nora ephron was a great writer. i would like to finish that. i also have robert caro's new book on lbj. i am very excited about that because i have read several lbj biographies and i am fascinated with him. also with texas. i plan to finish that up, too. >> for more information on this and other summer reading list, visit booktv.org. timothy gay presents a history of american war reportage during world war ii. he follows five journalists. walter cronkite, andy rooney, homer biggar, and how the whale. he speaks with chip cronkite, former usa today reporter and david merrin is from the associated editor of the "washington post."

>> good evening. our book tonight is "assignment to hell", the war against nazi germany, with correspondents walter cronkite, andy rooney, homer biggar, and howard doyle. the author is timothy gay and i'm excited to be doing this book because i just finished reading andy rooney's book, my war. let me mention some upcoming book of cummings. it prograde or of the daily show will talk about her book. and a book on the uss cole,

front burner, and john timoney mama, the vice president of the republic of uganda will discuss his book. and other true stories from the last decades of africa. a member of the national guard will discuss his book, the renegades coming on september 19, jeffrey will discuss his book, the obama white house and the supreme court. if you'd like to receive an e-mail about upcoming book lists, i believe there's a list outside. we will keep you in touch on the upcoming book wraps. all of our book wraps benefit the national press club, which is why we restrict outside books. copies of tim's book may be purchased if you have not done so already i'm outside in the hallway.

>> and please do, thank you. [laughter] [applause] >> joining him on the panel this evening is chip cronkite from a producer, editor and filmmaker and the son of legendaryw reporter anchorman walter cronkite. chip was lester is teenager in 1973 when his father received the first fourth of state aboard from the national press club. it's good to have you back and don't wait so long for coming back again. >> sitting next to him is david maranis. he recently published barack obama, the story. next to him is jim lundell, the writer in residence at johns hopkins and author of nine books, including his most recent, summer of 1968 on the season when baseball in america changed forever.

tonight's author, timothy gay, is a former press secretary forb rockefeller and tom carper. he spent more than two years were researching this book is a graduate of georgetown, and a senior vice president at a firm. this is the third book. he is also the author of the rough-and-tumble life of a baseball legend. we will follow our usual format. speakers will discuss the book for 30 or 40 minutes, then we will take questions from the audience for 20 minutes and then tim will sign copies of the book and i will turn the panel over to kim. >> thank you, larry, i much appreciate it. it does this irish art good see so many pals in the audience ouç here. just a wonderful thing. i can't say how much it means to

me. as you can tell, perched a little awkwardly here, i managed to tear up the knee a few weeks ago. i wish i could tell you about wounded while storming a nokia stronghold in germany. but the truth is that i tripped heading toward a poolside bar and search strawberry margarita. it is pathetic, i know, ernest hemingway just puked. there are sensitive legal matters, david. it was at a well-known family resort in florida they really would have made ernest hemingway, who hosted on christmas day, 1944 at the hotel provides in luxembourg city, a very liquid christmas bash her

fellow correspondents. hemingway wrote for a magazine all the other correspondents following a thing called the battle of the bulge, were invited to pop by the party that day. including a 28-year-old united press correspondent who happens to be shipped staff. oh, to be a fly on the wall at that gathering. with tiger tanks working in the country, he managed to keep two bottles of booze despite a bomb. the whole thing went wild beyond midnight. the only one who did not get pretty pie eyed, that is a direct quote from mr. cronkite, was mr. cronkite. there was a water service. he had deadlines to meet that night who could not get as pie eyed as everybody else. [laughter]

[laughter] [laughter] [applause] >> well, that is what he told your mother in a letter. [laughter] [applause] [laughter] [applause] >> hemingway made several appearances in "asssignment to hell." as andy rooney said, never meet one of your literary heroes because all of your illusions will be shadow. we have a great panel today, we will get things going in just a little bit, i just want you to know how honored i have been to have spent the last three years, and how lucky i am to be paid to write something i care about is passionately as world war ii journalism and to follow these five great correspondents. this journalistic band of brothers. walter cronkite. we are lucky to have chip cronkite, but chip is lucky to

