show two decades after it aired. exploring the american story. watch american history tv saturdays on c-span2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at c-span.org/history. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government or we are funded by these television companies and more including mediacom. >> the world changed in an instant but mediacom is ready. internet traffic soared and we never slowed down. schools and businesses with virtual, and without a new reality because it mediacom we are built to keep you ahead. >> mediacom support c-span is a public service along with his other television providers giving you a front-row seat to democracy. >> welcome to the national press

club, the world's leading professional organization for journalists. i mike freedman, immediate past president of the national press club, former general manager of cbs radio network now journalist in residence at university of maryland global campus and executive producer of "the kalb report" public broadcasting series moderated by today's virtual headliners guest journalist marvin kalb. we are pleased to accept questions from those tuning in today. i will ask as many as time permits you to submit a question please e-mail headliners at present.org. for 27 27 years now i've hade privilege and pleasure of working with and introducing this gentleman for 101 calti report program to at the national press club. the introduction is always the same. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the last corresponded grossly hired at cbs news by edward r. murrow and the gold standard broadcast journalism my friend and colleague marvin kal

kalb. >> thank thank you, mike. that's the kindest intro. please do it again and again. >> for his 17th book just published by brookings press marvin present the second installment of his autobiography. it is entitled "assignment russia: becoming a foreign corespondent in the crucible of the cold war." marvin has described theet books a long letter home after an unforgettable personalun adventure. it covers the time of his life from his arrival at cbs in 1957 through his years as moscow correspondent from 1960-1963. it is a personal and professional coming-of-age story, one that has deep roots in family history and a love of the country that welcomed oppressed people from around the world with open arms and opportunity. marvin, once again welcome back to the national press club. >> thank youre mike.

it is a pleasure for me to be here. i think the press club and you especially, , mike, for not only being a gracious introducer but also the guy who opened so many doors. >> marvin, he called c your professor and you called him sir and he describes you to colleagues as our kind of guy. speaking of course of edward r murrow, mentor to you an icon to the rest of us. talk about the o beginning of yr career c at cbs which is where e book begins. >> right. the booke begins with what may strike people as an odd chapter, but if you've ever been a journalist and you ever arrived at that first moment when you know that you become professionally a journalist, what ist it like, and i can tell you that for me in june, late june of 1957, it was certainly

not what i had expected. i had expected of cbs news a huge newsroom, lots of people screaming, reporters trying to get the copy in as quickly as possible. editors screaming for copy, producers getting upset, ap wires, , upi wires, everybody screaming news, news, news. i walked in at midnight on a midnight to 8 a.m. shift of cbs 52nd street and madison avenue, and mike, there wasn't a soul there. nobody. i walked in to an empty newsroom. and there's nothing more empty in life for a journalist than an empty newsroom. i was going off -- harbored in russian history. i knew i thought how to write a

phd dissertation, but no one when they hired me no one had ever said marvin, you're going to have to write a three minute and 552nd radio broadcast. no one told me how to do it. i had not a clue. i walked in. there was nobody there and i was sort of terrified. and they kept walking around from one tickertape to another looking at news, but the ticker tapes were miraculously silent that night. no one was helping me, and i begin to go into a panic at about 3:00 in the morning. when suddenly bells went off at the reuters ticker, which is what happened in those days. bells indicated a bulletin.

picked myself up, ran over to reuters, ripped the copy off and it read, 27 people died when the boat they were in capsized in the ganges river in india. my first reaction, i'm ashamed to say it was, thank god. thank god foror me because i haa news story, had something to write about. and i i finally did write something and i gave it to the editor who came it at 4:30 in the morning, a bouncy guy with a yankee baseball hat, carried his lunch within any small bag. he says, you must be cowed. i suggest. who are you? he said on your editor. do you have your copy? i said yes, sir. i gave g it to him. he sat down and you look at it, and my heart dropped because i was hoping there would be a a smile on his face, something to

indicate satisfaction. but at about five minutes to five, he threw my copy aside, put in fresh paper into his typewriter and bad out at a ferocious speed, added out the whole broadcast, did it himself. in a minute to find a man came in, picked it up, went into studio nine, read it. and to my ear it sounded like my earlier vision of cbs. it was so well done but, of course, i didn't do it. he did it. when the broadcast was over hend came over to me and he said, put his arm around and said marvin, you're a really good writer but you don't know how to write a radio newscast. and he explained what it was like, and he o became one of my great teachers.

