walter cronkite holding up the front page of "the new york times." that was a moment we marked 40 years ago. off is moment in our history. what did it mean to walter? >> it meant everything to walter. i heard you asking before what the greatest story that you asked about walter, opining on the greatest story he ever covered and what he often said. he said it was man's landing on the moon. because it was our escape from our environment and an opportunity for -- to discover a new world. >> marlene, i unfortunately need to stop there. unfortunately we're out of time. i want to thank you so much. i apologize for your reflecting. as we end the program tonight, we want to end the program tonight with the words of the man in his day was the most trusted name in news. >> a press corps of 500 and we of television and radio standing by and the top rocket colonel

john glenn standing by. man on the moon. >> the eagle has landed. >> boy. >> we're going to be busy for a moment. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com if you're just joining us tornts, this is ac 360, john king sitting in for anderson. sad news. millions of americans from all over the country and walks of life. may have shared little in common except for this. everybody weeknight at 7:00 p.m., they invited walter cronkite into their homes to sit down with them, tell them the news. tonight at 7:42 eastern time, walter cronkite left us, died at his home in new york, family at

his side. he was 92. i grew up watching him. so did anderson who remembered him this way. >> for so long, for so many of us, he was the most trusted man in america. >> that's the way it is. >> reporter: walter cronkite covered the world and at an age of fewer channels and fewer newscasts he changed the world as well. >> looking back on it, i think i was so lucky i just happened to fall into the right things at the right time and it worked beautifully. >> reporter: he was born walter cronkite jr. in 1916. he was a beat reporter and football announcer before joining united press in 1939. when the first troops stormed normandy, walter cronkite was there. >> dwight eisenhower told me sitting on this gray wall over here on the 20th anniversary of d-day, that he thinks of the grandchildren of these young kids will never have. that's something for all of us to think about. >> reporter: when we think about walter cronkite, and generations

of broadcast journalists have and will continue to, we think about his tenure at cbs, a company he joined in 1950. 12 years later he became the anchor of the cbs "evening ne . news". in chair, that role, came to define what america was. told america the way it was. november 22nd, 1963, reported and reacted to the horror in texas. >> from dallas, texas, the flash apparently official. president kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. central standard time. 2:00 eastern standard time. some 38 minutes ago. >> reporter: in 1968, after returning from a trip to vietnam, his conclusions may have helped alter the course of history. >> seems now more certain than ever the bloody experience of vietnam is to end in a stalemate. >> reporter: the opinion reached president johnson, who reportedly said, if i've lost cronkite, i've lost middle

america. >> his approach to news was, when news happens, get as close to the story as you possibly can and then tell people about it in language that they can understand. walter spoke like the average person. it wasn't all literary, flowery kind of language. people don't talk that way. walter didn't either. >> reporter: walter, it seemed, was always there. for the moon landing -- >> man on the moon. >> oh, boy. >> thank you. >> boy. >> we're going to be busy for a moment. >> reporter: for water gate. for the mideast peace break through. he was humble and honest and straight forward and never made himself the story. even on a winter day in 1981 when he sat in the anchor chair for the last time. >> old anchormen you see don't fade away. they keep coming back for more. that's the way it is. friday, march 6th, 1981. i'll be away on assignment. dan rather will be sitting here for the next few years.

good night, walter cronkite. good night, and godspeed. >> anderson reflecting on waller cronkite. late reaction tonight from president obama. the president said, quote, walter was more than just an anchor. s he family. he invited us to believe in him and never let us done. this country lost an icon and dear friend and will be truly missed. died just days short of the 40th anniversary of man walking on the moon. you heard his reaction to that moment. oh boy. he was a fan. he made no bones about it. one of the moments, perhaps more than he cared to admit, when his voice wasn't that of a newsman delivering the facts, but instead a trusted man, sometimes taken with the moment, overcome with emotion. as you saw on the faithful day in dallas, my mom once told me i was a baby boy on her lap when she watched this. >> from dallas, texas, the flash

