The South Vietnamese peasants at Hòa Lợi are being told that the sinuous one‐and‐a‐half‐mile gash they are digging in the earth is an irrigation canal. But in truth the huge ditch is one section of a vast network of antitank trenches that Saigon has decided to construct in a wide arc north of the capital. The decision to dig the trenches is yet another sign of the government’s apprehension about the communists’ plans during the dry season, which has made the reddish, flat land deal for movement of tanks. Some South Vietnamese commanders speculate that the communists may sweep out of their strongholds in Bình Long and Tây Ninh Provinces in bold strike at Saigon itself.
Others say that the enemy commanders will be satisfied to push their lines closer to Saigon, perhaps to bring their 130‐mm. guns within their 15‐mile range of the capital. In either case, any tank attack would have to cross the trench, 6 feet deep and 13 feet wide, that the people of Hòa Lợi and other villages in Bình Dương Province have been digging for two weeks. Similar trenches are supposed to be dug in the neighboring provinces of Tây Ninh, Hậu Nghĩa and Biên Hòa, which are also in the possible line of attack. The trench — reportedly the creation of Lieutenant General Pham Quoc Thuan, the new commander of Military Region III — does not have a name. Perhaps in time it will be known as the Thuan line. But for the moment, the people of Hòa Lợi, who have been hacking it out of the hard ground without pay, call it “the trench.”
Cambodian President Lon Nol gave his approval to accepting the resignation of Prime Minister In Tam, according to the personal secretary of the prime minister. Two names currently being mentioned to fill the vacancy are Hang Thun Hak, former prime minister and general secretary of Lon Nol’s party, and Op Kim Ang, a vice prime minister and deputy to opposition Republican Party leader Sisowath Sirik Matak. Lon Nol reportedly plans to appoint Sirik Matak as vice president soon.
Saudi Arabia oil minister Sheik Ahmed Yamani said that the oil embargo to U.S. could end soon, if Israel promises to withdraw from occupied Arab territories.
The government of Austria closed the Schönau Castle transit camp for Jewish emigres from the Soviet Union, fulfilling a promise made by Chancellor Bruno Kreisky for the release of four hostages who had been seized by Arab gunmen in September. The camp had been operated since 1971 by the Jewish Agency for Immigration Agency for Immigration and Resettlement of Jews. Kreisky, an Austrian Jew who had been able to escape to Sweden shortly after Nazi Germany’s annexation of Austria in 1938, defended the action as necessary because the camp’s existence was a threat to Austria’s national security. Afterward, Soviet Jews traveling to Israel were able to stay temporarily at an Austrian Red Cross aid station at Wollersdorf, but had to be flown to Tel Aviv within 14 hours.
NATO foreign ministers began their meeting in Brussels, Belgium. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had sharp words for some of them. Rifts exist in NATO over Arab oil and Soviet-U.S. relations. The French foreign minister challenged Kissinger about the United States’ stance in the Mideast. The NATO alliance has reached a major turning point.
The most difficult winter since World War II is in prospect for Europe as the energy crisis there intensifies. The shorter days and colder temperatures of December have begun to demonstrate how dramatically the oil shortages arising from the Middle East war will affect the lives of all Europeans at least for the next few months and perhaps much longer.
Thomas Byrne, the U.S. ambassador to Norway, accepted the Nobel peace prize on behalf of Henry Kissinger, as demonstrators protested Kissinger’s winning of the peace prize.
Kevin Mallon, one of the three Irish Republican Army convicts who had escaped from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin on October 31, was recaptured after less than six weeks. Mallon was spotted attending a dance at a hotel ballroom in Portlaoise.
The personnel director of Fiat, the giant auto maker and Italy’s largest private company, was kidnaped near his home in Turin. Passersby said Ettore Amerio, 58, was seized by two men in telephone company uniforms who threw him into a phone company truck and drove off. followed by a Fiat. Police said leaflets signed by the ‘Red Brigade” claimed responsibility for the abduction. The group previously has claimed responsibility for industrial sabotage against various firms. claiming alleged mistreatment of workers.
Mogen Glistrup, a Danish millionaire who publicly admitted he pays no income tax and then led his “no tax” Progress Party to second place in parliamentary elections last week, will be prosecuted for tax offenses and fraud, it was announced in Copenhagen. At a court hearing, police also asked for authority to seize Glistrup’s business papers and receipts. The tax lawyer, who was elected to parliament last Tuesday, is protected from prosecution by parliamentary immunity, but observers point out that in similar cases in the past, parliament has voted to remove immunity, Glistrup has maintained that an 18-month investigation into his affairs was politically inspired,
British Land Inspector Geraki Hawksworth flew into Britain after “being held captive by African guerrillas for 10 months. Hawksworth had been working for the Rhodesian government in the Mount Darwin area of Rhodesia when he was seized. He was released in Tanzania. The British government did not give any details about his captors or captivity.
About 1,000 fishermen were missing after a cyclone struck the coastal regions of Bangladesh, official reports said. The official death toll was put at 20, but it was feared the figure might rise as communications with outlying areas were restored. At least 200 fishing boats were reported capsized in the Sunday storm. A December, 1970, cyclone and tidal wave killed an estimated 300,000 persons in the area. Since then, protective embankments have been built in many areas, possibly preventing a major disaster in the current storm.
The Swedish ambassador who was ousted from Chile said in Stockholm that about 15,000 people have been killed in Chile since the military coup that overthrew President Salvador Allende and caused his death. Harald Edelstam, who was declared persona non grata by Chile for helping political refugees, said an additional 7,000 people have been arrested. As the ex-ambassador arrived in Stockholm the Swedish government announced it was cutting off about $10 million in development aid to Chile.
[Ed: This is an exaggeration. Recent estimates put the number killed during Pinochet’s entire regime at about 3,000.]
