Cronkite's War Read online

  Maxwell, Allan Betsy Cronkite’s brother.

  Maxwell, Arthur Betsy Cronkite’s father, referred to as “Petty” in the letters.

  Maxwell, Betty Betsy Cronkite’s sister-in-law, married to Allan Maxwell.

  Maxwell, Eva Betsy Cronkite’s mother, referred to as “Molo” in letters.

  McCreary, John Reagan “Tex” Journalist and public relations specialist who rose to the rank of colonel in the U.S. Army during the war. He married Jinx Falkenburg and later became prominent in Republican Party politics.

  McGlincy, Jim United Press correspondent in London, covering the air war, and Cronkite’s friend and roommate. He later covered the ground war in France and Belgium.

  McLemore, Henry Syndicated columnist for Hearst newspapers.

  Middleton, Drew Arrived in London to cover sports for the Associated Press and stayed on to cover the war, becoming the New York Times military correspondent in 1942. After the war he reported for the Times from Moscow, Berlin, and London.

  Miller, Elizabeth “Lee” Condé Nast Publications war correspondent and photographer. Before the war she had been a model and then a fashion photographer. During the war she often worked on assignments with Life photographer David E. Scherman. In 1944 she covered the fighting in Normandy and the liberation of Paris. In 1945 she photographed Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps. Her postwar marriage to English artist Sir Roland Penrose gave her the title Lady Penrose.

  Morris, Joe Alex Joined United Press in 1928, became UP foreign editor in 1938, and later was named foreign editor of New York Herald Tribune.

  Murray, J. Edward “Ed” United Press correspondent in London. After the war he helped found the Los Angeles Mirror and was its managing editor from 1948 to 1960.

  Murrow, Edward R. Director of the CBS Radio Network in London. With the possible exceptions of Ernie Pyle and Hal Boyle, Murrow was the most famous journalist of World War II and is widely credited with inventing broadcast journalism. He was unsuccessful in his attempts to recruit Cronkite to CBS, but they later became colleagues at the network. In addition to his coverage of the Battle of Britain from London, Murrow is most famous for his early 1950s television series See It Now, especially for the episode challenging the credibility of anti-Communist zealot Joseph McCarthy, Senator from Wisconsin.

  Musel, Robert “Bob” With the United Press since 1927, he covered the Lindbergh kidnapping case and came to London in 1943 and reported on the air war and later the Battle of the Bulge. He also had a side career as lyricist of popular songs like “Pappa Piccolino.” He lived in London until his death in 1999.

  Newman, Al Newsweek correspondent in London and a fraternity brother of Cronkite’s.

  Packard, Eleanor and Reynolds Married United Press correspondents who often worked together, covering the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 and the Spanish Civil War in 1936, and co-authoring Balcony Empire: Fascist Italy at War (1942). They were nicknamed “Pack and Peebee” by their fellow journalists.

  Parris, John United Press correspondent in London who switched to the Associated Press in 1944. After the war, as columnist and editor at North Carolina’s Asheville Citizen-Times, he became an expert on the state’s mountain culture.

  Pinkley, Virgil Senior United Press correspondent in London. He became European business manager of United Press in 1930 and was wounded while covering the desert war in Libya in 1941. After the war he was founding publisher of the Los Angeles Mirror and author of Eisenhower Declassified (1979).

  Poorbaugh, Earl International News Service correspondent.

  Post, Robert Perkins New York Times correspondent in London who covered the Battle of Britain. A member of the Writing Sixty-Ninth, he was killed in Wilhelmshaven raid.

  Ragsdale, Wilmott Time Life war correspondent who landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day plus one. He became a journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1960.

  Richards, Bob United Press correspondent in London, covering the air war.

  Richardson, Bill Former United Press correspondent and managing editor of the U.S. Army magazine Yank in London.

  Richardson, Stanley NBC Radio correspondent.

  Roberts, Ned United Press correspondent in London, covering the air war.

  Roussel, Roy Major in the Eighth Air Force. He was city editor of the Houston Press in the 1930s when Cronkite was starting out there as a reporter.

