my news announcer was walter cronkite. just 29 years old and did not know what i was doing. i got fired from that and started doing game shows. i was doing a game show called "mother's day," and i was terrible at it, so when the show was over i go out and audition for broadway shows, anything, and i got a job for a show, and i ended up auditioning. i did a little soft shoe, sang an old song, and he came up on the stage and said, you have the job, and i said, i do not know how to dance, and he said, we will show you what you need to know, and i learned to dance at the rehearsal. i became a song and dance man. i was 33 years old, and the whole thing was a surprise. >> you ended up dancing with people like rivera. >> she was so good and so strong. >> what is it like when you are not a dancer but you have people like fred astaire and carry grants coming to watch you? >> those are two of my idols. i was listening to radio program, and fred astaire was talking about a current nuns of dancers, and he said, i like the way -- talki

so when walter cronkite in tone, you know, it is now time for johnson to go to the bargaining table,johnson was already there. it was the north the enemies who did not want to talk. after tet they agree to talk because after tet they really had nothing left. they were militarily weakened, and they were in danger of the u.s. escalate and attacking them, so they agree to talk to try to forestall that. but johnson was going to escalate anyway. general weaver, the chairman of the joint chiefs, had suggested this, general wes moore had called for more troops. a debate broke out in the administration, should we, should we. it went on for a long time. if we do escalate, how many troops quickly go over our troop cap? all of these little bureaucratic thing so basically for two once they argued it to death. and ultimately johnson, after news of this debate leaked to "the new york times," the great headlines about a secret escalation in the works, those kind of things, and johnson said the heck with it. will just go for more peace talks. and this time they had them. so, it wasn't that tet demor

said the word was he was frozen and was going to be rolled out that's part of the record i was walter cronkite it was teresa heinz kerry that came out of the word was bush was planning to do that because they put that out he backed off so why ask why he would wars is that you are you suggesting alex that that's the reason that i mean this is just just the idea that the bush administration had bin laden's body all these years frozen and any time like three weeks before the election to help john mccain they could a roll that thing out and say hey look at this we just got it and now they're letting obama take credit for i don't get it. well dr steve but shannon served under baker kissinger and others as the deputy secretary of state those departments came on my show first in two thousand and two in april and said this and then i did talk to a large house source high level well known here in austin texas and then through another trusted media source and talked to another person in the white house that that is the case and we've seen all the dirty no i will actually leave that a lot of people told

spooked by it former secretary of state she went on fox news and two thousand and three sort of walter cronkite went on national t.v. and so did heinz kerry and teresa heinz kerry senator kerry's wife and said the word is they've got his dead body they're going to use him in the zero four election but that wasn't needed then so they just said don't worry about bin laden forget about it and introduce this to adam perlman and middle u.s. government agent and or a lockheed fox news admits meeting secretly at the pentagon and then running all the domestic attacks this is a purely manufactured event that doesn't mean there aren't real quote muslim terrorist people fighting that certainly exist but this is an organic manufactured system i had general hameed ghoul former head of pakistani intelligence on the day concurred but this is a manufactured cia choreographed event to now be blamed on pakistan so that there can be move to try to militarily snatch the nuclear weapons a pakistan and that could lead to a thermonuclear war they are a nuclear power they won't give us the body they don't have the oce

rolled out in the future it someday in madeleine albright in two thousand and three and sort of walter cronkite and mrs kerry heinz kerry said yes we've been told by intelligence they've got him bush may roll email but because they expose that in the election they didn't do it i have been told directly by former bush administration officials when he was in office here in austin many of them live here but this was going on very high level and one of the names is public of the former deputy. secretary of state under kissinger came on my radio show in april two thousand and two the transcript of that is up on in force dot com and they had a photo that was fake that they showed us of him being dead and said oh it was fake sorry they threw him in the oceans nobody could see it i mean they may have thrown a ham sandwich in the arabian sea i'm going to growl is i mean let's talk about this i mean you're asserting that not only has not been long but the other four you know most wanted terrorist by the us have at some point in recent history been sort of in bed with her a little too close for comfort on

guest: i am working on a book on walter cronkite. i'm interviewing people from roger mudd, les moonves, bob woodward. i member to my book out in the spring of 2012 -- i am bringing my book out in the spring of 2012. host: first call, lee and connecticut. caller: how are you doing? host: good. caller: when are we going to learn the truth about the start of world war ii? roosevelt wanted to be a war hero like his cousin teddy, and he knew about the bombing of pearl harbor at least two weeks in advance, but he was pushing us to get into a war. also, with all the communists you had in his government, we abandoned our troops in the philippines and sent all the aid to the russians. why did we do that? host: all right, thank you, lee. doug brinkley. guest: here on memorial day weekend, we want to thank franklin roosevelt for the extraordinary job he did as commander-in-chief, picking people like george marshall to dwight eisenhower, bradley, patton, this incredible group of leaders that he surrounded himself -- military leaders he surrounde

