>> will be bringing out a book of the defensive wartime letters of walter cronkite. it will be out in about a year. could not be more pleased.

in fact, i defy anyone to read the letter that walter cronkite wrote to his wife on christmas eve 1943, and not tear up. chips sister and i were looking at it in austin. we both started blubbering. that's okay, because chips old man was a blubber, too. early on, chip and i were exchanging e-mail notes over some of the classic cbs news videos that his dad had been part of. these historical recreation films. this one happened to be a dramatic recreation of events december 7, 1941. nathan, could you run a little --

>> located in the cbs newsroom here in new york. the regularly scheduled news program is now on the air. >> a so this is folks in -- >> that's the guy who used to be on i dream of jeannie. [laughter] so i immediately e-mailed chip to that effect. as soon as i hit send, god, he's a cronkite. he's going to think i'm a dweeb and i just shot my credibility with this guy. the program wasn't even on cbs. so i was sitting there really upset with myself and two seconds later my computer beeped. it was chip, and it read, the actor's name was hayden rourke. i was thrilled to deliver a script to him once in hollywood.

we love the i dream of jeannie and the cronkite household, exclamation point, exclamation point. having bonded over barbara eden, we were friends for life. there are just dozens, hundreds of things we could explore her but i kind of boiled it down to three, and especially how those three things effected to great correspondents come to great friends who, in fact, stayed inseparable friends for the rest of their lives, walter cronkite and homer bigart. both credential. they did brilliantly month after month in early 1943. 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 a global conflict. not to put too fine a point on it, but we are talking about

boil and cronkite and bigart. they were gumshoe journalists. cronkite basically was a fuss and was guy when he worked in kansas city. boiled specialized in covering street crime. that was very little about their backgrounds to suggest they were ready for this kind of challenge. let me read to you, this is from chapter three. bigart, too, had lived april coexist with the harrison salisbury the future new times editor portrait of the early war bigart as a tournament with no foreign language, no foreign experience, no more knowledge of foreign affairs and he could glean from the headlines accurately described the other three. just as world war ii brought out the best in general eisenhower and bradley, it stirred

something within cronkite, rooney, boyle and bigart that they may not have known ahead. the second fame i'd like to kick around is the physical and mental courage it took for these guys to cover dead and wounded soldiers day after day. there are no shortage of an incredibly harrowing and heart wrenching moments. and the third is the legacy they left to all of us into postwar chosen to i believe he saw robert mcneil's review of my book, but i'm so honored that he would have reviewed it. but he challenged my premise at the end of the book at these guys came back home after the war and created the greatest era of press independence and integrity in american history. we've got a very distinguished panel at a lot of great people in the audience to take that

around. so with that, a second ago we were laughing about the historical we creation stuff at cbs news was part of in the '50s, and chips dad was such an instrumental part of. instead of me describing him to those of you in the younger generation who were not around, nathan, could we run a clip here? >> the war against germany as well as japan followed the tactics of the damaged battleships, repair and performed as the war rolled on. from pearl harbor and a death march at the time, victories to guadalcanal, iwo jima, okinawa, the philippines, midway, and telephone ends on the deck of the battleship missouri, tokyo harbor with the surrender of the

japanese. equally hard, the road and equally heroic our men who fought on the sense of africa, on the beaches in normandy, along the rhyme were descendents of men under washington fought groups, thought their nazi counterparts for freedom and equality. what sort of day was a? at a like all days. you were there. >> quick show of hands. [inaudible] that's what i figured. is our first kind of question. what is it that we miss about that guide and the world war ii? i'm sorry, what is it that we miss about mr. cronkite and this generation of journalists? why does it stirred the sole, stuff like that? i'm just going to open it up to you guys. >> well, i should recuse myself.