  Russell, Ned United Press correspondent in London. After the war he worked for the New York Herald Tribune.

  Salisbury, Harrison United Press editor, Cronkite’s boss in London, and later a New York Times foreign correspondent. His chapters on wartime London in his memoir, A Journey for Our Times (1983), are filled with colorful anecdotes about Cronkite and many of the other correspondents Cronkite mentioned in his letters to Betsy.

  Scherman, David E. Life magazine photographer since 1936 who often worked with Condé Nast war correspondent “Lee” Miller. Before the United States entered the war, he had survived the sinking of his ship on the Atlantic by a Nazi surface raider, which was disguised as a merchant vessel. His photographs of the Nazi ship, published in Life, helped the Royal Navy track down and sink the raider. He remained at Life until the magazine’s demise as a weekly in 1972 and edited the best-selling book The Best of “Life” (1973).

  Schulstad, Mel Major in the Eighth Air Force, decorated B-17 pilot, friend of Cronkite’s.

  Shadel, Bill CBS Radio reporter and a “Murrow Boy” who covered the D-Day landings, the Battle of the Bulge, and the liberation of Buchenwald concentration camp. He later was a television anchor for ABC News.

  Sippy, Josephine Red Cross worker.

  Small, Collie United Press correspondent in London. He took over traveling to air bases for Cronkite in mid-1943 and later covered the fighting in France.

  Smith, Clayton Major in Eighth Air Force public relations.

  Stewart, Jimmy One of Hollywood’s best loved actors, for such movies as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), as well as an experienced amateur pilot. He enlisted as a private in the Army Air Corps in 1941 and received his pilots’ wings and a commission in 1942. While the Air Force wanted to restrict him to public relations activities, he campaigned for a combat assignment, and was sent to the Eighth Air Force in December 1943. He flew more than 20 combat missions, was twice awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, and ended the war with the rank of colonel.

  Stowe, Leland Pulitzer Prize–winning foreign correspondent. He spent Christmas Day 1944 with Cronkite in Luxembourg.

  Stronoch, Sally United Press London bureau secretary.

  Tait, Jack New York Herald Tribune correspondent.

  Taylor, Henry J. Scripps-Howard foreign correspondent. Later U.S. ambassador to Switzerland.

  Tighe, Dixie International News Service correspondent in London, “famed for her blunt language and flamboyant life style,” according to Nancy Caldwell Sorel’s history of women correspondents in World War II, The Women Who Wrote the War.

  Trammel, Niles President of NBC Radio Network.

  Twelftrees, Joan British United Press correspondent.

  Wade, William Warren International News Service correspondent who arrived in London in 1941. A member of the Writing Sixty-Ninth, he set off on the Wilhelmshaven raid, but his plane developed engine trouble and turned back. After the war served as bureau chief for Voice of America.

  Wagg, Alfred Chicago Tribune correspondent in London.

  Wallenstein, Marcel Kansas City Star correspondent in London.

  Walton, Bill Time correspondent and a fraternity brother of Cronkite’s. He dropped into Normandy with paratroopers.

  Wellington, Clarence George “Pete” Kansas City Star editor. One of the cub reporters he taught the craft of journalism to was Ernest Hemingway.

  Werner, Merle McDougald “Doug” United Press correspondent in London who took over traveling to air bases for Cronkite in mid-1943. He landed on Utah Beach on June 6, 1944, and the dispatch he wrote that day was among
the first published eyewitness accounts of the invasion. After the war he covered the Nuremberg war crimes trials with Cronkite. He later joined the U.S. State Department as a press attaché. When he died in 2004 at age 91, he was the last surviving correspondent to have accompanied the D-Day landings.

  Whitney, “Jock” John Hay Socially prominent investor serving in the Army Air Force as an intelligence officer. Taken prisoner by the Nazis in southern France in 1944, he escaped from the train carrying him to a POW camp.

  Willicombe, Joe International News Service correspondent.

  Wolf, Tom Reporter for the Newspaper Enterprise Association (a Scripps-Howard syndicate) and an Acme European bureau manager.

