South Vietnam’s war against the Communist Viet Cong guerrillas is going badly and American optimism for the new government is turning into serious concern. Since the November 1 coup, the Viet Cong have mounted a sobering series of sharp, punishing attacks, particularly in the Mekong Delta area and in the south. Dozens of outposts and strategic hamlets have been overrun and many were burned. Their inhabitants were killed by the communist guerrillas, who attacked in company strength and even with full battalions.
As a result, morale of the villagers in many of the small, isolated hamlets has been shattered. Residents in some of the hamlets, according to reliable observers, are living in a state of terror, all confidence in the government’s ability to protect them undermined by the Viet Cong offensive. The new government is moving to counter the Viet Cong assaults but, in the minds of many observers, it is not moving nearly fast enough or even according to plan. “What’s happening here,” said one well-placed observer, “is that we’re running out of time.”
The Bolivian government moved 1,000 soldiers today into an area where communist-led tin miners held 4 Americans, 3 Canadians, and 14 other persons as hostages for the return of two arrested communist labor leaders. The presence of the Canadians among those held became known today when British Ambassador Gibson Holliday requested that they be set free. The cabinet of President Victor Paz Estenssoro was called to meet tomorrow to consider emergency measures with which to meet the crisis posed by the seizure of the hostages and the anti-government agitation of Vice President Juan Lechin. Lechin, a leftist, also heads the tin miners’ union.
One of the hostage Americans, Thomas Martin, 27, of New York, a United States information officer, was in touch with the United States embassy by radio-telephone again today and said he and his three American companions were well. He said they were under “strong militia guard.” He did not elaborate. Martin had made a similar call yesterday. The miners said they would start a series of strikes tomorrow at the 25 national mines. Bolivian press dispatches reported that violence broke out in the mining district of Huanuni. A mob was said to have attacked the local police commander, his wife, and children.
President Johnson offered the full assistance of the United States to the government of Bolivia today to gain the release of four American officials held among 21 hostages there by Communists. Johnson notified Bolivian President Victor Paz Estenssoro of his proffer of aid after a hastily called White House conference with Secretary of State Dean Rusk and Edwin M. Martin, assistant secretary of state for Latin American affairs. The conference and the decision took place immediately after the President’s return from New York, where he attended the funeral of Herbert Lehman.
Pierre Salinger, White House press secretary, said that by “full assistance” Johnson meant “anything that’s required by the government of Bolivia…. anything we’re requested” to do. He declined to be specific about the possibility of American military intervention in the strife-torn tin mining area 150 miles southeast of La Paz. He avoided ruling out the possibility, however. There was no information available in Washington concerning Bolivian reaction to the offer of aid. It is known, however, that Paz’s troops are waging campaigns in the mining region against bands of communist-led miners.
Premier Sarit Thanarat of Thailand. one of the closest U.S. friends in Southeast Asia, is dead of a liver ailment.
Professor Frederick Barghoorn of Yale university, held 16 days by the Soviets, discloses in a television interview that the most serious charge placed against him was trying to obtain Russian missile secrets. Three other charges accused him of espionage while an embassy employee in Moscow, while on numerous trips to Russia, and while interviewing Soviet army deserters in Germany.
The West German government has filed a bitter complaint against the United States over the withdrawal of tariff concessions in the chicken war.
Twenty thousand ex-soldiers marched through the West German capital in what probably will be the first of several protest demonstrations seeking compensation.
Reports persisted in Brazil that President Joao Goulart plans a cabinet shakeup which will elevate to prominence some officials dedicated to a leftist, anti-American course.
The Israeli cabinet welcomes Pope Paul’s proposed visit to the Holy Land but reaction in Egypt arouses some uneasiness in Vatican circles. Israeli officials plan to relax travel restrictions covering charter flights and will make every effort to ease border crossing procedures at the only crossing point between the Israeli and Jordanian sectors of Jerusalem. The pope plans to visit shrines in both Israel and Jordan.
Zanzibar shakes off 73 years of British protection at midnight tonight. Prince Philip, representing Queen Elizabeth, will hand the instrument of independence to the sultan of the Indian ocean island made famous by cloves and the slave trade.
In a referendum, voters in the Republic of the Congo overwhelmingly approved a new constitution that provided for only one political party, the Mouvement national de la révolution (MNR). Three days later, a new National Assembly was elected from a list of MNR candidates. Three days later, parliamentary elections were held with a 91.7% turnout to approve the MNR candidates for the 55 available seats in the National Assembly.