be here at all. his old man flew on nazi missions. he was the only one to fly over during d-day. on august 16, 1944, he was sitting in the seat 47 on the runway in britain. set to become one of only two correspondents to witness what had been the incredible, dramatic drop to liberate paris. at the last second, eisenhower canceled the mission because the first and third armies were advancing across northern france so rapidly that one month later, he got to fulfill his wish. he went to the market garden and in holland, in a glider. carrying the top command of the 101st, including general anthony

who would become famous for saying, no. that is just a brief snapshot of walter cronkite. homer bigart, his great-grandfather was like cronkite, trained by the eighth army air force to fly on combat missions. homer covered the 303rd bomb group, and after that come he moved to the mediterranean theater. there was one in st. louis, one in the south of france, and the first is the celebrated incident in a movie. it watches his underling and

says, always courage. quoting frederick the great. it is a very controversial moment in the world where we asked should we even patton if we move forward -- we had reporters ready to go, and he didn't want to be embarrassed and pull it back. i was there was the greatest tug-of-war. homer bigart leader covered the great push up the bull of italy. he was on the beachhead for two months. then he helped with the liberation of rome. a.j. liebling later earned a bronze star that he never told anyone about for his rediscovery of the great siege at saint lo in on me after today. he stood shoulder to shoulder with the two other guys i wrote

about. they were all part of the first part of that battle. sadly, he did not get his story out because he passed away early. but he was the first correspondent on the scene when we captured the bridge at the rind intact. he was also among the first american correspondent visited the death camp at buchenwald. just an amazing world war ii career. just 23 or 234 years old at the time it was happening. then there was a reported a flood -- a.j. liebling was a great francophile come he got to cover the liberation of his beloved paris. and he also, early in the war,

he was great. and then there was hal boyle. he probably wrote more words than any reporter in the european conflict. he was at operation torch from letter leads first day. he stayed all the way through. he was the first american newspaperman on the scene when the optical massacre of the unarmed gis, the prisoners was discovered. >> just an amazing, amazing series of guys. and i say that they were a journalistic band of brothers. i'm barely scratching the surface. i am leaving out hundreds of stirring moments. it takes dedication to write a

book like this. i am dedicated to the guys who helped me on this. my friends stuff is very much in the great tradition of hal boyle. kim is a great teller of tales. hal boyle 18 pulitzer prize or his coverage of normandy and post world war ii. homer bigart, the great "new york times" editor, pepsi was his great friend and protége. she told me that when whatever homer bigart was introduced as a pulitzer winner, he would save two times. [laughter] [applause] >> he won the award twice. one of very few other people in the history of our journalism,

with exception of david. he used to be -- well, let me say that. david stuff from his newspaper stuff -- very few people can write with the bite of a homer bigart style. very few writers can write with the style of the great a.j. liebling , and david certainly can. the most frightening words in america used to be michael moore is in the lobby. now it is david maranis is interviewing your ex-girlfriend, sir. [laughter] [applause] [laughter] [applause] it is not easy being a friend of the child of a famous person. especially when your real dad is

friends with everybody else's dads. i called chip just a few weeks after his dad died, which could not have an easy time for him. it could not have been more hard. he was a gracious gentleman. he got into the family archives and dug up so that no one had seen before. he went through his dad's personal papers and dug up a bunch of stuff. after his dad's long lost wartime correspondence was discovered, it made absolutely sure that i had access to things. i am delighted that chip cronkite,'s son will be bringing out a book of the definitive wartime letters of walter cronkite. we cannot be more pleased. i defy anyone to read the letter that walter cronk white vote on

christmas eve to his wife, betsy, and not tear out. we both started blubbering about it, but that's okay. early on, chip and i were exchanging e-mail notes over some of the classic cbs news videos. then his dad had been part of. these historical re-creation films. this one happened to be a dramatic recreation of the events of december 7, 1941. nathan, could you run a little about that? >> welcome from studio nine. here is the cbs newsroom in new york are the regularly scheduled

news program, the world today, is now in the air. it is now a few seconds passed 2:30 p.m. >> i looked at this and i thought, that is the guy that used to be on i dream of jeannie. i immediately e-mailed chip to that effect. as soon as i hit send, i regretted it. i thought all, he is part of walter cronkite. he is going to think i am a no cultured dweeb and i just shot my credibility with this guy for the program wasn't even on cbs. [laughter] i was sitting there really upset with myself. two seconds later as, my computer be dinner was chip. they rather the actors made west haven work. i was thrilled to deliver a script to him once in hollywood. we loved i dream of jeannie in the cronkite household.

