CHOMP!NG AT THE BIT: Who Will Stand Up to Fill the Void?

In 1968, Cronkite returned from a visit to Vietnam disillusioned with America's role there. He told Salant what he thought but said he did not want to report his personal opinion on air, Socolow said. Only "after much haggling" did he agree to do so, and not on the regular newscast but on a 10 p.m. special.

"To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past," Cronkite told his audience. "To suggest we are on the edge of defeat is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory conclusion. ... It is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could."

Cronkite's reluctance to reveal his personal opinions about world events during a newscast was matched by his enthusiasm for keeping newscasts free of the influence of commercial interests.

"He was a purist," Socolow said. "And, a lot of people would say, to a fault, if there can be a fault in such a definition."

[excerpt from Tom Watkins' piece, "How 'That's the way it is' became Cronkite's tag line," on CNN.com]