>> you were there. [laughter] >> i should recuse myself because i was there. if the question is meant to be a storable and not personal, and i could only -- i'm an optimist. i think there so many journalists today that there are plenty like him. that's my counter argument, that, oh, i wish that were true. >> my first reaction is not to question, but 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 12 to 14 years after world war ii, but world war ii seemed ancient.??

i mean, just completely out of the realm of our, the baby boomers flow. and yet go back 12 or 14 years from now, and where are you? you in the middle of the clinton administration which seems like yesterday. literally. and such is the difference of that, that there are. everything changing after world war ii. so dramatically that it seemed like it was from a different -- i think that is part of the romance of how the world change so dramatic the. >> the korean war do you think washing the memories of the heroic -- >> the korean war was the forgotten war, right? >> wasn't forgotten immediately? >> no, i'm sure it wasn't at the moment. and the other thing, you mentioned, chip, there might be journalists like that now but there's such an overwhelming

amount of information, of misinformation and different forms of, platforms of information. it was so simple that it gave it much more power. >> i think these guys, certainly they were under deadline, amazing deadlines and such, but i think there was more positives. we are in his 24/7, you write the blog and write for the internet to you write for whatever running your store and whatever it may be. what i love about that voice, even today, is it certainly has the authority but also as, maybe it's because it has a pause or has that look back. but as i think empathy, compassion, too. and i think that's something that i think is very difficult to find these days simply because the gerbils are running. we're running faster on these treadmills. it's a little bit more difficult.

>> going back to your first theme, which were these guys prepared, i think the beauty of it is the sort of completely were emblematic of the gis. these were drafted guys. these were not professional soldiers and they were up for the task. and so the fact the president to go through the same thing that goes that spirit when i see cronkite, icy glow. i see someone held us together. in so many anchors or television personalities, call them what you will, that are abrasive. it's all polarizing a. it seems to me that he represented the absolute best in trying to pull things together. i think that's why we have such nostalgia spent i even wonder if we're allowed to pull things together these days. i thin think the ones attended,i don't know, get the bigger shows, get the bigger ratings, whatever it may become are the ones that are most polarizing

and, therefore, simply catering to whatever audience it may be. >> the other thing that strikes me, if it's true that somewhere around 40% of graduating america high school seniors believe we fought russia in world war ii, then maybe it's time to recycle the old you were their stuff, you know? >> about the teacher? >> there's got to be something we can do to reach kids spent i don't know, i don't think human nature changes. i think the culture changes around it. so there are not many people who have problems with fdr. you at colonel mccormick, right? so what would that sort of, what with those people be like if they have the power of the technology today in that? >> continuing the same theme, nathan, if you show that still

picture, which is indecipherable. i explained in just a second. -- i will explain in just a second. there it is. that's one of my absolute all time favorite photographs. chip got that out of his old man's personal papers. how big was an? >> about one by do. >> which is why it is so blurry to figure what it is. that is the great walter cronkite and the great homer bigart standing in front of the 303rd bond group. if he did know better, wouldn't you swear it was peter graves and william holden from stolid 17? [laughter] and that's the good guys. that's how the good guys looked. anyhow, i know from my research

with chip's that corresponds to his mom that the photograph was taken on february 19, 1943, exactly one week before the assignment to hell rate. these two guys have been trained by the mighty aid, the u.s. army air force on combat raids. they were right in the middle of the train when that photograph was taken but it was supposed to be covering that these mission. but because of bad weather that these mission had been scrubbed. so that barred a couple of bikes, peddled around the countryside and visited the tavern not once but twice. so i don't how many pictures -- pictures of the would have for the photograph was taken. you can see mr. cronkite is holding up a sign. unbeknownst to homer, the whole idea was to surprise homer with this. the sign read, keep off the grass. there was no grass to keep off

of. this was an error drone-based and it was just absolute muck. but it's absolutely amazing to think that on february 19, 1943, they were both anonymous. had done very little to distinction themselves in their wartime correspondence to all of that changed one weekends when they went on an amazing bombing run over -- we have been bombing the third reich since july of 42, but we had only bombed germany proper three times at the point. think about that for a second here it is 40 months after pearl harbor, and the only real action to speak of in the european theater are these amazingly brave bomber boys a wrist life and limb to take the fight directly to adolf hitler. and yet, it's taken all this time to get the manpower, the