simpatico. having bonded over arboretum, we were friends for life. there are hundreds of things we could explore here, but i boiled it down to three things, especially how those three things affected to great correspondence and friends who in fact, stayed friends for the rest of their lives. walter cronkite, and homer bigart, as i mentioned, they did their jobs brilliantly month after month. the first thing is how these five correspondents rose to the challenge, despite being so wet behind the ears. there was nothing about their backgrounds to suggest that they could cover the global conflict. not to put too fine a point on it, but we are talking about hal boyle and walter cronkite and homer bigart, they were gumshoe

journalists. hal boyle specialized in covering street crime. there was very little about their backgrounds to suggest that they were ready for this kind of challenge. let me read to you a quick list. this is from chapter three. homer bigart had lived a parochial existent. harrison salisbury's portrait of the early more homer bigart as a journeyman with no knowledge or experience of war or foreign affairs than he could glean from the headlines. accurately describing others as well. just as world war ii brought out the best in general eisenhower and bradley, it stirred something within cronkite,

rooney boyle and homer bigart. first i would like to point out is the physical courage it took to cover these day in and day out. the third is the legacy left to all of us and to postwar journalism. i don't know if you saw robert mcneil's review in the post, but i'm so honored that a journalist of mr. mcneil's stature would have reviewed it. but he challenged my premise at the end of the book, that these guys came back home, after the war, and created the greatest era of independence and integrity in american history. we have a very distinguished panel of a lot of great people in the audience to kick that around.

we were laughing about what cbs was part of in the 50s. chip's dad was such an instrumental part. instead of me describing it to those of you in the younger generation who are not around, nathan, could we run the clip here? >> germany and italy followed the attack. nevada, west virginia, and pennsylvania ships were prepared as the war were long. pearl harbor, again the long, hard historic road. [inaudible] it finally ended on the deck of the battleship in tokyo harbor with the surrender of the japanese. the road, they rock unturned

thought on the hot sands of africa. along the rhine river, one of -- what sort of day was a? like all days.ó they illuminate our time. and you were there. [laughter] >> who else misses that i? >> yeah. that's what i figured. here's our first question. what is it that we miss about that guy in the world war ii? what is it that we miss about walter cronkite and the generation of journalists. what is that stir the soul that he does stuff like that. i will open it up to you guys. >> well, i should recuse myself. [laughter] [laughter] i should recuse myself because

of his back. [laughter] [laughter] the question is meant to be historical and not personal. i am an optimist, and i think that there are so many journalists today with her money like him. that is my counter argument. >> oh, i wish that were true. >> jim? >> my first reaction is not to your question. the thought that i was about 12 years old when those shows were running, and i remember them vividly, but the thought that struck me as that was maybe?o? 12 to 14 years after world war ii, but world war ii seemed ancient and it just completely was out of the realm of our

debating, the baby boomers world. and yet go back 12 or 14 years from now and where are you? you are in the middle of the clinton administration that seems like yesterday. literally. you know. just a difference of that era, everything changing after world war ii so dramatically that it seemed like it was from a different part of the place completely. that is part of the romance of that. >> to the korean war wash peoples memories of the heroic -- -- >> the grid was the forgotten war. >> wasn't forgotten immediately? >> no, i am sure that it wasn't. in everything, as you mentioned, chip. there might be journalists like that. but there is such an overwhelming amount of information and misinformation and different forms and

platforms of information. it was so simple back then that they had much more power. >> i think that these guys were certainly under deadlines and such. but i think there was more positives. you write for the blog and internet and whenever running and your story and whenever it else may be. what i love about that voice, even today, is it has the authority, and it also has the cause or that look back, and it also has i think emphasis on compassion, too. and i think that that is something that is very difficult to find these days, simply because, you know, the gerbils are running and we are running faster on the treadmills. it is little bit more difficult. >> going back to the first being that these guys prepared, i think the beauty of that is that