>> there often is a moment in time, marvin, when you can merge what you bring to the mix with what you learn on the job. and was it evolutionary for you? was there a particular moment whenen you felt, i got this. i really can do this? >> mike, this may come asma a surprise, but to this day i never feel that i've got it. i always feel i'm doing the best i can to convey information to the public. as i will see as i can and straightforwardly as i can. but i can tell you right now that satisfaction with my own work is never something that i have felt. i always have a sense that it could be a lot better and that i

ought too try harder, but i can say to you that when i was in moscow for the first time as a reporter, which was in may of 1960, i did feel a coming together of the knowledge that i had accumulated about russia, the language and history, the culture, the economics come all that stuff, that i've been picking up in college and in graduate school, and working at the u.s. embassy in moscow in 1956-seven. and the requirements of taking that knowledge and putting it in to a minute radio spot, a minute and a half television spot, and somehow or another despite the compression, still to convey the reality, the substance,

honestly, to the american people as best i i could. so in s a sense that you did coe together but never to my total satisfaction. >> i would like to read you something and get your view of it. our wonderful, mutual friend and colleague richard offered the following description of admiral. dick said, even though many h years later i think of admiral in superlatives, a skilled tenacious reporter and a brave man, a fine human being as a boss he laid down no rules, made no suggestions as to style or content. he demanded only a clear and what appropriate colorful presentation of fact. he was scrupulously fair and his colleagues accepted his choices without complaint. he led by example, not command. he is usually furrowed brow expressed a a pessimistic side perhaps to guard against

indulging a nationwide audience that wanted good news. yet when he smiled it was like a sunrise. he knew histh own worth but was not arrogant or overbearing. he had a sense of theater, as in his stresshi on this is london s well as a churchillian seniority that often marked his speech. murrow's physical bravery was matched by his moral courage that rang out in his television documentaries. his style was serious, long experienced at the microphone did that making h casual. he saw his broadcast as the service to the american people. an accurate depiction, marvin? >> absolutely. that is so beautifully stated only by somebody who worked with murrow for a long time, which sort is what dick did. he started with murrow way back in 194494 in london. he was a young, eager reporter who spoke german.

we were at war with germany, and he wanted very much to persuade murrow to a sort of the people chief of cbs london to hire him. murrow had a doubt about his broadcasting capability, but he limited that immediately because he said to a friend, he knows what the story is. he knew the story. mike, i can tell you that the first time i met murrow was in may of 1957. i had written an article for the "new york times" magazine about soviet youth. i was in the library on monday morning and the a librariane over to me and said, marvin, there's a guy on the phone named ed murrow and he would like to talk to you. i turn to the librarian, and one

of the stupidest sequences of my life and said, admiral is not calling me forget about it. it's obviously some quack. just hang up on him. i don't know whether she actually hung up on him, but late that afternoon she came back to meno and said, marvin, it's that same man and he still calls himself admiral, and maybe -- admiral, and maybe you ought to pick up the phone and talk to them. and so i didn't believe he was calling me but when they heard his voice, that magnificent voice, what a total jackass mac i had been. how could i not pick up the phone the first time? and i apologize to him repeatedly. he said don't worry about that. can you come and see me tomorrow

morning in new york in my office at 9:00? i said yes, sir, i will be there. and he answered, professor, i'll see you. and that established that professor/sirr relationship that we had with each other. i was there the following morning like his secretary said to me as i walked in, mr. morrow is very busy. he's only got about a half hour. i said absolutely, fine with me. we spoke for three hours. murrow asked me question after question about the soviet uniont about soviet youth, their religion, or education, when they got married did they have an apartment. what was alike with in-laws. he wanted to know everything union, whichiet was our principal adversary in the midst of the cold war.