guest: i am working on a book on walter cronkite. i'm interviewing people from roger mudd, les moonves, bob woodward. i member to my book out in the spring of 2012 -- i am bringing my book out in the spring of 2012. host: first call, lee and connecticut. caller: how are you doing? host: good. caller: when are we going to learn the truth about the start of world war ii? roosevelt wanted to be a war hero like his cousin teddy, and he knew about the bombing of pearl harbor at least two weeks in advance, but he was pushing us to get into a war. also, with all the communists you had in his government, we abandoned our troops in the philippines and sent all the aid to the russians. why did we do that? host: all right, thank you, lee. doug brinkley. guest: here on memorial day weekend, we want to thank franklin roosevelt for the extraordinary job he did as commander-in-chief, picking people like george marshall to dwight eisenhower, bradley, patton, this incredible group of leaders that he surrounded himself -- military leaders he surrounde

there's a wonderful statement of walter cronkite's who was a famous broadcaster, which he said the most important part of human communication is not the 6000 kilometers distance that you covered, it's the last three feet, the face-to-face communication. the reason is because there's credibility. when you're talking face-to-face in interaction with another human being, you judge that person, you assess them. have a sense that it is credible or not. when you're listening from a broadcaster coming from a government, you often lose credibility. so policy matters. i missing policy doesn't matter but the point is if we think a projection of soft power a summit with the government does or public diplomacy or broadcast or so forth, and a simple government narrative, we are missing a major point. the fact that there are 750,000 foreign institutes in the united states, the fact that the bill and melinda gates foundation is working on eradicating malaria in africa, these are the things that are true, or hollywood in its own way. these are things that are generating a lot of american soft power. th

there's a wonderful statement of walter cronkite's who was a famous broadcaster and which he said themost important part of human communication is not the 6,000 kilometers of distance that you cover, it's the last 3 feet, the face-to-face communication. and the reason is because there's credibility. when you're talking face to face in an interaction with another human being, you judge that person, you assess them, you have a sense if it's credible or not. when you're listening to a broadcast that'sing from the government, you think government has its own reason to tell me what it's saying on the broadcast. i suspect it. so you often lose credibility in those kinds of context. so policy matters. i'm not saying it doesn't, but the point is if we think the projection of soft power as simply what the government does, more public diplomacy, more broadcasts, so forth, and a simple government narrative, we're missing a major point. the fact that there's 750,000 foreign students in the united states, the fact that the bill and melinda gates foundation is working on eradicating malaria in afri

with them is the young walter cronkite. always acted as the consummate pr man for everyone in his family. i'm sure he had arranged for cronkite to come in and interview her on the occasion of solely birthday. c-span: most people listening know who sigmund freud was, but for purposes of this discussion the who was the? >> for this discussion he was the uncle of edward bernays, the man he told him exactly how to understand human psychology and use it and while freud was using psychology to try some basically free people from their notional bonds his nephew took a different lesson and use psychology and an understanding of why people behave the way they do to help tide them to his plans be the company's top politicians. a brilliant student of his uncle, but did things with his uncle's psychology that might have made his uncle really turnover in his grave if he saw. c-span: how well did he know his uncle? >> seen him quite well. he spent time with and in europe on family vacations. when he was in his 30's and '40's he had a 20-

guest: i am working on a book on walter cronkite.viewing people from roger mudd, les moonves, bob woodward. i member to my book out in the spring of 2012 -- i am bringing my book out in the spring of 2012. host: first call, lee and connecticut. caller: how are you doing? host: good. caller: when are we going to learn the truth about the start of world war ii? roosevelt wanted to be a war hero like his cousin teddy, and he knew about the bombing of pearl harbor at least two weeks in advance, but he was pushing us to get into a war. also, with all the communists you had in his government, we abandoned our troops in the philippines and sent all the aid to the russians. why did we do that? host: all right, thank you, lee. doug brinkley. guest: here on memorial day weekend, we want to thank franklin roosevelt for the extraordinary job he did as commander-in-chief, picking people like george marshall to dwight eisenhower, bradley, patton, this incredible group of leaders that he surrounded himself -- military leaders he surrounded himself

yet you wouldn't know it from walter cronkite. second, there was absolutely no uprising. but, third, which is probably more important, that the viet cong infrastructure -- those embedded in the cities -- had to rise up when their battalions attacked, and they were eliminated. so now the government of vietnam controlled all the cities without question, and they wanted to move out in an oil bob sort of strategy in order to pacify the people. and that's what the war in vietnam was about, totally about pacifying the rural people. both sides were trying to do the same thing. i remember then many -- in may, middle of may 1968, the division artillery officer came rushing into our tactical operations center at 3 1:00 at night -- 11:00 at night and said our radar has picked up a huge attack on saigon by the viet cong. at daybreak they met at the wide bridge in saigon, and for eight days there was a battle in saigon that recalled the battle of saigon, the papers called it mini tet, the north vietnamese called it the second phase of their general uprising. but they were defeated. no

