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Walter Cronkite, Witless To History
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TEWSPilot
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 2:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

...and Michael Jackson to entertain them for eternity...hope their hair doesn't catch on fire....

Walter Cronkite intentionally misreported on the War in Vietnam. Let's look at how he began reporting on it. He continued the deceptive reporting until the war ended, and he continued to misreport on it long after it was over.

(from page 35, "To Set The Record Straight"):
Quote:
At the start of the TET Offensive, early in the morning of January 31, 1968, 19 Viet Cong commandos blew a hole in the walls surrounding the U.S. Embassy grounds in Saigon. Military Police and Marine guards killed ALL 19 of them before they could reach the embassy building. Gen Westmoreland immediately held a press conference to confirm that NO VC had entered or were in the building. Cronkite dramatically reported "Snipers are IN the embassy and ON the rooftops near the embassy and are FIRING on American personnel INSIDE the compound. 22 suicide commandos are reported to be HOLDING THE FIRST FLOOR of the embassy, and some were there toward daybreak". The AP parroted and embellished the story even more and claimed that bodies were "strewn about inside the building".


IT WAS ALL A LIE, Cronkite KNEW it was a lie, but he knew it would shock and demoralize the American audience, so he "reported" it ANYWAY. Some might call that providing aid and comfort to the enemy, but he has been lauded and praised and idolized for his "honest, objective journalism".

When the Tet Offensive occurred in 1968, Walter Cronkite donned a helmet, stood on the roof of the Hotel Caravel in Saigon, with the sights and sounds of battle in the background, and declared the war "un-winnable." The facts on the ground told a different story. The VC, having finally presented themselves in a stand-up fight were smashed and became irrelevant for the remainder of the conflict. The North Vietnamese Army was so badly damaged that it would be five years before it could mount another major operation in the South. But Cronkite, parroted endlessly by lesser "journalists", and with the help of the likes of Jane Fonda and John Kerry, declared the war "un-winnable" and "immoral." And so it became in the minds of most Americans -- including those asked to go win it. In 1972, when I reported to DaNang to begin flying my 100+ missions, the "Viet Cong" regiments on whom I and my squadron collected information were virtually ALL composed of North Vietnamese Regulars or conscripts forced to join because the North Vietmanese held family members and threatened to kill them if the conscripts refused to fight against us. One of the maids from our barraks was forced to launch a 122 MM rocket at our base, but she was injured in the process, and OUR INFIRMARY treated her for her injuries. The invasion of the South in 1973 was by North Vietnamese Regulars, supported by the few remaining "Viet Cong" units still not obliterated. Had Congress not completely shut off providing food, amunition, spare parts, and all other support to the South Vietnamese, even that invasion could have been stopped.

After the war, General Vo Nguyen Giap (Supreme Commander of the Forces of North Vietnam), confirmed all of this in his memoirs, and he said without the support of the American press, they would have sued for peace within six months after the devastating defeat during TET 1968. Thank Walter Cronkite for prolonging the war another seven years and costing another 30-40,000 American lives.

http://www.wintersoldier.com/staticpages/index.php?page=20040412133057507

Honorable journalist? Nope, just another Communist sympathizer who helped the United States "lose" the Vietnam War.

Rest in Peace, "Uncle Walter", it's about time.


Last edited by TEWSPilot on Sun Jul 19, 2009 2:42 am; edited 2 times in total
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Schadow
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 2:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

One of Cronkite's more notable admirers:



Schadow
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LewWaters
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 6:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

General Fredrick Weyand gave a speech in October 2000 where he brought up Cronkite and Tet '68.

In part he said,
Quote:
"After Tet, General Westmoreland sent Walter Cronkite out to interview me. I was in Command of the Forces in the South around Saigon and below and I was proud of what we'd done. We had done a good job there. So, Walter came down and he spent about an hour and a half interviewing me. And when we got done, he said, “well you've got a fine story. But I'm not going to use any of it because I've been up to Hue. I've seen the thousands of bodies up there in mass graves and I'm determined to do all in my power to bring this war to an end as soon as possible.”

"It didn't seem to matter that those thousands of bodies were of South Vietnamese citizens who had been killed by the Hanoi soldiers and Walter wasn't alone in this because I think many in the media mirrored his view..."

"When I was in Paris at the Peace Talks, it was the most frustrating assignment I think I ever had. Sitting in that conference, week after week listening to the Hanoi negotiators, Le Duc Tho and his friends lecture us. Reading from the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Herald Tribune, the Atlanta Constitution, NBC, CBS, you name it. Their message was always the same. “Hey, read your newspapers, listen to your TV. The American people want you out of Vietnam. Now, why don't you just go ahead and get out?” So finally a Peace Agreement was signed that everyone knew would be violated and with no recourse or hope of enforcement on our part."

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jalexson
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 1:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Walter Cronkite is the man who lost the Vietnam War.

