Presidents & Newsmakers

President Harry Truman, right, stands in the Diplomatic Reception Room on the ground floor of the White House on May 3, 1952. Truman took a national television audience on a tour of the rebuilt executive mansion, with CBS commentator Walter Cronkite holding the microphone.

Walter Cronkite lunches with future President John F. Kennedy, representing the state of Massachusetts, and others in an undated photo.

Walter Cronkite sits on a lawn chair as he interviews President John F. Kennedy in Hyannis Port, Mass., for the debut of the half-hour CBS Evening News, Sept. 3, 1963.

Walter Cronkite interviews U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower in August 1963, for an episode of the television series, "CBS Reports," entitled "Eisenhower Revisits Normandy," at Arlington Cemetery, Arlington, Va.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, left, recounts memories of D-Day to CBS correspondent Walter Cronkite in the 1964 CBS special: "D-Day Plus 20 Years: Eisenhower Returns to Normandy." In the photo, Eisenhower points to a hedgerow on a French farm as he tells Cronkite about the special problems the hedgerows presented to the invading forces in Normandy.

Surrounded by spacecraft models, CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite, right, listens to astronaut and politician John Glenn on Feb. 8, 1967. Cronkite covered NASA missions from Mercury through the space shuttle.

Walter Cronkite, left, interviews politician and future President Richard M. Nixon in Nixon's New York apartment on April 1, 1968.

Walter Cronkite interviews President Lyndon B. Johnson for a "CBS News Special Report" on Dec. 6, 1971. Upon news of Cronkite's death on July 17, 2009, President Barack Obama issued a statement saying that Cronkite set the standard by which all other news anchors have been judged, echoing sentiments from former Presidents George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter. "He invited us to believe in him, and he never let us down."

CBS News' Walter Cronkite interviews first lady Lady Bird Johnson.

Walter Cronkite, left, stands with Georgia governor and future U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Nov. 4, 1975. In 1981, as president, Mr. Carter presented the CBS News anchor with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Walter Cronkite, right, interviews Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., at the 1976 Democratic National Convention, at Madison Square Garden in New York. The convention nominated Jimmy Carter of Georgia for president and Walter Mondale of Minnesota for vice president.

Walter Cronkite, right, interviews Egyptian President Anwar Sadat on the "CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite," Sept. 19, 1978. The interview led to a Sadat visit to Israel and a peace treaty between the countries 10 months later.

CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite listens to Cuban President Fidel Castro during an interview on Feb. 14, 1980.

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