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"  When the Eagle landed on the moon, I was speechless\u2014overwhelmed, like most of the world. Couldn&amp;#039;t say a word. I think all I said was, &amp;quot;Wow! Jeez!&amp;quot; Not exactly immortal. Well, I was nothing if not human. Interviewing friends is a tough one. Your duty to the interview must transcend your friendship. Occasionally you&amp;#039;ll lose a friend.  I became friendly with Dwight Eisenhower. He told me a delightful story about General Patton that showed a lot about the character of both men. At one point before D-day, Patton made a statement in England that it was the destiny of America and Britain to rule the world. It wasn&amp;#039;t the first time the bellicose Patton had gotten into trouble. He was very egotistical, and he assumed that he knew how to win any war in any place. This time, there were demands in Washington that Patton be sent home. So Eisenhower called for him. Eisenhower told me he thought he had no choice but to fire Patton. When Patton came in, he was wearing that helmet liner of his with big stars on it. He knew what was coming. He stood at attention at Eisenhower&amp;#039;s desk. Eisenhower asked him to sit down. Patton said he preferred to stand. Eisenhower told him to at least stand at ease, and he proceeded to tell him all the reasons that he was in trouble. Tears began to well in Patton&amp;#039;s eyes. But just as Eisenhower was getting to the point of ordering him back home, he realized that he simply couldn&amp;#039;t do it. He needed him too much. So Eisenhower told himself, Dammit, I&amp;#039;ll just take the licks if I have to on this one. He got up, walked over to George, and said, &amp;quot;Despite all that, I&amp;#039;m going to give you another chance.&amp;quot; Patton let out a sob and threw his head on Eisenhower&amp;#039;s shoulder, and the helmet liner came off and clattered across the floor. It was so ridiculous that Eisenhower laughed. When he did, Patton pushed him away and said, &amp;quot;Thank you for that, and I&amp;#039;ll stay, you son of a bitch.&amp;quot; Then he stamped out. Would it be better to have a president who cries easily? Well, that depends on what he cried about. I would not like the thought of a president who could not cry. That would be worse than one who cried over the right things. Which, in this case, would be the things I would cry over. When I was young, we didn&amp;#039;t have the slightest concept of an energy problem\u2014particularly since I was living in Houston, the heart of the burgeoning energy business. The only shortage was in my own tank. One night, as I was going out on a date, I said to the filling-station attendant, &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ll have a gallon.&amp;quot; You see, I had a quarter, and I was expecting six cents change. Next thing I know, the pump is registering six gallons. I said, &amp;quot;Hey, wait a minute!&amp;quot; The attendant said, &amp;quot;Oh, I thought you said eight gallons!&amp;quot; So I had to leave my watch with him until I could come back the next day and pay him off. The date was successful, though, if I remember correctly.  Would Oprah make a good president? Well, apparently so. She seems to have an understanding of our problems. A great deal of that probably comes from being African-American and suffering the indignities of that. And she certainly has shown that she has a literate approach to solving problems. So I&amp;#039;d like to think she&amp;#039;d be a good president. Do you know something that I don&amp;#039;t? When President Johnson heard my report that said we should get out of Vietnam, he snapped off the TV and said, &amp;quot;If I&amp;#039;ve lost Cronkite, I&amp;#039;ve lost Middle America.&amp;quot; A couple of days after that, Johnson said he was not going to run for reelection. Later on, somebody made the joke that Johnson had gotten it wrong. What he should have said was, &amp;quot;If I&amp;#039;ve lost Cronkite, I&amp;#039;ve lost all of America.&amp;quot; To be honest, I was rather amazed that my reporting from Vietnam had such an effect on history.  Indeed, we are in another Vietnam. Almost play by play. It&amp;#039;s a terrible mistake that we&amp;#039;re in Iraq, and it&amp;#039;s a terrible mistake to insist on staying there. Probably the most important single element that I found in my own marriage was a sense of humor. My wife had a delicious sense of humor, and I think I have an adequate one. The funny things Betsy did to me on an almost daily basis could fill up one of those old Sears, Roebuck catalogs. She just wouldn&amp;#039;t take things seriously that didn&amp;#039;t need to be taken seriously. It was tough for us to get together and try to solve a serious problem because humor would begin to creep in\u2014which would save the day most of the time. I&amp;#039;ve known Joanna Simon for many years\u2014she sold Betsy and me our apartment. Joanna and her husband also lived in the building, and Betsy and I saw a lot of them through the years. Joanna&amp;#039;s husband died three years ago. Then last year, after Betsy died, we two bereft people allayed our loneliness by sharing social activities with many mutual friends. Now we are testing the possibility of eternal youth. [Joanna is sixty-five.] Anyone who knows us would not be surprised if we get married. Is it tough to keep up? Yes, but she&amp;#039;s doing a very good job of it.  I grew my mustache when I was nineteen in order to look older. I never shaved it off even though it overran its usefulness many, many years ago. Once you get started in television, people associate you with your physical appearance\u2014and that includes the mustache. So I can&amp;#039;t shave it off now. If I did, I&amp;#039;d have to answer too much mail. Originally published in the April 2006 issue "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/interviews/a1520/esq0406wilcronkite-170/>