material, everything required for a meaningful bombing campaign against him. so that day, february 26, 1943, the writing 69th as they call themselves but they also call themselves the flying typewriters. after a few beers, the legion of the doomed. but the legion of the doomed took off in a series of b-17s, the 24th. about 70 planes or so on that day's attack formation. the original objective was a fighter actor in brennan but they got over germany that day and it was all cloud cover. so they ended up attacking wilhelm's, hitler's u-boat. was the second time that u.s. bombers have attacked there. a u.s. attack during the day. the british believed in

nighttime bombing. what they called area bombing. we believed in daylight bombing it we called it strategic bombing, precision bombing. this is very early in the war now. there were no fighter escorts. after 100 miles, the british spitfires we turned around, returned to the bases, and these guys would fly completely exposed over the north sea. absolutely remarkable stuff. so the whole idea behind the writing 60 night is that they were going to go in constant missions. let me give you just a little flavor of what their training was like. >> and it also will give you some sense of just how brilliant provider homer bigart was. >> we didn't realize until the top was in the eighth clearly that would have to attempt guy go for a week. were going to go on a bomber

battle we're told we better know how to shoot a gun in case we got in trouble. at bullington, instructional days, the entourage was instructed on oxygen maintenance and first aid, aircraft identification and teaching at which meant advancing the plane by parachute, bigart explained on february 8. it was during lieutenant alex hogan's teaching out lecture that someone so i copied the next train back to london. the lieutenant is a pleasant lad from starkville, mississippi, but his discourse was a bit grim. what would happen, a reporter asked him if we ditched into the north sea and an enemy plane swooped down to investigate? in that event, hogan replied, merely tell them you are right for the raf and waved them off. lieutenant hogan wasn't alone. other trainers gave the writing 69th in equally unsettling

council. one medical officer painted an unforgettable picture of what might happen to our fingers if we took off our clothes at 30,000 the. another urge them to constantly jans and swallow opportunity god to relieve pressure on the it drums. sends flatulence at a verified altitude could be painful and hazardous, he also prescribed avoiding gaseous foods such as beans, chip's and red cabbage into treebeard like the plague, we are in england for god's sake, the reporters protest to what also posted to each? [laughter] the recognition was a yorkshire native named bernard any home. the raf sergeant was an expert teacher having flown some four

dozen combat missions. a fourth of them over germany. but his yorkshire accident was baffling at first, bigart wrote. he kept talking about positions until some of us began drawing outlines of the spherical dutch cheese with wings. later, develop user from to aircraft approaching from the east on. cronkite remembered homes storing, if barely intelligible tribute to britain's hurricane fighter. this year while displaying a so and a domed ceiling is the -- a mighty nice aircraft but it helped our troops when romme had them on the run. a protected the boys getting out of greece. it was a big help in getting out of the way. the water hurricane as a matter of fact, was essential in all our defeats. anyhow, they get back from

wilhelm solvent in one piece of the three planes the only one that hit by the german fighter or more with black is rooney's b-17. cronkite survived as for sugar. bickered survives an old soldier, that old soldier. and take it back by the sun and the meet up with harrison salisbury at the top public relations officers at the air force base, and they get some very bad news. robert perkins posed to had been an original fraternity member of the writing 69th, reporter for the neocons, his the 24 had been shot down. they had seen two parachutes, out of the 24. sadly, he was not one of them. and thus ended very abruptly the writing 69th. there have been big plans for

them to go on constant bombing missions, but as soon as people realized just as perilous it was was, that was all canceled. we need ended up going on for more missions over the third reich earning his era metal. cronkite went on an incredible mission of p. 26 is lower altitudes in february of 1944, five months before d-day. cronkite went on an attack over, and you know he's attacking? xc1 rocket launch sites. but he gets home and, of course, gets back and he cannot say in his article that it was a rocket launch site. he had to use euphemisms, super weapons and that sort of thing. chip's that got into some hot water with his bosses in uk for that nation. chip's that produced a two -month-old mission thinks he,