Pan Am Flight 214 was in a holding pattern at an altitude of 5,000 feet, awaiting clearance to land at Philadelphia, when it was struck by lightning at 8:58 p.m. The bolt, which struck the left wing of the Boeing 707 jet, ignited the mixture of jet fuel and kerosene that was in the reserve fuel tank in the wing, triggering an explosion that ignited the center and right reserve tanks as well. The left wing broke apart, and Flight 214 crashed near Elkton, Maryland, killing the 73 passengers and eight crewmembers. As a result of the disaster, the Federal Aviation Administration would require all passenger jets to install “static discharge wicks” to dissipate the effects of a lightning strike, and to cease further use of the inexpensive mixture (referred to as “JP-4” or “Jet B”) in favor of a safer jet fuel.
President Lyndon Johnson today attended funeral services for Herbert H. Lehman, long a leader of the Democratic party’s left wing and former New York governor and senator. An exceptionally heavy guard of secret service agents and police surrounded the President as overall security and his physical protection were increased on his first trip away from Washington since he assumed the Presidency November 22 with the assassination of President Kennedy. Lehman’s widow, concerned with President Johnson’s safety, attempted to dissuade him from attending the funeral. New York City detailed 2,000 uniformed and plainclothes policemen to stand guard along the President’s motorcade route from the airport to the downtown area and cover his movements in Manhattan during his stay of a little more than two hours.
Frank Sinatra Jr., the 19-year-old son of the famous singer, was kidnapped from his Room 417 at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe in Stateline, Nevada. Three men, Barry Keenan, John Irwin and Joe Amsler, entered the room at 9:30 p.m., half an hour before the younger Sinatra was to open a show with the Tommy Dorsey band, forced him into their car, and then drugged him and drove him to Canoga Park, California. From there, they called the elder Sinatra and demanded $240,000 ransom. The amount of $239,985 was dropped off in a small suitcase, and the kidnap victim was released, unharmed, on the San Diego Freeway, in the early morning hours of December 11.
Young Sinatra described what he knew to FBI agents, but he had barely seen two of the kidnappers and only heard the voice of the third conspirator. Still, the Bureau tracked the clues back to the house where Sinatra had been held in Canoga Park and gathered even more evidence there. Meanwhile, with the FBI’s progress being recounted in the press, the criminals felt the noose tightening. Irwin broke first, spilling the beans to his brother, who called the FBI office in San Diego. Hours later, Keenan and Amsler were captured, and nearly all of the ransom was recovered. Although the defense tried to argue that Frank Sinatra, Jr. had engineered the kidnapping as a publicity stunt, the FBI had strong evidence to the contrary. The clincher was a confession letter written earlier by Keenan and left in a safe-deposit box. In the end, Keenan, Amsler, and Irwin were all convicted. The three kidnappers would all be released by 1968.
U. E. Baughman, former secret service chief, suggests authorities seek answers to certain questions about President Kennedy’s assassination. For example, he asks, why was Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused slayer, permitted to leave the warehouse along the motorcade route after the shooting? Baughman also asks why, if the shots were fired from a warehouse window, the secret service did not pepper the window with machine gun fire. Baughman also wonders why Mrs. Kennedy climbed on the back of the limousine for help.
President Johnson orders 234 million dollars in veterans’ insurance dividends be distributed early next month in a move to bolster the national economy. This order will speed the flow of money to more than 42 million veterans, the dividends normally being staggered throughout the year on the anniversary dates of the policies. The bulk of the accumulated funds will go to veterans of World War I.
A no-holds-barred political brawl shapes up in Louisiana as deLesseps Morrison faces John J. McKeithen in the Democrat runoff primary for the state’s governorship. Morrison is a former New Orleans mayor and a favorite of the Kennedy administration. McKeithen is a champion of state rights and has the backing of one wing of the politically potent Long family. Both are regarded as moderates and both are avowed segregationists.
Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge has denied reports that former President Eisenhower urged him to leave his Saigon post to become a GOP Presidential candidate but kept the door open as a possible contender in the 1964 sweepstakes.
A home used by leaders of a Georgia city’s voter-registration drive was ripped by gunshots and then by an explosion.
A Harris Survey shows that in pressing Congress for action on the civil rights bill. President Johnson has in back of him almost 2 to 1 public support.
