As much as we're heard about the Protest Movement to the Vietnam War in the 1960's there was that just-as-vocal contingent who not only believed the war was justified, but that we were also in the process of winning it. And many of those people were on Capitol Hill.

For example, Sen. Thomas J. Dodd (D-Conn) who served on the Senate Armed Services Committee was a staunch believer in the Vietnam War and was convinced we were winning it. One of the true Hawks in the Senate. But in all honesty, early in 1965 there was a much larger segment of the population who believed the war could be won and believed we were absolutely justified in being in Southeast Asia than who weren't. The Anti-War Movement was just getting started at this point and the sales pitch for the War was much more organized.

Dodd was convinced we were winning, that we had "turned the corner" so to speak. And in this installment of NBC's Meet The Press, he is asked why he is so adamant in that assessment.

Sen. Thomas Dodd: “We’re winning more battles every day. The latest figure I heard was, on an engagement just recently, it was in the ratio of about four to one. They suffered something in excess of 400 losses. Our side had something in excess of 100.The morale of the South Vietnamese is very high. There are more defectors coming over to our side every day. About a year ago, my information is, we were getting about ten a month. We’re now getting over a hundred a month. We’ve got a thousand pilots, about a thousand pilots now in the South Vietnamese Air Force. They’re good pilots, I’m told by our Air Force people, they’re good fighters. As a matter of fact, I was told they do a better job at maintenance than our people do. So there are all these reasons I say we’ve begun to win.”

Hearing the casualty reports, I am reminded of what was later revealed to be grossly inflated enemy body counts, and how early on the war was being manipulated to be portrayed as another cakewalk. What was being conveyed and what was actually happening were two wildly different stories. And unfortunately we had to find out the hard way.

So here is Meet The Press featuring Sen. Thomas J. Dodd as originally broadcast on May 2, 1965.

In the seemingly never-ending task of digitizing the archive (rumor has it I will be finished sometime around mid-Century), I run across items that, although they may not pertain to anything of a current nature, or even of great importance from a historic standpoint, are still interesting to hear as a sort of footprint in time.

Such is the case with this press conference held by vice-President Johnson on his return from a fact-finding mission to Southeast Asia on May 24, 1961. It is pretty much standard early 60's Foreign Policy fare in a Cold War era. Everything was predicated on whether or not there was a Communist influence, acting as competition for U.S. aid. On its surface it seems like a Public Relations tour, were it not for our particular gift of hindsight in knowing what was just around the corner.

However, listening to this press conference, I can't help but think Lyndon Johnson had no clue it would be his cross to bear three years later.

Of course, we all know better now - we didn't know better then. Like LBJ in 1961, we had no clue what we were in for.

Looking back at how we get ourselves into things, it's always interesting to see where things go wrong, who misinterpreted what and just what happened in the long run as the result.

In 1955 the center of attention was Taiwan and the thorny relationship that had been going on between mainland China and the Nationalist government. The whole region was taken into consideration as a sort of flash-point in the domino theory of Communist takeovers, but Vietnam wasn't really looked at as a trouble area for the U.S. - no, they had the Diem regime and Diem was friendly toward us and we were pouring aid into that country.

However, we may have looked the other way or read it wrong when concern developed that the Diem regime was a corrupt one and the people of South Vietnam didn't want him in power. But, as is always the case, we never seem to get the messages right and we just propped up the wrong guy anyway.

General J. Lawton Collins was asked about Vietnam during the panel interview on Meet The Press from February 2, 1955. The occasion being his return from a visit to Vietnam as well as the Southeast Asia region and his assessment of the situation from a U.S. point of view.

Gen. J. Lawton Collins: “I don’t want to appear overly optimistic, Mister Spivak, but I think that in the past four weeks that President Ze-em, as he pronounces it, has made genuine progress toward establishing a progressive program in his country. And if this program is fully implemented, then I think there’s a least a 50-50 chance that South Vietnam can remain free.”

Lawrence Spivak: “ Well General, just how important is that area to our security and our safety?”

Collins: “Well, it’s not of immediate importance to the security of the United States. It is of tremendous importance to the security of all of Southeast Asia. And therefore, since we are interested in maintaining peace throughout the Pacific area, then South Vietnam is of great importance to us.”

And the rest, as they always say, is history.

For this week, ending on May 11th in 1975, news was about the last Americans and press evacuated from Cambodia. The stories now coming out about the atrocities and the takeover by the Khmer Rouge. In South Vietnam, the Tsunami of refugees was still on, with stories of over-flowing boats and chaos and confusion.

So confusing, that the story came out of the last two Marines, killed in Vietnam were still somewhere in a Saigon hospital morgue, waiting to be picked up. Reports also came in that Laos was facing a Communist takeover, based on the elections recently held.

And that was the picture from Southeast Asia.

Meanwhile, it was reported Senator George McGovern was visiting Cuba and talk of the OAS preparing to drop sanctions against the Castro government, sometime during the Summer.

Egypt was moving to finally clear the Suez Canal of wrecked ships leftover from the 1967 War.

