When news was news. Glad I experienced Cronkite for a few years before he retired in ‘81. What is called news these days seem to be full of opinion shows which has divided this country to a sickening degree
In 1995 I spoke with one of LBJ's ranch hands, and he told me that the President was dead on the floor of a small bedroom just off the kitchen of the ranch house.
History Fact: Tom Johnson, press secretary to LBJ who delivered the news to Cronkite on-air, went on to be the first president of a little channel called CNN, whose first anchor would be Evening News correspondent Bernard Shaw.
@jimfesta8981 it's not a leftist channel. Its huge now by speculation and headlines and not by reporting the news. Leftist or far righter it's a headline station that can attract views by mention of apparent news
@@jimfesta8981under Tom Johnson,it was a good reliable source of journalism. Now,it,Fox News and MSNBC like to divide everyone for the ratings while all being owned by people within the same corporate umbrella.
@@georgecostanza9244kind of like the Doctor that had give a cancer patient 3 months to live The patient could come up with the money to pay the Doctors bill. So the Doctor gave him 3 more months to live.
I remarked, here, or maybe somewhere else, how Cronkite kept himself out of the story. The moment was all about LBJ and he wasn't going to get in the way giving himself a walk-on role. Great integrity.
This is REAL. If CNN were covering this there would be dramatic music, over the top graphics stating BREAKING NEWS!!!, then a panel of 7 nobodies discussing their opinions of the event. This feels like its actually happening in front of us. Sensationalism has truly murdered Journalism.
@@endtheliesnow5906 Don't conflate news with cable news. Cable news channels need to fill 24 hours of programming with about 30 minutes of actual news.
I love how Cronkite held his finger up letting the whole nation know he was on the phone. And I also love that he literally delivered the news immediately after it happened.
And they weren't expected to have opinions one way or the other. They were trained and expected to be neutral, and let the people interpret the facts, one way or the other. Now everyone is an Op Ed "journalist". It's a shame, and it robbed the once honorable profession of journalism of every bit of its credibility.
News was a public service put out by broadcasters as part of their duty while holding a broadcast license. News wasn't expected to make money. Today it's called infotainment. And is all about getting the biggest share of ratings.
If LBJ had run and been re-elected in 1968, he’d have ended his second term on January 20, 1973, two days before he died. Or more likely he’d have had a heart attack during his second term with all that stress and died even earlier.
@@jumbostorm887 Agreed, considering how tough LBJ had it with Vietnam placed squarely around his neck. Would’ve been interesting to see RFK vs Nixon. Who do you think would’ve won that matchup and why?
@@edwardp3502This is of course impossible to answer, but I give RFK the edge. The number one issue in 1968 was Vietnam. This is a bit of generalization, but broadly most people wanted Vietnam to go away. Not necessarily lose the war, but to find a way to end the war without too much damage to American prestige. In the same speech announcing that he would run for president, LBJ ended rejecting a military solution to the war and chose the political solution by opening the peace talks in Paris. Nixon accepted of a political solution by promising to continue the peace talks and just presented as the man who could run the better bargain. Hence his slogan of "peace with honor" meant to appeal to both doves and hawks. Humphrey for a long time promised to continue LJB's policies. It is significant that Humphrey was laughing in the polls, but started to rise when gave a speech in Salt Lake City on 30 September 1968 that offered a much detailed peace plan than Nixon did. The 1968 election was extremely close with Nixon winning by a narrow margin. And there was Wallace running on a hawkish platform calling for a military solution to Vietnam. If Wallace was not running, those voters would have gone to Nixon. RFK was not made the mistake that Humphrey did of waiting too late to offer a detailed peace plan than Nixon did. RFK and LBJ hated each other, and Kennedy was not beholden to Johnson the same way Humphrey was. Humphrey had wanted to give his Salt Lake City speech at the Democratic convention in Chicago in August, but chose not to when LBJ told it would be disloyal for him to do that. RFK did not care about Johnson's feelings the way Humphrey did. So for it worth, RFK would had the advantage.
@@jumbostorm887Bobby Kennedy would’ve walked into the White House. It would’ve changed the entire political landscape for the next 30-40 years. We would’ve been spared corrupt administrations like Reagan and both Bushes. Sirhan Sirhan didn’t act alone. The kennedy’s and our country had many domestic enemies. If RFK lived he was going to end the Vietnam war. That meant billions lost to a lot of powerful corporations.
Neither were the POW-MIA families. LBJ's "Keep Quiet" Policy about their loved ones' treatment in Hanoi caused them a LOT of grief-and that's on top of what the NVN inflicted.
@@mattwiser8406I think this silently killed him because he inherited this war. The men he had in charge kept lying to him about staying in the war when he wanted to end it almost as soon as he became president. Sadly, the casualties weighed heavily on him.
Was he corrupt, *YES, Absolutely!!!* Was he the most corrupt of them all???? *Not at all!!* Especially when you compare today’s political candidates!! Having to keep his mouth shut for Carlos might have been what did him in, considering that Vietnan had made him the most hated man in the world. He had finally got his dream come true of becoming pres. and holding numerous political records, but never realized until he was almost done w/ his term. Even watching the Kennedy bros., who berrated him on a regular basis get taken down and replaced by him and his buddies, seemed to still not even make the guy happy in the end!! Those may have been the moments that I believe made political figures like Johnson and Nixon “soften up” or become “less bitter” w/ age and as the war progressed.