they sort of completely were emblematic of the gis. you know, these were drafted guys. these were like professional soldiers and they were up to the task. the fact that the press had to go through the same thing is just -- it echoes that. >> when i see walter cronkite, i see somebody who held us together, he is an adhesive. so many anchors or television personalities -- it is all polarizing now. it seems to me that he represented the absolute best in trying to pull things together. i think that is why we have such nostalgia. >> i even wonder if we are allowed to pull things together today. the ones that tend to get the bigger shows and the bigger ratings, whatever it may be, the most polarizing, and therefore, you know, simply catering to our audience may be. >> the other thing that strikes

me is if it is true that somewhere around 40% of graduating american high school seniors believe that we fought russia in world war ii, then maybe it is time to recycle, you know? it would look a little dweeby. >> it would look a little dweeby. >> there has to be something we could do to reach that. >> i don't think human nature changes. i think that the culture changes around us. there are as many people who have problems with fdr and you have colonel mccormick, right? will do that sort of -- what would those people be like, you know, if they had the power of the technology today. >> continuing the same theme, nathan, if you would showed a still picture, which is undesirable, but i will explain in just a second.

>> there it is. that is where my absolute, all-time favorite photographs. shipped out that out of his old man's personal papers. [laughter] [laughter] >> that is the great walter cronkite and the great homer bigart standing in front of the barracks at. if you didn't know better, wouldn't you swear it was peter graves and william holden? that is the good guys. [laughter] [laughter] imagine how baronet was in germany. i know from my research that phs

taken one week before the assignment to hell raid. these two guys had been trained to fly on combat raids. they were supposed to be covering that day's mission when the photograph was taken, but because of that day's weather, that mission had been scrubbed. it got a couple of bikes, pedal across the countryside, and visited a tavern not once, but twice. i don't know how many pitchers of beer went down for the photograph was taken. see that mr. walter cronkite is holding up a sign. unbeknownst to homer bigart. the whole idea was to surprise him with this. the sign read keep off the grass. there was no grass to keep off of, of course. this was an air drum bass and it was just absolutely not.

it is absolutely amazing to think that on february 19, 1943, they were both anonymous. .. the manpower, the material, everything required to mount a full team.

so that day, february 6, 1943 commit to writing 69 as they call themselves. they also called them so subsiding typewriters in a few years the legion of the doomed. collegiate as it didn't take off in a series of defense scenes and be 24 spirit of 7070 plants are so on that attack formation. the original objective was brandon, the fighter factory in bremen. they got over germany that danazol cloud cover, so they ended up attacking bill announced on that, it was the second time u.s. bombers had attacked the low homes. the u.s. attack during the day. the british believed to nighttime bombing, what they called area bombing. we believed in daylight i mean. we call it strategic bombing,

precision bombing. this is very early in the war now. there were no fighter escorts. after 100 miles of spitfires return around can return to bases in the skies of flight completely exposed over the north sea. absolutely remarkable stuff. so the whole idea behind the writing 69 as they would go on constant missions. let me give you a little flavor of what the trading was light. and also would give you some sense of how brilliant a writer hoer bigart was. we didn't realize until they called the idea anywhere in the road that we have to attend gunnery school. we were going to go on a bomber battle. we were totally better know how to shoot a gun in case we got in trouble. abu maintained, and

instructional base the entourage was instructed in bigness hear aircraft identification and teaching out, which meant abandoning a plan by parachute or dinghy. it was during lieutenant alex hogan's pitching out lecture that some of us l.a. cop in the next train back to london's paddington station. the lieutenant is a pleasant lad from starkville, mississippi, but his discourse was a bit grim. would have been a reporter asked him if a dish in the north sea and the enemy planes swooped down to investigate? in that event, eternally replied, barely tell them you're writing for the raf in weight than mine. lieutenant hogan wasn't alone. other trainers gave them equally unsettling account though. but medical officer commit bigger approach commit pain and an unforgettable picture of what may happen to fingers if we took off our clothes at 30,000 feet.