And on this week it was 30 years since VE day, and many comparisons were being drawn between the end of that conflict and the one just recently ended in Vietnam.

All in a week, ending May 11, 1975 as reported on The World This Week from CBS Radio.

Update: With a mass outpouring of donations and kind words overnight, we've come within a few hundred dollars of our goal. We'll end the fundraiser after today and give what we have to the building owners and hopefully the crisis will be over tomorrow. I can't begin to express my gratitude and admiration for all of you who have made donations. Your contributions have all made a huge difference and I am so blown away by the responses. It is sometimes difficult to know, working on posts all day and usually with only the computer screen as an audience, to tell if any of the historic materials I've been offering these last few years have been seen or have been of any help to anyone. The past 10 days of this fundraiser have proven there are a lot of you out there and that makes this decades-long quest for archiving and preserving history completely worth it. I'll be here as long as you're here. If you are still interested in making a contribution, I'm still in heavy appeal-mode for the rest of the day. As always, any amount you feel comfortable with is enormous to me. My deepest and most heartfelt thanks to you all.

This May Day in 1961 had ominous tones for the future - although at the time it didn't sound that way. The news for this day was the crisis in Southeast Asia, specifically the dispute between Laos and Cambodia. Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia had proposed a 14 nation Political Conference to the King of Laos in an effort to diffuse the situation. The proposal was rejected and Sihanouk then called for ceasefire talks to begin.

Meanwhile, President Kennedy was being apprised of the situation in South Vietnam via a recently concluded Military fact finding mission to the area.

On the Domestic front - Commerce Secretary Luther Hodges was quoted as saying the Communist Economic offensive was a matter of grave concern to the Free World, with obvious hints towards the situation in Latin America. Elsewhere - it was reported the Unemployment figures in the U.S. were regarded as "intolerable" by Capitol Hill.

On an upbeat note - Scientists at Cape Canaveral were weighting weather conditions for a scheduled launch of he first manned-Space flight by the U.S. - the flight was slated to go on May 2nd, if all signs were good.

And Jordan's King Hussein announced via Radio Aman that he was engaged to "the woman of his dreams" - a commoner who also happened to be the daughter of a British Army Officer. Hussein also added that yes, she was a Muslim - so not to worry.

And that's what this May 1st was mostly about in 1961 as reported by NBC News On The Hour.

No end to conflicts and potential hot spots, this February 23rd in 1975. Southeast Asia eruptions were continuing with the Mekon river blockade now effectively cutting off Phnom Penh and rebel fighting throughout Cambodia. Likewise in South Vietnam where terrorist attacks were inching closer to Saigon. All this activity triggered calls from President Ford to send military aid to the region. Congress wasn't thrilled. We'd been there. We'd done that. We got the bloodstains to prove it. Still, there were some such as Strom Thurmond who thought we should pour nothing but money into the region in exchange for their oil, if and when they found some.

Elsewhere in the Lovely Neighborhood - Secretary of State Henry Kissinger returned from a tour of the Middle East, saying he was "optimistic" that talks-about-talks-about-talks were looking up. Senator Ted Kennedy introduced legislation asking for a cut-off of military aid to the oil producing Persian Gulf nations, saying instability in the region begged for a hold-off on ordinance for at least six months. His crystal ball, it appears, was in much better shape than a lot of his colleagues.

Ethiopia was asking the U.S. for arms in the wake of increased tensions coming from the northern province of Eritrea and the separatist movement gathering steam there. New tensions in Cyprus between Greek and Turkish elements were springing up. Spain, despite a law prohibiting strikes handed down by the somewhat creaky Franco regime, went on strike over dissatisfaction with the decades-old authoritarian rule.

And back home - Judge Sirica handed down sentences for convicted Watergate figures. It went like this: Mitchell, Haldeman and Ehrlichman all got 2 1/2 years in jail and Robert Mardian got 10 months.

All that and a lot more for news ending the week of February 23rd, 1973 as reported on CBS Radio's The World This Week.

Feel better about your day now?

This week's Talkshow is an Issues & Answers broadcast from September 1964. Hot on the heels of the upcoming General Election. This one features Democratic vice-Presidential nominee Sen. Hubert Humphrey, campaigning throughout the West, being interviewed while on a stop in New Mexico.

The issues in 1964 were bubbling under the radar for a while, most importantly our increasing involvement in Southeast Asia which, as of August and the Gulf of Tonkin incident, seemed to point in the direction of a drawn out and protracted war as well as the attempted coup that had just taken place before this broadcast.

But moreover was the issue of Barry Goldwater, the Republican Presidential nominee, and the dramatic shift to the right the party had taken since the mid-term elections in 1962. Goldwater represented the extreme wing of the party, which had been gaining ground in recent years, fueled by reaction to the Civil Rights movement and the staunch Anti-Communist base who still held the belief that the Red influence was still running amok in the government.