LBJ heart condition was blamed on the fat he had in his diet. If course it simply couldn't have anything to do with his lifetime commitment to chain smoking. Smoking was safe according to experts paid for by the tobacco industry
He was a lefty but he really didn't show it during his broadcast career. He did his job, what he was supposed to do. And report the news fairly. What a true journalist used to do.
He was a truly great man. His announcing how many troops died every day in Vietnam was credited with ending our involvement there. If he said it you could be sure it was the truth. I am sorry there is no one like him today.
Interesting Irony: LBJ died just 2 days after the second Inauguration of his successor, Richard M. Nixon. And before that, Ike died 2 months after the first Presidential Inauguration of his Vice-President, also Nixon. 🇺🇲
LBJ never gave up his racist side of him. The real reason why he signed the 1964 civil rights bill into law was to ensure that African-Americans ("N-word" he called them) kept voting Democrat for the next 200 years. He never wanted equality for everyone. It was strictly a political ploy for the Democratic Party. He was phony from the word "go".
I was 5 when this happened. Honestly don't remember this moment. But I definitely remember Walter Cronkite. Even as a kid I knew he was the man! I always respected him and loved listening to him I watch these old clips and sometimes repeatedly. There's something about his delivery and professionalism that just grabs me every time. He was and is the standard bearer for what a journalist should be. RIP Walter Cronkite.
His death came only 27 days after Harry truman...the second shortest passing between american presidents (the shortest being between Thomas Jefferson and john adams who died 3 hours apart om july 4th 1826) and left the sitting president (richard nixon) as the only living president until he resigned 18 and a half months later
I was a college sophomore working at a 1,000 watt radio station that evening when the AP wire gave out a 5-bell alarm, it's highest signal of importance. I pressed a button to play a one-minute Public Service Announcement. I ripped the AP announcement from the teletype machine, and when the recorded PSA concluded, I told our small audience that President Johnson was dead. I left radio work when I graduated in 1976, but I will never forget that night.
Johnson just didn't care anymore. His daughter tried to get him to stop smoking again but he grew his hair long and smoked like chimney his last years.
@@debbiebrantley61 Johnson tried to negotiate a ending to the war in Vietnam before he left office. Nixon committed treason when he told the S. Vietnamese government that they would get a better deal under his administration. Historical note: The war dragged on another 5 years and didn't end well for S. Vietnam.
LBJ died the very same day that the Roe v. Wade decision came out. I remember seeing him on TV where he was attending a college football game just a short time before he died.
@@Dimitristhe So many young people were against him due to Vietnam; and the Tet Offensive made even more people doubt the truthfulness of the American government and military. And we only had a couple years with the Voting Rights Act that both parties favored Blacks voting. Nixon then devised "the Southern Strategy" to move Southerners from the Democratic to the Republican Party because of race. Nixon may have undermined the peace talks with North Vietnam as well. I read the election of 1968 was extremely close; had Humphrey scored enough votes to win California, Ohio and Illinois, he would have won. Who knows if Johnson had run whether he could have defeated Nixon?
From this point, up until Gerald Ford became president a year and a half later, there were no living former presidents. Just Nixon as the current president. Quite unique.
President Johnson did some wonderful things, and some awful things as President. In my opinion, the stress of his job and the events that were going on during his Presidency did him in. I had read he was a heavy smoker, which in no doubt damaged his health - but when he did not run again for President in 1968, saying he would not accept his party's nomination - I think that spoke volumes.
From my understanding, he stopped smoking when he either became President or Vice President, but after he left office, he stopped caring about his health and started smoking heavily again, which caused his health to rapidly decline.
@@metroidnerd9001, he stopped smoking in 1955 after his first heart attack and you are correct he did start smoking again after leaving the White House (literally on the flight back to Texas)
Coincidentally, this happened the same day (Jan. 22, 1973) that challenger George Foreman knocked out champion Joe Frazier in Jamaica to win boxing's heavyweight title.
It was 5 days later, the peace accords with North Vietnam was signed and myself and my shipmates on my aircraft carrier were told that our cruise to Vietnam was canceled.
He was long dead before the plane ride to San Antonio. In an interview seen on television in the 1990’s, a former ranch hand who was employed at the Johnson ranch stated LBJ was found dead on the floor of a tiny bedroom on the first floor off the kitchen of the ranch house. He technically was pronounced dead on the plane, but for all intents & purposes he died before he hit the floor. The protocols then were much different than today. Back then everyone got resuscitated. Now paramedics would pronounce DOA.
Lady Bird Johnson was one of the most gracious first ladies ever. She is the person responsible for Texas' love for wildflowers, especially the Texas bluebonnets and she outlived him by over 45 years.
Sorry bucko, Jon Stewart is not a journalist, never has been and he's unlikely to ever become one. Snuffleofolis, OTH, moved from being a political media type to becoming a political media type just as LBJ's media man moved to become head of CNN at its founding. Similarly, Roger Aisles, who had long been a Republican operative, was the leader of the creation of Fox News. And, on Fox News there are 'comedians' that pump out right wing slop by the truckload. Guys like Gutfeld and Steven Crowder who was on Fox until about 2013.
America did not know then what it had in Lyndon Johnson. I hope history will see him as he was, as a man of the people, that saw as much potential in every person as he did his own nation.
I was in third grade. I remember we got a day off school for the funeral; I think it was a Friday. I don't remember seeing the funeral on TV, although I vaguely remember seeing part of Truman's funeral. Truman passed while we were on Christmas break.
