U.S. President Kennedy warns Buddhist crisis imperils Vietnam as ‘CBS Evening News’ becomes network TV’s first half-hour nightly newscast 60 years ago this hour #OnThisDay #OTD (Sep 2 1963)

1960s, Cold War, Television 1960s, U.S. Presidents, Vietnam War


Video: 'CBS Evening News [9-2-1963] First broadcast under new title/format'

(Labor Day, Monday, September 2, 1963, 6:30 p.m. EDT; during the Vietnam War, part of the Indochina Wars and the Cold War) — The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite was expanded from 15 to 30 minutes tonight, becoming network television’s first half-hour nightly newscast in the United States.


Video: 'CBS-TV Interview With President John Fitzgerald Kennedy On SEPT. 2, 1963'


Video: 'Television & the Presidency Part 4' (Sep. 2, 1963, 6:18)

The first program included a pre-recorded segment of Cronkite’s interview with President John F. Kennedy at Kennedy family compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, who said that the leaders of South Vietnam should realize that the war against the Communist guerrillas was “their war” and that it could not be won unless the government recovered the popular support it had lost.


Video: 'Vietnam: A Television History (Ep-3) America's Mandarin (1954-1963)' (Sep. 2, 1963, at 42:45)

Of primary concern was the Buddhist crisis, which had begun in May 1963 and was characterized by a series of repressive acts by the South Vietnamese government and a campaign of civil resistance, led mainly by Buddhist monks.

The crisis was precipitated by the shootings of nine unarmed civilians on May 8 in the central city of Hu? who were protesting against a ban of the Buddhist flag.

“I don’t think that unless a greater effort is made by the government to win popular support that the war can be won out there,” said Kennedy. “In the final analysis, it is their war. They are the ones who have to win it or lose it. We can help them, we can give them equipment, we can send our men out there as advisers, but they have to win it—the people of Viet-Nam—against the communists.”


Video: 'Vietnam a Television History Part 4 LBJ Goes to War 1964 65' (Sep. 2, 1963, 1:56)

NBC would inaugurate its half-hour news program a week later, although ABC would not follow suit until 1967.


Video: 'September 2, 1963 - Preparations for Walter Cronkite's interview of President John F. Kennedy'