House Democratic leaders will start a drive tomorrow to wrench the civil rights bill from the House Rules Committee by filing a discharge petition but there were doubts the necessary 218 signatures could be secured.
A dangerous snowstorm, propelled by 75 m.p.h. winds, sweeps across the Midwest, blocking highways with 6-foot drifts. The storm reaches near-blizzard proportions over a wide area between the Dakotas and the Great Lakes, as it plows down on the upper Michigan peninsula. The storm reaches as far south as Topeka, Kansas.
“Girl Who Came to Supper” opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 112 performances
Eddie Barlow of South Africa scored a century in the first test against Australia at Brisbane.
NFL Football:
The Detroit Lions knocked Cleveland out of contention for the National Football League’s Eastern Conference title today by routing the favored Browns, 38—10, before 51,382 snow-pelted spectators at Tiger Stadium. The end came for the Browns in a decisive third period that saw the Lions, already in front by 14—10, score two touchdowns and a field goal. It was no contest after this outburst. The fact is that it was not much of a contest at any stage. Cleveland, which had gone into action tied with the New York Giants for first place in the East, turned up flat for this key game and was thoroughly outplayed in all departments. On their third play from scrimmage, the Lions popped Terry Barr into the clear for a 75-yard touchdown pass from Earl Morrall. Detroit scored again early in the second quarter on a 5-yard sweep by Danny Lewis that ended an eight-play drive covering 48 yards.
In their first show of life, the Browns, on the first play after the next kickoff, shook loose Ernie Green for a 74-yard run to the Detroit 6. It was prophetic that out of this glowing opportunity, the Browns netted only a 19-yard field goal by Lou Groza. Then, in what shaped up at the time as a possible turning point, Cleveland moved 80 yards in five plays to a touchdown following Vince Costello’s interception of an ill-advised pass by Morrall from Cleveland’s 12. The Browns’ tally came on a spectacular 49-yard pass from Frank Ryan to Gary Collins. With half the Lions in hot pursuit, Ryan fired the ball more than 60 yards through the air. Collins made a leaping catch in the end zone after being pushed off balance by Bruce Maher (who would have been charged with interference if Collins did not make the catch). But this sudden turnabout did Cleveland no good. When the teams returned to the sodden field after the intermission, Detroit took absolute charge.
John Unitas passed for 344 yards and three touchdowns today in leading the Baltimore Colts to a 41—10 victory over the Minnesota Vikings. The 30-year-old Unitas, enjoying one of his best games in eight years in the National Football League, failed to connect only four times on 21 passes. Unitas turned the signal calling duties over to Gary Cuozzo, a rookie, in the last period after coming within eight completions of his peak total of 25. The 344 yards gained by Unitas were only 53 fewer than his best season total and career high to 3,158 yards with one game to go. It was the highest scoring output of the season for the Colts. A rookie end, John Mackey, caught two Unitas passes for touchdowns on plays of 61 and 27 yards.
Charlie Johnson threw touchdown passes of 78, 58, 43, and 17 yards today as the St. Louis Cardinals routed the Philadelphia Eagles, 38–14, but the Cards’ title hopes in the Eastern Conference of the National Football League disappeared. The other Cardinal touchdown was made on a 42-yard sprint by Larry Wilson with a recovered fumble. The Philadelphia quarterback, Sonny Jurgensen, troubled most of the day by the Cardinal line, was effective enough to set up two short scoring runs by Tim Brown. The victory gave the Cards a 9-4 won-lost record and tied them with Cleveland, which lost to Detroit. Johnson’s four scoring passes gave him a total of 26 for the season. He completed 14 of 29 passes for 315 yards. Johnson’s No. 1 receiver was Bobby Joe Conrad, who increased his league-leading reception total to 65, breaking a Cardinal single season record. He caught six for 122 yards and two touchdowns. The Cardinals scored 10 points in the last 26 seconds of the first half for a 17-7 lead) at half-time, Bill Triplett, in the clear, dropped Johnson’s long pass, but the Cardinal quarterback came back with a 58-yard scoring pass to Sonny Randle seconds later. After Tom Woodeshick fumbled the ensuing kickoff, Jim Bakken kicked a 23-yard field goal with six seconds left.