apparently official, president kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. central standard time. 2:00 eastern standard time. some 38 minutes ago. vice president lyndon johnson had left the hospital in dallas, but we do not know to where he has proceeded. presumably he will be taking the oath of office shortly and become the 36th president of the united states. >> don was there, not just for many of those moment s but for his first of anchor of cbs evening news. don, help us understand what the man meant, not to cbs news, but to the country, especially when you reflect on a moment like telling many americans their president had been killed? >> we learned a lot from walter

cronkite. every historic moment during the time he and i worked together, learned from walter cronkite. he was a newsman's newsman. there was nothing fancy about him. he didn't even look the part. he looked like walter cronkite which was a great thing to look like. and it's difficult to say too much about walter cronkite because i don't think there will be another one. >> a nd, don, help me understan. he was the voice of americans when the country was being torn apart. whether vietnam, the bobby kennedy assassination. the martin luther king assassination. at a time the country was being

so torn apart, how was it that this man emerged who was such a unifying voice? >> he was a voice of calm. walter didn't allow his emotions to get in the way of his reporting. and he report ed as -- he reported as one of the great reporters of all times. he told a story. told it well. and he didn't embellish. >> what was the secret? what was he like when you were getting in that final crunch before a newscast goes on the air and you're making those decisions, what's in, what's out, what's the lead? what was walter's secret? >> oh, well i -- we usually had a conference. two or three of us would sit down with walter and decide what we're going to do. by the time that meeting was

over, walter had told us what he was going to do and we found a little reason to disagree with him. >> help me understand, don, you run the legendary "60 minutes" program. we live in a age of cable, internet, blog. there's a fair amount of shouting i think it's fair to say we both now walter didn't like. what are the lessons we need to keep in our business, today, that would honor walter cronkite's legacy? >> calm. walter was calm about everything. walter didn't get caught up in the emotions of a moment. he rose above the assassinations and all of the moments that were shaped -- the times we lived in. he did it calmly and

intelligently and, you know, there was also a lot of potential walter cronkites. there was only one real walter cronkite. >> very well-put. don hewitt. we thank you for your thoughts and reflections on a great man. walter cronkite was a newsman, a gentle man. as don said, he set the gold standard for journalism. dan rather who took over the anchor chair released this statement tonight. i'm saddened to hear of walter's passing. walter loved reporting and delivering the news. he was superb at both. that was dan rather tonight. a short time ago i spoke with katie couric, current anchor of the cbs "evening news." you're the current anchor. you sit not quite exactly, but you sit in walter cronkite's chair. how does that feel every night? >> well, john, it is a huge possibility, and i have to say

slightly intimidating. when i took this job and, you know, for a number of days we've known at cbs news that walter was in failing health. we were all worried about when this day would come. he was so revered and so beloved here, and i've read so much, john, in recent days and really throughout my career about walter. but i've been reminded really only recently what an incredible man and journalist he was. i mean, he was the personification of integrity and decency and humanity. i think that's one thing that struck me as i watched some of the earlier broadcasts from the past. you know, when he announced president kennedy had died, it was so moving to see his body language and his facial expressions and similarly the glee he exhibited when, you

know, he was anchoring a space launch. he had sort of an adolescent enneen news yachl, it's been said about the space program. this unbridled joy in terms of reporting that story and a huge interest in science as well. but i think he really connected to the audience. you know, sometimes you think about television as being this sort of stiff, stilted profession. particularly when walter was at the helm, but what struck me is how natural he was. and in his early days, apparently before the era of teleprompters, john, he would write a few notes on file cards, just glance at them, know what the story was and speak extemporaneously to the audience. you can't find many anchors who are really capable of pulling that off in this day and age. >> speaking with the country, i think not at the country, might have been part of his kbigift. i want to take you back in time. walter cronkite goes on the air in february, 1969.

