Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 22, 1993 TAG: 9310080343
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GAIL SHISTER KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Rather, just back, with retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, from his first visit to Vietnam since 1974, looks back at some painful trails in ``Schwarzkopf in Vietnam: A Soldier Returns,'' set for 10 p.m. June 30. It marks the return of the once-vaunted documentary series ``CBS Reports.''
Both Schwarzkopf and Rather served tours of duty in Vietnam: Schwarzkopf as an adviser to the South Vietnamese army and as a U.S. battalion commander; Rather as a war correspondent from the battle zones.
Reflecting on the unpopular war, Rather's strongest emotion, he says, is outrage. Outrage at the hypocrisy of those government officials who made speeches supporting the war but privately did not believe in the cause.
``My sense of outrage is much greater now than it was, because I now know things that neither I nor almost anybody else knew at the time,'' says the 61- year-old former Marine. ``Some of those officials did not believe in the war, but they kept telling Americans they did.
``How dare they send young men and women there to die and have their legs blown off and be blinded. Four or five years after the war, in the late '70s, one very high leader called the war `a dustbin' in my presence. It made me shudder at the time.''
During the war, Rather, who served in the Korean War but didn't see combat, ``bought the official U.S. line red, white and blue. I didn't believe that officials were being hypocritical at the time, because perhaps I didn't want to believe it at the time.''
What haunts Rather to this day, he says, is that no American official ``can answer the questions, `Why?' `To what end?' The leadership wasn't able to answer it then and they haven't been able to answer it since.
``I consider this to be the principal lesson of Vietnam. The lesson is: We must never, ever send our sons and daughters to fight when, until and unless we can answer that question.''
There were other lessons America learned from that war, Rather says. Among them: ``Frankly, you can't go halfway. Not with war. You're either at war or you're not. It's like being pregnant. There's no such thing as being a little bit pregnant.''
Another lesson: ``There was a tendency to blame the warriors. This may have been the wrong war, but a lot of really good, patriotic Americans went for the right reasons. Had I been drafted, I would have gone without hesitating a second, because my country was calling. I'd do it now.''
\ More CBS News news:
``Street Stories,'' in its current format, is toast. When it returns in retooled form early next year, it will likely have a new name as well as more wide-ranging stories than its original gritty, urban menu, says CBS News boss Eric Ober.
``I've always felt the title limited us,'' says Ober of the ``48 Hours'' spinoff. ``Such a narrowly defined, depressing piece of business is not the formula for success. ``We're trying to make the stories more wide-ranging.''
``Street Stories'' will air in reruns through the summer before hitting the shelf. Correspondents Robert Baskin and Harold Dow have already been reassigned to Connie Chung's ``Eye to Eye'' and to ``48 Hours,'' respectively.
The remaining correspondents - Deborah Norville, Richard Roth, Peter Van Sant and Bob McKeown - will work for other newsmagazines until the revamped broadcast is launched. No decision yet on whether Baskin and Dow will be replaced on the new show.
No decision, either, on the future of ``Street Stories'' anchor Ed Bradley, also a correspondent with ``60 Minutes.'' Bradley, whose contract is up in January, is being mightily wooed by ABC News czar Roone Arledge to anchor its newsmagazine in development, ``Moments in Crisis.''
Buzz in the biz is that ABC, in need of a high-profile black male anchor, has offered Bradley a five-year deal worth a whopping $4 million a year. That's twice his estimated current salary.
Short stuff:
Troy Roberts, a reporter with CBS-owned WCBS-TV in New York, has been named co-anchor of CBS's overnight ``Up to the Minute.'' Roberts, who joins co-anchor Monica Gaye as of July 5, replaces Russ Mitchell, now with ``Eye to Eye With Connie Chung'' ... ABC Entertainment has signed a deal with Signboard Hill Productions, a subsidiary of Hallmark Cards Inc. and RHI Entertainment Inc. to develop and produce 10 made-for-TV movies for ABC, beginning in the 1994-95 season.
by CNB