if anything the media was concentrating you still had walter cronkite, cbs and abc you don't have the diversity nearly at present. and i'm just saying john is right. and part of it is there's no draft. this is one thing we have to accept. there's no draft so it's a terrible thing. [applause] >> there's no accountability. the members say somebody else. it's the poor, the voiceless, those who don't have any power going over there to die. so i can sit and not threat over the fact as richard holbrooke said what was victory in afghanistan. i don't really know. it's like obscenity. i'll know it when i see it, and that is the cause that people are risking that last full measure of devotion for. and the only -- one way we're going to get back to some check on the military folly and adventurism is to reinstitute the draft and your only goal, your only obligation to defend americans here at home, not to go abroad in search of money. [inaudible] >> i completely agree with the analysis but not the solution. but, you know, i saw a veterans for peace shirt out here who are leading this event tomorr

we spoke to a larger variety of people than had been planned pre-flight, from royal people to walter cronkite, twice. i spoke to over 40 schools while i was up there. it was as if they were looking for us to prove that humanity can work together to do good things. they wanted to look into the sky for something positive they could do to help others. they wanted to hear that a world still looks ok from up there. some of us were alive when we went to the moon, we still have the ability to deal with that, and everyone remembers the significance of the moon landing and how proud it made them to be alive then. we can do great things beyond the horror we have to deal with day-to-day. we should be glad that we have a place for our children to aspire to work. the centerpiece of our space flight is not only one of the most amazing feats of human engineering but also a human cooperation that will help pave the way for humanity's next grade wheat to the moon and on to mars. space exploration is the true march of progress. it is a tremendous example of soft power. the ability to expand our capabilities be

from royalty and prime ministers to special people such as walter cronkite twice. school children displaced by the event by ground zero. i spoke to over 40 schools during a timeout was up there. always it was is that they were looking to us to prove that humanity can work together and do great things in the midst of the unthinkable. they wanted to look to the sky for an example of something to do -- something good, something positive. they wanted to hear that the world still looked ok from up there. some in this room were around when we went to the moon in the midst of that other war, vietnam. it was an extremely difficult time but we still have the ability and the courage to expand our boundaries and a changing society on earth and dealing with the reality of that conflict. everyone remembers the significance of the moon landing and how proud made them to be alive at a time like that. it proved that despite the biggest challenges we can imagine on earth, we can still do great things. we can maintain our leadership and do great things beyond the earth, beyond the h

from royalty and prime ministers to special people like walter cronkite because he had more questions. school children displaced by the events that ground zero, spoke to 40 schools. always it was as if they were looking to was to prove humanity can do great things even in the midst of the unthinkable. they wanted to look to the star for an example of something good, something positive they could point to. an international project worth pointing ford and they wanted to hear that the world still looks ok from up there. this happened when we went to the moon and from 1969 to 1972 in that other war in vietnam. to solve the issues with civil-rights and civil liberties and our own country, it was a difficult time but we had the ability and courage to expand our boundaries in space while changing society and dealing with the reality of that conflict. everyone remembers the significance of the moon landing and how proud it made them to be alive at a time like that. it proved that despite the biggest challenges we can imagine on earth we can still do great things. we can maintain our leadershi

cronkite, kuralt, brinkley, jennings, reasoner, walters, brokaw, and yours truly starting in '93. jeff brought abc's newscast from third to first. then he came over here and did the very same thing when tom brokaw was in this chair. jeff loved politics, went to work for george mcgovern briefly, but the pull of covering space shots, conventions, elections, wars, and revolutions just proved too much, so he went right back to the news business. he was at my side on election nights and most recently was a special consultant to our news division president steve capus. we found a quote from jeff today which is kind of perfect. "always demand what is right and never accept second best." jeff gralnick was a fixer, a teacher, a taskmaster, a leader, a husband, a parent, and a friend. he was 72 years old. we'll be back in a moment with tonight's "making a difference" report. >>> finally tonight, with the economy in the tank lately, few cities have had it worse than detroit. the proud motor city where the population is actually shrinking with entire neighborhoods left abandoned. it's hard en

my news man was walter krot cronkite. >> that's not a bad resumÉ. did you like it? >> no.rl ryaner. he knew how to write relationships and comedy and that made it. he's a genius. >> it was the chemistry also with you and mary tyler moore. i mean, mary tyler moore on the other part of the show. i wanted to be invited over for dinner. i wanted to know you more as a couple. >> there was great chemistry. people thought we were married in real life. i'd show up with my wife and people would go, hm. >> carl reiner tells a story where he challenged you one time to sneeze, cough, belch, hiccup, yawn and pass gas all while trying to stifle the giggles. can you try six of the seven for us this morning? >> i can't do it now. if i pass gas i can make a mistake. >> and clear a room. there were lyrics to the theme song. >> maury amsterdam wrote them. >> do you remember them? >> yeah. ♪ so you think that you've got trouble ♪ ♪ well, trouble can get lost ♪ why not hold your head up high and ♪ ♪ stop crying ♪ start try ♪ don't forget to keep your fingers crossed ♪ ♪ the joy of living is lo