and you are a celebrity status that you became the news story more than the news story. Was that a problem? I've had to quit going eventually, particularly on political coverage. Obviously you've got something

00:23:15.090 - 00:23:33.190

like the Berlin wall collapsing and you're there and you're not going to affect that event very much. It overwhelms anybody's reporting. But on a political campaign trip it got very, very difficult because you get off the campaign plane and and the crowd would want to gather

00:23:33.190 - 00:23:56.960

around the television celebrities aboard, celebrities, quotes, uh, and uh, and the poor candidate for standing there, wait a minute. Hey, here I am over here. Yeah, things of that kind. I at the famous Bush Reagan confrontation and debate up in New Hampshire In the 1980 campaign.

00:23:57.640 - 00:24:13.710

A primary campaign. Obviously I came in a little bit late and I was coming through the back of the hall trying to get up to the press seats up forward. And some, it was rather dark in the back of the room and some young lady handed

00:24:13.710 - 00:24:25.230

me. That was the other thing gets surrounded by people and you can't do your work. I was trying to listen to the people trying to ask for autographs. Some very young lady handed me a piece of paper and said, would you give me your autograph? And

00:24:25.230 - 00:24:42.260

I, I scribbled my name as I started to write the name. She screamed so loudly she interrupted the debate and everybody looked at the back of the room just if there were an assault going on back there. And uh, and she said, you wrote over David

00:24:42.260 - 00:25:09.990

Brinkley. Okay, Why don't we take it? I just want to ask him one question before we go. Is it true that like hundreds and hundreds of women have written marriage proposals to you? I don't know. I uh oh, no, no, no, no, no, nothing. Like hundreds

00:25:09.990 - 00:25:30.250

and hundreds of, occasionally one comes through the mail. 11 little lady wrote me uh, with a very old hand wrote and sent, sent a couple of cents, some pajamas and uh, and a ring and a ticket to Frankfurt Germany and said, I will meet you in

00:25:30.250 - 00:25:47.580

Frankfurt. I know that you would like to be with me and I've inherited some money from an old uncle in Frankfurt and I will meet you there for our honeymoon. I wasn't able to keep the date. Let's meet your good friend Ray Ls. When we come

00:25:47.580 - 00:26:30.100

back from this commercial question. Mm hmm. Yeah, joining walter, Cronkite onset is Ray Ellis this morning. All those beautiful water colors you've been seeing as we go to break were painted by Ray. How long have you two known each other? Ray? Well,

00:26:30.100 - 00:26:52.870

I'm starting to talk like walter. So a long time. Can you tell any tales on Walter? Oh, I can tell a lot of things about water, but I'm unfortunately, most of them wouldn't be allowed on the air, but, but I, I've known Walter for about 18

00:26:52.870 - 00:27:08.290

years and doing these books have been about the luckiest artist. I guess you could imagine because how many would I know a lot of artists I know give the right arm to sail with walter and and just be his friend. He's just a great guy. So

00:27:08.290 - 00:27:23.780

we should explain here. This book is pretty much you went up to the san juan islands up in Washington state and you came all the way down to southern California. Maybe baja. Not quite. We part of that is true. We sailed the san juan islands. Uh,

00:27:23.790 - 00:27:40.690

some of the southern coast of California. Uh, the bay area. But the, it's such a treacherous coast going all the way as many sailors. No walter can get into that more than I can. But it's uh, unlike the east coast where we have a little harbors

00:27:40.690 - 00:27:58.330

and coves up and down out there, you can get in deep trouble if you uh the weather gets bad and you can't. I sailed the coast the whole coast, but in sections, it's not what Ray is saying is it's not wasn't a continual trip and we

00:27:58.330 - 00:28:13.110

didn't make it together. That's that's the difference. So you did not make this trip? No, that that the publicity that got out, I think represents that we did it as as a, as a team with our families aboard and so forth. First of all, I wouldn't

00:28:13.120 - 00:28:35.060

take expose my family to, to the northwest coast. I thought you were going to say to Ray, you wouldn't expose your family to raise. I wouldn't expose Ray anywhere. Do your families love sailing the way you do? Well, I think uh you see, how are we

