i know you ve gotten to talk with some people you followed a group of students that came there to study with a veteran, and see firsthand what happened in history. mike made a point earlier about how he did not know if he would have had the courage as any of us would certainly wonder about ourselves, have the courage to do what all of these heroes that are gathered today whom we honor and whom we pay tribute to did, and you had some interesting reaction when you talked to young kids. i mean i think, don t they wonder that about themselves as well? yes, exactly, alex. they do. this was a very special program that the college of the ozarks organized so they have brought back the veterans in their 90s, and with them these 19 and 20 years old, boys and girls, young college kids and seeing the interactions they have learned so much. one young man said to me i ve seen the movies. i ve read the books.
extraordinaire newsman who also home run suffered and communicated that and an was honest enough to acknowledge it. so there were so many sides to mike wallace and we, of course, the condolences to his wife mary and his son, his step sons and, of course, chris wallace his son, our former colleague, tom. but the legacy that 60 minutes has created i heard you talking earlier, i was just riveted to bob simon s report everywhere congo last night on that orchestra. the story telling on that program after all of these decades is just amazing. it is. and mike helped set the pace for it. it was not just all about interviews with him. he also did other stories but he had a keen sense of a narrative. i think that too grew a little bit out of his early theatrical training but it was his i think sting and don hooewitt s instin.
to hear this from her. why you so reluctant. as his long-time friend and colleague morley safer said remembering wallace, his visits were preceded by the four dreaded words, mike wallace is here. even friends were not spared from tough questioning as ronald and nancy reagan, long time pals discovered. what was your husband s role in iran con an? nothing. i mean come on, he was president of the united states. it was what i don t know enough about iran con tran, mike, to talk to you intel gently about it. all i know is that he did not think he had done anything wrong. he didn t know of anything that was going on. you re going to be in japan, and i m told it s a $2 million two weeks. they re getting two of us. they re working us like crazy. but it s going to be a well rec come penced two weeks. it is for everybody who goes there, which you probably know.
they would have screaming matches what was the best choice for a sound bite. speaking of the family who can t you can t leave out his step daughter pauline who lived very near him in new canaan and kept close track what was going on with mike in the last few years. chris said in the last two days that mike did recognize him and didn t remember much of his work at 60 minutes. i know it was heartbreaking for the members of the 60 minutes team. a couple went up there and it was not clear that he knew who they were. mike had the unairing instinct about getting somebody involved in the interview that he happened to be doing. it was a wide range. it could be political figures, entertainment figures, whatever, and it was always the same mike wallace style. johnny carson was a very close friend and johnny was always teasing him saying that mike in
she said when he picked up the phone, he said who s this in kind of a brusque wallace way and she said mike, it s nancy reagan. you remember who i am. i think that s the way she described it. he said, of course, i do. she said i m not sure that he did. so she remained very cles to him to the very end and was extremely empathetic because of all she had gone through with president reagan. that s what makes that story that you tell so memorable and so poignant. she issued a statement today saying my heather is broken over the death of my dear friend mike wallace. my parents introduced me to make more than 75 years ago. he was an old school journalist and one of the most astute people i ve met. the news business will be a different place and our lives forever changed for knowing him. think back to 1979. you remember an interview so well and we were in the middle of the hostage crisis and he turns up in tehran to interview