  Wyler, William Prominent Hollywood director who won an Oscar for directing 1942’s Mrs. Miniver, which also won five other Oscars, including one for best picture. In 1943, while a major in the Army Air Force, he made the documentary Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress, which told the story of the Eighth Air Force’s bombing campaign over occupied Europe. His 1946 feature film, The Best Years of Our Lives, about veterans returning to civilian life, won him a second Oscar for best director.

  INTRODUCTION

  THE GMT I CALLED

  GRANDDAD

  In the summer of 2010, a year after my grandfather died, my father and I went to the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum, which is located on the University of Texas at Austin campus. In collaboration with the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, it had just opened an exhibition titled “Cronkite: Eyewitness to a Century,” encompassing my grandfather’s life and career. Among other items, the exhibition featured the uniform he wore while serving as a foreign correspondent during World War II. We also spent several days looking through my grandfather’s papers, deposited at the Briscoe Center. I was fascinated as I read his personal correspondence from the war years, especially the scores of letters that he wrote to my grandmother from Europe between 1943 and 1945. They reminded me strongly of the talks about World War II, and military history more generally, that my grandfather and I had shared as I was growing up.

  Recently, while watching the HBO series Band of Brothers, which features a company of paratroopers from the 101st Airborne during the war, I marveled at how often the story of Easy Company reminded me of the tales my grandfather told me about his own wartime experiences. He flew over Normandy on D-Day, not long after the paratroopers had jumped behind enemy lines. He landed in a glider in Holland with the 101st Airborne in Operation Market Garden, and afterward he was allowed to wear the 101st Airborne’s screaming eagle shoulder patch insignia on his uniform. He survived the bombing of Eindhoven by the Luftwaffe on the night after it had been liberated by the Americans. He went on to cover the Battle of the Bulge, including the relief of the 101st during the siege of Bastogne.

  Those are just a few of the great stories that he told me. Co-author Maurice Isserman and I share those and many more in the pages that follow—along with some of my own observations and experience growing up as his grandson, in the hope that they’ll contribute to a more comprehensive picture of the man, his life, his family, and his career.

  Walter and Betsy Cronkite were both of solid midwestern stock, born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. The Maxwells, my grandmother’s family, were a tough Scots-Irish clan. When she died in 2005, I visited Kansas City for her funeral, and my grandfather took us on a driving tour of their old haunts. He was raised as an only child in a large house in a nice neighborhood. My grandmother, the daughter of a postman, grew up in a very small house with many brothers and sisters. The Maxwells were gun enthusiasts, and my grandmother learned how to shoot as a girl. The family used their basement as a pistol shooting range until the foundation of the house started to crumble from the attrition of years of bullets fired. Her parents scraped together enough money to send her to the University of Missouri for a few semesters, but when the money ran dry, she had to drop out. After she got married, she finished her degree by taking night classes. Interestingly, my grandfather never finished his degree at the University of Texas, and he never felt the need to go back and complete it. But it was important to my grandmother to do so.

  Betsy Cronkite also had a professional career in journalism, and so my grandfather’s correspondence with her should be read not only as letters to his wife but also as letters to a fellow reporter. She attended the University of Missouri School of Journalism and found a job at Kansas City’s KCMO radio station as an advertising writer. In 1936 my grandfather became the station’s news announcer. He later said that when he first saw her walk into the office, he was paralyzed by uncharacteristic shyness. The first time they conversed, they were both reading from a script that she had written for a commercial (for the popular Richard Hudnut brand of cosmetics) the station was scheduled to broadcast. After they finished reading the commercial script, my grandfather asked her out to lunch, and they married four years later.

  During the early years of the war, my grandmother was working as women’s editor of the Kansas City Journal-Post, where, among other contributions, she wrote a column providing advice to the lovelorn. In the later years of the war she worked as an editor and writer for Hallmark Cards. She remained an avid reader of newspapers all of her life.