you never told me i could go on this trip. >> they weren't legally supposed to weapons training, where they? >> no, they sure weren't. >> and they don't do that today, i bet. >> no, but it's fascinating. chip's dad, consciously, hammered away on a .50 caliber on the mission. homer bigart was the ways can this be 17 having the way. rooney was the stars and stripes could was regular army chosen not to use the machine gun. cronkite said it was impossible to try to keep track of these german fighters. the bombers were going over the north sea at 300 miles an hour. the measure smith's were coming at them at 500 miles an hour. they would be a tiny speck on the horizon to all the reisner all of a sudden shooting shooting past the. here's cronkite would never shot

one of these things before, except for a couple -- trying to hammer away. i want you to think about this. all the other b-17 during the formation. poor bigart was tormented the rest of his life worried that you'd shot them robert stilling. they weren't close in the formation but bigart was tormented by all that. >> did they write obits? >> yeah, well, right. the amazing story that chip's dad, he had been up for about two days and then of writing what became the famous assignment to hell lead, the one that completely transformed his reputation. was then, and then went on, interesting, that night february 27, the day after the raid as he is composing his story, cbs calls, and a guy named john charles daly, does

anybody else remember? man, you've got to be old for this. what did he host, does anybody remember? [inaudible] there you go. there you go. they used to wear black ties on what's my line in the '50s. john charles daly was one of those guys, and in london and interviewed chip's dad that night to get his impressions of the rate. it was the first time your father ever appeared on tv? amazing. so, just looking at these two guys, look at this great picture, knowing what they meant to the future of journalism, what is your assessment? when you think about bigart and cronkite together, that point of their lives? >> as i said earlier, bigart -- my childhood and adolescence or consort, cronkite. almost the voice of god.

or a friend oh, somewhere in between. and complete authority. and trustworthiness. >> bigart, because i'm a writer and i really didn't know about cronkite's writing as a kid or even later really, bigart later became one of the my heroes. and the heroes of most journalists who knew of his writing because of his clarity, humor, and just everything about it seems absolutely perfect. i mean, i think of one as the voice of god and the of as the voice i wish i could have as a writer. >> you've got a, but that's a different issue. >> chip?

>> i think what strikes me often with these guys, too, is the fact that being together in a sense -- were talking earlier the reason they were how inexperienced, a great point in a lot of ways they neared in a sense the military guys over there. but on the other hand, they grew up in a hurry and a group and heard in large part because of the company they kept. and i think anybody knows you get better when you kind of emulate or some kind of pushes you along that maybe you're even have the computer or the laptop right next to. they are setting the bar kind of high and your feelings you've got to set it hi. these guys, it's one of the great things, about this book, it's taken some names that are somewhat commonplace and is some other names may be we haven't heard as much about, but you realize the synergy and kinship between all of them and how they

innocents elevated all the names in part because of the country, made it happen. >> bigart was an incredible influence on his generation, beginning with andy rooney. because they could always asked despite his debilitating study, always asked the obvious question that nobody else would ask, why? why are we doing this? okay, explain that again. i'm sorry, explained one more time, please. and it seems to me that often that is the persistence missing in today's journalism to i think larry is giving me the high side. can we skip ahead to the last couple of things? thanks to chip were able to pull out of cbs news a copy of d-day plus 20 which is the classic 1964 cbs news documentary that mr. cronkite did with the great dwight david eisner. if we could, can we show to

quick clips. guys, you may want to stand up to see this. very early on in the shooting, this happened. >> you can see from back here, walter, this was where the battle took place. it was a natural thing to do because you knew you could blowout roots of necessary. that there were these parameters and that's what we're trying to get through. and, of course, as the battlefront develop everything went fine, but this first day was really a tough -- here comes a little-known. that's something, isn't it? how do you do? how are you, sister? i must say that this is been the most interesting thing to take a look at. if the gis could of seen that that would have been something.