stays the united states is mired in a stalemate. president johnson we would later learn, told his aides, if i lost cronkite, i lost middle america. would any anchor in this day and age where the business is so different ever have that power? >> i don't think so. it was a very different period of time. there was no cnn, no 24-hour news cycle. in fact, he often talked a bit disparagingly about 24-hour news and said people get a little pill of news and think that's enough, 24 hours a day, no offense, john, to you or cnn. i think he did wield incredible influence because he was so trusted. >> joining us now on the phone, two longtime cbs news colleagues of walter cronkite. maureen safer and bob schieffer. walter cronkite's legacy is -- >> i think his legacy, quite simply is he, in a way, created what we now regard as broadcast

news. he did it with a kind of -- i don't know how quite to describe it. a very ordinary, a very commonplace grace that really no one has quite duplicated. you can't duplicate that. either you've got it or you don't. and walter had it. it's really interesting to me that this mythology of being the most trusted man in america. well, it's not a myth. he probably was just about the most trusted man in america. people felt that he never bet y betrayed that trust. he had that -- a kind of honest simplicity about him both on the air and off the air, by the way.

i mean -- and he was devoted to the craft. there's no question. one thing that no one's mentioned is how much fun he was off the air. he was the best man i've ever known to go drinking with. and i had been fortunate enough or unfortunate enough to have don it many times. he never lost an old wire service. which is get the story done, then go out and have some fun. >> amen to that. stay with us. bob schieffer, i want you to join in on the conversation. i've been wrestling with this as we cover the story, this sad story over the past few hours. how did he do it in the sense i know there was no cable television. i don't know how any news anchor could go through the civil rights movement, the vietnam, presidential assassination, martin luther king's assassination, something less controversial, man on the moon and keep his calm and the trust of the american people. how? >> it was -- he not only loved

the news, john, and loved covering the news, he had great respect for the news. and for the people who were involved in making the news. and it just sort of came through to people. i have often thought about walter and i think one of the secrets to his success was being the anchor of a major news program is a pretty darn good job when you come right down to it. i think people used to look at walter and say, you know, that's a good job walter has. you know, walter knows it's a good job an he appreciates having it. and i think people understood that, and in fact, it was absolutely correct. walter felt very fortunate. i mean, walter had this just insatiable curiosity about things and how things worked and this enthusiasm about trying to find out about it and he understood that he had the job that allowed him to talk to all these people who made the news.

he liked that. it wasn't just, you know, he was running around with celebrities or something. he was really interested in what they had to say and why they thought what they thought. and that just came through to people. you know? walter never let anything get in the way of the news, including himself. >> we're seeing a picture of walter cronkite playing himself standing next to ted backer on the "mary tyler" show. i want you to reflect on this. in the sense of the trust he had then. he clearly didn't like what has happened to much of our business now. could walter cronkite be walter cronkite in the age of cable and internet and blogging? >> i'd like to think he could. if there is some safe haven for a straight delivery of the news

done by someone who is not a poser in the chair but actually gets out and covers the news and as bob said, terrific respect for it. and great respect for the people who make the news. even some of the rascals. and so i would like to think he could. reality, i guess is that the country has passed that moment by, neglected it or something. i'm not sure. but -- and you're right. he didn't like what happened. i think katie mentioned it. this 24-hour news cycle. i think one of the things that 24-hour news cycle does to reporters is it takes away their time to think.

and thinking time is important, even if it's only ten minutes to think about what you're going to say. this business of just rattling off stuff doesn't enlighten very much and it certainly doesn't get the best out of the people who are doing the reporting. >> i would just add to that, john. i mean, walter said to me one time, he said, you know, there's nothing that peps up a newscast like a little news. he knew new facts. something that people hadn't heard before. he knew, you know, you could tap dance and know all that kind of thing if you were the anchor. the fact is if you came up with a story that was important, that people didn't know about, it was going to get people's attention. that was always walter's great secret. i mean, he didn't let other things get in the way of reporting the news. i want to tell you at 6:25, as that news cast was getting ready to go on the air, if a big story