another are sent to john and swallow after takeoff to really pressure on the air drums. if it offends anyone, i apologize in advance. since flatulence at a rare attitude could be painful and hazardous, he also prescribed avoiding gaseous states such as beans, chips and red cabbage and to treat here come the baker like the plague, where an angry for god sakes. what else are we supposed to eat and drink? aircraft recognition as a yorkshire native named renard beni home. the raf's was a teacher having flown some four dozen combat missions, a fourth of them over germany. but it's yorkshire accent is baffling at first baker broke. he kept talking about you and

positions until some of us began drawing outlines of a spherical dutch cheese with wings. later it developed to is your brain to aircraft approaching frame egon. cronkhite remembered paul's story is barely intelligible tribute to britain's hurricane fighter. this here come in raf man is the auker hurricane, a mighty nice aircraft. it helped our troops on the run in the desert. it protected the boys getting out of grief and was a big help in getting out of norway. the hurricane as a matter of fact was essential in all of our defeats. anyhow, take it back from bill holmes in one piece. at the three planes, the only one they had a very german

fighter or a red flag rooney speeseven team be achieved. cronkhite survived. vicars survives an old soldier. and make it back to molesworth by deciding me that the since elsberry and a top public relations officer at the airport and make it in very bad news. robert perkins posed good and an original fraternity member, reporter from "the new york times" had been shut down. they seem to parachutes come out of the p. 24, but sadly was not one of them. and that's ended very abruptly the writing 69th. very big big plans for them to go on constant bombing missions. but as soon as people realize just how perilous it was,

palazzolo council. now, bernie ended up going on for more missions over the third-grade. earning his air medal. cronkite went on an incredible mission must be 26 has come altitudes. in february night in 44, five months before d-day, cronkite went on an attack over the pot of calais. the v1 rocket launch sites. but he gets home and he cannot say in his article that he was the v1 rocket launch sites. dst is euphemisms and that sort of thing. and ships that got into some hot water with his boss is for that mission. and ships that produced a two -month-old memo saying see, you guys told me. i could go on this trip.

>> they weren't legally supposed to have weapons training, were they? >> no, they sure were. >> no, but it's fascinating. chips that conscience for he hammered away on a 50 caliber ammunition on the plastic nose of his b-17. homer baker was the waistband of his b-17. rooney who is a stars & stripes guy was regular army chose not to use the machine gun. cronkite said it was impossible to try to keep track of these german fighters. the bombers were going up at the north sea at 300 miles an hour. the foxholes are coming out of 500 miles an hour. a tiny speck on the horizon all of a sudden shooting past them. cronkite is an early shot one of these things before except for a couple to hammer away. all of the thread mice -- albeit

a pre-70s in the formation was due. poor baker was tormented the rest of his life, worried we shut down the plane. it would have been impossible in the formation. the thicker was tormented by all of that. >> they all had to write code that's? how many of them are obese across that same day with makeup that? >> right, the amazing story that ships that had been up for two days and then upgrading but became the famous assignment to how the moment that completely transformed his reputation. and then went on. it's interesting that night, february 27th, the day after his story cbs calls and a guy named john charles daly -- anybody else remember? you've got to be out for this. what did he host? anybody remember? day ago. they used to wear black ties on

what's my line and john charles daly was one of the guys and interview cheap stab at night to get his impressions. it was the first time your father ever appeared. >> searches looking at these two guys in knowing with image of the the future of journalism, what do they think about the beckert and cronkhite together a quick >> like i said, cronkite was a figure of my adolescence. over the voice of god were friendly and go, somewhere in between. a complete authority and

trustworthiness. subbed one, because i am a writer and didn't know about cronkhite writing as a kid or even later really, bigart later became one of the journalists because of his writing, clarity, sensibility and sense of humor and just everything about it seems absolutely perfect. i mean, i think one of the voice of god in the other is the voice i could have as a writer. >> you've got it, but that's a different issue. >> yeah, what strikes me off and with these guys is the fact that being together -- we shot earlier how green they were and

how an experience in the correct point that in a lot of ways they married in a sense of the servicemen and let terry guys over there. but on the other hand, they grew up in a hurry in large part because of the company they cat. and anyone who has been in this business knows to get better when you kind of emulates or somebody pushes you along that may be you even have the computer or the laptop next next year. they set the bar high and you feel you've got to set a high and i think these guys -- that's one of the great things about this book is it has taken some names that are somewhat commonplace and then some other names may be that we have a heard as much about, but you realize this synergy in the kinship between all of them and how they do in a sense elevated altered names in part because of the come to me they kept. >> and bigart was an incredible

because someone always asked despite debilitating the obvious question that no one else would ask. why? why are we doing this? explained that again. i'm sorry, explain it one more time, please. seems to me often that is the persistent missing in today's journalism. i think larry is giving me the high sign. can we skip ahead to the last couple of things here. thanks to chip we were able to pull that of cbs news a copy of d-day plus 20, the classic in 1864 cbs news documentary. i see some had not and that mr. cronkhite did with dwight eisenhower. if we could, to quick clips. you may want to stand up because it's a wonderful moment. very early on in the shooting, this happened.

