Photograph: President Nixon on November 8, 1973, ordered the lights of several buildings and monument sin the nation’s Capital dimmed or turned off during the energy crisis. The North Portico of the White House and the Washington Monument, remain lit earlier in the evening. The North Portico was darkened except for a light in the entrance. The lights of the Washington Monument were completely out.
The Vietnam war has heated up again. Saigon and Hanoi each claimed that the other side restarted the fighting. The Viet Cong asserted today that their forces had decisively defeated government troops along the Cambodian border over the weekend, and also accused the Saigon government of inflicting more than 100 civilian casualties during an air strike. A spokesman for the Viet Cong’s delegation to the Joint Military Commission said that three battalions of government troops had been put out of action. He added that 20 vehicles and hundreds of weapons were captured in fighting Sunday around two government outposts along the Cambodian frontier in Quảng Đức Province. The outposts, Bù Bông and Bu Prăng, about 125 miles northeast of Saigon, were seized by North Vietnamese tanks and troops. The Viet Cong spokesman said that more than 100 government soldiers had been captured in the fighting.
Referring to a big government air attack yesterday on Lộc Ninh, the Vietcong headquarters in South Vietnam, the spokesman said that 32 civilians had been killed and 70 wounded when bombs dropped on principally nonmilitary targets. Lieutenant Colonel Lê Trung Hiền, chief spokesman for the Saigon command, denied that any civilian targets had been hit and said the nearest bombs fell more than half a mile from Lộc Ninh, which is about 75 miles north of Saigon.
A military spokesman in Damascus said that Syrian antiaircraft defenses shot down an F-4 Phantom jet today when an Israeli formation tried to violate Syrian airspace on a reconnaissance mission. The spokesman said that the incident took place in the southern sector of the front. “Our antiaircraft defenses intercepted the formation and destroyed a Phantom‐type plane while the remaining planes fled” he said. It was the third day in a row that Syria had reported incidents on her front with Israel.
An Israeli military spokesman in Tel Aviv dismissed as completely untrue the Damascus report that an Israeli Phantom jet was shot down by Syrian antiaircraft defenses today.
The Soviet Union gave no public indication today of having been directly involved or closely consulted by Washington about a compromise apparently worked out by Secretary of State Kissinger for stabilizing the ceasefire along the Suez Canal. Soviet News media last night fully reported Cairo’s decision to resume diplomatic relations with the United States. But tonight Tass, the Soviet press agency, reported briefly on Mr. Kissinger’s visits to Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The modest press coverage suggested that Moscow might be unenthusiastic about Mr. Kissinger’s initiative, which overshadows the Soviet move to send 70 observers to Egypt to monitor the cease‐fire.
A prominent Soviet monthly has accused the leaders of Libya, Tunisia and Morocco of echoing the Chinese propaganda line in the Middle East. In its current issue, the semi‐official foreign affairs review International Life gave the first public indication of the Soviet Union’s concern that its credibility as a friend of the Arabs was being questioned by the Arabs themselves, particularly at a time when the Kremlin has been touting its solidarity with the Arab world. The article analyzed the conference of nonaligned nations held in Algiers in September. It disclosed Soviet fears that Arab nations were responding to China’s persistent charges that Moscow was collaborating with Washington to impose superpower hegemony over the Middle East. Although the article dealt with the nonaligned conference, the November issue of the magazine was approved for publication on Oct. 23 and it presumably reflected Soviet dissatisfaction with the three Arab states after the Middle East hostilities had erupted.
Colonel Muammar el‐Qaddafi of Libya was singled out as the “most irresponsible” critic of Soviet foreign policy at the 76‐nation conference. But the article also criticized President Habib Bourguiba of Tunisia and Premier Ahmed Osman of Morocco for perpetrating what it called a “crude distortion” of Soviet intentions in the Middle East. Libyan and Tunisian leaders had argued at the conference that nonaligned countries ought to be free of ideological ties to either the East or the West. Colonel Qaddafi had specifically taken Cuba to task for her close relations with the Soviet Union.
The Second Cod War between the United Kingdom and Iceland was ended by agreement between the Prime Ministers of the two nations.
The British government made £146 million compensation available to three nationalized industries to cover losses resulting from its price restraint policies.
