Howard K. Smith, an outspoken, often controversial television newsman, developed a career that spanned the decades from his sober analytic foreign news reporting at the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) as one of "Murrow's Boys" to years as co-anchor and commentator on ABC Evening News. Smith's career also saw his transformation from CBS's "resident radical" to his persona "Howard K. Agnew," a sobriquet granted by critics for his support of conservative Republican Vice President Spiro T. Agnew's bitter 1969 attack on TV news.

     In 1940, Smith joined United Press as their correspondent in London and Copenhagen, and in 1941 he joined CBS news, where he replaced William L. Shirer as CBS's Berlin correspondent. The last American correspondent to leave Berlin after war was declared, Smith reached safety in Switzerland with a manuscript describing conditions in Germany, which became the basis for his best-selling book Last Train from Berlin.

     During the war, Smith accompanied the Allied sweep through Belgium and the Netherlands and into Germany. He was on hand when the Germans surrendered to the Russians under Marshal Zhukov in 1945 and then covered the Nuremberg trials. In 1946, he succeeded Murrow as CBS's London correspondent and spent the next 11 years covering Europe and the Middle East.

In 1949, Smith published The State of Europe, advocating a planned economy and the welfare state for postwar Europe. Perhaps for this reason, and to some extent because of his radical past, he was named as a Communist supporter in Red Channels, a McCarthyite document purporting to uncover Communist  conspiracy in the media industries . Smith hardly  suffered from these accusations, however. since  both  Murrow and his overseas posting protected him.  Indeed,  in  1957, Smith returned to the United States and in 1960 was named chief of the  CBS  Washington  Bureau, where he hosted programs such as The Great Challenge, Face the Nation, and the Emmy Award-winning CBS Reports documentary "The Population  Explosion." He also served as the moderator of the first Kennedy-Nixon presidential debate.

As a southerner, Smith was more and more drawn to the battle over civil rights, and in 1961 he narrated a CBS Reports special, "Who Speaks for Birmingham?" His final commentary included a quote from Edmund Burke: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." The quote was cut from the program. In a showdown with CBS Chairman Wil­liam S. Paley, Smith resigned after Paley supported his executives over Smith and his alleged "editorializing." Shortly thereafter, Smith signed with ABC News and began doing a weekly news show, Howard K. Smith-News and Comment. Smith's program made creative use of film, graphics, and animation and explored controversial topics such as illegitimacy, disarmament, physical fitness, the state of television, and the "goof-off Congress." The program won critical approval and generally high ratings. However, in 1962, Smith was again the center of controversy over his broadcast of a program titled "The Political Obituary of Richard Nixon." This program followed Nixon's loss of the California governor's election in 1962. In his review of Nixon's career, Smith included an interview with Alger Hiss. whom Nixon, as a member of the House Un­American Activities Committee, had investigated for his alleged membership in and spying for the Communist Party and whose conviction for perjury in 1950 had helped launch Nixon's national political career. For balance, Smith also included Murray Chotiner, a Nixon supporter and campaign adviser. The result was an avalanche of telephone calls to the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) criticizing Smith for permitting a convicted perjurer and possible spy to appear o]\n the program. Smith's sponsor quickly ended support of the show, and it was canceled. Some historians have contended that Smith's documentary enabled Nixon to regain some of the sympathy he had lost after the disastrous temper tantrum at his self-titled "last press conference."

     Following the cancellation of his show, Smith cov­ered news for ABC-TV's daily newscast and hosted the network's Sunday afternoon public affairs program Issues and Answers. In 1966, he became the host of the ABC documentary program Scope. Until then, Scope had been a general documentary show dealing with many topics. In 1966, the decision was made to devote all its programs to the Vietnam War. Between 1966 and its cancellation in 1968, the program dealt with seldom-touched issues of the war. such as the experience of African-American soldiers. North Vietnam, and the air war.

     Unlike many other newsmen who became progressively disillusioned with the war, Smith became more and more hawkish as the war progressed. Among other things, he advocated bombing North Vietnam's dike system, bombing Haiphong. and invading Laos and Cambodia. Indeed, in one of his commentaries shortly after the Tet Offensive, Smith said, "There exists only one real alternative: that is to escalate, but this time on an overwhelming scale."

     Smith's conservative drift on foreign affairs was also reflected in his domestic views. He was vociferous in his support of Vice President Agnew's 1969 "Des Moines speech," in which the vice president accused the TV networks' producers. newscasters, and commentators of a highly selective and often biased presentation of the news. Smith concurred and in salty language criticized network newsmen as, among other things, "conformist," for adhering to a liberal "party line," for "stupidity," and, at least in some cases. for lacking "the depth of a saucer."

     In March 1969, Av Westin took over as head of ABC News and immediately installed Smith as the co­ anchor of ABC Evening News, with Frank Reynolds. In 1971. Smith was teamed with the newly arrived former CBS newsman Harry Reasoner and given additional duties as commentator. Smith's support of the Vietnam War and Vice President Agnew's attacks on TV news stood him in good stead with President Nixon. who granted him the unique privilege of an hour-long solo interview in 1971 titled White House Conversation: The President and Howard K. Smith. Despite this, when evidence grew of Nixon's involvement in the Watergate scandal, Smith was the first major TV commentator to call for the president's resignation.

     In 1975. Smith relinquished his co-anchor role on the ABC Evening News but stayed on as commentator. Following the 1977 arrival of Roone Arledge as head of ABC News, Smith found himself being used less and less. In 1979, he resigned from ABC. denouncing Arledge's evening newscast featuring Peter Jennings. Max Robinson, Frank Reynolds, and Barbara Walters as a "Punch and Judy Show." Following his retirement, Smith was inactive in television and radio. In 1996, he wrote an autobiography titled Events Leading Up to My Death: The Life of a Twentieth-Century Reporter. Smith was one of the last of TV newsmen who saw their role as not merely reporting the news but analyzing and commenting on it passionately. He died on February 15, 2002.