"..and that's the way it is." Newsman, veteran, Walter Cronkite's journey fr reporting WWII, Vietnam War, Iraq War...

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Journey of Walter Cronkite (1916-2009) covered Allied invasion of Normandy, WWII... He wept as he announced John F Kennedy's assassination, shouted encouragement when the Apollo astronauts lifted off for the moon and was the nightly conduit of information on America's Vietnam War nightmare for families across the nation. 30 years ago, news anchorman Walter Cronkite would finish up his hourly news broadcast to the nation of America by saying, "...and that's the way it is."

Hailed as "the most trusted man in America" during his 18 years as anchor of "CBS Evening News," Walter Cronkite first gained national recognition for his reporting from the battlefields of World War II. As a United Press correspondent, Cronkite covered the landings in North Africa and Sicily, the Allied invasion of Normandy and the subsequent battles across France and Germany. He was the face of CBS News from 1962 to 1981, when stories ranged from the Kennedy assassination to Watergate and the Iranian hostage crisis. He wept as he announced John F Kennedy's assassination, shouted encouragement when the Apollo astronauts lifted off for the moon and was the nightly conduit of information on America's Vietnam war nightmare for families across the nation.

An experienced journalist who had already covered the second world War in Europe, he joining CBS as a television correspondent in 1950. His stirring reports on everything from the Kennedy assassination to the Apollo space program and the Vietnam war often had as much impact as the events themselves. It was the veteran broadcaster who interrupted a live CBS-TV broadcast of the soap opera As the World Turns to read the bulletins from Dallas when Kennedy was shot in November 1963.

In a 1968 documentary, made after the Tet offensive in Vietnam, he declared that the time had come for America to negotiate with North Vietnam "not as victors but as an honorable people". A startled President Lyndon Johnson said to his press secretary: "If I've lost Cronkite I've lost middle America" and a news magazine wrote that it was as if Lincoln himself had ambled down from his memorial and joined an anti-war demonstration.

Every night for nearly 20 years, Americans tuned in to hear the day's major events as reported by Cronkite, whose avuncular manner made his show the top-rated news programme from 1969 until he retired in 1981. His demeanor inspired the nickname "Uncle Walter" and when he signed off his newscasts by saying, "And that's the way it is," few doubted him.

The vice president of CBS, Linda Mason, said that Kronkite died after a long illness, with his family by his side. The family had issued a statement some weeks ago that Cronkite had been suffering from cerebrovascular disease and was not expected to recover.

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Photos courtesy of Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department / Richard Roberts, vietnamwarstories.wordpress.com, neohiotvmemories.wordpress.com, WETA / pbs.org, National Archives & Records Administration, 2012diaries.blogspot.com, benbrookfamily.com, geezerfrank.googlepages.com, johncwarrenjr.com, michaelpaglia.com, Tyler Huff / huffphotography.com, Ward Photography, and AP

Original Source: PBS and Guardian