and after we spoke for three h hours he put his arm on my shoulder as we walked out and he said, oh, by the way, how would you like to work for cbs? it took all of three seconds i think that launches a yes, sir, i'll be here. and it is the way he hired me. and dick's description of him is so perfect, because he did often look as if he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. and he probably felt that way, too. but heo also felt that have an obligation to convey reality, no matter how tough it might be to hear, convey reality to the american people and they will decide what is that had to be done. your t job as the reporter was simply to provide them with information. they can then use information as

they chose. murrow felt that very seriously. >> you mention dick spoke german. you speak russian and are a scholar in russian studies, as is your wife, madeleine. tell us about the underpinnings of your interest in russian studies and your desire to be in moscow. >> that's a long story, and i will try to cut it in half. my mother and father were both products of the czarist empire, which stretched thin into poland, ukraine. it was a very large empire. my father came here in 1914 just before the outbreak of world war i pick my mother in 1913. and this country opened,

welcomed, opened its doors and welcomed these two people who had suffered different forms of religious persecution. they welcomed them to the united states and they provided them with the opportunity, nothing is guaranteed, but they providedd them with the opportunity for personal freedom, for religious observance as they chose, and for economic chance, opportunity. if you can pull it off, great, but you don't necessarily pull it off. and i felt right then and there as a reporter, i wanted to pay back, that's an expression that is very special to me, , anyway, the idea is you pay back this country for what this country

has done for you. it had done wonderful things for my mother and father, and then for us as their offspring. and this was an opportunity in this book to describe them, to describe my brother, my sister in w a way that gives our reader an opportunity for understanding payback period .. did for my pas and then for us and murrow was somebody who understood that immediately, and i wouldn't talk to him about this then because i didn't know enough about payback, but i do now. feel very strongly that it is important that everybody have an opportunity to pay back the

country that gives them the opportunity for religious freedom, political freedom, and economic opportunity. >> host: let's stay in moscow now. and we have a series of questions about your time spent there, your prep for it, and the execution of your duties there. from form are national press club president, gil cline, you were in moscow during the cuban missile crisis. democrat you think war was imminent in what were the signs you were seeing? >> guest: let me point out also i didn't quite complete my earlier thought. you asked me about getting into moscow. my brother, bernie, who has always been extremely influencal in my life, he

and i then did a great deal of work in the army when i was in the army intelligence. so that gave me a clearance that allowed me then to work at the usembassy in moscow . that office gave me a job more than anyone else who made it clear that was in may 1960. the cuban missile crisis is in october 62. by that time i was an experiencedmoscow correspondent . i sort of felt that i knew what it was that the russians were trying to say to the americans as well as to their own people . and the question aboutwhether i thought we would have wore , yes, that possibility certainly ran through my mind but i did not feel ever

through the cuban missile crisis that we were going into war. i thought that this was an effort by nikita khrushchev to solve the berlin crisis which he described as a bone in my throat and he wanted to end that ndcrisis by frightening the united states into striking a deal that would lead to russian control of all of berlin and the united states would fall from western berlin. so i saw this as diplomacy, very dangerous diplomacy but as diplomacy and not a step towards war . and of course that made it easy for me but my boss in new york, a wonderful man named brad clark actually

whether i wanted to send maybe my wife off to shopping in scandinavia to get her out of moscow because he feared that there could very well be an attack. i did not agree. i didn't think there would be >> the question from our friend sam would singer who is a member of the national press club. during the cold war americans tended to think of russia as a mysterious other about whom they knew little. you share some stories of russians you met and how impressed you? >> sam, let me tell you that russians come in many different shapes and sizes. they are not of a standard form. there are russian intellectuals with whom any harvard professor could feel

