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The news on this morning in April of 1945 was about the eventual collapse of Germany and the end of the War in Europe. With news reports coming in, and bulletins being reported one on top of the other, news of the Fall of Berlin was being reported. Soviet troops had succeeded in occupying the center of the city, while defacto head of the German government, Heinrich Himmler was busy hammering out surrender terms. The latest communique had Himmler attempting to reach a surrender with the Allies without including the Russians. Needless to say, it was rejected. And despite some rumors to the contrary, no Surrender had been arrived at. Allied forces were systematically taking over and occupying every other German city, with news that Munich had fallen while this broadcast was on the air. Also reported was news that the Allies had liberated the Dachau Conentration camp, and news of that discovery would be coming in time. During the course of the morning news broadcast, an address by Gen. Spaatz of the Allied Air Forces announced confirmation that the German Luftwaffe had been completely obliterated and subsequently, the Allied Air Force would changed its role over to tactical support of ground forces during these final hours/days.

Meanwhile, the War in the Pacific was still far from over. With news reports of a Kamikaze attack on an Allied Hospital ship near Okinawa brought outrage from the Allied High Command and fighting was still intense.

And that was the news for this April 30, 1945, as presented in two morning Newscasts over NBC. One, the Morning Roundup and the later Alka-Seltzer News Of The World.

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.

News on this day was all about the War in Europe and its impending end. The country was still in mourning over the loss on April 12th of President Roosevelt, and the White House was getting ready to usher in the new President; Harry Truman.

But the War in Europe was grounds for cautious celebration. Unofficial word from Moscow was the Russian army's final push to Berlin, with over 2 million troops heading to within 27 miles of the Berlin City limits.

Among the bulletins and dispatches was news that the Allied Air Force had destroyed some 633 German planes in one day, effectively knocking out the Luftwaffe from any further involvement in the war. The Air Force also announced that there were virtually no industrial targets left in Germany and that the role of the Air Force would switch in the coming days. General Eisenhower was set to announce plans for VE Day and news that General Patton's Third Army had reached the Czech frontier, effectively cutting Germany in two. News the Allied 7th Army had entered the German city of Nuremberg and that the Allied Armies on all fronts were advancing to Berlin.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific - it was announced by the Air Force that Tokyo's Industrial capacity was believed to have been completely destroyed and there were unconfirmed reports that the fires in Tokyo could be seen 100 miles out to sea.

And that's the way this day went on April 16th, 1945 from NBC's News Of The World.

(The Battle Of Britain had begun)

With a goodly amount of censorship, correspondent Sigrid Schultz delivered news of the war from Berlin this day in 1940. The European continent was now under Axis control and the Battle of Britain was underway. Schultz was one of a handful of American correspondents still broadcasting out of Berlin and the amount of censorship was made clear by the amount of "quote-unquotes" she used during her broadcast. Scant acknowledgment was made of the resistance the British air force was putting up, by merely mentioning the French had more planes, but the British were better fliers. Mention was made that Britain was now in line for the full brunt of the German war machine. Further adding fuel to the speculation an invasion was anticipated almost any day.