@@Maya-bu2rf National Day of Mourning. Presidential Funerals are typically National Holidays. I remember I was so happy for a day off from school and my mom told me it wasn't going to be a fun day for the Johnson family.
@@B-and-O-Operator-Fairmont I would have been a high school senior then. I was 8 in 3rd grade when JFK died. That I remember like it was yesterday. LBJ was a president but I felt nothing about him like a lot of people because of how he became president. If I knew it happened at the time I would have felt bad for Lady Bird. The only news thing I remember from early that year was the release of the Vietnam POW's. I wore an ID bracelet with the name, rank, and date of plane or helicopter crash. My POW was released on the first flight out of Hanoi. I remember seeing his name on the list. I know there was no day off from school for LBJ for us. Maybe in some places, but not here.
I was in 5th grade and I don’t remember any of it. When we pulled out of Vietnam not long after this, I had no clue we had been in a war. I was like “we were in a war? Hmmm”😂 My parents shielded us from the news. The TV was OFF at dinner time.
A copy previously posted to TH-cam (with the date and time stamped on top) came from the Vanderbilt news archives, which was still recording in B&W in 1973.
4:11 “And then spent a year teaching school to the second-class citizens of Texas: Mexican-Americans. Later, they would vote for him.” That actually made me cry 😢. LBJ had a deep sympathy and empathy for his Hispanic students and the socioeconomic problems they faced. The poverty those Mexican children endured and the fact that nobody cared about them clearly had an impact on LBJ when he became president and when he signed the Higher Education Act of 1965.
Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it. Isaiah 5:13
No one knows who wrote that stuff. All the Bible’s writers were anonymous except a couple. And there’s no proof of any of that is true. The Bible is the most immoral book ever written. If people actually read it and we’re honest that’s the conclusion they would come to.
@@jamesrecknor6752 I think Hell was made for LBJ. I am not a believer, full disclosure, but I do think the Bible puts things very succinctly in many places. I hope you have a great day, and stay clear of the war mongers...
Johnson had a history of heart disease, and looked unwell when Cronkite interviewed him at his Texas ranch just 10 days earlier. Apparently he was chain smoking and drinking heavily, and was popping nitroglycerin pills for angina like candy. He was the same age as me when he died (64), which is sobering, although I'm as hale and hearty as he was sickly.
And the same day the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam was announced, which made the timing of Johnson's death almost eerie. It was a history-packed newscast.
LBJ died two days after Nixon’s second inauguration. In November 1972, Nixon won reelection by a margin of just under 18 million votes (17,838,725 votes). That remains to this day (July 2024) the largest victory margin in American election history. Reagan’s “landslide” margin in 1984 (16,878,120 votes) was just under one million votes less than Nixon’s victory margin in 1972. I am certain that Nixon’s landslide reelection in 1972 broke LBJ’s heart and contributed to his demise.
@@MarkHarrison733 Nobody, except the fools in Massachusetts, wanted McGovern. And Nixon’s record of success and significant accomplishment in his first term was compelling. But Nixon succeeded where LBJ failed and I am sure that galled LBJ.
Walter Cronkite sure knew how to take a phone call. Wonderful how Walter Cronkite's graceful on-air persona still rises head and shoulders out of all those who reported on the successive death's of JFK and LBJ.
The real reason Johnson left Washington DC was because his heart disease had gotten worse and he didn't want America to deal with another president dying in office.
Or his massive ego couldn't take being beaten because of the total mess of Vietnam and likely defeat to Robert F Kennedy .. He was reported as saying he didn't want to be seen as the mistake between two Kennedy's.
Its interesting but very different how he is doing most of this story while on the phone! Normally we would hear the other person talking. Cronkite was obviously a master newscaster, the most important & trusted of his era. Its also interesting he was on air to report deaths of BOTH JFK & LBJ.
Dead air but the substance and worthiness of the news is missed. Now you news alert for a car chase or bank robbery. I missed the news being news and I disagree. Journalist and role of real journalist (not new celebrities) currently is weak and suspect.
RIP to: Lyndon B. Johnson John F Kennedy Jacqueline Onassis Lady Bird Johnson Richard Nixon Pat Nixon Gerald Ford Betty Ford Ronald Reagan Nancy Reagan George H.W. Bush Barbara Bush Rosalynn Carter Dwight D Eisenhower Herbert Hoover, Truman, Churchill, and their wives may they rest in peace in the afterlife forever and ever
Assuming the manner and timing of his death remained the same, had Johnson run in ‘68, and won, and served a full term, he would have left office on January 20, 1973, just 2 days before he died.
LBJ stopped smoking cigarettes as soon as he became president on November 22, 1963, and voved to never smoke again until he was no longer president. He resumed smoking cigarettes on January 21, 1969, and died 4 years later in 1973.
When news was news. Glad I experienced Cronkite for a few years before he retired in ‘81. What is called news these days seem to be full of opinion shows which has divided this country to a sickening degree
Truly....propaganda...not real news. #justsaying
Watched him all my life until he retired. I, even as a child, respected him!❤ 2:24
@@ClassicRoyal Cronkite was a Communist.
News became progressive and woke opinionated
No joke, Reagan's fault. He enacted rules that allowed news orgs to be profit-generating entertainment
He passed just a few weeks after President Truman's funeral . This would be the last time LBJ was seen in public .
And I was alive to see both funerals televised. The Reverend Billy Graham was the one that conducted Johnson's funeral.
Interesting, didn’t know that!
The Reverend Billy Graham also presided at Richard Nixon's Funeral.
