In 1968, while serving as anchor of the CBS Evening News, Cronkite filed a series of reports from Vietnam and offered his personal commentary that 'the bloody experience (of the Vietnam War) is a stalemate.' Some historians say this helped turn public opinion against the war.

US president Lyndon Johnson, who would later step down from running for a second full term because of growing resistance to the war, reportedly told aides at the time: 'If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America.'

After his retirement from CBS Evening News, Cronkite occasionally reported as a special correspondent for CBS, CNN and National Public Radio into the 21st century. He wrote a column for King Features Syndicate and contributed several blog posts to Huffingtonpost.com in 2005 and 2006. His autobiography, 'A Reporter's Life', was published in 1996.

Cronkite also lent his voice to numerous documentaries, including several on space exploration -- a topic that fascinated him for his entire life. In 2006, he became the first non-astronaut to receive US space agency NASA's Ambassador of Exploration Award.

Cronkite received every major TV journalism award, including the prestigious Peabody. In 1981, US president Jimmy Carter awarded Cronkite the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honour a US civilian can receive.

An avid sailor since 1947, Cronkite often spent time on Maryland's Chesapeake Bay.

Cronkite married journalist Mary Elizabeth 'Betsy' Maxwell in 1940, and they remained together until her death in 2005. His children, Nancy Cronkite, Cathy Cronkite and Walter Cronkite III, survive him.

On March 6, 1981, as he ended his final broadcast as anchorman, Cronkite said: 'Old anchormen, you see, don't fade away, they just keep coming back for more. And that's the way it is.'