♪ ♪ >> run it through. >> that's why we liked that. wonderful month but how were you doing, sister? i think were running out of time so if it's okay can we skip ahead to the final thing. actually important that we close on this now. my book begins in the most sacred place in the world, normandy cemetery above omaha beach. and this wonderful documentary concludes in that same sacred place with two great iconic figures.

>> eighty-sixth battalion, 90th division, arizona. 29th division. woodward of the 29th. new jersey. 82nd airborne, kentucky. i think there's some 9000 boys who live here. i guess most of the cash into some d-day are here overlooking omaha beach. >> about 60% were taken home. >> end of the unidentified, there are some here, the names are missing of course. >> the unidentified are here. 15 missing -- 1500 missing.

>> the names on the wall. spent this is cemetery includes all the d-day casualties, most of those back into the normandy fighting i suppose? >> the quartermaster, they would gather nearby the american monuments. as far as -- [inaudible] >> and, of course, this is just one of cemeteries that stretch, well, from here of around the world really. >> walder, this d-day has a very special meaning to me. i'm not referring merely to the anxieties of the day. the anxieties that were natural

part of sending in an inpatient where you knew that many hundreds of boys were going to give their lives, remain forever. but my mind moved back so often to this back. on d-day, my own son graduated from west point, and after his training, he came over with the 71st division, but that was sometime after this event. but on the very day he was graduating, these men came here, british and our other allies, and americans, to storm the beaches for one purpose only. not taking anything for ourselves. not to fulfill any ambitions that america have for conquest, but just to preserve freedom, systems of self-governance in

the world. many thousands of men have died for ideals such as these. here again, in the 20th century was the second time, americans, along with the rest of them, but americans had to come across the ocean to defend those same values. now, my own son has been very fortunate. he has had a very full life since the he is the father of four lovely children at a very priceless to my wife and me. but these young boys, so many of them, wondering, contemplating about their sacrifices. they were cut off in their prime. they have families that agree for them, but they never knew the great experiences of going

through life like my son. i can enjoy. i devoutly hope that we will never again have to see such things as these. i think and hope, pray, that humanity will learn. but these people gave us a chance, and they bought time for us so we could get better. so every time i come back to these beaches, any day when i think about that day, 20 years ago, i say once more, we must find some way to work to peace and to gain in eternal peace from this war. >> thanks, david.

spent now you see why i was honored to write this book and why i wanted all the to be a part of this discussion. we are happy to into any questions you might have. yes, sir. >> what do you think the common gis said at a time of combat, philosophically, why is he over there and what is his cause? i mean, what motivates him and what makes him wish to get home alive? >> i think there are two things. i think stephen breyer out beautifully and citizen soldiers of all the great books hero. it was really about company, robert. it is about looking out for your friend. i think great statements about idealism and all the rest did

not mark when it came to that to actual content on the ground and there was this great desire to get home. >> yes, sir. at that. >> he told me once that he said i'm not a brave men. i'm not a military man. i just didn't want to make excuses the rest of my life. >> what's incredible to me, and i didn't get a chance to read this, one of my favorite quotes of mr. cronkite is the great admiration he had for fly boys which i think later translated into great admiration for astronaut's. but at one point in 43, early 44, your chances at getting back from of combat missions were no better than one in six or seven to imagine that. imagine having to cover those kids. you see them at breakfast, they would fly off and at least 10%, maybe 20% wouldn't come home to some rates even more catastrophic than that. let me say that i'm not the only

person who rolled their eyes in this room when politicians say, you know, they won a government as good as the people of the united states, or how inspired they are by the people in the trendy because i think we've all seen people that may be less than inspiring moments. walter cronkite and homer bigart and all the rest. they saw americans at their absolute best. [inaudible] pacific. curious, the stories are quite extraordinary. has there been a similar book on reporters like bob who covered the pacific war the way you have on this story. but i know there's a guy i know is thinking about doing that book. [laughter] would you buy it if i did it? >> is a fascinating story in itself. >> the pacific war too often