broke, walter loved c ed tearin whole thing apart and getting what he thought the news was right up at the top. he loved that. to him, that was what it was all about and because he did, we all -- i mean, we learned from him. and we liked it, too. >> two damn good newsmen in their own right. helps us tonight. reflect on the life and legacy of a legend. >> can i say one more small -- pick up on what bob said? >> please. >> he really was the correspondent's best friend. he was a very tough boss. very demanding. but you really felt you had a friend when you reported to walter. >> absolutely. absolutely. i'm so good you said that. >> as the guy who is more often the correspondent, not the anchor, we love that in the anchor always. thank you so much for taking the time tonight. a tough night for you both. we greatly appreciate it. reflecting on walter cronkite. when we come back, one of

walter cronkite's army of young producers who would go on a great fame on cbs news. next, holding in her hand one of the many pieces of cronkite history that also happened to be american history. if we don't act, medical bills will wipe out their savings. if we don't act, she'll be denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition. and he won't get the chemotherapy he needs. if we don't act,

health care costs will rise 70%. and he'll have to cut benefits for his employees. but we can act. the president and congress have a plan to lower your costs and stop denials for pre-existing conditions. it's time to act. hests the calm voice of the nice. on this occasion, the voice that moved the center of gravity. >> the intention was to take and seize the cities. they came closer here at quay than anywhere else. three weeks after the offensive began, the firing still goes on. back in for familiar

surroundings in new york, we'd like to sum up our foundings in vietnam. an analysis that must be speculative, personal, subjective. who won and lost in the great tut offensive against the cities? i'm not sure. the vietnam did not when by a knockout. neither did we. the referees of history may make it a draw. >> walter cronkite there on the vietnam war. mr. cronkite died tonight at the age of 92. as we look back on his extraordinary life and legacy, joined by the people who knew and worked with him. susan, the executive producer of "48 hours mystery" on cbs, also a producer for mr. cronkite. susan, your thoughts on this sad night. >> well, i think for me, i was 19 years old when i started in the washington bureau and it was weeks after water gate. what cronkite was, what cronkite embodied was the core values of any young journalist. unbelievable time during water

gate. walter was coming down and anchoring specials. what was so striking about the time was the impact a single voice could have. "washington post," network television was on night after night. i think those of us that grew up in that era saw the impact this single man had. people were trusting this man like no one else that had come in. we were in their living rooms. walter came into your living room. yet, walter was not about flash. walter was about the story. morle and bob talked to you about he wasn't a flashy, wasn't a fancy guy. he was about the core value of the news. i think we live now in an era with the proliferation of cable which is fantastic access by people by information. the great part about having a smaller platform was that you were always heard. it's harder now to have a distinctive voice. i mean, i'm proud to work at cbs

where "60 minutes" is the hall mark of journalism and breaks new ground. walter was all about that. the values and knowledge of the story and shedding light. it sounds old-fashioned but that's what it was about. >> we talked throughout the course of the past couple hours on cnn about so many big nights. kennedy assassination, man on the moon, turning point in vietnam. walter was a pack rat we've been told. i understand that's one of the things you learned about your friend and mentor. you have in your desk the script of another famous night in walter cronkite's night and american history. >> i do, indeed. i feel grateful i can show it tonight. let me put it up here so you can see it. the night nixon resigned. you can see the copy. good evening, the 37th president of the united states resigned today. you can see walter's handwriting on there. the copy was written by a writer

named charlie west. i was a researcher. walter cavalierly threw the script into the garbage can. the script for the night of the special the night nixon resigned. i fished it out and had knowledge of ebay back then. i could have made cash today. i have kept on -- kept holding this script in my possession and always felt very attached to walter through the years because of what i learned and the fact i was a researcher. holding a copy from a historic night where his handwriting made the changes is a moment that you feel that i have history in my hands. i have walter in my hands. i'm just going to read a little piece of it which was the last line. and it was at the end of the show. it said, and so virtually on the eve of her bicentennial, the united states has passed through a day of historic drama. a day many of her citizens had been awaiting with dread. a day some feared would shred the fabric of her society. but the feared has not come to

