Did Walter Cronkite Have A UFO Encounter

Walter Cronkite was known as "the most trusted man in America" during the heyday of national network news in the 1960s and 70s. Cronkite traveled to Viet Nam in early 1968 to view the aftermath of the surprise Viet Cong attack on several key cities in what was then called South Viet Nam,  known as the Tet Offensive. Cronkite gave his "We Are Mired In A Stalemate" broadcast on February 27th, 1968. Many historians believe that was a major turning point in the American public's support for the war.

 

So, when someone says that Walter Cronkite claimed to have an encounter with a UFO, it is certainly something to consider. UFologist Bill Knell claims that Cronkite told him about the encounter prior to an interview of Knell for a 1973 CBS special on UFO's.

 

What does Knell tell us? That Cronkite was part of a pool of reporters invited to watch an Air Force missile test on a small Pacific island in the 1950s. Knell says Cronkite told him what happened just as the missile was launched was astonishing.

 

 

 

 

Knell claims Cronkite told him that a disc-shaped object about "fifty to sixty feet in diameter" suddenly appeared on the scene. The disc fired a blue beam which allegedly froze the missile about seventy feet from its launcher. Knell claims he was also told that a guard and his dog were also frozen in place by the mysterious blue beam. Then the missile suddenly exploded.

 

Knell reports that Cronkite and the rest of the reporters were then quickly ushered into a nearby observation bunker and left there for about thirty minutes. When they were all finally escorted out of the bunker, an Air Force Colonel advised the group that what they had witnessed was "all part of the missile test".

 

It is worth noting that Walter Cronkite never publicly discussed this event. There are also no corroborating witnesses who have come forward saying that Cronkite also shared this UFO experience with them.

 

Does that mean the event is fictitious? That is up to the readers of True UFO Stories to decide.