Richard Wagner Dies: Longtime CBS News Correspondent Was 85
deadline.comRichard Wagner, whose three-decade career as a correspondent for CBS News included covering the war in Vietnam and numerous other conflicts around the world, has died.
He was 85.His wife, Donna Lewis-Wagner, said that he died at his home in Charlottesville, VA. No cause of death was given.During the 1960s, 70s and 80s, Wagner appeared frequently on CBS Evening News when Walter Cronkite and then Dan Rather were in the anchor chair.Starting at CBS News in 1964, Wagner was based for a time in Saigon, as he was among the correspondents who covered the war in Vietnam, at a time when the military had yet to establish the parameters of access to military operations and combat zones.On a podcast in 2018 with other correspondents who covered the war, Wagner recalled reporting from a combat zone being “very scary.” “I recall a situation once where we were pinned down, couldn’t move, and then the barrage lifted almost as quickly as it had begun, and I wanted to swiftly stand up now that it was safe and do a stand up…I found that my hand was shaking so much that I really couldn’t do it.
It affected me so much that I couldn’t do what I had to do until I collected myself.”He also was based in London, Hong Kong and Johannesburg, as he covered the troubles in Northern Ireland and the release of Nelson Mandela from prison.
He also reported extensively on events in Central America in the 1970s and 80s. In 1984, he was near El Suchitoto, El Salvador with Newsweek photographer John Hoagland when Hoagland was killed in a crossfire.
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