pass. as president ford said in his acceptance speech, our long national nightmare is over. our constitution works. our great republic is a government of laws, not of men. here the people rule. this is walter cronkite, cbs news, washington, good night. it doesn't get better than that. this embodies what walter was. taking dramatic, amazing nights and days and events in history. putting them in context and perspective. and taking a country through the history. we're going our own special on sunday night at 7:00. called "that's the way it was." remembering walter cronkite. and as you will watch this show, what you are struck with is not only the great journalism of a man but the fact we lived as a country through history, through the eyes and the voice of this man. i'm incredibly proud to kind of embody walter and have a script

like this in my possession. it's more about the ethics. it's more about who he was and the people, the producers that worked for him. we were filmed back in the early cronkite days. wow were running up floors with reels of film. every night, everything was at stake. and, you know, quite frankly the technology which has given ease of information was fantastic but there was no less emphasis on getting it right. you know, you were a little scared of walter. if walter called during the show, after the show, you were pretty nervous. there was nothing about an advocacy or a point of view. for walter, it was a strategy and narrow. we're covering this story. we're covering the news. tell me like it is. and i think that many of us here at cbs and we're grateful those of us who came up through the ranks, many still exist here, we're pride to be walter

cronkite's disciples. >> one of the cronkite kids, one of the many cronkite kids of cbs news. thank you for your thoughts and reflections tonight and for sharing the historic script with us. thank you. take care in the days ahead. more on his passing and pivotal role in his business and more importantly the lives of many americans. brian williams joins us. all that still ahead. taking its rightful place in a long line of amazing performance machines.

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and that's the way it is, monday december 5, 1977. this is walter cronkite, cbs news, good night. >> good evening from paris. reporting from moscow. from the great wall of china. reporting from madrid. this is walter cronkite somewhere over the north atlantic. this is my last broadcast as the anchorman of the "cbs evening news." a moment which i long planned but which nevertheless comes with some sadness. for almost two decades, after

all, we've been meeting like this in the evenings and i'll miss that. >> that was walter cronkite's final broadcast as the anchor on the "cbs evening news." more on his legacy shortly. a quick update on the stories we're following tonight. randi kaye with the 360 bulletin. >> indonesian authorities believe suicide bombers are behind the twin hotel bombings in jakarta that killed six people. eight americans are among the injured. investigators are analyzing surveillance images showing a man in a baseball cap pulling a suitcase toward the marriott's lobby seconds before the blast. minutes later the bomb exploded at the nearby ritz-carlton. in iran, new wave of demonstrations, biggest in weeks sparked by a sermon by the most important clerical backer, auk bar rafsanjani. protesters filled the streets after rauf san johnny criticized the comments. the government responded to protesters with violence.

unemployment in june topped 10% in 15 states, the grim headline out of the department of labor's report. hardest hit, michigan, which became the first state in 25 years to see unemployment rise above is a%. the influential travel website, trip adviser, waging a quiet battle against fake reviews. hotels post the bogus raves to boost ratings. they involve a small fraction obvious the 400,000 reviews they post. john? >> randi, thank you very much. walter cronkite died tonight at home in thork. he was 92. he had been ill for a long time. bernie shaw new walter cronkite as a cbs news colleague. bernie shaw knew walter cronkite as a cbs news colleague. he joins us, so does brian williams, anchor of "nbc nightly news." bernie, let me start with you, my friend. take me inside cbs news in your heydays of one of the colleagues of this great man.

>> john, i'm looking at a letter that walter wrote me, mailed it to my washington apartment, dated october 29th, 1971. very briefly, it says dear bernie, congratulations and thanks for that very warm letter. i too have no doubt you have joined the finest of the news organizations. we are a long way from perfection and i know you are sophisticated enough not to let the petty annoyances dim your broader vision of the outfit. our feet may not be of clay, but our little toe is suspect. i'll look forward to seeing you on the evening news. i think about those days, suzanne zirinsky alluded to them. back in the early 1970s, walter was a stickler for facts and figures. i was a rookie reporter with leslie stahl and connie chung. in the bureau. general ford had just become president. you remember in handling the nation's economic problems at

that time, there was created this federal agency called the pay board. the cbs news bureau at 2020 m street. at the other end of the block this agency existed. i covered this story late on the hill and then i went to the lobby where this agency was and i wrote my script and the cronkite producers in washington talked it over with those in new york and the script was in the show. it was the second story on the cronkite evening news. walter saw a script about 6:20, 10 minutes before airtime and he did not like a fact that a certain figure was not in my script. all of this now is on videotape. they come to me and say you've got to change this. walter wants this and this. we were so late that as the announcer was saying direct from our newsroom in new york this is the "cbs evening news with walter cronkite" bernie shaw was still at his typewriter getting the figures correct.

