Joining CBS Radio as a protege of noted journalist Edward R. Morrow, Eric Sevareid (1912-1992) was the last U.S. correspondent to broadcast from Paris, France, before that country fell to the Nazi invasion in June 1940, near the start of World War II. He went on to a long career as a radio and television news broadcaster, writer, and commentator.

Journalist Eric Sevareid understood the average American, and Americans learned about the Spanish Civil War, World War II, the Korean conflict, and the Vietnam War through his reporting. A self-proclaimed sentimental lover of the English language, he was given to drawn-out discussions rife with sophisticated vocabulary. Asked by veteran journalist Edward R. Murrow to join young reporters such as William L. Shirer, Charles Collingwood, Howard K. Smith, and Daniel Schorr on the popular Columbia Broadcast System (CBS) Radio news program in 1939, Sevareid became known and trusted by millions...