very comfortable spending an entire day, week. first race scholarship and there are also people like putting who run the country and there are many bureaucrats inbetween . and throw russian history there has been truly a sense that the russian people require a strong leader. somebody who will tell them what to do and they do it. and for many years that dwas the case. but what struck me as fascinating is in that first time i was there with nikita khrushchev, christian at the leader of the soviet union wanted to initiate the program, a policy of reform throughout the entire country . he did some of that, but he got into trouble doing that with a lot of conservatives

who said this far and no further and if so in 1956 he delivered a historic speech denouncing stalin and saying in effect let's open the door to a little bit of activity. a little bit of motion but the door was shot. and that had happened after chris jeff with brezhnev. the whole country just kind of stopped. and then gorbachev arrived and he opened the doors once again and there was a possibility that democracy under this success of yeltsin could actually happen in modern-day russia where people would be able to travel, talk, open up, do things that are exciting. at this particular time we are in an earlier period with

putin cracking down and we are unfortunately at the moment when the doors are being shot on russian talent we think back to the russian writers, the musicians, the composers. my god, you can't be at the concert without bumping into a russian, a piece of russian music. they're all over theplace so it's there . it'stheir . but there's that heavy hand of oppression sitting on it. >> there's a follow-up from sam about something you just mentioned. how is the russian concept of democracy acdifferent from the west's, america in particular ? >> first of all they don't know they can ever get it, really and what they have in mind is something that is not quite a western style of democracy. i think they have an

exaggerated sense ofdemocracy . they're in much the same way by the way i go back now a little bit. when people like my father came to this country in 1914, he felt before you got here, he felt this country was in english translated a golden paradise. that there would be money in baskets on every street corner for people just to dig into. he had a totally hyped exaggeration of democracy and i think the russian people today have essentially that same idea. which putin and his people are trying to paint the west and american democracy as bad stuff. poisonous. that democracy is atthem. we are separate, we are great . and he's trying to draw a

distinction between us and them and i have to quickly add it a distinction that many american politicians who call themselves extreme conservatives, trump followers tried to say essentially the same thing. that it's we against them, the bad guys, progressives are saying essentially the same thing. >> is a question from bill karen, executive director of the national press club. can you discuss the process you use to meet with russian sources, did any of these come intodanger because of contact with you and how you feel about that . >> i was talking to somebody yesterday and trying to explain . they asked me what would it be like for a american journalist working in russia today as opposed to when you were there. and one of the points that i

was trying to make was in my time, things were so tight in the middle of the cold war, communism in its payday, if i went over and talked to a russian citizen on the street , asked him a question where is red square, it is likely, not certain but likely that some kgb person, some police person would go over to that russian citizen and begin to question him about what is it that foreigner wanted from you. in other words, in asking the ue simplest question of a russian then you could get that russian into a lot of trouble. and if i got information from a russian source and i have to be very clear about this.

they didn't come dangling like fruit from the tree at springtime. they were very rare indeed because everybody lived in a frightening environment. tight environment. but those that i did know and those that did talk to me, they took huge risks and i took a risk to and possibly opening them to kgb crackdown on them and their family. so it was always on your mind as a reporter and should have been that you could get these people into terrible trouble so be careful. class an interesting follow-up from bill mccarron, did the russians ever try to recruit you when you were there and what was that like if sodid you report it . >> sorry to disappoint you but to the best of my

knowledge, if they did that i wasn't aware of it but to my knowledge, nobody ever tried to recruit me as such. you did get into conversations with russians. you would have to. in which they would d try to persuade you there system of government was really better than yours.ys maybe that was an effort to win me over to their point of view but if it was, it failed and i'm not aware of any serious professional effort to put me into their system. >> from what you shared in your first autobiographical book. i was peter the great and what you share in assignment russia, we learn more about nikita khrushchev, the soviet premier and about your most interesting relationship with him and his relationship with you from beginning with the

title of your first book. talk about that relationship with nikita khrushchev. >> i'll do it in two stories. the first story takes us back to july 4, 1956. at the us embassy, actually the ambassador's residence and nikita khrushchev arrived with the entire a bureau and i was that was a big deal because it indicated you want to be friends with us. and at the embassy at that time there were only four people who spoke russian. there was the ambassador, to senior officers s and me and i was the kid on the block. believe me i have no authority doing anything of real importance. i was a translator, i was an interpreter kind of junior press officer . but ambassador bolin said i ai

