We always talked about objectivity, American journalists. I think it's a word now that's discredited, although I think it's still possible. But Walter...

I think it had a tremendous impact. Walter Cronkite -- we almost realize it more now than we did when he was on the air -- still is very much a force....

You'll have to tell me again what year that was again now, Brian. I can't even remember.

Oh, yes, '68.

Sorry, yes. I was in the McCarthy campaign. It was my first network assignment. I'd gone from the local station, WNBC, and they sort of let me try my...

No, I was still campaigning.

It was either that or be a ballerina -- both of which took good legs. Actually it was my father who said, "Fine, if you want to go into show business,...

New Haven, Conn.

It was terrific. It was a small, leafy, little collegiate town. Yale University. It was a big Italian-American town. Lots of family, lots of friends....

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Oh, yes!

Yes.

Yes. I always get offended when some reviewer says this but doesn't put it in quotes because I do say that. Thank you for noticing.

And just go with them?

Being a woman wasn't really an issue. As I mention in the book, my father and my mother as well, but particularly my father -- you know, fathers and...

Yes, I guess I have. I guess I really have -- or it stayed with me. One or the other.

Sometimes. Sometimes, yes. It's a pretty secular business. Moving around the world a lot sometimes gets hard, but I think it's also your strength as...

I don't know. You mean whether they practice a religion?

Yes, in a way I think for a lot of them, politics becomes their religion or broadcasting becomes their religion.

Conservative, yes. I was a charter member, literally, of Young Americans for Freedom back in the early '60s. Actually it was the late '50s because I...

I think so. It's more than attitude. I'm very apolitical. I mean, after having covered politicians so much all my life, I basically have no belief in...

Yes, a couple. Yes. I think they find each other. I don't think people label themselves, but they wind up finding themselves on the sides of issues...

Sure.

Yes, that's my reputation, always was my reputation in the business. I think it's true. I'm outspoken. I'm intolerant often, especially of incompetence,...

Most of the time it's not calculated. There are times when it's calculated. It's not a seemly quality in women, especially if you're working for all...

Yes, to cover combat. I think a couple were there to do features and things, but I was the first one, and the only one for a long time, assigned on...

Let's see. The first time was six months, then it was one month, then it was three months, then it was another month, and finally they sent me to Singapore...

I'll tell you why. Because I had a story finally. Any number of people will come to you and say, "Write a book. You know, you lead such a fascinating...

I vary. I go back and forth. Sometimes I'm sorry I wrote it. Other days I'm very proud of it.

It's a melancholy book in many ways. That wasn't deliberate. I don't think it's a sour book. I don't think it's a get-even book because that certainly...

Oh, sure. People say, "You're bitter." Usually my riposte is, "That doesn't mean what I say isn't true." But I don't feel bitter. Naturally I feel disappointed...

No, I don't think that. As a matter of fact, you should see some of the stuff that I took out because I thought people would feel that way -- about...

Well, he had a problem about women, obviously. I mean, that's shown up several times in his career. The most recent one was the University Club vote...

Who was she?

Referred to often as the Dragon Lady?

On the back of your book, there's a lot of praise. "Advance praise for 'Fighting For Air.'" One of them was interesting. David Brinkley says, "Liz Trotta...

It doesn't matter to him?

You like Chet Huntley?

Why?

He called you once?

You're in your apartment in Greenwich Village.

You were at local WNBC at that time?

Howard Tuckner.

Howard Tuckner and the story that you write in here, something that had made the rounds for years, about the phony stand-up piece under fire. Who was...

Did it get on the air?

There were other stories that made the rounds about reporters going to Vietnam and having their sound man fire in the air while they ducked down. Did...

Have you come close to either getting wounded or dying?

How do you remember all this stuff? Did you take notes at the time?

One of the networks fought the existence of those archives years ago. Do you think that was a good idea to fight it?

Does it come back to haunt them?

One of the things you talk about in your book is seeing some of your reports 20 years later.

Why did it take you 20 years to see yourself on tape?

Page 104: "Someone once said that if we had daily satellites then as we do now, the war would have been over much sooner. Perhaps that is true. We might...

What impact did Morley Safer's Zippo lighter on Cam Ne have on the war?

Would you have done it?

Yes.

Did you find any news people while you were covering the war that were after a certain side of the story and left the other side of the story alone....

How do you feel about the war looking back on it?

Were you in favor of it?

Your salary in 1968 was $25,521?

Was that normal at the time?

Any man was making more than $25,000?

You write about Dan Rather's $36-million, 10-year contract?

Did all that get under you skin?