we had technicians running out of the front of the bureau with cable stretching it down the street to this federal agency lobby. i had to run down the street and get into position to do this story. that's how tightly we sometimes went with the "cbs evening news." the important thing was to have the story right with the right perspective. >> brian williams, join the conversation because you can help with the challenge that i think i'm failing at all night which is trying to explain to people who did not know this man, who did not grow up watching him. he left the anchor chair in 1981. to someone in their 40s or younger out there watching, they might say, okay, he was a great man who had a great job. why does he matter to me? you have the experience when this great man walked into your home for dinner, how do we tell people what he meant?

>> john, the best way to say it is in the words of a buddy of mine who said when cronkite was on at his years at his height in his heyday, he addressed the nation, it was tantamount to addressing the nation. we had three channels in this country. you could almost feel the lights dim in new york when people tuned in to cronkite's newscast. during the years when they were dominant. they had a heck of a fight on their hands from huntley and brinkley in new york. it was palpable. he loved doing what he did for a living. he would put his jacket on seconds before air. he looked the part. he had those eyebrows like the hedgerows our boys fought through in europe in world war ii. he smoked a pipe in the newsroom all day. i was smiling while susan zirinsky was talking.

he had a tactile love of the news. he loved paper. he loved copy. he loved getting it from the writers and putting it back in the out tray for a rewrite as the veterans like lee tounsend and lee mosdale will tell you. he was simply the best at what he did and he created the mold. we didn't have an anchor a true anchorman, a lead correspondent leading the gain like we did until cronkite. >> brian and bernie, we don't have much time left. we have more colleagues waiting. i want you to each take 20 or 30 seconds and help me understand. you are both newsmen for whom i have such high respect who have managed the transition between network and world of cable. bernie, to you first. walter didn't like this world much, did he? >> no, he did not because of the lack of discipline. one of walter's secrets was he was a vor rashs student of

history. he used this for students to understand the present. >> brian williams, how do you take your anchor seat every night wanting to be like walter cronkite in a different age? >> knowing the skill set is the same. a reporter is a reporter. when a fire truck goes by our window on 49th street in new york, i am on the fdny citywide scanner. i have to know what the alarm is. i can't live any other way. that is the gene that walter had. that goes on. >> gentlemen, i want to thank you both. walter cronkite called you both friends and respected you so much. we respect your insights tonight. brian williams, bernie shaw, thank you both, gentlemen. he was one of a kind. walter cronkite in his own words walter cronkite in his own words when "360" ... dangerous plaque that can build up in arteries. it's called atherosclerosis--or athero. and high cholesterol is a major factor. but crestor can help slow the buildup of plaque in arteries. go to arterytour.com and take an interactive tour to learn how plaque builds up.

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back now, looking at the life, the work the legacy of walter cronkite. a newsman's newsman who died today at age 92. walter covered the world and helped change it. for decades and to millions he did what he loved most, reported the news. here is walter cronkite at the anchor desk and beyond in his own words. >> good evening from the cbs news control center in new york. this is walter cronkite reporting. the biggest assignment any american reporter could have so far in this war. covering the occupation of north africa by american troops. this aircraft is executing a maneuver to make it and everyone in it temporarily weightless. what are the hazards and what

