Walter Cronkite

1916 – 2009

Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchor of the CBS Evening News from 1962 to 1981 and was so frequently named the "most trusted man in America" in opinion polls that the title became inseparable from his persona. He delivered defining live broadcasts of the Kennedy assassination, the Apollo 11 moon landing, and Vietnam, and his February 1968 on-air assessment that the Vietnam War was unwinnable is widely credited with helping turn American public opinion against the conflict. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1981.

Last checked: May 10, 2026, 1:06 PM