00:28:35.060 - 00:28:51.180

different? I know Betsy loves it when the boats put up or whatever, but and when the sea is very calm, uh I have always been around boats uh since a young child. But most of the time I've been on powerboats. I did, I got into sailing

00:28:51.180 - 00:29:06.480

about eight years ago and I have a small sailboat, a cat boat, about a 20 footer walter has the real thing about a 48 ft catch. And it's just a great uh But we both love to sail. We had a great experience last last week. Uh

00:29:06.490 - 00:29:24.860

we were down in San Diego and raised the 12 m. And that was fun on the USA against the stars and stripes without Dennis Conner. Mhm. What is the question over here for anybody, Jeff? I think you had please stand up. I was wondering Mr Cronkite,

00:29:24.860 - 00:29:39.660

if you talked earlier about censorship in the news and we've heard a lot about censorship in the arts as well recently. If you could make a comment on that. Well, yes, I think Ray would be the one to comment on censorship in the arts since that's

00:29:39.660 - 00:29:56.240

his area of of particular interest. I'm opposed any such censorship of that nature. I don't think you can have freedom of speech and freedom of press and freedom of artistic expression when you've got somebody looking over your shoulder and saying, you can do that and you

00:29:56.240 - 00:30:16.190

can't do that. That that that doesn't, it doesn't read and it's ridiculous that that should be the consideration. Unfortunately, as we all know, uh money has a terribly loud voice and the people who pay for and sponsor things feel they have a right to say what

00:30:16.190 - 00:30:33.090

the product should be somehow or other. We've got to get over that idea. And the question of the subsidization of the arts subsidies are necessary for art, unfortunately, but it should not have a voice in what the artist does and we'll find out what Ray thinks

00:30:33.100 - 00:31:13.610

right after these commercial breaks. Mhm. Mhm. Thank Ray. Um what is your reaction to the censorship of? Well, I've, I've felt for a long time that the arts could control themselves if the media and the politicians would not take such an aggressive

00:31:13.610 - 00:31:37.080

part careful because because I think the as an example the Maplethorpe controversy, uh if I think they analyzed that about the thousands of people would come in but out of 100 and some photographs in there, they all rushed over to four photographs and they could care

00:31:37.080 - 00:31:58.470

less about the rest of the show. This is what the reaction was. Now, the reason uh it got such publicity was thousands of people came out to see such controversial uh four or five uh sexually uh implied photographs. But I want The Ray that's that's just

00:31:58.470 - 00:32:18.000

like Yogi Berra saying that nobody comes out to yankee Stadium anymore because it's too crowded. Well, that could be we could argue that point a little later. But I I really think uh they're making much ado about about a few things. And basically, I think the

00:32:18.000 - 00:32:37.060

arts have been pretty well, Pretty well controlled. Not controlled, but I think the exhibitions and museums and so forth have been very good. I think a little bit in the last 20 years, a little bit lopsided. Of course, my kind of art is more representational impressionist.

00:32:38.150 - 00:32:51.230

I for one don't paint like a lot of contemporary artists do today. But I think there's a there's a place for both. I was just gonna say there has to be room for both. Drew you had a question. Good morning sir. I'd like to know your

00:32:51.230 - 00:33:10.250

opinion of today's so called tv tabloid journalism. And how do you feel about shows of that nature? I think they're perfectly entitled put on a program like that. If if they think there's a popular appeal for such a program and there probably is there's always the

00:33:10.250 - 00:33:31.830

tabloid newspapers sell more newspapers usually than the serious newspapers do. As long as the management of the networks and the broadcasting stations are serious and understand that they can't replace the serious news broadcasts. And unfortunately, I'm not sure that all all station and network management necessarily

00:33:31.840 - 00:33:49.260

are that responsible anymore. I'd be worried about they're getting good ratings, better ratings than the than the evening news does. And therefore the management saying, well let's put that sort of thing on instead of the serious news. That would be that would be a tragedy. Yeah.