gets overlooked, especially in the journalism, you know, all the rest were phenomenal reporters. and, of course, homer was there for the last year. homer won his pulitzer covering the pacific. so i still love homer. i would love to do one more time. yes, sir. >> tell us all a bit about how this book came about. i mean, how did you get into doing it and just tells a little bit about -- [inaudible] >> in the third row back there are my buddies back there, fellow great world war ii -- what mr. cronkite past week, i was struck by two things. one is, instead of the usual jaded e-mails that we exchange when people of note leave us, it was pure reverence. that was the depth of the respect that mr. cronkite engendered i think. so many of us. and i was struck when chip's add

that, so few of the obituaries mentioned his world war ii legacy. it was like an afterthought. as 10 to set a second ago, the sort of baby boomer obsession. everything was through the prism of all the issues that we associate mr. cronkite with in the '60s and '70s in vietnam and the kennedy assassination and watergate and all the rest. those things are important, don't get me wrong. but i think if mr. cronkite, he was a world war ii really defied him. chip, defer to you. >> well, all these guys, a few of them went through vietnam, too. and they asked why. again, i don't member who was asking why in korea, but the general who took over for westmoreland was an associate, a

friend of my dad's from the battle of the bulge, abrams, with whom he had dinner before he left on his fact-finding trip or mood finding trip in februa february 1968. after the tet offensive. he goes to check it out for himself. he has dinner with his old buddy, abrams, who apparently is saying the same thing that my dad ends up saying a few days later, this is all fouled up and there's no good way out, and are other people saying it. but because there was a little other internet noise, he was left with responsibility to, my

dad, to say out loud that this war didn't seem justified anymore. which was sent radical so much as commonsensical. >> and at an enormous moment. could not be replicated today. >> that's exactly correct. i think many of you know the great star that lbj watched mr. cronkite deliver the commentary that night, turned the television off, turn to satan said well, if i've lost cronkite i've lost america. just very quickly, chip mentioned homer bigart was in korea, and he won another pulitzer in korea in partnership with a great higgins. marguerite was every, every bit as tough in order as homer and homer was no misogynist, but

marguerite was give homer greece and homer would return it. just as good as he got it. and when word came down, forgive me if this offends anyone -- you know what's coming. when word came down that ms. higgins was expecting, homer said really? who's the mother? [laughter] then when the baby came into being, homer and acquired its marguerite had eaten it. [laughter] and betsy, his great protegé, once worked at the courage to say to homer, which of those stories is true? and homer said yes. [laughter] any other questions? yes, ma'am. >> i was wondering how this affected, how these experiences -- i've always wondered how people live their lives after going through this. my uncle was another -- both

japan and europe. he never talked about. i never asked questions and i wish i had. but he was another of these gentlemen who got through this. he was about the same age. >> brilliant. and he in europe as well. >> everybody has their own war, presumably. i've never been a combatant either. i guess, and not to bring the blood and guts stories home, instead bring the funnier stories home to the dinner table. so i don't know. >> i'm just wondering -- [inaudible] >> louder. >> if lbj said if cronkite were not with us, if i've lost cronkite, i've lost america, and

this understanding that the vietnam war was not worth it, worth pursuing, something valuable, i'm just wondering especially if chip can answer this, was the valley 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 have been the lesser war? and when you look at vietnam and korea, those wars cannot measure up. >> well, no war measures up to world war ii. it was unquestionably right against wrong. it was also a lot shorter from our point of view, much more intense, it was over quicker people got home quicker.