  The effect that World War II had on my grandfather was far more pro-found—and provided the foundation for the rest of his illustrious career. In August 1963 he toured the beaches and cliffs of Normandy with Dwight D. Eisenhower, filming a CBS News special that would air on June 6, 1964, the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy. The former war correspondent who had faced enemy fire to report on the invasion from a bomber overhead walked beside the commander who had led the monumental effort, and the two remembered the thousands of soldiers and sailors who had braved the infernal conditions on the ground that day. Millions of Americans, many of whom were WWII veterans, watched this show on their televisions.

  I was fortunate enough to hear my grandfather tell these stories in person many times over the years. World War II had vaulted him into the top ranks of American reporters. His wartime experience had taken him from the landing grounds of North Africa to bombing raids over occupied Europe, to crash landing in a glider behind enemy lines with the 101st Airborne, and to the Battle of the Bulge and finally to the Nuremberg trials. But it wasn’t until I traveled to the University of Texas to examine his archives did I realize what a defining role the war played in his life.

  One of my grandfather’s favorite war stories took place during the Battle of the Bulge. Somehow he lost his helmet and it rolled into a minefield, and he decided he wasn’t going to risk getting it back. He decided he would rather go around bareheaded, which was against regulations. So, who should come driving down the road in a motorcade but Gen. George S. Patton. Old Blood and Guts was a stickler for regulations, especially concerning dress. When he saw my grandfather without his helmet, General Patton ordered the motorcade to come to a screeching halt and, assuming WC was a soldier, got out to yell at him. General Patton was disappointed to find out that the object of his lesson was a correspondent, and he could not punish him.

  My grandfather spent all of 1943 stationed in London, covering the U.S. aerial war against Germany. The country had been bombed relentlessly during the German Blitz, and everyone who lived through that time faced shortages of all kinds. My grandfather’s preoccupation with finding a decent meal—not surprising given the scarcities of wartime England—left a lasting mark on him. After the war, my grandparents loved going out to dinner with friends. In New York they enjoyed mingling at the top restaurants of the day. When I was young, I remember them frequenting Le Cirque, Aquavit, Le Côte Basque, and Caravelle. In his Christmas letter of 1943, he reminisces about going to the steak house Keens with my grandmother while they were living in New York. They continued to eat at Keens occasionally, and eventually my grandfather had his pipe hung on the wall, alongside pipes belonging to Teddy Roosevelt, Babe Ruth, Albert Einstein, and other notable patrons. />
  Coffee was also scarce in wartime Britain, but that didn’t bother my grandfather, who rarely drank it. My grandmother, in contrast, drank coffee all day long. She always bought Maxwell House coffee, probably because it shared the family name. WC preferred hot chocolate, and he drank milk with anything. In letters home from their time in Moscow, in 1946–48, Grandmother complained that they could never find fresh milk, only powdered. But she would mix it with cocoa or Ovaltine to make it palatable.

  When nighttime came, my grandparents, like many of their generation, enjoyed a good drink. Newspapermen were hard drinkers in those days, and some of them, like my grandfather’s wartime friend and colleague Jim McGlincy, battled a serious problem with alcohol. In his letters home to my grandmother, WC would note that he wasn’t drinking nearly as much as the other reporters he socialized with. Some family history helps explain his need to reassure her on that score. During the First World War, his father—my great-grandfather—became an alcoholic. The family story is that he was fine before he went, but after enduring the horrors of that horrific war, he came out a changed man. Perhaps my grandfather wrote to Betsy to reassure her that he wasn’t going to turn out like his own father.

  But he wasn’t a teetotaler—and neither was my grandmother. At a restaurant, if a waiter informed her that they served only wine and beer, she would leap to her feet and lead the party out the door in search of a more hospitable venue. If my grandparents arrived at a party that didn’t have liquor, they wouldn’t stay for long.

  A shortage of another sort—at first my grandfather hardly had anything to wear—reveals a side of him that many people don’t know about. WC placed a great deal of importance on personal appearance. He took the utmost care in his dress and grooming, believing it reflected outwardly the care a man took in his professional and personal life. He made sure the knot of his tie was always perfectly in place, his shirt cuffs were trim, his shoes were shined, etc. After the war he wore tailored Brooks Brothers suits and Hermès ties.