was after mark martin shugart who was the defense minister and jew golf love to drink, i did not. and i was there while he socked back eight boxes. and when the party was over he kind of sidled up to khrushchev and said, i was drinking by the way water while he drank vodka and he went to chris jeff and said i have finally found a young american who can drink like a russian. chris jeff burst into laughter and he said out tall are you? i said i'm three centimeters shorter than peter the great. he loved that line reacted to this day i haven't a clue as to how the thought even entered my brain but it did, i said it and then always associated me with peter the great.

and second story, on my first big story which was in paris, may 1960 there was a summit meeting, never quite happened. supposedly devoted to berlin under the division of berlin and the danger of berlin. and two weeks before that summit our u2 spy plane was shot down over russia. and so when we arrived in paris to cover the summit, and it was my first story. my responsibility was to cover khrushchev. so i knew him from this experience, several experiences similar to that in 1956. in my peter the great mode. and so my foreign editor asks

what are you going to do covering chris jeff. and i said i know that he normally goes out in the morning for a walk. a brief walk. let me have a crew at 6 am, i'll be in front of the russian embassy. if he comes out, maybe i can get an interview with him. he was reluctant but he said the day i was there, 6:00 studio crew sets up. it's absolutely quiet as can be and 630 comes around and the cameraman says marvin, are you sure, i said i'm not sure of anything. but he often comes out. 7:00, the large iron doors to the embassy open up. chris jeff emerges with two bodyguards.

i looked at him, i was thrilled and we, i rushed towards him and he looked at me and he said well, here comes peter the great. i and he said, he then turned and by the way is two bodyguards immediately reached into their jackets to pull out what i assumed was a weapon. and chris jeff looked and said no, he's okay, he's peter the great. we then walked down the block and there was a french bakery . at 7:00 in the morning, reducing the most magnificent croissants. the aroma filled the air. and i looked at him and he looked at me, chris jeff and he said have you ever had those? i said yes, they're wonderful . he said do you think i would like it and i said i'm sure you will.and i went into

the bakery, bought a whole bunch of croissants. gave him a bunch for him and his two bodyguards, me and my crew. he ate it and the minute i saw his face, it just corrupted into heaven. he loved it. he said delicious, he lovedit . and then i go i had a terrific exclusive. then i went after him, not after him and asked him questions about berlin. when he show up for the summit, what he insists on certain things, that president eisenhower could not deliver? it was a terrific interview, it was exclusive and cbs had. that night that evening and that was my opening to be in a foreign correspondentand it was exciting . it wasterrific . >> more questions have come

in. covering the soviet government has been described as reading signs by who appeared in the lineup of leaders atop lenin's tomb during official events. is that what you found and how hard was it to get any kind of context within the government. >> extremely difficult to get contact within the government unless it was set up in advance. by somebody in the government wanted either to win you over to make you more sympathetic, to go back to earlier to bill's question maybe to make an effort to win you over completely but it was always their decision to try to reach out to you and get you so you would have been an opportunity of talking to people in the government but that was rare. that was pretty well set up in advance. it was very difficult for you to meet a government official

on your own. no, that didn't happen that way. and when they lined up on the 11 mausoleum a very major may first holiday for example, a person who stood in front of the microphone to speak, you knew was the single most important person in the soviet union. and in my time in the 50s and 60s, it was nikita khrushchev. or leonid brezhnev. and then as you went down from him in the picture, let's say i'm looking at you now mike but let's say i was looking at nikita khrushchev, 11 mausoleum. to his right you knew was the second most important person in the soviet union. and that was called criminology. you read signs and pictures.