Chanting students rampaged through the streets of Athens shouting demands for the overthrow of the Greek government and clashed with police in the second violent confrontation in five days. Witnesses reported that scores of students were taken into custody throughout the day. Several were reported to have been seriously injured, but there was no confirmation of this. Last Sunday, 17 students were arrested after rioting in the capital.
West Berlin’s Mayor Klaus Schuetz, replying to a mounting East German campaign against him and his administration, accused East Germany of violating the four-power agreement for easing Berlin tensions. Negotiators for East and West Germany met across the wall in what was called a not very good atmosphere. The East German campaign has resulted in the sharpest war of words between the rival Germanys since they began talking detente three years ago.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has approved a new $208.8 million authorization bill for the U.S. Information Agency to replace one vetoed by President Nixon. The new version would eliminate the anti-secrecy provision which prompted the veto, but would cut money for salaries and expenses by $7.9 million.
Argentine military sources expressed fears for the health of army Colonel Florencio Emilio Crespo, 50, kidnapped near his La Plata home three days before he was to travel to Europe for a kidney operation. He was grabbed in the street by three young men who beat him and forced him into a car, the sources said. A search was launched for the kidnappers, unofficially reported to be members of the urban guerrilla People’s Revolutionary Army movement. It was the first important attack on the armed forces since President Juan Perón took office October 12.
French Ambassador Pierre de Menthon told reporters that Miguel Labarca Goddard, private secretary of the late Chilean President Salvador Allende, has been granted asylum in the French Embassy in Santiago. Meanwhile, Mrs. Margareta Sourander, wife of the correspondent for the Stockholm newspaper Dagens Nyheter, was released after being held by Chilean police for more than 24 hours. Her husband was held for 12 days a month ago before authorities allowed him to leave the country.
Bolivia’s minister of industry and commerce reported that the U.S. Embassy, on State Department instructions, said the Hickenlooper Amendment to cut off aid and loans might be invoked if cotton producers don’t respect prices agreed to a year ago with four foreign firms, including an American one. The amendment permits the action against nations that harass U.S. business interests. The dispute involves about $25 million worth of cotton. The four firms signed agreements setting the price at $35 a quintal (about 220 pounds) but when the world price rose to $95 in August the producers raised their rates to $85.
The U.S. State Department announced that the embassy in Uganda is being closed and the last American there, the charge d’affaires, is being returned home. A spokesman said the closure resulted from an accumulation of actions by Uganda which created conditions making it impossible to conduct diplomatic relations. He said the actions included public threats by officials against diplomatic representatives, unfounded accounts and the recent “unjust expulsion” of the embassy’s six Marine guards. Marines are traditionally responsible for protection of U.S. embassies.
The AFL-CIO began a nationwide campaign to seek President Nixon’s immediate impeachment. The labor union published its reasons in the union newspaper.
President Nixon’s personal secretary Rose Mary Woods and former chief of staff H.R. Haldeman testified today about the White House tapes. The quality of the recordings was a primary topic of interest. Miss Woods testified that many of the recordings are inaudible. Haldeman maintained that he checked out only one tape although prosecutor Richard Ben-Veniste insisted that there is evidence of the existence of 22 tapes.
Former Attorney General Elliot Richardson testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that that there was talk of firing former special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox last July. Richardson stated that White House chief of staff Alexander Haig criticized Cox’s actions and verbalized the President’s requests regarding the investigation and Cox.
Cox’s successor, Leon Jaworski, testified before the House Judiciary Committee. Jaworski was adamant that President Nixon has given him a free hand in his conduct of the Watergate investigation. Chief of staff Haig noted that Jaworski could sue the President if documents and evidence he requests are not turned over. The committee then ended its hearings and began drafting a bill to transfer control of Jaworski to the courts rather than the executive branch.
Nixon re-election campaign assistant Benjamin Fernandez denied offering Florida building contractor John Priestes government favors in return for a $100,000 campaign contribution. Fernandez appeared before the Senate Watergate Committee today.
The Miami Herald reported that Larry Williams, a former fundraiser for Watergate committee member Senator Edward Gurney, has agreed to plead guilty and provide the prosecution with information regarding Gurney’s finances.
