July 8, 2012 7:57 PM

Saying farewell to the extraordinary Mike Wallace

Mike Wallace: Uh-huh. That's right.

To honor Peter's memory, Mike decided to concentrate on more meaningful work.

[Mike Wallace, on radio: Mike Wallace at large on the CBS radio network.]

CBS News became his professional home where he labored -- in the late 1960s and early 70s -- on a broadcast not too many people watched.

["60 Minutes" open: I'm Morley Safer. I'm Mike Wallace.]

"60 Minutes," the early years.

Mike Wallace: We finished regularly 85 out of 100 shows and so forth. But we got our act together during those years.

[Harry Reasoner: We'll also be switching to San Diego where the crew of the Pueblo is enjoying a Christmas Eve reunion with their families.]

Morley Safer: It was spring training.

Mike Wallace: That's exactly right.

[Montage of Mike openings on "60 Minutes": I'm Mike Wallace, I'm Mike Wallace...]

The rest, as they say, is history. On screen, of course, there was little evidence of the toll taken by the brutal hours and the arguments and the hundreds upon hundreds of airplane flights and hotel rooms.

[Airport security: Sir, do you have some piece of identification?]

But like all of us, Mike did not escape untouched. He passed out on a plane some years ago. Doctors implanted a pacemaker, and monitored his heart by long distance. Over the years, he became involved in some major embarrassments for CBS.

[Mike Wallace: What you're charging Brown & Williamson, with...]

There was his interview with whistle blower Jeffrey Wigand, who charged that despite its denials, the tobacco industry had known for years how harmful cigarettes were.

[Jeffery Wigand: It's a delivery device for nicotine.

Mike Wallace: A delivery device for nicotine. Put it in your mouth, light it up, and you're gonna get your fix.

Jeffery Wigand: Get your fix.]

CBS management first refused to air the interview. By the time it finally did run, the network had a very public black eye.

But it was a lawsuit over a Vietnam documentary that literally took him to the edge.

[William Westmoreland: And the facts prove that I was right. Now let's stop it.

Mike Wallace: Alright, sir.]

General William Westmoreland sued Mike and CBS for reporting that Westmoreland had deliberately falsified estimates of enemy troop strength in Vietnam. The suit was eventually dropped, and Mike talked many times about the deep depression that descended on him during the trial. What he did not talk about was something a few of us always suspected.



© 2012 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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