Theron Sapp’s 24-yard touchdown burst in the last two minutes provided the final touch to a back-to-the-wall fourth-down gamble for the Pittsburgh Steelers today as they beat the Dallas Cowboys, 24—19, and kept the Steelers’ Eastern Division title hopes alive. The triumph gave the Steelers a 7-3-3 won-lost-tied record. Hounded by the Dallas defense, the Steelers had a fourth-and-14 situation at their 16-yard line when Ed Brown gambled with a pass to Red Mack. The toss was good for 42 yards and led to the winning surge. Mack’s great running after a fine catch carried the ball to the Dallas 42. Six plays later, Sapp exploded through the middle and romped into the end zone. Don Meredith of Dallas, who had been in trouble trying to get off passes all afternoon in the face of big Lou Michaels’s constant pressure, used the running of Amos Bullocks to good advantage. It was Bullocks who moved the ball down to where Meredith could run 2 and 4 yards for first and third period touchdowns. Sam Baker had contributed a 53-yard Dallas field goal with the wind in the first quarter and then provided what appeared to be the winning margin with a 46-yarder in the teeth of the wind in the third quarter. The Steelers scored on two great pass receptions — one by Buddy Dial that was good for 55 yards and another by Preston Carpenter for 28 yards. Michaels kicked a 24-yard field goal in a 17-point Steeler outburst in the second quarter.
Willie Galimore’s 51-yard touchdown run on the first play from scrimmage today started the Chicago Bears toward a 27—7 victory over the San Francisco 49ers and moved them within one game of the National Football League’s Western Conference crown. A victory or a tie against Detroit next Sunday would give the Bears their first division title since 1956. A loss to Detroit and a Green Bay triumph over San Francisco Saturday would send the Packers into the championship game against the Eastern winner. Galimore’s opening jaunt and a 21-yard touchdown run by Joe Marconi gave the Bears a 14—0 lead in the first quarter. The 49ers reduced the margin in the second quarter when they took over on the Bears 26 after a high pass by the Chicago center, Mike Pyle, and J. D. Smith scored from the 3 after he and Don Lisbon had taken turns running the ball. Pyle made three other bad snapbacks, but the 49ers were unable to capitalize on them. At the start of the second half, the Bears moved 71 yards — 41 on a pass from Billy Wade to Bo Farrington — with Wade running around his right end for a touchdown. With less than three minutes to play, Roosevelt Taylor intercepted a 49er pass by Lamar McHan and returned 30 yards for a touchdown. It was one of four interceptions by the Bears.
The New York Giants used seven pass interceptions and three fumble recoveries to light| up the scoreboard in Yankee Stadium yesterday. The home team crushed the Washington Redskins, 44—14, before a capacity crowd of 62,992 and that decision, plus other events in the National Football League, did a lot to clarify the championship race in the East. Pittsburgh’s defeat of Dallas and the New York victory eliminated both the Cleveland Browns, who lost to the Detroit Lions, and the St. Louis Cardinals from title contention in the Eastern Conference. The champion will be decided at Yankee Stadium Sunday when the Giants play the Steelers. Washington was eliminated from the proceedings in the Stadium yesterday when the New York defense rose up in the second quarter and took command of the game. “They overpowered us,” said Bill McPeak, the Redskin coach. “Those pass rushers of theirs took turns at our quarterbacks. They play it like a piano, up and down the scale.” McPeak spoke of Andy Robustelli, an intimidating opportunist; Jim Katcavage, who scored the first touchdown of his eight-year pro career, John LoVetere and Dick Modzelewski. This quartet applied such pressure on Norman Snead that McPeak took him out of the game in the third period, substituting George Izo. The results were no better.
Snead, throwing off his heels, was intercepted three times by Jerry Hillebrand in the first quarter and by Erich Barnes (in the New York end zone) and Dick Lynch (who returned 42 yards for a touchdown) in the second period. Izo threw four passes to Giants-two to Jimmy Patton, one to Lynch and one to Sam Huff (who returned 36 yards to a touchdown). The scoring thefts by Lynch. and Huff were worth $25 each to those players under the Giants’ bonus-incentive system: $10 for the steal, $10 for returning over 20 yards and $5 for scoring. Huff’s touchdown was only his second as a Giant. The Redskins made four interceptions and the total of 11 tied a league record.
