How does Mike Wallace get people to open up? He's nosy — and prepared

Asked to explain his own youthfulness and his intellectual acuity, Wallace says, "I just love what I do!" Then he pointed to a persistent problem that he and other broadcasters have. "You're not necessarily a good husband or father, because you use so much psychic energy in what you do — and that doesn't sit well with a spouse."

It's hard to imagine such a successful man suffering from clinical depression, but it happened to Wallace late in life, after an interview with Vietnam War commanding Gen. William Westmoreland resulted in a lawsuit because he thought he had been "smeared" on "60 Minutes."

"To sit in a drafty federal courtroom for four months and hear yourself called a cheap fraud every day was difficult," Wallace said. "Afterward, I couldn't eat, sleep or concentrate. All of a sudden that's where I was. They called it nervous exhaustion — but it was tougher than that."

Ironically, the psychiatrist Wallace approached for help, Marvin Kaplan, had never seen him on television — so he had to watch "60 Minutes" before he had a feel for what Wallace was going through. "Then he said 'You are going to have to get ready to testify in that $120 million suit. You are going to be six feet away from the jury, and you're going to have to answer questions like some of the ones you ask. You're going to have to get ready to lose. And if you lose, it would be like a doctor being sued for malpractice. Your professional life would be over — and your credibility and integrity, everything a reporter holds dear, goes out the window."

It was medication, Kaplan's wise advice and the huge emotional support from Wallace's wife, Mary, that helped him recover. Plus, Westmoreland suddenly dropped the lawsuit.

Despite his high television perch, Wallace easily hands out praise to other interviewers, expressing genuine admiration for Ted Koppel, Barbara Walters, Charlie Rose and Larry King. "There used to be a time when you'd say that Larry throws softballs — but that's no longer true. These people are all superb interviewers."

---

E-mail: dennis@desnews.com