Not true. LBJ attended the inauguration of Dolph Briscoe as Governor of Texas on January 16, 1973. www.tsl.texas.gov/governors/modern/briscoe-p02.html
Was Truman funeral televised??
I suspect nobody changed the channel when Cronkite told them to hang on, they just waited for however long it took.
In those days there weren't many channels to turn to. No 24 hr news cycle either.
Walter puts up his finger, and we all wait a minute....
I bet the signal was for the producer on the floor
@@jljordan1 probably.
@moboutmen No, I think he knew he was on the air and was telling America "I'll be right with you."
@@waynetompkins3006 I agree, he was talking to the viewers in his mind (in my opinion)
"Hold on, America. I'm ordering a pizza."
In 1995 I spoke with one of LBJ's ranch hands, and he told me that the President was dead on the floor of a small bedroom just off the kitchen of the ranch house.
did you cheer
History Fact: Tom Johnson, press secretary to LBJ who delivered the news to Cronkite on-air, went on to be the first president of a little channel called CNN, whose first anchor would be Evening News correspondent Bernard Shaw.
Thanks to its leftist politics, it still is a little channel.
@@jimfesta8981it's a known channel
@jimfesta8981 it's not a leftist channel. Its huge now by speculation and headlines and not by reporting the news. Leftist or far righter it's a headline station that can attract views by mention of apparent news
BS. CNN's ratings are in the toilet. @@hazmat7949
@@jimfesta8981under Tom Johnson,it was a good reliable source of journalism. Now,it,Fox News and MSNBC like to divide everyone for the ratings while all being owned by people within the same corporate umbrella.
Walter Kronkite really went through it all
The goat News reporter 😊😊😊
Cronkite was a Communist.
It’s Cronkite
The greatest news anchor of all times
@@OhyesSofresh He was a Communist who hated the United States.
A secret actuarial study Johnson commissioned in 1967 concluded that he would be unlikely to live to age 65. He died at 64.
Imagine how long he would have lived if he never commissioned that study
@georgecostanza9244 after he left the white house he ate and smoked himself to death
He should of just went to a crystal ball fortune teller would of saved alot of the American taxpayer money lol.
@@georgecostanza9244kind of like the Doctor that had give a cancer patient 3 months to live The patient could come up with the money to pay the Doctors bill. So the Doctor gave him 3 more months to live.
I had ment the patient couldn't come up with the money. Damn auto spelling.
Interestingly enough, Cronkite just concluded his last interview with LBJ 10 days prior to this.
I remarked, here, or maybe somewhere else, how Cronkite kept himself out of the story. The moment was all about LBJ and he wasn't going to get in the way giving himself a walk-on role. Great integrity.
That did him in...
Gone at 64. It used to seem so old. Now? I am 64. I still feel far younger.
Im 64 too
Do they still need you? Do they still feed you?
Lot of smoking and drinking and eating fatty foods and lack of exercise back then.
@@NYVoice Join the club.
Took the call, kept his cool, relayed the information directly and clearly - doesn't get much better than that.
This is REAL. If CNN were covering this there would be dramatic music, over the top graphics stating BREAKING NEWS!!!, then a panel of 7 nobodies discussing their opinions of the event.
This feels like its actually happening in front of us. Sensationalism has truly murdered Journalism.
Sadly, all cable news channels national and local would also be doing that. Sensationalism has indeed murdered journalism.
Reagan killed it by destroying the Fairness Doctrine.
CNN, when? Look up the person he was talking to on that phone....
80 yrs old now...tell me...these news shows w/100 panel of "experts" unreal🤡🃏
“Breaking News”- by definition all news is “Breaking “
Crazy how young 64 seems now, when the two main candidates running are close to 80…
Like Tommy Lee Jones, he always looked about a decade older than he actually was.
One's Over 80 😳
The other one was Arrested on RICO and Racketeering Charges@@wayneburch3775
I didn't realize he was that young. Scary, cuz that's my age! 😮
JB is over 80
Walter Cronkite. Straight news, no BS. One of my childhood mentors. 👍🏽😎
I met Mr. Cronkite in 1988 at Book People in Austin, Texas. A Texas treasure, both Cronkite and Johnson, with all their help from a grateful nation.
Truly a man with morals and integrity
When the news was REAL...
@@endtheliesnow5906 Don't conflate news with cable news. Cable news channels need to fill 24 hours of programming with about 30 minutes of actual news.
I love how Cronkite held his finger up letting the whole nation know he was on the phone. And I also love that he literally delivered the news immediately after it happened.
Back in the days when journalists were respected and delivered the facts.
And they weren't expected to have opinions one way or the other. They were trained and expected to be neutral, and let the people interpret the facts, one way or the other. Now everyone is an Op Ed "journalist". It's a shame, and it robbed the once honorable profession of journalism of every bit of its credibility.
Still do. Freedom of the Press.
Radical Right wing extremist hates our Freedom of the Press.
News was a public service put out by broadcasters as part of their duty while holding a broadcast license. News wasn't expected to make money. Today it's called infotainment. And is all about getting the biggest share of ratings.
No fake news media like msnbc Fox News
I grew up watching Cronkite documentaries...incredible!
Walter Cronkite a legend, there will never be anyone like him
If LBJ had run and been re-elected in 1968, he’d have ended his second term on January 20, 1973, two days before he died. Or more likely he’d have had a heart attack during his second term with all that stress and died even earlier.