are our scientists doing to ensure man's survival in the hostile environment in outer space? from dallas, texas, the flash apparently official. president kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. central standard time, 2:00 eastern standard time, some 38 minutes ago. there seems to be some kind of battle going on over there -- >> yes, there is a battle going on if you can get over there. we can see it directly under our booth. they are carrying a man out bodily by the legs and the arms. it makes us in our anger, i want to turn off our cameras and pack up our microphones and our typewriters and get the devil out of this town. the vice president mr. ford, will become president at noon as we have said. he's already hard at work, of course, in putting his new government together. deputy secretary of state warren christopher briefed president carter today on his two days of

talks with algerian intermediaries about the u.s. hostages in iran. u.s. officials said late ter process of negotiating with iran through the algerians is working. that progress has been made but there is no expectation of a quick release. mr. president, the only hot war we've got running at the moment is, of course, the one at vietnam. >> i don't think unless a greater effort is made to win popular support the war can be won out there. it is their war. >> the administration has not been willing to discuss in public and in detail any of the specific accusations by the nation's press reviewed here tonight. in our next report, the money behind the watergate affair. and that's the way it is, friday october 27th, 1973. >> and that's it the way it is was walter's signature. a voice of the midwest we came to trust. that was walter cronkite doing what he did best and in many cases did first. let's talk about his impact on

the nation. historian and cbs news contributor doug brinkley is writing a book about mr. cronkite. doug, if i have this right, you spent part of the day in research looking at the papers of this great man. >> we were talking. i live in austin. we have the bros co center for american history at the university of texas and a man named don carlton, some years ago, a great friend of walter cronkites, was able to get all his diaries and papers back to texas. cronkite, of course, grew up in houston and spent some of his early reporting years in austin and went to college here two years and he had a great affinity for austin, texas. one of his daughters live here. so they have this great treasure-trove of papers. in the last few years i have been researching it. walter cronkite is a great window on american history. it is a story of as you have been talking about the upi, but not only was he part of the normandy invasion, covering the

nuremberg trials and being with cbs through the edward r. murrow era and from kennedy assassination to vietnam. he saved speeches, correspondence, photographs, press pass, on and on. it is all at the center. they are getting ready at the university of texas in the spring of 2010 to have a big walter cronkite conference. >> doug brinkley, having seen all these papers, tell us something we don't know about him in a sense this is a man who had dinner with millions of americans every night, who held their hand in telling them their president had been shot and killed. martin luther king had been shot and killed. bobby kennedy had been shot and killed. a public man but, of course, in these papers are things we never knew. like what? >> one thing, general comment, for example, he was a great add myerer of ernest hemingway's

piece. he wrote a piece called "the old newsman's writers." cronkite read that and he believed in the old wireman tap. which means, he used to constantly go and read the ap and upa wires and save some of those and circle them. he kept his notebooks. when you read his notebooks it has a clipped sense. i was looking at one from today from vietnam, for example, when he went over there. you see each line he is writing source, source, source. i have interviewed people you have had on your show this evening like people like bob schieffer and bob plant. they all talked about how tough walter cronkite was. he ran the cbs show there when you had roger mudd, schieffer, daniel shore doing investigative work and robert perpoint. it was quite a group around cbs and cronkite was the orchestra

leader, duke ellington type of figure with all these figures. cronkite loved print reporting and he believed that cbs news television in that era was as fine as any newspaper because people that worked for him had to do the digging and had to read the wires. so i think what people remember about cronkite's voice is for one thing his street voice was the same as his tv voice. it wasn't an act. that was walter cronkite. secondly, when he said something like, named a soldier's name, let's say bob jones died. the way he would say that, you didn't need to have flourishes. you didn't need a lot of language. that's one of the things to me that comes through when you read his speeches, notes letters, his succinctness of language. both on the air and off the air. >> historian douglas brinkley. we thank you for your reflection

tonight. we look forward to your continued work and research here. you mentioned walter's work for the wire service. i didn't know him well. i did meet him a few times. earlier in my career in cnn, he knew i came from the ap, he said probably from that experience i would do okay. probably he said. dan rather had kind words and memories of the man whose chair he filled. we'll hear from dan shortly. that and more, next. (announcer) imagine one eye drop so exceptional, it relieves seven symptoms. new visine totality multi-symptom. now reduce the red; bathe the dry and gritty; soothe the itch, irritated, burning and watery. visine totality. no other drop does more.

we just had a chance to talk to the former cbs news anchor dan rather about the death of walter cronkite. here's some of what dan told us.