Let me ask you a question. I'll ask you and see if you have the answer. Today, if there was a Vietnam War and you were a correspondent over there or...

Yes.

Too much money?

Why?

You write that Roger Mudd didn't get the anchor job at the time he was in competition with Dan Rather because he didn't cover the war.

Did you get fired from NBC and CBS?

Why?

After covering the war?

Was that a fair speech, by the way?

You're talking about the Des Moines speech?

Did the networks change after that speech?

I cut you off. You were talking about why you got fired.

You worked at CNN for a while?

What did you do?

Why did you leave?

Why?

Lou Dobbs.

Why?

Who are some of the other screamers in television?

Did you do any of the screaming?

Why?

Craig J. Spence. We heard a lot about Craig J. Spence here in this town. I'm not sure the rest of the country did because it was a Washington Times...

Who did he work for in Vietnam?

Worked directly for a member of the Diet?

What kind of people came to his parties?

He was a good example, I think, as to how so many Japanese were able to get a foothold here to see how it worked, to see how this town worked. It all...

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.

Yes, I did.

No, he didn't. He was running it. It was a perfectly harmless tour. I was kind of bored with it because I had already seen the White House several times....

Several of Craig's friends. You know, I can't even remember most of the names. One of the reasons for the whole party that weekend, which was a perfectly...

Yes, the Vietnam Memorial. I sure got him involved in a hornet's nest. It became big news, as you know. That's when that tour took place that weekend....

It was probably true. I don't think he was running it. I think he was probably a customer. I think so.

I think that may well be true. It hasn't been solved, if you will, to my satisfaction. I mean, I'm not about to say on the air who I think was involved...

One of the great artists at Simon & Schuster picked that out of a group photo. I was eating C-rations in a hole somewhere in the Delta and they spotted...

Yes.

Yes.

George Barrett was a very, very esteemed and veteran reporter for the New York Times. He was a great Korean War reporter. He was the dean of the night...

It's now called the Freedom Forum, by the way.

Yes, I did that. But my major project at Gannett was the military and the media. Of course, while I was there, we went to war in Panama and then the...

Very hard.

Well, because when you're writing the third person all your life and all of a sudden you have to start writing about yourself, people have to pull things...

Right. I mean, I was very wary of this "I" business, you see. Once I realized it, it was like breaking through a barrier. It really was. I just had...

Jake Burn. It's the only name in the book that is not a real name.

It is not a real name. No.

You didn't ask me. As a matter fact, you're the only person that has asked me. Kudos for you.

Oh, yes. Yes.

Well, because this man is alive and well and married and I don't want to hurt his career or embarrass him. I don't want to embarrass anybody. He's a...

Well, it goes with war. Sex does go with war.

Well, war is a completely amoral environment. All the rules are suspended. City blocks don't look the same. Nothing looks the same, especially in a...

I don't know.

Of course, we're talking about people, which is the majority of those half million troops that were in the rear. Guys that were beating the bushes every...

That's right.

From Ron.

Ron was one of the great bureau chiefs in Saigon during the Vietnam War for NBC News. And, as a matter of fact, is married to a Vietnamese woman. When...

But this is part of the -- the war zones are great, especially Saigon, of course. We could throw in probably Laos and Cambodia, but Saigon was the real...

What am I doing now? Well, I'm still talking about this book. I'm hoping to teach. Thinking about a second book. That won't be for a while because I'm...

Oh, I think so. Yes.

The industry is falling apart, for one thing. It's peeling away. Bureaus are being closed, people are being fired.

Somebody who is a lot smarter than I am said to me recently -- I think this might be a good theory -- said he thought it was going to become like radio....

I don't know. I think there are going to be other alternatives. I think, for example, that maybe things like the BBC will be available to us. We can...

I think at NBC we probably would have. Shad Northshield, who produced the program, who made no secret about it then and now that the war was his thing,...

I think it was one of the great cover-ups. I think it was just another case of the Kennedys using their influence to circumvent routine judicial and...

Yes, he's a lovely man. I think he's a marvelous guy. Politically he and I couldn't be farther apart, but he's a decent, well-meaning, gracious man....

You see, I'm one of these people who doesn't say that objectivity is not within our reach. I think if you're a pro and you're a reporter, you do it....

What did I leave out? A hundred pages that they made me edit out. It was a hundred pages longer, and you probably want to know what was in those hundred...

Oh dear! That's a hard one. I think there was probably a lot more on the release of the Pueblo crew, more about covering affairs in Europe and in the...

I don't know. I think it's going to be about somebody else, though, Brian. I think I've had it for myself.

Thank you, Brian.