WALTER CRONKITE KNEW A FAILED WAR WHEN HE SAW ONE: VIETNAM AND THE WAR
ON DRUGS

Everyone knows Walter Cronkite was "the most trusted man in America"
and someone whose rare expressions of personal opinion -- such as on
the Vietnam War -- could powerfully influence the views of middle
America. But fewer are aware of a passion of his that he came to
relatively late in life -- ending the nation's disastrous war on drugs.

I first learned of Walter Cronkite's interest in the drug war back in
1995, when a producer for The Cronkite Report -- an occasional series
on The Discovery Channel -- called to ask for my help on a documentary
that he and Mr. Cronkite were doing on the drug war. The one hour
report that resulted provided a devastating critique of the nation's
drug policies.

Focusing on the lives of three women who had been sentenced to many
years in Bedford Hills prison in New York, the program revealed the
utter waste of human lives and taxpayer dollars that define the drug
war. Neither Mr. Cronkite nor the women involved suggested that they
had done nothing wrong. But the extraordinary lengths of the prison
terms to which they had been sentenced, for relatively minor
participation in the illicit sale of drugs, combined with the impact
on their children and families, and the absurd amount of money being
spent to punish rather than help and treat -- all this shaped Mr.
Cronkite's devastating indictment of the drug war.

Walter Cronkite got it -- and he got it early. He knew a failed war
when he saw one.

I didn't know, however, if that would be his last word on the subject.
Fortunately it wasn't. In 1998, he joined other prominent individuals
in signing a public letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that
stated: "We believe that the global war on drugs is now causing more
harm than drug abuse itself."

Two women played a pivotal role in Walter Cronkite's involvement
thereafter with my organization, the Drug Policy Alliance. The first
was Marlene Adler, his longtime assistant, who appreciated Walter's
commitment to this issue, and I think shared his views as well. And
the second was Dr. Mathilde Krim, a friend and neighbor of the
Cronkites in New York, the founder and co-chair of amfAR, the HIV/AIDS
research and advocacy organization, and a board member of the Drug
Policy Alliance. It was at her home that I first met Walter in person.
And it was with Mathilde's and Marlene's assistance that Walter agreed
both to join DPA's Honorary Board and also sign the fundraising letter
that has helped DPA recruit tens of thousands of new members.

He wrote:

I remember. I covered the Vietnam War. I remember the lies that were
told, the lives that were lost -- and the shock when, twenty years
after the war ended, former Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara
admitted he knew it was a mistake all along.

Today, our nation is fighting two wars: one abroad and one at home.
While the war in Iraq is in the headlines, the other war is still
being fought on our own streets. Its casualties are the wasted lives
of our own citizens.

I am speaking of the war on drugs.

And I cannot help but wonder how many more lives, and how much more
money, will be wasted before another Robert McNamara admits what is
plain for all to see: the war on drugs is a failure.

While the politicians stutter and stall -- while they chase their
losses by claiming we could win this war if only we committed more
resources, jailed more people and knocked down more doors -- the Drug
Policy Alliance continues to tell the American people the truth --
"the way it is."

Few allies have been as important. Walter's involvement with DPA and
our drug policy reform movement raised the sorts of eyebrows that most
needed raising. It helped legitimize our cause. And he brought home,
both with his words and the mere fact of his commitment, the powerful
analogy between the failure of the Vietnam War and the failure of
America's longest war -- the war on drugs.

I know he got a kick out of the reactions to his fundraising letters
for DPA, whether it was to be attacked by Bill O'Reilly or quoted
favorably (just a few weeks ago) by John McLaughlin on his TV show,
The McLaughlin Group.

I once asked Walter -- at a dinner at Mathilde's home a few years ago
- -- whether he had ever tried marijuana. As I recall, he laughed, and
said not exactly, except for the "contact high" he might have gotten
around CBS's offices back in the 1960s, when smoking was still
allowed, and not everything smoked was tobacco. Perhaps he said
something too about some youthful experiences during WW 2 -- but I
don't remember exactly.

But of course the issue for him was never about the drugs, and whether
or not people used them. What mattered was intellectual honesty,
sensible moral judgment, and the obligation to speak truth to power,
no matter how unwelcome or inconvenient that truth might be. That he
was almost eighty years old when he first took on this cause is a
testament to his vitality and integrity, and an inspiration to me and
so many others.