>> undertaking. the >> you get to see from back here, this is the battle, a natural thing to do because he could blow over as if necessary. that's what we were trying to get through. they finally developed where everything went fine. this first day was really a tough one. what tommy here comes the little man. >> msa this has been the most interesting to take a look at. that would've been something, would not?

♪ >> already. thanks. that is why we'd like i ate. a wonderful loving sister. >> ray. i think we are kind of running out of time, so nathan if it's okay, can we skip ahead to the following thing? is important that we close on the snow. my book begins in the most sacred place in the world, the normandy cemetery of both omaha beach and this wonderful documentary concludes in the same secret place with two iconic figures. >> eighty-sixth battalion, name

deactivation, arizona, pennsylvania 29th division. the woodwork at the 29th. eighty-second air zoran kentucky. 9000 boys who fly here. i guess most of the casualties from dj here on omaha beach. >> about 50% of them are taken home. kind of the unidentified. the names of the missing of course. 1500 missing. >> the names are always on the wall. this cemetery includes all the

d-day casualties and most of those back into the normandy fighting i suppose. >> the quartermaster and they are gathering in the battle as far as dannon sandwell for the bright town. >> and of course this is just one of cemeteries that stretch from here around the world really. >> dj has a very special meaning for me. i am not referring merely to the anxieties of the day. the anxieties were not a part of sending an annexation were unido for many hundreds of boys are going to give their lives for

remain forever. but my mind goes back so often to this fact. i'm d-day, my own son graduated from westboro. and after his training, he came over with the 71st division. but that was some time after this event. but on the very day he was graduating, the men came here with other allies, for one purpose only, not to gain anything for ourselves, not to fulfill any ambitions that america had for conquest, but just to preserve freedom, systems of self-government in the world. many thousands of men have died

for ideals such as these. here again in the 20th century for the second time americans, along with the rest of them, americans had to come across the ocean to defend those same values. my son has been very fortunate. he has had a very full life since he is the father of four lovely children that are very precious to my wife and me. but these young boys, so many of them wondering and contemplating about their sacrifices. they were cut off in their prime. they have families that grieve for them, but they never knew the experiences of going through life like my son. i devoutly hope they'll never

again have to see, i think and hope, pray that the humanity bolder and more. if these people gave us a chance and they brought time for us so that they can do better than they have before. so every time i come back to these speeches or any day when i think about that day 20 years ago, i say once more, we must find some way to work for peace and retain eternal peace for this world. >> well, now you see why i was honored to write this book in my monitored quality would've been part of this discussion.

honor to answer any questions you might have. yes, sir. >> what do you think the, gis that if you ask him at a time of combat philosophically? why is he over there? what is his cause? anime, what motivates him and that makes him wish to give gnome? >> i think there's two things. stephen ambrose brought it is beautifully and all the great books he wrote. he was really about company camaraderie. it was about looking out for your friend. i think restatements about idealism and all the rest did not work when it came to that, international combat on the ground of this great desire to get home. yes, sir.

>> he told me once come he said i'm not a great and, a military man. each is set at one amick excuses the rest of my life. >> was incredible to me and i didn't get a chance to read this. the great admiration he had for fun links, which later translated into great admiration for astronaut. but at one point in 43 and early 44, your chances of getting back in combat missions were no better than one in six or seven. imagine that. imagine having to cover those kids. you see them at breakfast. they fly off at least 10%, maybe 20% would've come home. maybe by catastrophic than not. let me say that the only person who rolls her eyes in this room when politicians say, you know, a government as good as the people of the united states for

how inspired they are by the people of the united states. it didn't revolve same people that may be less than inspired moments. what homer bigart and walter cronkite saw people at their best. >> sherron hopped and hopped in the pacific.úxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfx i made, i knew bob, so i'm curious on the stories are quite extort very. there has to be a similar boat that reporters like bob who covered the pacific war the way you have on this story? >> there's a guy no thinking about doing that book. [laughter] would you buy it if i do it? >> it's a fascinating story in itself. >> it is. anything that too often gets overlooked, especially trick as scarce in hers and and all the rest were phenomenal but