in newspapers, who was covered, who was not. was given positive coverage and was ignored. that was kremlinology and it was exciting. it was fun, it really was. it was an interesting challenge you had to meet if you were to be a successful journalist in russia. >> how challenging was it marvin to get your reports out of russia when you were filing for whether it was a world news roundup on radio for cbs evening news on television. did you ever have to write in some code in order to ensure that your messages in your stories would be received and understood? >> yes. until april 1961 there was direct censorship of all copy from foreign correspondents. so you would have to find a way of saying something that

would convey reality somehow get the words through the sensor. and i can give you one illustration on the way, give you many but one that was funny to me. the russians at one point wanted to prove to the rest of the world that they were interested in disarmament. and they wanted to show that the red army was being disarmed. and they took a group of reporters, me included to a base outside of minsk and when we arrived there there was one small detachment of russian soldiers who raised their rifles in the air and threw them down on the ground and shouted, to peace and then the guy from the government was telling us what's happening. he said you see, we are interested in peace and where

giving of ourweapons . my broadcast that evening was a group of western n correspondence were taken for a ride today. this time to minsk where they were told there were watching the disarmament of the red army. i was saying exactly what happened.i didn't put in any fancy replies but that phrase taken for a ride, the american ear would pick up and know instantly what was going on. but the sensor in russia didn't. didn't know that phrase. so i was able to get awaywith it . that was the test, the battle that you have with the sensor every time you wanted to get something across . it was always what kind of phrase could you use that the

american audience would understand that the russian sensor would not? that was our dailychallenge . >> another question. tell us about your contacts with the dissidents, particularly the jewish refuse next. did you have a special affinity for them, how do you cover that issue ? >> i would have had special affinity for them but athey were not a story when i was there. they became a story later in the 1970s. i was there in the 50s and 60s. i returned many times to the soviet union but briefly, maybe for two or three days for a story and then i was out. so i did not have an opportunity to cover the other dissidents as well. people who were by the 1970s

fed up with this stultifying, oppressive communist system and had the guts to stand up and join others and actually express their discontent and disapproval of their political system and they were called dissidents and refuseniks and a number of them who wanted to go to israel tried very hard to get out of the soviet union. but when the russians wanted to make a point, they sent thousands of russian jews to israel to make a diplomatic point. suddenly being nice to jews. it was making a diplomatic point so in a sense g.rid of those people didn'tlike . >> a couple of then and now

questions, do you see the current misinformation campaign as an extension of the propaganda you saw there were dumping entirely new? there's follow-ups. it was the audience different in your day? it was to make the rest of the world doubt america, now it seems to be designed to pit usagainst ourselves . .> it's a very good question and the first part of the answer is that the russians have been engaged in this kind of what is called straight out propaganda for many, many decades. they are very good at taking ideas and twisting them and then putting it out into civilization . what they are doing now is using this bold technique,

pinning it to modern technology and then aiming it at a target, in this case the american political system. what is amazing to me mike is how could so many people in this country raised in an atmosphere of freedom where you're supposed to be aware of truth and know the difference between truth and the lie, how is it that tens of millions of american citizens bought into the russian propaganda system? that is astounding to me. to this day i don't quite understand how it could be but there's no doubt that it is. tens of millions of americans are prepared to accept a russian version of reality that then they are to accept an american version.

it's astounding. >> it's interesting because it brings us back to journalism with that and of course within our country we have spent the better part of the last five years or so with journalists being called the enemy of the people by former president donald trump . it was the title of a book that you had published during the trump administration and it seems that the role of the journalist today has become that much more important as well as perhaps dangerous. .alk about that >> there is no question like that it is a danger from a number of points of view. when a president of the united states links free american journalists to enemies of the state, enemies of the people, was he aware

that expression was one of the favorite expressions of joseph stalin and the soviet union, of maus a tone in china, of benito mussolini in italy and the favorite of dictators. often either communists or fascists dictators and an american president using that kind of expression to define an american journalist i found horrible and felt the need to write the book enemy of the people. but mike, even more terrifying than that, the president used that expression very effectively and many, many, i can tens of millions of american citizens believed him.

