Since we’re on a crash course to the end of another year, one which has left more questions than answers, maybe looking at how another year went might give some comfort or at least some perspective that we ain’t necessarily as screwed up as we thought we were. Or not.

The year in question is 1966 and this year-end broadcast by CBS Radio gathered some of the most well-known and highly regarded journalists in broadcasting – puts them in a room and lets them speak about the year gone by.

1966 had a lot of hope going for it. We had The Great Society, The War on Poverty, but we also had a lot of pessimism – an escalating War in Vietnam; casualties were rising dramatically over the previous year. Our campaign of winning “hearts and minds” among the people of Vietnam was failing miserably. It was almost impossible to gauge how America was doing since numbers were vague and often didn’t give a complete picture.

Because of the war and what was starting to look like a protracted stalemate, those optimistic domestic programs at the beginning of the year, pledged to bring down poverty and raise the standard of living in American cities were left largely ignored.

Politics, as it is every year, was an issue making the news since 1966 was an off-year and 1968 was looming. A new phrase was entering our lexicon: Credibility Gap. People were starting to doubt that things were as rosy as The White House was saying it was and were wondering if President Johnson was losing a substantial amount of support from voters. There were new faces on the political horizon, and new speculation over how coming elections were going to go.

All in all, an interesting discussion over events of the year 1966 and how they were shaping day-to-day lives.

This broadcast was moderated by Walter Cronkite and featured veteran reporters Eric Sevareid, Mike Wallace, Roger Mudd, Charles Collingwood and Morley Safer and was aired by CBS Radio.

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