Tbh I think he would have lost to Nixon but RFK might’ve lived if we’re throwing a wrench in the timeline like that
@@jumbostorm887 Agreed, considering how tough LBJ had it with Vietnam placed squarely around his neck. Would’ve been interesting to see RFK vs Nixon. Who do you think would’ve won that matchup and why?
@@edwardp3502This is of course impossible to answer, but I give RFK the edge. The number one issue in 1968 was Vietnam. This is a bit of generalization, but broadly most people wanted Vietnam to go away. Not necessarily lose the war, but to find a way to end the war without too much damage to American prestige. In the same speech announcing that he would run for president, LBJ ended rejecting a military solution to the war and chose the political solution by opening the peace talks in Paris. Nixon accepted of a political solution by promising to continue the peace talks and just presented as the man who could run the better bargain. Hence his slogan of "peace with honor" meant to appeal to both doves and hawks. Humphrey for a long time promised to continue LJB's policies. It is significant that Humphrey was laughing in the polls, but started to rise when gave a speech in Salt Lake City on 30 September 1968 that offered a much detailed peace plan than Nixon did. The 1968 election was extremely close with Nixon winning by a narrow margin. And there was Wallace running on a hawkish platform calling for a military solution to Vietnam. If Wallace was not running, those voters would have gone to Nixon. RFK was not made the mistake that Humphrey did of waiting too late to offer a detailed peace plan than Nixon did. RFK and LBJ hated each other, and Kennedy was not beholden to Johnson the same way Humphrey was. Humphrey had wanted to give his Salt Lake City speech at the Democratic convention in Chicago in August, but chose not to when LBJ told it would be disloyal for him to do that. RFK did not care about Johnson's feelings the way Humphrey did. So for it worth, RFK would had the advantage.
@@jumbostorm887Bobby Kennedy would’ve walked into the White House. It would’ve changed the entire political landscape for the next 30-40 years. We would’ve been spared corrupt administrations like Reagan and both Bushes. Sirhan Sirhan didn’t act alone. The kennedy’s and our country had many domestic enemies. If RFK lived he was going to end the Vietnam war. That meant billions lost to a lot of powerful corporations.
He figured he wouldn't live through a second term. He said "Americans are tired of seeing their leaders die while in office".
I'm sure many Vietnam vets were not grieving over LBJ's exit, I sure didn't.
Neither were the POW-MIA families. LBJ's "Keep Quiet" Policy about their loved ones' treatment in Hanoi caused them a LOT of grief-and that's on top of what the NVN inflicted.
@@mattwiser8406I think this silently killed him because he inherited this war. The men he had in charge kept lying to him about staying in the war when he wanted to end it almost as soon as he became president. Sadly, the casualties weighed heavily on him.
FLBJ he had Kenedy killed.
@@DavidTucker-yk1bkWe Know 😊
@@DavidTucker-yk1bkAnd covered up the Liberty in 1967.
President Johnson died a month before I was born. Love the sound of old typewriters in the background. Walter Cronkite was a class act.🥰
Same here. Hello fellow Feb '73 baby. What a long, strange trip it's been.
@@daveubermensch 🙋🏻♀️Yes, it definitely has!
I second that motion! #justsaying
@@daveubermenschGen Xrs rule😊
So you were born on Christmas Day or the day before that?
Cronkite was a fabulous reporter, very professional and respected
He looked a lot older than 64.
His heart was weak already. Vietnam and the Civil unrest did him in.
@@moboutmenNot to mention the lifetime of chain smoking.
Was he corrupt, *YES, Absolutely!!!*
Was he the most corrupt of them all????
*Not at all!!* Especially when you compare today’s political candidates!!
Having to keep his mouth shut for Carlos might have been what did him in, considering that Vietnan had made him the most hated man in the world. He had finally got his dream come true of becoming pres. and holding numerous political records, but never realized until he was almost done w/ his term. Even watching the Kennedy bros., who berrated him on a regular basis get taken down and replaced by him and his buddies, seemed to still not even make the guy happy in the end!! Those may have been the moments that I believe made political figures like Johnson and Nixon “soften up” or become “less bitter” w/ age and as the war progressed.
LBJ heart condition was blamed on the fat he had in his diet. If course it simply couldn't have anything to do with his lifetime commitment to chain smoking. Smoking was safe according to experts paid for by the tobacco industry
I understand he drank a lot too.
Nobody was better than walter cronkite. I was born in 1965. LBJ a towering figure.
I came the year after that.
Mr Cronkite, 40 Million Americans are watching you live right now!
Walter: Hold up a minute, I'm on the phone.
I'd love to get the number to that phone behind him oh the pranks i could do........Who answers the phone on live television?
Walter Kronkite gave the news and nothing but news no personal opinion or thoughts. Just delivered the news.
He was a lefty but he really didn't show it during his broadcast career. He did his job, what he was supposed to do. And report the news fairly. What a true journalist used to do.
Hows the MK Ultra going for you....
He was a truly great man. His announcing how many troops died every day in Vietnam was credited with ending our involvement there.
If he said it you could be sure it was the truth. I am sorry there is no one like him today.
They had only a very limited amount of time to inform. There was no 24 hrs of airtime to fill with garbage opinions.
@@ArthurIdis-c7kare you kidding Chronkite was pretty conservative. You have been brainwashed and misinformed.
Interesting Irony: LBJ died just 2 days after the second Inauguration of his successor, Richard M. Nixon. And before that, Ike died 2 months after the first Presidential Inauguration of his Vice-President, also Nixon. 🇺🇲
How is that ironic?