that result right now is that many people in this country, 60 percent of people in the republican party according to recent polls do not believe that joe biden won the election fairly. 52 percent of republicans believe that the press deliberately distorted the result of the american presidential campaign. why would they believe that? because donald trump said so and then a lot of people who represent part of the american press corps who simply feel that it's in their interest, i'm not sure, maybe financial, but of interest to propaganda this

idea. it's dangerous for the country and democracy. it is dangerous for journalism and very dangerous to the american people. i seriously hope more and more of them will understand there is a distinction between a free press and a press that is married to a particular point of view. >> this past year has been i had spinner for all of us between the pandemic, the politics, the protests, the presidential election, the failed insurrection at the us capitol and the security laden inauguration of president biden and vice president harris. at the same time we have found in record time effective vaccines to combat the coronavirus and we appear to be on the cusp of a

recovery. based on the experiences articulated in these two autobiographical volumes, what is your view of the state of our democracy and the state of the world? >> fragile. fragile. i think that our democracy today has demonstrated a fragility that perhaps many of us sdid not quite appreciate. did not quite appreciate it until it was challenged so dramatically during the trump era. and as i said before, fax became weapons of war and denounced as weapons and not accepted as truth. we are at a point now, i find myself in absolute agreement with president biden when he describes the political

atmosphere in the united states today as a war between democracy on the one side and authoritarianism on the other side. those are the words he used. to define the state of american political life today . in other words democrats who believe in truth and can accept truth and authoritarians who believe they control truth on the american people. that battle is being fought right in front of us. anybody who picks up a newspaper and watches the evening news season. it's right there. what do they do with it, they went into a single political point of view that they cannot accept the wider judgment of reality.

that question is very much in my mind and i think scares the american people. >> i rather loudly hour that we have to end without allowing you an opportunity to talk a little bit about some of the people that are so important in your life and who are critical players in your books. so if we can engage in a lightning round here i'll ask you to author some thoughts about some very important people and let's start with madeleine. >> madeleine kalb. >> we been married 62 years. i can only say i fell for her the moment i saw her and she remainsbeautiful in my eyes to this day . she has been with me all the way.

my closest buddy and advisor. quite a girl. >> and your big brother bernard. >> and honestly influential in my life. he i think more than anyone else steered me in the direction of russian studies to pick up the language. he bought all languages incredibly important orbut journalists can go into russia, and american journalists speaking russian. imagine how the advantages that you have. as opposed to going into russia and finding yourself with a russian interpreter. an average russian so that language was essential and bernie pointed me in the right direction. >> i didn't have an opportunity to know your

parents but i did get to know your sister and at the time we first met 27 years ago your father-in-law built green was living in your home and talk about your parents and madeleine's parents. >> my parents, my father was born in a small polish textile town he was by craft taylor. he came to this country in 1814. within a brief time became a great fan of this country. and really ended up believing that we could probably do no wrong. however, i expressed earlier that the country gave him the opportunity to flourish. economically he did not,

quite the contrary. but he was given the opportunity and he never forgot that. he thought that was the key. what do you do with the opportunity that's been given to you? my mother was born in kiev. capital of ukraine, came here in 1913.n was a, was sort of a mixing of genders here but was kind of the kingpin of her family. she was always the brightest, the most sensible, the most responsible. but a terrific person to have for a mother. i speak with authority on that. my in-laws, rose and bill greene. rose was one of the smartest, most sensitive intellectual people i have ever met. she was also a fabulous cook.

and bill greene was a stock analyst. marvelous sense of humor. died at the tender age of 96. out was as he went cracking jokes. >> and two professional colleagues, walter cronkite and bill small. >> walter cronkite was the greatest anchor man i ever worked with . he sort of just new when you ought to do a story and how to lean into the story. his kindness, i thought cronkite was outstanding. bill small was the bureau chief for cvs in washington. one of the toughest guys i have ever had to deal with. also one of the fairest, most