Sen. Hubert Humphrey: “It is my view that, when Sen. Goldwater speaks about the use of Atomic weapons as if they were little conventional weapons for example, and he says ‘let’s give those weapons, the use of those weapons and the control of them to the General in the field’, that he hasn’t thought it through. Or if he has thought it through then he has a very dangerous thought. There aren’t any conventional atomic weapons. The little weapons that he speaks about are presently in the possession of the United States Army in Europe, but are subject to the control of the President of the United States. These weapons are bigger than the weapon, the bomb that was used at Nagasaki. Now you don’t call that a little old conventional weapon. I feel that the Senator from Arizona has had some difficulty outlining a consistent position of Political philosophy and Political program. He votes against a tax bill and then a few months later he recommends a tax cut bill he voted against, the one that cut the taxes over $11 billion. A few months later he comes around and charges it as being a cynical and politically motivated gimmick and the he presents a tax reduction bill, a proposal of his at over 25%. One time he says we ought never to be in the United Nations. Another time he says he thinks the United Nations has some value. He’s one time condemned Social Security, a little bit later he will say ‘well, Social Security may be all right’. I don’t know how you would interpret this, but I would say that it is at least political instability, and in a President you need more firmness of purpose and more stability of position.”

Flip-flops appear to have some basis in history - we hear about them now, we heard about them then. 1964 no doubt signaled a change in the Republican party and in politics in general. Many people will contend it was this election that became Ground Zero for the ideological shift within our political system.

And they may have been right in that assumption.

One billion Dollars a day was how it was roughly figured out, as Capitol Hill dissected the size of the Budget President Ford was handing to Congress this February 1st in 1975.

The astronomical sum didn't sit with most lawmakers, considering the U.S. was knee-deep in a recession that no intention of letting up anytime soon.

Money woes and the blame game were in massive supply all over Washington. With the price of gas having some called on a system of rationing in order to stop our dependence on Foreign Oil, which was indicated as a major contributor to our woes.

And the matter of Foreign Aid was another. A supplemental Aid bill to Southeast Asia was resoundingly defeated because, as one Senator pointed out - 55,000 casualties, untold billions already - enough was enough.

And it wasn't just Southeast Asia feeling the brunt of austerity. Aid to Turkey was pending and on hold because of the ongoing situation in Cyprus. The problem in this case was not having much idea of who exactly was running the show over in Istanbul.

To top it all off - our Trade Deficit had now achieved the dubious distinction of being the 2nd highest in the century.

Cold comfort and no doubt cause for another round of sleepless nights.

And so went the news for this February 1st 1975 as reported on CBS Radio's The World This Week (February 1st was a Sunday in 1975) as reported by Allan Jackson and a flood of reports.

Day 520 in what would soon become World War 2, but still only "the war in Europe" this January 31st in 1941. The U.S. still had diplomatic ties as well as news bureaus in Berlin and Tokyo. But how long that was going to last was only a matter of time.

The previous night, on January 30, 1941 Adolf Hitler, during a 90 minute speech, warned the U.S. that dire consequences would arise if we continued providing aid to Britain and that the German navy would be compelled to torpedo U.S. ships entering "zones of contention" (i.e. British waters).

The threat was interestingly timed, as arguments over Lend-Lease and Foreign Aid to Britain were being argued on Capitol Hill all this week.

But the war nonetheless continued. News of continued daylight bombings of London were containing reports of indiscriminate targets being hit as the result of cloud cover and civilian casualties were on the rise.

Meanwhile, the Italian army was losing on several fronts, substantiating Prime Minister Churchill's assessment that Italy really had "no stomach for war". Greek troops were advancing in Albania, forcing the Italian army to retreat after suffering heavy losses resulting in a failed counter-attack. Likewise in Libya where British forces forced Italian abandonment of Derna and reports of large numbers of prisoners taken as the result. Italy was rapidly losing ground in Libya and in threat of losing their entire toehold in North Africa.

In Southeast Asia, Siam (now Thailand) issued surrender demands to the Vichy Government to give up French claim to Cambodia and one-fourth of Indo-China. Also stipulating that, should France give up Indo-China altogether, it had first dibs on a second province in the Indo-China territory (remember this for later reference in the 1950's). Suspicions were aroused that the Japanese were behind these negotiations as it was Tokyo who acted as buffer between Siam and the Vichy Government.

And that's how this day went in 1941, as reported by NBC and their morning as well as evening newscasts.

Day 520 indeed.

Waiting for the final word. That was the report from Cape Canaveral on May 4th 1961. Ready and waiting was the first American Astronaut to go into space, Alan Shepard. Originally slated for May 6th, the weather was predicted to be good on the 5th and so it was scheduled for takeoff on that date instead and preparations were underway.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world was busily spinning - with news of civil war in Indonesia, status reports on Southeast Asia and word that Jordan's King Hussein had popped the question to a commoner. The commoner being the daughter of a British Army Officer. Fortunately for Jordan the bride in question was also Muslim, so eyes didn't raise all that much.

So here is a newscast fifty years ago today from NBC Radio on May 4th 1961 - complete with commercials for Chevrolet.

Still in fundraising mode.