At the time of the Tet Offensive, the majority of the American public perceived that the war was not being won by the United States and its allies, despite assurances from the President and military leaders that such was the case. No matter that the PAVN/VC lost about 30,000 of their best troops in the fighting at Tet, they were capable of replacing those lost with new recruits from North Vietnam. In 1969, the year after the Tet battles, the US suffered 11,780 killed, the second highest annual total in the war. This was a clear indication that the North Vietnamese were capable of ongoing offensive actions, despite their losses at Tet. Most Americans were tired of suffering so many casualties without evidence that they were going to stop anytime in the foreseeable future. Walter Cronkite, anchorman of the CBS Evening News and a World War II combat veteran, argued for negotiations as an honorable way out in a Special Report based on his journalism in Vietnam broadcast on CBS TV in March.