00:33:49.940 - 00:34:03.650

Mr Cronkite. I was wondering if you think media affects the way history is written now more than it had, say 20 to 40 years ago? I got a lousy hearing these days and I'm afraid. I didn't quite understand. Do you think that the media affects the

00:34:03.650 - 00:34:24.480

way history is written today more than it maybe did 20, years ago? No, not more than did 20, years ago. Always the newspapers are our current history. That is the principal source of history being written. The historians depend a great deal on what the newspapers at

00:34:24.480 - 00:34:40.640

the time were writing. Uh and uh it's uh The, the journalists, what your question I think is kind of directed at or the journalists less responsible perhaps today than they were 20 years ago. Not at all. The journalists are probably more responsible than they were 20

00:34:40.640 - 00:35:00.380

years ago. They're better educated their better paid uh which brings perhaps a higher type to the business. Uh and I think that basically, although we're getting a decreasing number of newspapers, an increasing number of people who say they get all their news from television, which is

00:35:00.380 - 00:35:12.930

a little bit dangerous. In fact, quite dangerous. You cannot get all you need to know from television. You've got to go multimedia, You've got to go to print, you've got to go to your newspapers, you gotta go to your news magazines, you've got to go to

00:35:12.940 - 00:35:47.460

opinion journals, you gotta go to books to be fully informed these days. But but in all those, there are a lot of very fine responsible journalists who are doing a good job. And we'll be right back after these messages. Mm hmm. Yeah.

00:35:48.240 - 00:36:05.520

Mhm. Spencer. Mr Cronkite, I'd like to ask you, Lyndon Johnson once said that after you announced the american people that the Vietnam War was unwinnable. He said that he knew he had lost the support of the american people. Did that surprise you that the president would

00:36:05.520 - 00:36:22.040

say something like that. Well, yes, I didn't hear that for couple of years after that when it came out later on. Uh but uh yes, certainly it surprised me. I didn't think that I have that kind of influence on Lyndon johnson. He certainly never indicated that

00:36:22.040 - 00:36:42.680

to me. But sure, I think that really what happened was that that it was kind of a final straw. I think that Lyndon johnson already had decided that he had been somewhat misled himself and been misleading the american people on what it was going to take

00:36:42.680 - 00:37:01.800

to win the war in Vietnam. And uh, the american people were turning against the war. I just happened to come along with my very extraordinary editorial comment at that time. And it was just one more straw. Ray being great friends with walter Cronkite. And the same

00:37:01.800 - 00:37:18.730

for you Mr Cronkite. What do you argue about? What do you disagree on? Because you can't agree on everything. Probably argued more on the tennis court than we ever really. He would always call my shots out. Oh, one of those, I'm the most trusted man in

00:37:18.730 - 00:37:45.490

America that actually actually in working together we we have no really problem in arguing about anything because Ray does his paintings, These are raised books, These are a painter's book, these are books to look at enjoy forever. Uh that the magnificent work that he does internationally

00:37:45.490 - 00:38:01.280

recognized as he is. I just do the text along with it and and he does the paintings. I look at what he has painted and try as best I can to, to augment that. I can't describe it because it's it's he has described it, but I

00:38:01.280 - 00:38:16.520

augment it with a little sailing experience. And so there's nothing to argue about Ray. Have you ever thought of doing a portrait of walter walter? I did one of walter as a matter of fact in the first book, it wasn't uh it wasn't a great portrait,

00:38:16.520 - 00:38:32.340

but I did a portrait of self portrait and one of walter for the back cover. Like we have on the back of this book, he did a beautiful self portrait of himself and I looked like absolute idiot. Alright, let's just show the the the cover of

00:38:32.340 - 00:38:48.280

the book. This is called West Wind. Beautiful Work in here, Ray. And then I'm gonna turn the book around so we can see this two great friends on on the ship the boat and doing what they love best and that is sailing. And you have Doris

00:38:48.280 - 00:39:08.700

one last question here, would you please stand up and maybe you can get some help mr Cronkite, would you please say? And that's the way it is, october route 25, 19 and 90. And that's the way it is, Thursday, 25, 1990. A nice hand for walter

00:39:08.700 - 00:39:13.540

Cronkite and Ray Alice. Thank you for being with us. And I'll be right back. Stay tuned