porters. of course homer was saved for the first years. covering the pacific. and so i still love homer. i'd love to do it one more time. yes, sir. >> how this book came about, how did you get into doing it? just talk a little bit about the genesis? >> third row back their army buddies from georgetown university, fellow history buffs and when mr. cronkite passed away, i was struck as two things. one is instead of the usual jaded e-mails we exchanged at people of note levis, it was pure reference that was the tap that the respect to mr. cronkite and gendered. i think so many of us. when cronkite stagg, so if you mention and the world were to legacy. it was like an afterthought. tim said he was the baby boom

obsession. it was through the prism of all the issues we associated. in the 60s and 70s and the non-, the kennedy assassination in watergate and all the rest. those things are, don't get me wrong. but if mr. cronkite were with us, you a world were to war ii really defined them. >> all these guys. a few of them went to see it, too and they asked why. again, i don't remember who is asking why n. korea, but the general took over for wes borland was an associate of the friend of my dad's battle of the

bulge, creighton abrams for two we had dinner before he left on a fact-finding trip for finding trip in february 1968. right after that he goes to check it out for himself, stood with his old buddy, abrams, was apparently saying the same things. he says a few days later that he has solved all the time there is way out. there's other people saying that, but there's so other internet toys, that he was left with the responsibility to my dad to say out loud that this war didn't seem justified

anymore. this is not so much radicalize commonsensical. >> those four years after on the beach there. >> that's exactly correct. >> another great story that lbj watched turn the television off and turned to his agent said well, if i've lost cronkite, i've lost america. just very quickly, i should mention that homer bigart was in korea and what another poster in partnership with the great marguerite higgins spirituous every bit as tough an ornery as homer and homer was so misogynist, but marguerite would give homer greece just as good as she got it. forgive me --

[inaudible] when word came down this higgins was expecting, he said really? who is the mother. [laughter] when the babies came into being, homer inquired as you eat and it appeared the once worked up the courage to say to homer, which of those stories is true? holmer said yes. [laughter] any other questions? [inaudible] >> -- how these experiences -- i've always wondered how people lived their lives after going to these things. my uncle was john hersey and in both japan and europe. he never talked about it and i never ask questions and now i wish i had.

he was another of these gentlemen have got through this at the same age. >> used in europe as well as the pacific. but everybody has their own war presumably. i've never been a combatant either. i guess is, not to bring the blood and guts stories home, to instead bring the funnier stories home to the dinner table. so i don't know. >> yes, sir. >> if lbj said that days cronkite were with us, if i've lost cronkite have lost america in this understanding of the vietnam war was not a word that wasn't worth pursuing something

valuable. i'm just wondering specifically a chip could answer this, was the value of world war ii in your father's mind one of the things that led him to see that, maybe thinking this war, world war ii should've been the last war? and when we look at vietnam and korea, just those wars can measure a. >> well, no word measures up to world war ii. it was questionably right against wrong. it was also a lot shorter from my point of view, much more intense. it was over quicker. people got home quicker. this war today that we are in the 10th year as has a much

different impact on all of us because it only impacts a very small number of us so greatly. so out of balance. these folks who are told to go over there and stay. or if they get to come back, they are told to go right back. it's not the question, but it's another question. >> are they to ask a question of all of you and it goes back to my day as a couple minutes ago about mr. neil of what i had exaggerated to exaggerated a few of these guys had come back from the war and created something that had never been before. they may journalism an honorable

profession. they may did an absolutely essential part of american democracy, which in many ways had not been before and created in my view the greatest era of independence and integrity i'd like to throw it out and get people's reaction. yes, ma'am. >> my dad trained particularly pilots in world war ii, including korea, 94 missions over korea, first navigator. he told me that first i've admiration for walter cronkite because when he was working on systems he was out they are with the guys in the no gravity themes doing somersaults and everybody thought that was kind of something new. so i asked my dad, did he ever think about the people on the ground when he was dropping bombs over korea but he said he don't think about that.

