Rather Goes to the Wall for ‘Wall Within’

“The Wall Within,” tonight’s “CBS Reports” documentary on Vietnam veterans suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, originally began as an idea for CBS “60 Minutes”--until Dan Rather intervened.

He persuaded “60 Minutes” producer Don Hewitt and CBS News brass to let producers Paul and Holly Fine, originators of the idea, work with him on the topic as a CBS documentary. Rather wanted a 90-minute program, but the intramural negotiations resulted in an hour broadcast tonight (at 8:30) and a related “60 Minutes” feature on Sunday.

“It’s important to me--it’s a story I wanted to do five years ago,” said Rather, anchor-reporter of tonight’s broadcast and of “The CBS Evening News.” He was a correspondent in Vietnam in 1965-66.

“They finally said, ‘If you feel that strongly, and want to do it that badly, go do it,’ ” Rather said. And so, he said, he worked in bits and pieces on the program with the Fines for 14 months.

It is thought that time heals all wounds, Rather said, but “the point of this documentary is that this wound, time has not healed” and that delayed-stress problems of some Vietnam vets will “only get worse with time unless they’re treated.”

The program asserts that “in one degree or another” the delayed-stress disorder or mental scars of the Vietnam War “affects perhaps a million Vietnam veterans.”

Rather was asked if some Vietnam vets might feel that the program itself perpetuates many film and television stereotypes of the veteran as a man unable to adjust to society, a walking time bomb.

“I hope that doesn’t happen, and I don’t think that it will with those veterans who see the program,” he said.

“I know very well that this is a problem for veterans who did not suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome, who went, served their time, came back, got right back into society and sort of picked up where they left off.

“But among the veterans who see the program, I think there will be a feeling of ‘Thank God it didn’t happen to me’ rather than ‘Well, this is going to reflect badly on all veterans.’ ”

Although tonight’s one-hour broadcast originally was conceived as a 90-minute program, its closing chapter about Veterans Administration efforts to move local “outreach” centers for Vietnam vets to VA hospitals now will air Sunday on “60 Minutes,” with Rather still doing the reporting.

CBS News President Howard Stringer, himself a Vietnam veteran and a former documentary-maker, ordered the trim after what one source describes as a “real pier-six brawl” that ensued when Stringer first proposed the cut.

The trim and move of the segment to “60 Minutes” was a matter of editorial judgment, Stringer said: “I thought the film was so much more effective with the Vietnam veterans, speaking for themselves.”

Stringer said the documentary “robbed itself of impact” with its original third part that explored “the specifics of veterans’ care.”