Dan Rather Remembers the 'Toughest' Goodbyes to His Children and Wife: 'You May Not Come Back' (Exclusive)

During more than seven decades in news, Rather has traveled to Vietnam, Afghanistan and beyond — but even today, at 91 years old, he gets choked up recalling the conversations they had before he left

Dan Rather was beamed into American homes night after night during his years as a TV news correspondent and anchor — but the work that he did often took him away from his own home.

The legendary broadcaster and subject of the documentary Rather, premiering this weekend at the Tribeca Festival, reflects in this week's issue of PEOPLE on the lessons he learned and sacrifices he had to make during his career — and how his wife Jean, now 87, "was absolutely committed" to supporting him along the way.

Rather tells the story of how the newsman's mission took him from Ku Klux Klan rallies in the '60s to Kabul in the early 2000s, with tours of Vietnam, Pakistan and Washington, D.C. between. But at its core, the 91-year-old says the documentary "is the story of a child, a boy, dreaming against what appeared to be all odds ... [of] being a big-time, world-class, world-level war correspondent, foreign correspondent, White House correspondent. And being in the line of succession to the great Edward R. Murrow and the great Walter Cronkite at CBS News."

Growing up in Depression-era Texas, confronted by a years-long bout of rheumatic fever, Rather notes that, "for a long time, it seemed an impossible dream — but lo and behold, as it turned out, I was mighty lucky and mighty blessed, helped by a lot of people and I wound up being at the right place at the right time in many instances."

Related: Dan Rather's 'What Unites Us' Explores Patriotism as 'a Common Purpose'

As it were, chasing his dream — and the biggest stories of the day across more than seven decades — often plunged Rather into the nightmare of war.

Acknowledging that his career did often "really put a strain on family life," Rather shares, "The first year I was with CBS News, I was home 41 days out of the year. Forty-one days out of the year. Very hard to hold a marriage and a family together then."

He credits the "fighting heart" of his wife, "Jeannie Grace Goebel [who] was absolutely committed: 'Whatever it takes, we're going to make it work.' And maybe the saving grace was ... [that] when I was home, I tried to hit the off switch. I tried to make every hour count with my children, Robin, my eldest, and Dan, my youngest. They grew up with it. And again, all credit to Jean to whom I've been married for 66 years now."

According to Rather, "The toughest times, besides [when I was covering] Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights era when I was away from home all those days, was going to Vietnam where Jean — not to be overly dramatic about it — but she knew I might not come back. We both knew that. When I started, I was only going to go for a fairly short time. But the war was exploding. It was expanding. So you don't leave a story like that."

Related: 94-Year-Old Mom Recounts the Loss of Her Son During the Vietnam War in Ken Burns Documentary: 'It's Still So Difficult'

Once the seemingly endless siege of Vietnam had ceased, the next global hot spot flared up.

"Maybe the roughest [assignment] was when after the Russians invaded Afghanistan in 1980," says Rather. "This was the first really big Afghanistan story. After 9/11, Afghanistan became a different story. But in 1980, the Russians invaded, and we had a plan for me to lead a small group into Afghanistan. We had been told we probably couldn't get in, but if we did get in, we'd never get out alive."

He recalls, "Jean and I had a real heart-to-heart talk about it. And my oldest child, my daughter, took me aside and said, 'Dad, you've been through a lot, but we have a bad feeling about this one. We think if you go, you may not come back.'"

Choking up at the memory, he continues, "In terms of leaving, that was probably the toughest leave that I made."

Related: 'The Russians Will Die Here,' Vows a Young Commander of the Resistance in Afghanistan

During his time in Afghanistan, Rather admits he "worried a lot. But rightly or wrongly, I've had a sense that journalism — good journalism, journalism done right — matters. It's important. I thought the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in late 1979, going into 1980, was one of the big stories of my time. And any journalist worthy of the name wants to be on the big story. Journalists have a dual prayer, their first prayer is, 'God give me the great story.' And then you say, being greedy, 'And by the way, God, if you give me the great story, please help me be at or near my best.'"

"And in the end," he adds, "even Jean said, 'I never want you to walk away from a big story.'"

After more than two weeks on dangerous ground, "through a lot of luck and God's grace, we managed to get out alive. But to this day, I realized how lucky I was and how blessed I was to be able to do that."

Looking back, he realizes, "It certainly is among the most vivid memories of our family life."

Though Rather's medium has changed over time — in the last decade, he's become a bona fide social media influencer with 2.6 million Twitter followers — his mission to tell the big story has not wavered. "Since leaving CBS News [in 2006], I've tried to continue doing that." Only now his global reach doesn't require plane travel.

He expresses his deep respect for those reporters following in his (and so many others') footsteps onto hostile terrain.

"The news business has changed," he tells PEOPLE, "but most people in news have not really changed where it counts. They want to do the right thing. I see correspondents from all around the world, many of them from our beloved United States of America, putting their lives on the line in war zones all over the world — now Ukraine being one place."

He continues, "Time and again, they did what some of us did in Vietnam, and that is go where the work is, go where the fighting is, go where it's dangerous in order to bear witness to what's going on."

Related: Dan Rather Recalls How a Scary Home Invasion He Believes Was Connected to Watergate 'Changed My Perspective' (Exclusive)

And even after bearing witness for more than 72 years, Rather exudes the same passion he did as a boy who dreamed of being a "big-time, world-class" war correspondent. Only now he has the wisdom of experience.

"One of the great things about being a journalist, one of the joys of being a journalist is that you learn so much," he says. "I learned a great deal covering Dr. King. I learned a tremendous amount covering the [John F.] Kennedy assassination in 1963. ... [And in] that green jungle hell that was Vietnam, I learned a great deal about myself. I learned a great deal about my country. I learned a great deal about war."

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Rather premieres Saturday at the Tribeca Festival in New York City.

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