you just think about missions. as soon as they've bombed the bridges, they would be rebuilt and a fast turnaround. but he also said the press are helpful in keeping their numbers straight because oftentimes the commanding officer has one but count for a couple of god sakes. do journalists would be the arbiter and the numbers and they cut the redundancies to a minimum. i would also like to see right of books about korea because that was a of a fight. >> just briefly, my dad in the other guys saw pointed out that although they win at the two or three missions, and they chose whether to go up or not. your dad went up and 96 more times than not. [inaudible]

>> he often didn't talk about -- they kept secrets that then because they had to. >> a question about whether the total her roa corps that was the second world war and his consequence, which was this equally heroic journalism that came out they are after is the same question about whether his or her roa told the worm is the revolutionary war and the heroic statesmanship and politics became afterwards is asserted the same question that her roa times has on a society in the nothing else like it and we haven't had something like it, so we don't have that sort of thing. >> i think that's a very perceptive point, john. anyone else care to comment on it? >> is incredible again for the odds against you. we had to have said trends in how we almost lost.

>> as they say -- yeah -- >> not a golden age of journalism, though. [laughter] >> well, come on. >> i think it did inaugurate some incredible combat journalism, which lasted through vietnam and then changed again because of the impression of government essentially. >> i wish we could have gotten into it because it's all fascinating issue here. >> george c. marshall, the story about him, generals will tally the listed reporters what to write for stars and stripes and he came down on the real hard. he said right but they are destined to write. and he supported hundred%. >> eisenhower, the last thing is

for stars and stripes. earlier in the war he told them to cut it out. he wanted real journalism and andy verney was part of that. >> he grew up with many, many world war ii movies. they were viewed by the gis in the army and navy. in your research and experience with your dad, how did you learn about the correspondent for the gis and airmen feeling about them in their role? >> well, i think lake erie seatmates.com and they appreciated the commercial, having the story told. they appreciated having their own stories told and the fact checking and i've heard from vietnam that that they appreciated the asking why

questions. [inaudible] >> i think one of the things he gis admired about the site correspondence is that they were in with them in the trenches. they were not everyday match the extreme, but they were there. the reason ernie pyle was not so popular at the beginning of the word is press guys felt comfortable, opened up in growth is wonderful profiles. boyle always called himself the perl man. he used to say, i write for the people who read -- and screwed in the senate. i write for the people who read ernie pyle over the shoulder of people reading ernie pyle. man did i screw that at. but just an amazing -- ap

insisted on calling him curled to the boil. it's tough to compete with that one. ernie pyle sounds like a guy you want to have a couple beers. harold c. boyle sounds like you're accounting professor from freshman year. [inaudible] >> -- and yet didn't have the same kind of notoriety among them might be. what was the difference? and david may comment on this, maybe, between the experience in iraq, the experience of these correspondents in the water, too. >> well, i think what the difference is, aside from the tech illogical defense come that they were sort of cultural difference builds up over those

50 years of the relationship between the press and the military. and as i said at the beginning, the fact that most of the soldiers in world war ii were just thrown in and so there's a much closer parallel between them. then the press in the military are unfortunately two separate cultures and so there isn't the same -- people can overcome it. good journalists can do it, but it shows a lot more obstacles to overcome. >> and they were embedded in just one unit. >> yeah, they could go for one narrow perspective and they knew how to do that and see a larger perspective and some got lost in it and became the cheerleaders. >> in italy, it rings went

sideways very quickly and it ended up just being a miserable, bloody slide that had the feel of world war i trench warfare. they were both there every day and both, especially bigart, very pointed reporting. he got crosswise, with the british guide mark clark who does not fare very well in my book to put it charitably. but bigart and the other guys, covering casino and a miserable stalemate that took place at those places permit the truth venture they had to go through sensors and all the rest, but she got to give them a lot of credit. >> would've actually gone over time. we'll take one more question. >> janet, make this brief, will you? >> nowadays we have lots of film and lots of trees and lots of things that too will to do, but we don't have letters the way we used to.

exactly did make a big difference in the future? >> absolutely. [laughter] every historian is worried about that. >> it's a little scary. just think if he was tweaked team, he'd be reduced to 140 characters. when he wrote a letter on the airplane as he is scheduled to paris to parachute for the first allied airborne, he went on for two and a half pages because he didn't think he'd ever see her again.ó just extraordinary staff. well, guys, thank you so much. [applause]

>> you are the best-selling nonfiction books according to "the new york times." the list reflects sales according to june 19.

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