>> he was literally a living legend and now a legend in memory of the very best in the journalistic craft. in many ways, many important ways, he defined the role of the network anchor. >> walter cronkite called by so many the consummate newsman. said so often it almost sounded like a cliche. almost. but the fact is as dan rather just said, cronkite literally defined the role of anchorman. at the time when television news was coming of age, his face and voice linked to so many pivotal times in history. simply by reporting them he made history. one of those moments? the assassination of john f. kennedy, 40 years later, cronkite described that unforgettable day to the cnn anchorman, aaron brown. take a listen. >> how long after you got on

television did you find out that the president had been shot, fatally shot? >> we didn't learn that he had been fatally shot until they announced that he was dead. they never gave us any kind of a hospital bulletin that he was even critical. >> at the airport in dallas, the -- and throughout the streets of dallas, the dallas police have been augmented by some 400 policemen called in on their -- >> obviously the magnitude of the moment had hit you. you knew this was as serious as anything you had done and television lad had ever done. were you nervous? >> no. i don't think so. no, i wasn't nervous at all. you know, aaron, the thing about a situation like that, that you're living through as a living on-air reporter at the moment, at that time the job is everything. you've got to concentrate on

doing what you're supposed to do and are trained to do. i think the same thing is true of us newspeople because i had no -- no personal sense of tragedy in this thing until the moment when i had to say he was dead. from dallas, texas, the flash apparently official. president kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. central standard time, 2:00 eastern standard time. some 38 minutes ago. >> you take off your glasses and you wipe a tear. when you think about that moment now, 40 years later, would you do it differently? >> probably not because that moment was purely extemporaneous in every sense of the word. i certainly, it wasn't -- i

hadn't planned to have a tear in my eye at that moment at all. i wouldn't have thought of that. i would never have yielded to that if it had been a thought. >> do you regret it? >> no. i don't regret it at all. not at all. i would have regretted it if i had broken down and couldn't have continued. that i would have regretted. but this brief show of emotion was something that i think is perfectly natural. i don't blame an on-air person for showing emotion. it seems to me that you really don't want people reporting to you who don't have any sense of the emotional impact of a given moment in history. >> you've seen a lot of emotion here tonight from people who dearly miss walter cronkite and

honor his legacy. coming up, mr. cronkite made history as he reported it. the defining moments of his legendary career. just ahead. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com mr. evans? this is janice from onstar. i have received an automatic signal you've been in a front-end crash. do you need help? yeah. i'll contact emergency services and stay with you. you okay? yeah. onstar. standard for one year on 14 chevy models.

just moments ago the president of the united states joining the many reflecting on the life and legacy of walter cronkite. >> that's why we loved walter. because in an era before blogs and e-mail, cell phones and cable, he was the news. walter invited us to believe in him, and he never let us down. this country has love an icon and a dear friend. he will be truly missed. >> the president just a short time ago. for our "shot" tonight, the legend, walter cronkite. much more than a newsman. there to bring the country reports that changed history. here are some of the defining moments of this iconic career. >> good evening from the cbs news control center in new york, walter cronkite reporting. the eagle has landed. thanks a lot. >> oh, boy. >> thank you. >> boy. >> we're going to be busy for a

minute. >> wally, say something, i'm speechless. >> from dallas, texas, the flash apparently official. president kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. central standard time, 2:00 eastern standard time, some 38 minutes ago. >> old anchormen you see don't fade away. they just keep coming back for more. that's the way it is. friday, march 6th, 1981. i'll be away on assignment. dan rather will be sitting in here for the last few years. good night. >> to that, there's not much more to add. part of the beauty of a walter cronkite newscast is how much he said in so few words, yet reaching so many people. in that tradition, we can only say, he will be missed. that is the way it is. more coverage on "360" and throughout the morning, next.

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