Fox News reported that he reported the Battle of the Bulge so he should have known that it isn't the initial success that determines who wins a battle, but the final result. Germany was far more successful in its attack than the VC was in its attack. Germany surrounded a large American military force. The VC only succeeded against civilian targets like Hue and the very lightly defended American embassy in Saigon.
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TEWSPilot
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

(From Scott Swett's "Wintersoldier.com" archives and pages 35-37 of "To Set the Record Straight", supplemented by my own experiences):

Early in the morning of January 31, 1968, 19 Viet Cong commandos blew a hole in the walls surrounding the U.S. Embassy grounds in Saigon. Military Police and Marine guards killed ALL 19 of them before they could reach the embassy building. Gen Westmoreland immediately held a press conference to confirm that NO VC had entered or were in the building. Cronkite dramatically reported "Snipers are IN the embassy and ON the rooftops near the embassy and are FIRING on American personnel INSIDE the compound. TWENTY TWO suicide commandos are reported to be HOLDING THE FIRST FLOOR of the embassy, and some were there toward daybreak". The AP parroted and embellished the story even more and claimed that bodies were "strewn about inside the building". IT WAS ALL A LIE, Cronkite KNEW it was a lie, but he knew it would shock and demoralize the American audience, so he "reported" it ANYWAY. Some might call that providing aid and comfort to the enemy, but he has been lauded and praised and idolized for his "honest, objective journalism".

When the Tet Offensive occurred in 1968, Walter Cronkite donned a helmet, stood on the roof of the Hotel Caravel in Saigon, with the sights and sounds of battle in the background, and declared the war "un-winnable." The facts on the ground told a different story. The VC, having finally presented themselves in a stand-up fight were smashed and became irrelevant for the remainder of the conflict. The North Vietnamese Army was so badly damaged that it would be five years before it could mount another major operation in the South. But Cronkite, parroted endlessly by lesser "journalists", and with the help of the likes of Jane Fonda and John Kerry, declared the war "un-winnable" and "immoral." And so it became in the minds of most Americans -- including those asked to go win it.

In 1972, when I reported to DaNang to begin flying my 100+ missions, the "Viet Cong" regiments on whom I and my squadron collected information were virtually ALL composed of North Vietnamese Regulars or conscripts forced to join because the North Vietmanese held family members and threatened to kill them if the conscripts refused to fight against us. One of the maids from our barraks was forced to launch a 122 MM rocket at our base, but she was injured in the process, and OUR INFIRMARY treated her for her injuries. The invasion of the South in 1973 was by North Vietnamese Regulars, supported by the remnants of the few remaining "Viet Cong" units that had not been completely obliterated. Had Congress not completely shut off providing food, amunition, spare parts, and all other support to the South Vietnamese, even that invasion could have been stopped.

After the war, General Vo Nguyen Giap (Supreme Commander of the Forces of North Vietnam), confirmed all of this in his memoirs, and he said without the support of the American press, they would have sued for peace within six months after the devastating defeat during TET 1968. Thank Walter Cronkite for prolonging the war another seven years and costing another 30-40,000 American lives and MILLIONS of Vietnamese and Cambodians.

Walter Cronkite an "honorable, trustworthy, objective journalist"? Nope, just another Communist sympathizer who helped the United States "lose" the Vietnam War.

Rest in Peace, "Uncle Walter", it's about time.
...maybe you can get an interview with Robert McNamara and Michael Jackson ....don't let your hair catch on fire, I hear that place is pretty hot.
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Harvuskong
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 9:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wing Wiper wrote:
McNamera and Cronkite gone within 2 weeks. I think I'll have a cold beer and mourn their passing. The time it takes to drink the beer should be plenty.
How's Teddy doing? I might need another beer after that loss.


I wish to suggest that you use a smallest posible glass for the beer that you are going to drink for that purpose.
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TEWSPilot
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 5:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

What a fitting memorial to "Uncle Walter": A rogue's gallery of liars, America-haters, Leftists, Leftwing propagandists and Leftwing "media" types lying about and praising an America-hating, Leftist, Leftwing propagandist and Leftwing "media" type who lied almost every time he "reported the news". The bubble they live in must really reek.
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Deuce
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 8:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The last question that would ever be asked in such a memorial would be "Who left more dead bodies in Vietnam, Walter Cronkite or John Kerry?". And yet, it's the only question I'd like to hear the communist media ask! Nope, SeeBS will never regain its credibility after the Walter treason, never. It's a dead company, with dead (and some walking dead like perky Katie) poseurs.
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jalexson
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 6:29 am    Post subject: Re: Walter Cronkite, Witless To History Reply with quote

Schadow wrote:
Got an email today from Alabama Public Television promoting an upcoming PBS program in its "American Masters" series:

American Masters
Walter Cronkite: Witness To History


The promo (emphasis added):

Quote:
He hit the sands at Normandy and covered the trials at Nuremburg. He shed tears over JFK's assassination, took us to the moon, deemed Vietnam a stalemate and — steadfastly adhering to his credo of fast, accurate and unbiased news reporting — became the most trusted figure in American public life.

Source

Deemed Vietnam a stalemate? Most trusted figure in American public life?

I remember at the time Cronkite was actively broadcasting on CBS, a clear-eyed commentator noted that if Cronkite was such a god-like 'deemer', he should be brought to us as a public service, not requiring sponsors pitching Preparation H and wart removers.

Schadow


What was most disappointing about Cronkite's assessment of Tet is that he he should have known better because he reported on the Battle of the Bulge which was far more successful in the short run against U.S. forces than Tet.
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