The Most Trusted Man In America?

Once, Walter Cronkite was thought of as the "Most Trusted Man in America". His reporting was viewed as objective and reflecting the thoughts and mindset of the mainstream. We remember the famous "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America" quote of LBJ. The antique media won't let us forget it.

We also know, with the hindsight of history, that Cronkite was a lying liberal partisan who wished to impress his personal views on the Vietnam War on his viewers by exploiting their trust in him. He lied about the effectiveness of the Tet Offensive, a battle that the U.S. forces won resoundingly, so much so that history today records it as the turning point of the war. A battle that nearly destroyed the Viet Cong gave them a tremendous political victory to exploit all the way to Saigon as we pulled our last embassy personnel from the roof in the face of invading NVA forces.

This is the legacy of the "Most Trusted Man in America". But now we rely on his even more nakedly partisan expertise to tell us about the so-called "McCarthy Era". Not surprisingly, Cronkite holds up movies such as "Goodnight and Good Luck" as wholly truthful, with the sad exception of not providing the leftist spin at the start of the movie so that young people could have "the proper context" in which to view it.

Never mind that there were Communists in our government and that they were actively spying for Stalin. Never mind they were planting weapons caches all across the US just in case they needed them against us. That wasn't important. What was important was that the Left desperately needed to smear McCarthy as he went after intellectuals they considered their own. Never mind that McCarthy never went after the real liberal darlings like Alger Hiss. The HUAC handled most of that. But what's a little history twisting between Leftists? His only concern seemed to be that their were Soviet spies in our government and that they should probably be fired. The Venona cables proved he was not only right, he had drastically understated the problem.

So now, our legacy is, we ignore the truth that has come out in history. It is better to accept Cronkite's memory of the white wash of history than it is to look at the facts as they have come to light. We no longer are required to assess the value of the character of those speaking of this period. The Venona project has laid it out in Black and White. Why then are we still accepting this blow-hard at face value?

Some could say it is laziness, that truth is always the first casualty as history is written and rewritten. I'd call it purposeful. The victors of the Cold War are not writing its history. They are allowing those who opposed them every step of the way to write it. And Cronkite is one of the old fossils left to help lead their way. The best we can do is constantly expose them for the hypocritical liars they are in the hopes that it might slow or cause to fail their efforts to solidify their version of this very important section of American history.