The timing of these historic events among the same 3 men/presidents…
My grandfather deer hunted with him the last couple years of his life. He said he was a nasty old dude
Everyone that knew him has said basically the same thing.LBJ wasn’t a bc good guy
The flip side is everything I’ve read and heard was that Lady Bird was an excellent first lady, and treated everyone around her wonderfully.
He was a crass old man who could not stop talking about his johnson. No lie.
LBJ never gave up his racist side of him. The real reason why he signed the 1964 civil rights bill into law was to ensure that African-Americans ("N-word" he called them) kept voting Democrat for the next 200 years. He never wanted equality for everyone. It was strictly a political ploy for the Democratic Party. He was phony from the word "go".
I was 5 when this happened. Honestly don't remember this moment. But I definitely remember Walter Cronkite. Even as a kid I knew he was the man! I always respected him and loved listening to him I watch these old clips and sometimes repeatedly. There's something about his delivery and professionalism that just grabs me every time. He was and is the standard bearer for what a journalist should be. RIP Walter Cronkite.
Cronkite was a Communist.
His death came only 27 days after Harry truman...the second shortest passing between american presidents (the shortest being between Thomas Jefferson and john adams who died 3 hours apart om july 4th 1826) and left the sitting president (richard nixon) as the only living president until he resigned 18 and a half months later
Interesting that Jefferson and Adams died on the same day, America's birthday.
HR McMaster’s book “Dereliction of Duty : Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, The Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam”
Best book I have ever read. McMaster doesn’t miss a single fact. I lost my only brother to Agent Orange.
@@bigmac9940May your brother rest in peace.
This is back when the reporters on TV actually reported the news.
I was a college sophomore working at a 1,000 watt radio station that evening when the AP wire gave out a 5-bell alarm, it's highest signal of importance. I pressed a button to play a one-minute Public Service Announcement. I ripped the AP announcement from the teletype machine, and when the recorded PSA concluded, I told our small audience that President Johnson was dead. I left radio work when I graduated in 1976, but I will never forget that night.
Johnson just didn't care anymore. His daughter tried to get him to stop smoking again but he grew his hair long and smoked like chimney his last years.
He did that from all the guilt he harbored
@@debbiebrantley61 Johnson tried to negotiate a ending to the war in Vietnam before he left office. Nixon committed treason when he told the S. Vietnamese government that they would get a better deal under his administration. Historical note: The war dragged on another 5 years and didn't end well for S. Vietnam.
He felt guilty over taking out JFK.
he was a shell by the end of his term due to Vietnam
THIS is what you call, 'BREAKING NEWS'.
The Two Fifths of Scotch per day might have been an issue.
LBJ died the very same day that the Roe v. Wade decision came out.
I remember seeing him on TV where he was attending a college football game just a short time before he died.
He was a totally different Democrat. Pretty sure he'd shake his head at how both parties are now.
@@quentincampbell612he'd laugh at trumps cult
Trump's cult didn't get 58,000 Americans killed in Viet Nam @@gregtennessee8249
I Love seeing these old recordings.❤
"And that's the way it is."
I read his autobiography, A Reporter's Life. Pure class. No BS.
He was a lifelong Communist.
I think had served another term, that fatal heart attack could have happened in the White House.
He was unelectable in 1968.
@@MarkHarrison733You mean he didn't have the right to run or that he wouldn't win against Nixon?
@@Dimitristhe So many young people were against him due to Vietnam; and the Tet Offensive made even more people doubt the truthfulness of the American government and military. And we only had a couple years with the Voting Rights Act that both parties favored Blacks voting. Nixon then devised "the Southern Strategy" to move Southerners from the Democratic to the Republican Party because of race. Nixon may have undermined the peace talks with North Vietnam as well.
I read the election of 1968 was extremely close; had Humphrey scored enough votes to win California, Ohio and Illinois, he would have won. Who knows if Johnson had run whether he could have defeated Nixon?
A poignant slice of history.....
Back when there was journalism.
Cry
What a legend
Only Walter Kronkite could have half of America wait on him! On the same day Roe v. Wade was put into law! Talk about historic!
From this point, up until Gerald Ford became president a year and a half later, there were no living former presidents. Just Nixon as the current president. Quite unique.
President Johnson did some wonderful things, and some awful things as President. In my opinion, the stress of his job and the events that were going on during his Presidency did him in. I had read he was a heavy smoker, which in no doubt damaged his health - but when he did not run again for President in 1968, saying he would not accept his party's nomination - I think that spoke volumes.
From my understanding, he stopped smoking when he either became President or Vice President, but after he left office, he stopped caring about his health and started smoking heavily again, which caused his health to rapidly decline.
Destroyed this country.
@@metroidnerd9001, he stopped smoking in 1955 after his first heart attack and you are correct he did start smoking again after leaving the White House (literally on the flight back to Texas)
He thought he would be well beaten by Robert Kennedy.
@@robertjoyce4739I guess u didn't like his civil rights act,
Nice cufflinks. People dressed better back then.
We sure did. It's embarrassing now.
So much for the great society.
Socialism failed again
Coincidentally, this happened the same day (Jan. 22, 1973) that challenger George Foreman knocked out champion Joe Frazier in Jamaica to win boxing's heavyweight title.
It was also the same day as the Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision on abortion.
It was 5 days later, the peace accords with North Vietnam was signed and myself and my shipmates on my aircraft carrier were told that our cruise to Vietnam was canceled.
The US involvement continued until the very end.
@MarkHarrison733 Bo Gritz, Chuck Norris and John Rambo were active in Vietnam many years after the war ended. And one of them was even a real dude.
