Some people can never see the name “Walter Cronkite” in any context without thinking, “He and the rest of the liberal media made us lose in Vietnam.” Yes, even now, 35 years and huge uncountable numbers of books, articles, films, declassified primary sources, original research, conferences, scholarly papers, eyewitness accounts, et al., later, there still exist media pundits, writers, and political observers who think that the U.S. failure in Vietnam happened because Walter Cronkite told the nation, in an on-air editorial opinion, that the war could not be won. Or that CBS News and the media in general lied about the Tet Offensive and thus helped to ensure defeat of the U.S. war effort. Because “they” all acted like Tet was a defeat for the U.S., when it was really a stunning military success. I mean, this just blows my mind, but you can still hear and read, even today, supposedly informed individuals insist that the U.S. could have succeeded in Vietnam on military might alone, and that because we ended every battle with more Americans left alive than North Vietnamese, that means we could have won the war if only the media and the politicians had gotten out of the way and let the generals do their job.It is quite startling. Unlike Katty, I was not alive back then to make first-hand judgements. But I've read enough of the era such that one of the most stunning moments of my life was during last year's election, when a relative of mine opened a can of this on me as a tangent from the media's coverage of Palin. They all but swore that Vietnam was a winnable war that was lost because the 'left-wing' media was ideologically against it and wouldn't rally around the flag enough. I couldn't believe it.
Anyhow, read the rest of Katty's post, which includes quotes from these crazies calling Cronkite a "surrendercrat" and such.
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