In February 1968, CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite visited Vietnam for the purpose of completing a documentary on the aftermath of the Tet Offensive (January 31, 1968-September 1968), an ambitious military campaign lead by 70,000 Vietcong and North Vietnamese soldiers against forces from South Vietnam and the United States and their allies. The Offensive was the brainchild of brilliant and notoriously ruthless Vietcong military commander Vo Nguyen Giap, with the purpose of striking at military and civilian command and control centers throughout South Vietnam, in the hope of fomenting uprisings amongst the population that would lead to the collapse of the government in Saigon. Despite initially astonishing allied forces, most of the Vietcong were beaten back and the attacks resulted in heavily lopsided casualties for the communist forces. However, the Tet Offensive demonstrated that the Vietcong were a force to be reckoned with; the wily communists demonstrated impressive sophistication, determination and preparedness against the heavily favored and better-armed allied army.

It is difficult to overstate the influence that Cronkite, often called the “most trusted man in America,” wielded over the sway of public opinion. At a time when there were only three television networks, it is not an exaggeration to say that Cronkite’s CBS Evening News was America’s news source. Cronkite returned from his visit to Vietnam deeply pessimistic about the prognosis of the war for the allies, believing that a definitive victory over the communist forces was unlikely.

At the close of his broadcast on February 27, 1968, he introduced the topic to a spellbound America by announcing that he intended to impart “an analysis that must be speculative, personal [and] subjective.”

Cronkite proceeded to share his opinion that the war was likely to end in a “bloody stalemate” and that the Tet Offensive had ended in a draw. When President Lyndon Johnson heard Cronkite’s comments, he was quoted as saying, “That’s it. If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost middle America.” This broadcast is widely considered the turning point of the Vietnam War. Soon thereafter, the American public began to forcefully demand the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the region, and the anti-war movement hit its zenith as massive student protests erupted across the country. In an interview with CBS’s Morley Safer in 1989, General Giap shrewdly observed that, “The war was fought on many fronts. At the time the most important one was American public opinion.” On his part, Cronkite never regretted his candid broadcast and believed his comments on Vietnam were his greatest achievement as a news anchor.

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