No tears like he shed on air for his predecessor
That's because JFK was more beloved, younger and was actually in office when he died.
@@Tunneltwj and he wasn’t murdered
Crazy that this is the last Democratic president to die as of this moment, over 50 years ago.
I was in second grade then. They announced it over the loudspeaker in class the next days. We were told, "He was president when most of you were born.
Sworn in as president in a plane, died in a plane. The irony!
He was long dead before the plane ride to San Antonio. In an interview seen on television in the 1990’s, a former ranch hand who was employed at the Johnson ranch stated LBJ was found dead on the floor of a tiny bedroom on the first floor off the kitchen of the ranch house.
He technically was pronounced dead on the plane, but for all intents & purposes he died before he hit the floor.
The protocols then were much different than today. Back then everyone got resuscitated. Now paramedics would pronounce DOA.
@@rapman5791 What we witnessed here was the "first draft" of history.
That's real ironic
It still was a plane involved in his death
Amazing how family fortune was Mrs. Johnson. She had the money, and he had the power of Office of President, so it balanced it all out.
Lady Bird Johnson was one of the most gracious first ladies ever. She is the person responsible for Texas' love for wildflowers, especially the Texas bluebonnets and she outlived him by over 45 years.
@@SMcCaskill Lady Bird is quite beloved.
Imagine having to tell all of America "hang on, I'm on the phone."
We've gone From Cronkite to Jon Stewart and Stepanopolis. How far we have fallen!
Sorry bucko, Jon Stewart is not a journalist, never has been and he's unlikely to ever become one. Snuffleofolis, OTH, moved from being a political media type to becoming a political media type just as LBJ's media man moved to become head of CNN at its founding. Similarly, Roger Aisles, who had long been a Republican operative, was the leader of the creation of Fox News. And, on Fox News there are 'comedians' that pump out right wing slop by the truckload. Guys like Gutfeld and Steven Crowder who was on Fox until about 2013.
You think Jon Stewart is a journalist?
Man you’re messed up.
America did not know then what it had in Lyndon Johnson. I hope history will see him as he was, as a man of the people, that saw as much potential in every person as he did his own nation.
When the news had integrity instead of being op-ed hit pieces. We need journalists like Uncle Walter back.
I remember seeing His funeral on TV when I was a kid. His Presidency would have been more successful if it weren't for the quagmire of Vietnam!
That’s his own fault,Vietnam coukd r been over in a few months had he ever listened to his military advisors.
I served in the military in combat in Vietnam. I went there whole and came home totally disabled.
I was in third grade. I remember we got a day off school for the funeral; I think it was a Friday. I don't remember seeing the funeral on TV, although I vaguely remember seeing part of Truman's funeral. Truman passed while we were on Christmas break.
A day off from school? We did not get one and I honestly would not remember when he died anyway. I only looked at this because it was Walter Cronkite
@@Maya-bu2rf National Day of Mourning. Presidential Funerals are typically National Holidays. I remember I was so happy for a day off from school and my mom told me it wasn't going to be a fun day for the Johnson family.
@@B-and-O-Operator-Fairmont I would have been a high school senior then. I was 8 in 3rd grade when JFK died. That I remember like it was yesterday. LBJ was a president but I felt nothing about him like a lot of people because of how he became president. If I knew it happened at the time I would have felt bad for Lady Bird. The only news thing I remember from early that year was the release of the Vietnam POW's. I wore an ID bracelet with the name, rank, and date of plane or helicopter crash. My POW was released on the first flight out of Hanoi. I remember seeing his name on the list. I know there was no day off from school for LBJ for us. Maybe in some places, but not here.
I was in 3rd grade also
I'm 60 yrs old know, where has the
Time gone ?
I was in 5th grade and I don’t remember any of it. When we pulled out of Vietnam not long after this, I had no clue we had been in a war. I was like “we were in a war? Hmmm”😂 My parents shielded us from the news. The TV was OFF at dinner time.
Typewriters in the back sounds like firecrackers. I am sure a lot of kids now won't know what is a Typewriter.
I remember that going down.
Only 64...stress is a killer
And a guilty conscience. He was a ruthless man. Anything to get ahead.
That what Arteriosclerosis, Heart Disease does.
Back when CBS did the news the right way
I have a distinct memory of watching this as it happened, while my family sat around the dinner table.
Is this scene colorized? I recall the original scene was in Black & White.
It’s likely your TV was still black and white because CBS had color broadcasts starting in 1951.
There was no black & white news in the 70's.. in the US
You were obviously watching on a black and white TV, or you're misrembering. Of course it was in color!
A copy previously posted to TH-cam (with the date and time stamped on top) came from the Vanderbilt news archives, which was still recording in B&W in 1973.
@@andyrose5616yeah that’s where I first saw this clip was by that archive.
4:11
“And then spent a year teaching school to the second-class citizens of Texas: Mexican-Americans. Later, they would vote for him.”
That actually made me cry 😢. LBJ had a deep sympathy and empathy for his Hispanic students and the socioeconomic problems they faced. The poverty those Mexican children endured and the fact that nobody cared about them clearly had an impact on LBJ when he became president and when he signed the Higher Education Act of 1965.
Johnson condemned African-Americans to live in poverty.
He was openly racist and corrupt.
I met Cronkite at J.F. Kennedy airport in baggage claim at AA in 1983. He was waiting for his luggage.
Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.
