Miles O’Brien conducted an interview with Mike Wallace yesterday which aired this morning on CNN’s American Morning. Among the subjects discussed was Wallace’s most gut wrenching interview. Transcript follows…

MILES O’BRIEN, Anchor CNN American Morning: What an amazing career Mike
Wallace has had, the “60 Minutes” veteran. Actually he was there on day one when that clock started ticking. He’s interviewed just about anyone you can imagine over the past 30-40 years.

I talked to him about his new book, “Between You and Me,” which recounts many of those stories, the stories behind those interviews. He began by talking about how he got in the business.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE WALLACE, AUTHOR, “BETWEEN YOU AND ME”: I wanted to be a radio announcer. That’s was my dream. I went to the University of Michigan, got out in ‘35 — no, I got out in ‘39. And was turned down for a job in Muskegon, Michigan, and then finally was hired for 20 bucks a week by WOOD in Grand Rapids, and I was off to the races.

M. O’BRIEN: You create in your interviews a sense of intimacy, and you do that by learning, it seems, just about you can about the person you’re talking to.

WALLACE: Exactly right.

M. O’BRIEN: Is that the secret to doing an interview as far you see it?

WALLACE: For me it is. Look, if I want to interview you — which is not a bad idea — what I try to do when I’m going to do a one-on-one with somebody who is interesting is read everything, see everything that
they’ve been involved with. As a result of which when you sit down with the interviewee, the object of your scrutiny, they suddenly realize, hey, this guy is paying some attention.

M. O’BRIEN: So, you were breaking ground by being candid.

WALLACE: That’s exactly right.

M. O’BRIEN: And that in many cases created a lot of criticism for you, for the program, and particularly when you went national. And there were questions and statements made that broke some ground and ruffled some feathers.

WALLACE: Oh, yes. But, you know, that comes with the territory. The inquisitor, the nasty, nosy, et cetera, et cetera. The fact of the matter is that that’s what reporting really is all about. I was not a reporter back then. I was an announcer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O’BRIEN: Eighty-seven years young, still going strong. We’re going to share with you a little more of that interview in just a bit, including we’ll tell you what his most gut-wrenching interview was.

Part Two:

M. O’BRIEN: I had the good pleasure of meeting Mike Wallace yesterday. He came by. He’s talking about the new book. You know, he’s been in the business now –he started in 1939 at WOOD in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
He’s interviewed just about everybody, but there’s one important omission. He talked to me about that and he also explained how he got in the business.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE WALLACE, AUTHOR, “BETWEEN YOU AND ME”: I wanted to be a radio announcer. That’s was my dream. I went to the University of Michigan, got out in ‘35 — no, I got out in ‘39. And was turned down for a job in Muskegon, Michigan, and then finally was hired for 20 bucks a week by WOOD in Grand Rapids, and I was off to the races.

M. O’BRIEN: You create in your interviews a sense of intimacy, and you do that by learning, it seems, just about you can about the person you’re talking to.

WALLACE: Exactly right.

M. O’BRIEN: Is that the secret to doing an interview as far you see it?

WALLACE: For me it is. Look, if I want to interview you — which is not a bad idea — what I try to do when I’m going to do a one-on-one with somebody who is interesting is read everything, see everything that
they’ve been involved with. As a result of which, when you sit down with the interviewee, the object of your scrutiny, they suddenly realize, hey, this guy is paying some attention.

M. O’BRIEN: Let’s talk about Clint Hill for a moment. That chapter of the book was very gripping. Anybody who saw that interview knows a little something about how emotional that was. But hearing your insights
on that were something.

First of all, let’s share with people — Clint Hill, secret service agent who was there, November 22nd, 1963, Dallas. His job to protect the president of the United States. Let’s listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: You mean, you would have gotten there and you would have taken the shot?

CLINT HILL, FMR. SECRET SERVICE AGENT: That’s our job. Yes, sir.

WALLACE: And that would have been all right with you?

HILL: That would have been fine with me.

WALLACE: But you couldn’t. You got there in less than two seconds, Clint. You couldn’t have gotten there. You don’t — you surely don’t have any sense of guilt about that?

HILL: Yes, I certainly do. I have a great deal of guilt about that. Had I turned in a different direction, I would have made it. That was my fault.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O’BRIEN: Oh, my gosh. It’s hard to watch that again, isn’t it? The torment.

WALLACE: And this is 12 years after the thing had happened. He really believed that he was responsible for the death of JFK.

M. O’BRIEN: Let’s talk about Nancy Reagan. You had some interviews with her which were extremely hard hitting. In particular, there was a lot of criticism immediately after they left office accepting some money for a trip. And you pressed on that very hard and it hurt the friendship. It…

WALLACE: For a while it did, sure. And then she called CNN on Larry King. She’s on with him and he said, are you still not talking to Mike?

M. O’BRIEN: We have the clip. Let’s listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KING, CNN ANCHOR: Well, he’ll hear about this now.

NANCY REAGAN, FMR. FIRST LADY: I hope so, Mike. If you’re watching the show, call me. Call me, Mike.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: And I did the next day and we’ve been wonderful, good friends.

M. O’BRIEN: So you’re watching at home, and essentially…

WALLACE: That’s correct. That’s correct.

M. O’BRIEN: What do you think about corporate pressure? The corporate pressure on journalism only grows, doesn’t it?

WALLACE: You’re dealing with a different animal. The news business has really, really changed. Having said that, anybody who respects himself as a reporter gets his stories on the air today.

M. O’BRIEN: Who do you want to interview that you haven’t?

WALLACE: Well, I haven’t interviewed George W. Bush. What question would I — might I like to ask him? What prepares a man or a woman running for president who is going to take on the job of commander in chief of the biggest superpower in the world? What prepares him for that job? What was George W. Bush’s preparation for that job?

M. O’BRIEN: You look good, you feel good, 87, still going strong, still working.

WALLACE: What would I do if I quit? What the dickens would I do

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O’BRIEN: The book is “Between You and Me.” The author is Mike Wallace. Also comes with a really great DVD with a lot of those interviews that made him so famous.