Industry leaders and Congress generally approved President Nixon’s proposals for meeting the energy crisis. Senate Interior Committee chairman Henry Jackson believes that legislation could be ready for the Senate floor as soon as next Tuesday.
Buildings in Washington, D.C. have turned down their thermostats to save energy; state and federal vehicles have been ordered not to exceed 50 m.p.h. in order to save gasoline. These were among the President’s voluntary requests to conserve energy. Nixon’s quarters in the White House have been turned down to 65-68 degrees. Commerce Secretary Frederick Dent stated that the energy crisis can be thwarted if each citizen complies with voluntary cutbacks. But if citizens neglect the call for conservation, social, economic and political disruption may follow.
There is a “lights out” policy in effect for Washington and press secretary Ron Ziegler reported that the President’s airplanes and helicopters will reduce their speeds along with other government vehicles.
Police arrested two fugitives in Sacramento; the men are suspects in the mass murders in Victor, California. Police surrounded a hotel and arrested Douglas Gretzler. Later, Willie Steelman was also arrested as an accomplice in the crimes. The two fugitives were also wanted in New York and Arizona for murder.
In Santa Cruz, California, Edmund Kemper was ruled to be sane and then was found guilty of murdering his mother and seven other women. Kemper murdered his paternal grandparents 10 years ago.
The gunmen who held an entire family hostage in Wadena, Minnesota, yesterday were arraigned today in Minneapolis. The hostages escaped and the escaped convicts John P. Morgan and William Winnes were then arrested. Elmer Wegscheid, the father of the family who was held, explained how the hostages got away; the family insists that Morgan didn’t want to kill the Wegscheid family but just wanted attention.
A public health emergency has been declared in New York City because of the strike by nonmedical hospital personnel. Sporadic violence developed today along some picket lines. Many patients were sent home, or to nursing homes; only emergency victims were taken at hospitals. Lab technician Harriet Smith stated that the government provoked the strike action because workers can’t support their families on their current salaries.
Workmen at Cape Canaveral jacked the Saturn 1-B ever so slightly off the launching pad today and began replacing the rocket’s damaged tail fins, an operation aimed at getting the Skylab 3 mission under way with a minimum of a five-day delay. The work, so far, was reported to be progressing smoothly. If the schedule is maintained, the countdown is to be resumed next Tuesday morning for a liftoff at 9:37 A.M. Thursday. The three astronauts. Lieutenant Colonel Gerald P. Carr of the Marines, Lieutenant Colonel William R. Pogue of the Air Force and Dr, Edward G. Gibson, a scientist, watched the beginning of the repair work and then flew to Houston to continue training in spacecraft simulators. They had been at the Kennedy Space Center here for fittings of their space suits. They are scheduled to return here on Tuesday for final countdown preparations.
A report from a private research group revealed that aerosol sprays are unsafe. The “Center for Science in the Public Interest” conducted the study.
Presidential adviser Melvin Laird reported that President Nixon will reconsider the 30 cents per gallon tax levy on gasoline.
Millennium ’73, a three-day festival hosted by the 15-year-old Guru Maharaj Ji and his Divine Right Mission, drew 20,000 of his devotees to the Astrodome in Houston. The Guru called the festival “the most significant event in human history” and promised to launch 1,000 years of world peace.
Nevada approves pari-mutuel betting on Jai Alai.
The animated musical “Robin Hood” was released by Walt Disney Productions, with the characters re-imagined as anthropomorphic animals.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 932.65 (+12.57, +1.37%).
Born:
David Muir, American journalist (ABC news anchor, “20/20”), in Syracuse, New York.
František Kaberle, Czech National Team and NHL defenceman (Olympic gold, 1998; NHL Champions, Stanley Cup-Carolina, 2006; Los Angeles Kings, Atlanta Thrashers, Carolina Hurricanes), in Kladno, Czechoslovakia.
Kari Haakana, Finnish NHL defenseman (Edmonton Oilers), in Outokumpu, Finland.
Edgardo Alfonzo, Venezuelan MLB third baseman and second baseman (All-Star, 2000; New York Mets, San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Angels, Toronto Blue Jays), in Santa Teresa del Tuy, Venezuela.
Nicole Teter, American 800m runner, in San Diego, California.
Died:
Faruk Nafiz Çamlıbel, 75, Turkish novelist and poet
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