With today's news broadcast on networks and on cable from sleek studios; stories reported by glossy talking heads; most of us aren't aware of the genesis of the war correspondent. When the newspapers and radios were filled with the words of men and women from far-flung locales, and everyone was out in the field. Edward R. Murrow reported nightly from London during the Blitz. He was the most well-known journalist in the world and he was not in a studio comfortably smoking, but was in the thick of things, along with numerous other journalists.
One of them went on to become an international news legend. His image, and his words, were familiar to millions.
His name was Walter Cronkite.
I had the extreme pleasure of meeting Mr. Cronkite, albeit briefly, while waiting for an elevator at my office. He was a tremendous gentleman.
Walter Cronkite joined the dozens of intrepid news folk who spent World War II at the forefront of the struggle. A former radio man, he was recruited by Murrow, who gathered around him a cadre of the best and brightest among reporters. Cronkite went on to cover the war as a UP correspondent from planes and on the ground, including the Battle of the Bulge. Cronkite was also one of the journalists covering the Nuremburg trials following Germany's defeat.
His career encompassed many decades beyond that war. He grew sage and respected and his reporting of what is arguably one of the country's darkest moments is iconic.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Into The Maelstrom
Many people think that World War II began in 1936, with Hitler's invasion and subjugation of the Rhineland. But it didn't. Not really. It began, really, on June 28, 1919. The signing of the Treaty of Versailles that brought to a close the first World War was, in fact, the first card in the house of cards that began to tumble down in 1936.
Reparations. A word not terribly imposing. But it was in 1919. Already beaten, Germany was subsequently rendered impotent and humiliated. Payment for their aggression and the millions of lives lost. The martial power was stripped of its war machinery and the victors pounded their victory upon the country with an iron fist, as the Germans had pounded death upon the world.
But world events were conspiring to slowly fill a new keg of dynamite. Broken and poverty-stricken, when the Great Depression of 1929 swept the world into disaster of a new sort, Germany, already on its knees, was flattened. The grains began to mount.
Bitterness over the victory that had been denied them, starving, the Germans were merely a chemical mixture awaiting the final component. The ingredient that would ignite the hatred, the fear, the frustration, and bring back to life the .
militaristic history of the country. The ingredient that would provide the catalyst for a new, explosive episode in world history.
It is well known that when a people is at the lowest, they look for a scapegoat for their troubles. They are easy prey for the mind who seeks to control them. On January 30, 1933, after several years of agitating and spreading his personal brand of vindictive political hate, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany and offered the shattered nation just such a scapegoat
And a match was laid to the fuse.
Reparations. A word not terribly imposing. But it was in 1919. Already beaten, Germany was subsequently rendered impotent and humiliated. Payment for their aggression and the millions of lives lost. The martial power was stripped of its war machinery and the victors pounded their victory upon the country with an iron fist, as the Germans had pounded death upon the world.But world events were conspiring to slowly fill a new keg of dynamite. Broken and poverty-stricken, when the Great Depression of 1929 swept the world into disaster of a new sort, Germany, already on its knees, was flattened. The grains began to mount.
Bitterness over the victory that had been denied them, starving, the Germans were merely a chemical mixture awaiting the final component. The ingredient that would ignite the hatred, the fear, the frustration, and bring back to life the .
militaristic history of the country. The ingredient that would provide the catalyst for a new, explosive episode in world history.
It is well known that when a people is at the lowest, they look for a scapegoat for their troubles. They are easy prey for the mind who seeks to control them. On January 30, 1933, after several years of agitating and spreading his personal brand of vindictive political hate, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany and offered the shattered nation just such a scapegoat
And a match was laid to the fuse.
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