Walters Shares Details of Interviews, Success

UPDATED: Oct. 8, 2014, at 4:09 a.m.

Barbara Walters discussed her path to success and shared wisdom gained from interviewing statesmen and stars through a journalism career that has spanned more than half a century in a conversation with David Gergen, professor at the Kennedy School of Government and senior political analyst for CNN, at the Institute of Politics on Tuesday.

Walters, who was the first female to co-anchor a network evening news program, began her career as a writer on NBC News for the "Today" show. In the 1960s, Walters became the first female anchor on the "Today" show to have ascended from behind the scenes as a writer and not as an actress or model.

"It was a struggle because there were no women in the news," Walters said. "When I first went on the air, I had a partner who insisted I not ask any of the serious questions."

Unwilling to settle for the task that her co-anchor had assigned to her, Walters said she had a conversation with the head of NBC News. Part of the resulting compromise was that if Walters obtained an interview outside of the studio, then she could conduct the interview herself. The first interview she got was with Henry Kissinger.

Walters went on to interview world figures, including Cuba's Fidel Castro, China's Jiang Zemin, Russia's Vladimir Putin, and Iraq's Saddam Hussein, while continuing her style of personality journalism.

"I'm fascinated by what makes people tick," she said. "A lot of my interviews even with heads of state are: 'Tell me about your childhood,' 'What is it about you that made you the person you are today?'"

Starting with former U.S. president Richard Nixon, Walters has interviewed every following American president and First Lady.

Regarding her multiple interviews with Nixon, Walters said he always "seemed constipated to me."

"Nixon wanted to be liked, to reach people," she said. "He didn't know how—in his private or professional life. It was ultimately tragic, and he never found himself."

Walters said that President Barack Obama seems to be a "solitary figure" in the White House who is very involved with his family and children and may not see and listen to enough people.

"This is a man who had to spend his childhood pleasing people," Walters said of Obama. "His father didn't see him, his step-father wasn't there, his mother abandoned him, and he spent all of his early years trying to be accepted and liked. We have to recognize the mark it made."

Walters said that she believes that true leaders have vision, passion, a desire to do something beyond trying to get reelected, and a "commitment to something that is bigger than themselves," which is a combination that she said she has not seen in recent presidents.

Gergen described Walters as having a "friendly" relationship with Hillary Clinton. Having interviewed Clinton several times since she was First Lady, Walters said, "I think she would make a very good leader as president." Walters said that even though Clinton went through a tough campaign, "I don't see how you could get so close to the triumph [and] then walk away."

Near the end of the conversation, Gergen played a clip of Walters’ famous interview with Clint Eastwood in 1982, which she described as "the most flirtatious interview I've ever done." Walters said Eastwood asked her if she would come to his home for dinner following the intimate interview and that she missed the chance to have a relationship with Eastwood, who later went on to marry and then divorce another reporter. But she said she has not lost hope.

"Who knows what can happen,” she said. “I might come back and be Mrs. Clint Eastwood."