True story: JFK was nervous about his too-long answer on South Vietnam, but trusted Cronkite to ...

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Michael Beschloss Retweeted

True story: JFK was nervous about his too-long answer on South Vietnam, but trusted Cronkite to edit interview fairly.

But Salinger telephoned CBS News immediately after it aired, furious, claiming the Vietnam part was twisted around #FakeNews

https://cbsnews.com/news/evening-news-marks-golden-anniversary-of-30-minute-broadcast/

JFK tapes interview with Walter Cronkite for first thirty-minute edition of @CBSEveningNews this week 1963. Pierre Salinger at right.

Link to tweet

[hedda_foil]

1. Wow! Many, many, may thanks, mahatmakejeeves!!!!

BTW, Kennedy was, in fact, ready to pull out of Vietnam after the '64 elections. LBJ listened to the generals and stayed in.

I teach classes for adults on both the Sixties and the Seventies. This broadcast is the missing link! Before that September 1963 half hour broadcast, Cronkite had to summarize the news. From that day forward, the CBS evening news was able to take reporters' coverage on the Civil Rights protests, and the Southern governors' vicious reaction to the peaceful demonstrators, including children. They were able to take feeds from reporters in Vietnam and around the world. It changed how news was covered and set the stage for the public reactions we are familiar with. If CBS hadn't made this decision, the other networks wouldn't have followed as quickly as they did -- and history might have been very different.

[Kid Berwyn]

2. What Salinger wanted to make clear...

“In the final analysis, it's their war," (JFK) said. "They're the ones who have to win it or lose it. We can help them. We can give them equipment. We can send our men out there as advisers. But they have to win it -- the people of Vietnam -- against the Communists."

President Kennedy said he would not send US draftees to fight in another country’s civil war and signed National Security Action Memorandum 263 to put the Administration’s official policy in writing. Read NSAM 263 here:

https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/nsam-jfk/nsam-263.htm

Four days after the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas, LBJ reverses the policy to stay and support South Vietnam in its "contest against the externally directed and supported Communist conspiracy in NSAM 273:

https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/nsam-lbj/nsam-273.htm

Something else: President Kennedy would never have fallen for and foisted the Golf of Tonkin “Big Lie” on America.