this war that we're in the 10th year of, is, has a much different impact on all of us because it only impacts a very small number of us. and those so greatly. so out of balance. these folks 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. >> i had like a patsy question of all of you, and he goes back to what i mentioned a couple minutes ago about mr. mcneil suggesting i had exaggerated that these guys to come back from the war and created

something that it never really been before. they may journalism an honorable profession. they made it an absolutely essential part of american democracy, which in many ways it had not been before. and they created in my view of the greatest era of press, independence and integrity in history. and i like to throw it out and get people's reaction. yes, ma'am. >> my dad trained the 26th pilots during world war ii. and flew in korea. 94 missions over korea, first navigator. and he told me that first of all, yet great admiration admiration for walter cronkite because when my dad was working on shuttle systems he was out there with the guys in the no gravity things. .dat was a fun thing to do.

but i asked my dad did he ever think about the people on the ground when he was dropping bombs over korea. and he said you don't think about that. you just think about missions. as soon as they bombed the bridges they would be rebuilt in a very fast turnaround time. but he also said the press were helpful in keeping their numbers straight because oftentimes a commanding officer would, one would count for, what would count x. they would be on the same piece of turf but it was a reporter, journalist who was the arbiter of what the actual numbers but be. they kept their redundancies and the exaggerations to a minimum. but i would also like to see people write more books about korea. that certainly was a hell of a fight. >> just briefly, my dad and at the guys all pointed out that although they went up two or three missions, they chose whether to go up or not. your dad went up 96 more times

than that. [inaudible] my father didn't talk about fashion they couldn't. they kept secrets back then because they had to. >> the question about whether the whole heroic war, the second world war and its consequence, which was is equally heroic journalism that came out their outfit is the same question about whether the heroic and total war that was the revolutionary war and the heroic statesmanship and politics that came afterwards is a sort of the same question, that heroic times has this effect on us as individuals and as a society and there's nothing else like it. we have had something like that and so we don't have that sort of thing these days. >> no, i think that's a very prospective point, john. does anyone else care to comment on it?

>> it was incredible again for the odds against you and us what we had to have, and how we almost lost. >> as i say -- yes? >> not a golden age of journalism though. >> come on. [laughter] >> i thing it did inaugurate some incredible combat journalism, which lasted through vietnam, and then changed again because of the repression of government actually on journalists. >> i wish we could've gotten into censorship because it's a fascinating issue. >> george c. marshall, of course the marshall plan, there's a story about him, generals were telling enlisted reporters what to write for stars and stripes. he came down on them real hard and he said let them write.

he supported them 100% spent the last thing he wanted -- the last thing he wanted was secrets from stars and stripes. he told them to cut it out. he wanted real journalism and in the running was important to that. yes. >> grew up with many, many world war ii movies. we saw correspondence asked how they reviewed by the gis and airmen. in your research, and chip with your experience with the deck and what did you learn about how the correspondence felt the gis felt about them in their role? >> well, i think like your seatmates bad, they appreciated, and like marshall and ike, they appreciated the story told. they appreciated having their own stories told and they appreciated the fact checking,

and they -- i've heard from vietnam vets, they appreciated asking why, the big questions. [inaudible] >> and i think one of the things the gis admired about these five correspondence and about the likes of -- that they were with them in a trench. they were taking the same risks they were. not everyday and not to the extreme, but they were there. the reason earning power became so wildly popular at the beginning of the war is the press guys felt comfortable around him, opened up to him and he began writing his wonderful profiles. so did hal boyle. will have time to get into boyle the boy once called himself -- used to say i write for the people who read, i'm screwing this up. i write for the people who read

ernie pyle over the shoulder of people reading ernie pyle. man, did i screw that up. but just an amazing -- hal boyle was an amazing guy. handicapped because the ap insisted on calling him herald the boyle. it's tough to compete with that one. ernie pyle sounds like a guy, herald the boyle sounds like you're an accounting professor. finally, he became hal boyle. >> didn't have the same kind of notoriety i think. what was the difference, and david may be able to comment on this maybe, between the experience in iraq, experience of these correspondence and world war ii? >> david? >> well, i think the difference

is, aside from the technological difference, they're sort of a cultural difference built up over those 50 years of the relationship between the press and the military. and so i just don't think, as i said at the beginning, the fact that most of the soldiers in world war ii were just thrown in, enlistees and draftees, so the rider, there's a much closer parallel between them. and the press and the military now are unfortunately two separate cultures, so that isn't the same -- i mean, people can overcome it. journalists can do it, and they can write the truth but there's lower obstacles to overcome. >> they were embedded in just one unit. they weren't allowed -- >> yeah, they get sick from one narrow perspective. some got lost in it.