Cleveland Browns 10, Detroit Lions 38
Minnesota Vikings 10, Baltimore Colts 41
Philadelphia Eagles 14, St. Louis Cardinals 38
Pittsburgh Steelers 24, Dallas Cowboys 19
San Francisco 49ers 7, Chicago Bears 27
Washington Redskins 14, New York Giants 44
AFL Football:
All season long, this has been one of the questions most often asked around the American Football League — what’s wrong with Cookie Gilchrist? The Buffalo Bills’ 251-pound, all-league fullback finally offered a reply today and it satisfied 20,222 fans at War Memorial Stadium. He scored five touchdowns and rushed for 243 yards as the Bills demolished the New York Jets, 45—14. His rushing total set a league record. His five touchdowns equaled the record held by Billy Cannon of Houston and Abner Haynes of the Dallas Texans, now the Kansas City Chiefs. The 28-year-old Gilchrist, who led the league last year with 1,096 yards on 214 attempts, carried the ball 36 times today. Daryle Lamonica, the Buffalo quarterback, just about turned the offense over to Cookie. And Cookie made it a day to be; remembered. by Daryle, who was making his first start as a pro quarterback.
The New York attack was crippled on the first play of the game. After the Bills had kicked off, quarterback Dick Wood, the Jets mainstay of the offense, was hit hard and carried off the field. He sat out the rest of the game. Wood was the victim of a blitz put on by Sid Youngelman, a former Titan, and Tom Sestak, both 260-pounders. They hit the 6-foot-5-inch Wood hard and landed on top of him as he fell with his left leg twisted under him. Wood said later that his cleats had stuck in the ground. His injury was reported as twisted ligaments in the knee. He did not go to the hospital but dressed and returned to watch from the bench. Wood was replaced at quarterback by Galen Hall, who had seen little action. The former Penn State passer wound up with one touchdown pass, a 23-yard toss to Don Maynard late in the final period.
Gilchrist capped a 24-yard drive in three plays for Buffalo’s first score, and Mack Yoho booted a 13-yard field goal for the 10 points after John Tracy had recovered Curley Johnson’s fumble at the Jet 25 on a kickoff. From that point it was all Buffalo, and mostly Gilchrist. Gilchrist got his second touchdown on a second quarter three-yard plunge, and the rout was on.
The Boston Patriots, backing their passers, Babe Parilli and Tom Yewcic, with a rugged pass defense, defeated the Houston Oilers, 46—28, today and gained sole possession of the Eastern Division lead in the American Football League. The victory broke a 6-5 won-lost deadlock between the two teams. If the Patriots tie or beat the Chiefs next Saturday at Kansas City, they will face San Diego, the Western Division winners, in the league playoff. George Blanda completed 12 consecutive passes and paced Houston to a 14—10 lead early in the first half. But the Boston defense, after making adjustments, and the Patriot rush line threw Blanda and his understudy, Jackie Lee, for losses totaling 100 yards while trying to pass. Boston then scored 21 points to take a 31—14 lead at the half.
Kansas City’s defensive team scored one touchdown and set up three others with blocked punts and interceptions as the Chiefs crushed the Denver Broncos, 52—21, today for their first American Football league victory in two months. Len Dawson threw three touchdown passes for the Chiefs, two to Frank Jackson, and Jackson got a third touchdown on a 22-yard reverse. The first of Kansas City’s three blocked punts was by Dave Grayson in the first period. Duane Wood picked up the ball at the 18 and ran for a touchdown. Sherill Headrick blocked two punts in the third quarter, and the Chiefs moved 27 and 11 yards for two touchdowns.
The amazing Oakland Raiders, paced by Art Powell and Cotton Davidson, erupted for four touchdowns and a field goal in the last period today and upset the San Diego Chargers, 41—27, to climb to within a game of the Western Division lead in the American Football League. San Diego has a 9-3 record and Oakland is 8-4. Each team has two games to play. Powell, the league’s top pass catcher, scored three touchdowns — two of them in the fourth period. Davidson, who replaced Tom Flores at quarterback in the second half, connected on two touchdown passes to Powell and tallied a third on a 9-yard run.
New York Jets 14, Buffalo Bills 45
Boston Patriots 46, Houston Oilers 28
Denver Broncos 21, Kansas City Chiefs 52
San Diego Chargers 27, Oakland Raiders 41
Born:
Domingo Bryant, NFL defensive back (Houston Oilers), in Nacogdoches, Texas.
Died:
Sarit Thanarat, 55, Prime Minister of Thailand since 1958, of heart illness. He was succeeded by former premier Thanom Kittikachorn.
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History Diaries 