December 12, 1968 – EET – Newsfront – Bill Moyers comment – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
December 12, 1968. Less than five weeks to the inauguration of Richard Nixon to the office of President and the slow reveal of names in key Cabinet and Administration positions was being revealed.
There were a number of familiar names, but some were unfamiliar, and we would know who they were soon enough. 1968 was coming to a close and it was, if anything, an unprecedented year for the country and the world in general. Vietnam was still at the forefront in peoples minds – the weekly tally of dead, wounded and missing continued its dismal routine. Protests to the War were continuing and growing. Nixon won by a slim margin, and even though the divisions were clear, a universal sickness of a war with seemingly no end was becoming the majority state of mind and not the small minority it had when the nightmare began almost ten years earlier.
This episode of the nightly newscast Newsfront was broadcast by the precursor to PBS, Eastern Educational Television Network. This program featured commentary by for Presidential Assistant for Lyndon Johnson, Bill Moyers, who offered insights on the new names and faces coming into the White House over the next four years – who they were, what they represented and what we could expect in policy changes during this new administration. In addition. a discussion between William Randolph Hearst jr and J. Kingsbury-Smith about the upcoming resumption of the Paris Peace Talks, now with a new team of negotiators, including former Ambassador to Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge and what would be the possible outcome, in addition to the controversy over the shape of the negotiating tables.
And finally, a remembrance of the Film/Theatre/Entertainment legend Tallulah Bankhead, who died earlier in the day.
All that, and a lot of discussions for this December 12, 1968 episode of Newsfront, hosted by Mitchell Krause.