And That's the Way It Was (And Is Again)
I was at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas this weekend for the opening of an exhibit honoring Walter Cronkite.
The exhibit has it all, those moments in American history captured by TV - the Kennedy assassination, the moon launch, the interviews with presidents, when Walter always seemed to be there.
Plus, the little things we never saw - Walter's scripts, his pipe and his office, just the way it was.
That the exhibit is at the LBJ Library to me is the perfect fit. Johnson liked and respected Walter; Walter liked and respected Johnson; and history will always link them.
When Walter returned from Vietnam and concluded in a documentary the war was "unwinnable," Johnson remarked to an aide, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost America." And so he had.
Touring the exhibit brought back many memories for me.
Johnson was the first politician I ever saw - I was 11 years old and he was campaigning for the Senate in 1948 - and Walter was the person I always wanted to be when I was a very young reporter . . . the person I am still trying to be, truth be told.
When Walter came out against the war, he did something he almost never did: he took sides, and I am going to do something I almost never do: offer a vacation tip!
Visit the Johnson Library this summer - it's a fascinating experience, one of the best of the presidential libraries, and the Cronkite exhibit makes it even better.
For more info:
Watch "An Evening with Bob Schieffer" at the LBJ Library
"Cronkite: Eyewitness to a Century" (Exhibit Website)
The Lyndon Baines Johnson Library & Museum
