Bob Schieffer

In his two-hour interview, Bob Schieffer speaks about his early years and growing up during World War II. He talks about his decision to pursue a career in journalism after seeing his byline in the school newspaper in junior high school. He outlines his earliest jobs as a reporter, including his work at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where he interviewed Lee Harvey Oswald's mother after John F. Kennedy's assassination and where he became the first reporter from a Texas newspaper to cover the Vietnam War (in 1965). Schieffer describes his coverage of the war as the turning point in his career, resulting in him becoming a local celebrity and becoming the news anchor at the local station WBAP, where he began his television career. He talks about his transition to Washington, first at a local station, and then at CBS. He recalls how he appeared, unannounced, to see CBS bureau chief Bill Small for a job and was hired as a general assignment reporter and then a correspondent. Schieffer describes covering demonstrations during the Vietnam War and later covering the Pentagon (including reporting on the follow-up to the landmark CBS Reports program "The Selling of the Pentagon"). He talks about serving as anchor for the CBS Saturday Evening News while still performing his duties as a White House correspondent. He speaks about the U.S. presidents from Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush and gives his impressions of each and for some, their relationship to the press. He speaks in great detail about the news program with which he is most closely associated, Face the Nation. He speaks about covering 9/11 and its effect on him. Finally, he discusses being the anchor of the CBS Evening News from 2005-2006. Karen Herman conducted the interview on May 14, 2007 in Washington, D.C.