Isaiah 5:13
No one knows who wrote that stuff. All the Bible’s writers were anonymous except a couple. And there’s no proof of any of that is true. The Bible is the most immoral book ever written. If people actually read it and we’re honest that’s the conclusion they would come to.
Amen -
Amen and thank you for the scripture
Ezekiel 23:20
@@jamesrecknor6752 I think Hell was made for LBJ. I am not a believer, full disclosure, but I do think the Bible puts things very succinctly in many places. I hope you have a great day, and stay clear of the war mongers...
No spin, no opinion...just the facts. I miss those days!
I’m sorry- the date jumps out at me. George Foreman beat Joe Frazier that very day.
Johnson had a history of heart disease, and looked unwell when Cronkite interviewed him at his Texas ranch just 10 days earlier. Apparently he was chain smoking and drinking heavily, and was popping nitroglycerin pills for angina like candy. He was the same age as me when he died (64), which is sobering, although I'm as hale and hearty as he was sickly.
Love Walter Cronkite. ❤️Simply the Best.
This is also the same day when Roe v. Wade decision came out.
A step forward in reproductive
healthcare for the maternal side. It is disgusting that the ruling was reversed after nearly 50 years.
Had LBJ run in 1968 and won reelection his term would have expired 2 days earlier than his death
And the same day the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam was announced, which made the timing of Johnson's death almost eerie. It was a history-packed newscast.
@@Kentrc11Nothing says maternal love like death 😊
Not a good day for babies, or LBJ.
LBJ died two days after Nixon’s second inauguration. In November 1972, Nixon won reelection by a margin of just under 18 million votes (17,838,725 votes). That remains to this day (July 2024) the largest victory margin in American election history. Reagan’s “landslide” margin in 1984 (16,878,120 votes) was just under one million votes less than Nixon’s victory margin in 1972.
I am certain that Nixon’s landslide reelection in 1972 broke LBJ’s heart and contributed to his demise.
LBJ admitted he wanted Nixon to win instead of McGovern.
@@MarkHarrison733
Nobody, except the fools in Massachusetts, wanted McGovern. And Nixon’s record of success and significant accomplishment in his first term was compelling.
But Nixon succeeded where LBJ failed and I am sure that galled LBJ.
My dad escorted the body from San Antonio to Austin.he was Secret Service
A great man of history. LBJ all the way.
Walter Cronkite sure knew how to take a phone call.
Wonderful how Walter Cronkite's graceful on-air persona still rises head and shoulders out of all those who reported on the successive death's of JFK and LBJ.
JFK came for LBJ ten years later
He died three weeks after Harry S. Truman died.
I remember this announcement as a teenager.
HOORAY!!!!! This video is in color!
We had color tv by then.
How you tell me hold on on live tv!?
What else could we do😮
It was a different era, and Walter Cronkite was perhaps the only person who could pull that off. Today they'd cut to a commercial.
I like the Photo of Walter Cronkite with the phone
This war criminal.
And dying with him is the true story of the JFK because he surly knew what happened and who did it
The real reason Johnson left Washington DC was because his heart disease had gotten worse and he didn't want America to deal with another president dying in office.
Or his massive ego couldn't take being beaten because of the total mess of Vietnam and likely defeat to Robert F Kennedy .. He was reported as saying he didn't want to be seen as the mistake between two Kennedy's.
Its interesting but very different how he is doing most of this story while on the phone! Normally we would hear the other person talking. Cronkite was obviously a master newscaster, the most important & trusted of his era.
Its also interesting he was on air to report deaths of BOTH JFK & LBJ.
This news would never work today. Dead air is totally a no no in television and radio.
Dead air but the substance and worthiness of the news is missed. Now you news alert for a car chase or bank robbery. I missed the news being news and I disagree. Journalist and role of real journalist (not new celebrities) currently is weak and suspect.
When america was a very interesting place with the good and the bad.
I remember this well. I’m saddened by the degradation of our country at home and Worldwide. God bless America. Lord, hear our prayers. 🇺🇸🙏❤️
RIP to: Lyndon B. Johnson John F Kennedy Jacqueline Onassis Lady Bird Johnson Richard Nixon Pat Nixon Gerald Ford Betty Ford Ronald Reagan Nancy Reagan George H.W. Bush Barbara Bush Rosalynn Carter Dwight D Eisenhower Herbert Hoover, Truman, Churchill, and their wives may they rest in peace in the afterlife forever and ever
I remember hearing that very broadcast. My parents had CBS on all the time. None of us liked Cronkite, but his delivery was seamless.
Assuming the manner and timing of his death remained the same, had Johnson run in ‘68, and won, and served a full term, he would have left office on January 20, 1973, just 2 days before he died.
His stress level as President would have been higher, but otherwise he might have taken care of his health better. Who knows?
I was born on his Birthday.. this is a time when America WAS GREAT!! And real journalists
Actually, when Calvin Coolidge died in Jan. 1933, FDR had not been inaugurated yet and Hoover was still President.
By the time Andrew Johnson died in 1875, there was no living ex President until Grant left office in 1877
I watched this broadcast live with my parents.
LBJ stopped smoking cigarettes as soon as he became president on November 22, 1963, and voved to never smoke again until he was no longer president. He resumed smoking cigarettes on January 21, 1969, and died 4 years later in 1973.
The racist had stopped smoking after his near-fatal heart attack on 2 July 1955.
We need Walter Cronkite more than ever, can’t imagine how many men of integrity are rolling over in their graves lately…
And, a Peter Jennings!
I remember watching this broadcast.