and became the cheerleaders that eisenhower didn't want. >> in italy things went sideways very quickly and ended up just being a measurable bloody slog that really had the feel of world war i trench warfare. boyle and bigart were both there literally every day. and both, especially bigart, very pointed reporting. he got crosswise with alexander, the british it, and with mark clark who does not fare very well in my book, to put it charitably. but they could any of the guys covering the ngo, the measurable stalemate that took place in both places, they printed the truth. and sure they had to go to singes and all the rest that you got to give them a lot of credit. >> we have got overtime but we'll take one more question. >> make this brief. >> nowadays we have lots of film

and lots of tweets and lots of things that i'm too old to do, but we don't have letters the way we used to. is that going to make a big difference in the future? >> absolutely. [laughter] >> and every historian is worried about that. >> is a little scared but if you could only read walter's stuff, to think he would be tweeting and reduced to 140 characters. when he wrote a letter on the airplane when he is scheduled to fly in, to parachute into paris with the first outlined airborne? he didn't think he would ever see her again. just extraordinary stuff. l., guys, thank you so much. >> thank you. [applause]

>> crown publishing is a division of random house publishing, and joining us now is the director of publicity, campbell wharton. what new books do you have coming out of? >> with some very exciting books this fall. we've got rod stewart's memoir which is highly anticipated celebrity book this fall. we have the first book from the george w. bush institute in which is the policy think tank of the presidential library, and we have greg gutfeld's memoir, the cities all that is uncontroversial rants. greg is a rising star at the fox news channel so definitely look out for that would. and when a really big one from jonathan kozol, one of the nations most or most authority on education. look out for that coming out of in the balkans, "fire in the ashes." don't miss that one. >> you are publishing both the bush institute and jonathan kozol? >> that's correct. we do both sides of the out, conservative, barack obama,

george w. bush. we do a bit of everything. we publish something for everyone. >> what is the policy book coming out from the bush institute and who wrote it? >> it's called "the 4% solution" and it's essentially a series of essays from well-known economist, nobel prize winners about how we can achieve 4% growth. it's a blueprint for our economy. president bush has written a forward to the book. he's very, very excited and eager for this book to get out. so look for this one. it's the first book from the bush institute and the we a lot of noise this summer. >> it is coming out before the election? >> yes. so "the 4% solution" can be thrust into the dialogue this fall? >> one other thing that credits and, it was just in politico that crown is doing more politically oriented instant e-books. >> we've got to feed the instant appetite of political junkies. and instant e-books is a way for us to feed the appetite

instantly. we've got a really great slate of political writers that could write a few chapters very frequent about current events and we can get that out instantly 4909 cents or $2.99. we just had one that came out about how romney security at nomination and have the obama campaign are using tests against romney. that was $2.99. sees that insatiable appetite of political junkies. >> campbell wharton, crown publishing, thank you for the update. >> thank you. >> what are you reading this summer, booktv wants to know. >> i'm reading a book called values to action by a professor. wonderful book. recommend highly. i just finished reading a book called currency wars. i can't remember its author, but it's about international economics and what's happening.

and then finally i just finished a book called an accountable, which be released in september, written by marti mccarry it is one of the leading surgeons at johns hopkins hospital. >> for more information on this and other summer reading lists visible tv.org. >> you've been watching booktv, 48 hours about programming beginning saturday morning at eight eastern through monday morning at eight eastern. nonfiction books on weekend every weekend right here on c-span2. >> here's a look at some of what's ahead this morning.