decent men i've ever had to work with. bill small did more to bring women into the industry than any bigshot i know. he was the one who introduced people like leslie stahl and connie chung into the top ranks of cvs. diane sawyer. yeah. >> marvin, there's a poetic irony in the book. your beginnings were morrow's conclusions and you in so many ways became his legacy at cbs news, you are the last correspondence personally hired by morrow in 1957 and you were a newcomer in what turned out to be his final broadcast the year and round up of 1960 yyears of crisis. he invited you to join him

when he became director of usia and the kennedy administration and in the most poignant response you said you needed to carry on his s work in journalism and so you did. and in fact, the book begins and ends with morrow. >> had you consciously felt this sense of irony of being there hand-picked, hand selected as the final latter day tomorrow boy? >> is the question i can answer on the current vantage point. i can answer it now because i'm able to look back. at the time it was happening, i knew that he was special. he was for me and i'll. i listened to his 7:45 newscast every night. i watched his broadcasts. his broadcast bringing down senator mccarthy who was one of the most historic pieces

of television oi've ever seen or perhaps there ever was. i was filled with admiration for what this man was able to do and did. but at the time it was happening, i was not able fully to appreciate the impact that you would have on me and many, many thousands of mame that have come along over the decades. but wherever you are today you will bump into a journalist who knows about edward r murrow and wants to be like edward r murrow. and if they can all be like edward, we would be a much better country today. but that's a hard thing to be . that's why he is held up in the kind of esteem that he is and deservedly so. he set an extraordinary

example of courage, of professionalism, of decency. of fearlessness, if he had to say something he knew was going to offend a senator or even a president, he said it because it was true. he believed it to be true. when morrow after he left cvs and went to be the head of usia, invited me to join him to be his specialist on communist affairs, i was obviously flattered. but i had to say no to him and it broke my heart. how could i say no tomorrow, it was ridiculous. the only thing i could say to him as i wanted, i want to do in moscow you did for your

entire career. what i wanted to be like you understood. >> the understood and applauded your decision. last question, the pandemic of the past year has prompted so many of us to look back at our lives, look around us and awareness of what we have and how fragile it is and look ahead to how we conduct ourselves and who we want to be as this fog against the left. yours is a life well lived, rich, full and youalways seem to be looking ahead . give us your thoughts as you look back, and head and around in april 2021. >> let me try to look ahead for a moment. i am a very proud grandfather. and i have a grandson of 50 named erin.

and a grand daughter of 12 named eloise. they are both incredibly special to me. i know they are the brightest kids and everybody else knows that. but i would love for this country to be as open and rich in its potential as it was at different stages of my life, helping me along. i would like the good angels of america to in effect lift these kids and bless all of those kids who represent the future ofthis country . it is a very complicated, messy world and there are many examples around.

this is the best example in my judgment. the best example in the world . and in the midst of a very difficult times. and the site between democracy and authoritarianism is a real one. a dangerous one. but at this particular time we have the chance to say see democracy win and i want it to win eloise and for aaron and for all of their bodies. because then we can all sit back and say we did a good job.ac >> that will be the last word today and it's a good one. the book published by brookings press is entitled assignment russia, becoming a foreign correspondent in the crucible of the cold war. marvin, thank you for joining us today. >> my pleasure, thank you and thank the national press

corps. >> we are pleased to present you virtually with our national press club coffee mug along with our hope that you will join us again in personin the very near future . so thank you again and good luck. >> it's your time to shine. you're invited to participate in this year's student cams documentary competition. in light of the upcoming midterm elections picture yourself as a newly elected member of congress. we asked this year's competitors what is your top priority and why? make a 5 to 6 minute video that shows the importance of your issues from opposing and supporting perspectives. don't be afraid to take risks with your documentary. the bowl amongst the $100,000 in cash prizes is a $5000 grand prize. videos must be submitted january 20, 2023 visit our website at student cams.org for competition rules, tips, resources and a step-by-step

guide . >> where funded by these television companies and more including mexico. >> welcome barbara walter, it's a pleasure to have the chanceto talk with you today . your book has generated an astonishing national debate about where we are as a country today during a moment of quiet extraordinary polarization and division