The government opposition Democratic Action Party claimed victory for its leader, Carios Andres Perez, in a Venezuelan presidential election in which voters rejected far-left and far-right extremists. The secretary of the party made the claim based on unofficial party tabulations which showed Perez leading Social Christian candidate Lorenzo Fernandez, 1,845,191 to 1,390,129, with three-quarters of the votes counted.
A fire that razed four blocks in an industrial district of Buenos Aires was brought under control, but firemen said it would take several days to extinguish it. The fire swept through part of the working class district of Nueva Pompeya Sunday. No deaths were reported, but at least 13 firemen were treated for burns. There was no immediate estimate of the damage.
The Cost of Living Council today lifted all wage and price controls from the automotive industry; three of the Big Four manufacturers pledged to limit their price increases. Ford, General Motors and American Motors agreed to the council’s conditions for removing price controls, but Chrysler made no commitment. Cost of Living Council director John Dunlop admitted that the energy crisis was taken into account when making this decision.
Filling stations have requested price increases also. A spokesman for the Gasoline Retailers Association urged that price controls be lifted to allow a 1 to 3 cents per gallon increase, as the industry fights for survival. Figures revealed that twice as many stations are closed this year as compared to the same period last year.
Neighborhood dealers are being forced out of business, either from lack of supplies or lack of profitability. Hempstead, Long Island, gas station operator Joe Zimatoure stated that the major oil company he deals with is forcing him to shut down by next May after 40 years of service to the company. Hempstead town supervisor Al D’Amato said that abandoned gas stations will become a blight on the community. Oil companies allegedly plan to create self-service stations to replace neighborhood gas stations.
Truck drivers are protesting diesel fuel price gouging along the nations’ highways. The IRS has found that more than 25% of truck stops violate the government’s price ceiling on diesel fuel.
California experienced its first truck blockade today, involving three trucks. The small blockade cut off 400 vehicles near San Francisco.
A private nonprofit organization studying the economics of petroleum reported that the Nixon administration has overestimated the country’s immediate fuel shortage. Former White House energy director John Love believes that the administration actually underestimated the fuel shortage.
Love believes that gasoline rationing is the only fair answer to the energy crisis, but he claimed that explaining the energy crisis to the President was almost impossible. Love stated that Americans must be given the truth about the energy crisis in order to cope with shortages.
A House and Senate conference committee agreed on a compromise bill to reestablish year-round daylight savings time for most of the country.
A federal judge refused to bar the Senate Watergate committee from questioning associates of billionaire Howard Hughes in closed session. The committee is working on a new theory to explain the Watergate break-in, including Democratic party chairman Larry O’Brien, Hughes, and President Nixon’s brothers. Committee counsel Sam Dash believes this new theory could explain much. Hughes’ attorney Chester Davis attempted to halt the closed door questioning of Hughes’ aides.
Jeb Magruder and John Mitchell were undoubtedly aware of another motive to the Watergate break-in; O’Brien denied any possible connection.
Former special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox subpoenaed nine of the White House tape recordings long before his firing. Cox’s successor Leon Jaworski finally received the first tapes today. Unsubpoenaed tapes were turned over voluntarily by the White House, and two other subpoenaed tapes were released by Judge John Sirica. Subjects of the unsubpoenaed tapes which were requested by Jaworski include the “milk fund”, discussions of clemency for the Watergate burglars, John Dean’s firing and two missing White House tapes.
White House counsel Leonard Garment alluded to the existence of other problems in the White House regarding the tapes. Jaworski admitted that some tapes requested by the special prosecutor have not been released by the White House.
President Nixon formally sent William Saxbe’s nomination as Attorney General to the Senate.
The Supreme Court may attempt to define obscenity and pornography again. The court agreed to hear a Georgia case dealing with obscenity laws.
The interest rate on U.S. savings bonds increased to 6%.
The Nixon administration’s committee on interest and dividends requested that banks justify increases in their prime lending rates. The prime interest rate is now 10%.
The Nixon administration announced that final decisions were near on a national health insurance plan to replace Medicare and Medicaid. Department of Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Caspar Weinberger insists that President Nixon’s plan will not require tax increases.
American serial killer Bernard Giles, known to have killed at least five girls and women, including four the previous month, attempted to claim two more victims in Florida. The two underage girls fought back, escaped his car, and were able to provide police a description of Giles and his car, and had even seen his name on a book in the vehicle. Giles was arrested the next day and later sentenced to life in prison.
Some municipal water systems use asbestos in cement pipes which transmit drinking water. A public-interest group of scientists demanded that the manufacture of such pipes should be banned because of the link between asbestos fibers and cancer. The asbestos industry denied that there is proof of any such link.
If Pennsylvania is still a fair guide to the political balance in the country, the Republican party faces a national Watergate disaster next year. In Pennsylvania, one of the 25 states that will have both Senate and Governor’s races next year, Republicans watched the effects of Watergate at work in their mostly local races last month, and many of them are talking about devastation in 1974.
Wisconsin Congressman Harold Froehlich warned of a paper shortage unless the paper industry is allowed to increase prices, adding that the government should limit pulp exports. Toilet paper may soon be in short supply.
In the state of Washington last weekend, there were no traffic-related deaths. The feat is being attributed to lower speed limits and gasoline stations being closed on Sunday.
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton arrived in Naples after their reconciliation in Los Angeles, where Miss Taylor underwent surgery for removal of an ovarian cyst. The couple checked into a hotel by the Bay of Naples and refused to accept telephone calls from newsmen.
For the first time since 1885, tennis has 2 top-ranked male players – Americans Stan Smith and Jimmy Connors.
NFL Monday Night Football:
A match between a divisional champion sharpening up for the playoffs and a last‐place team that has won only one game in nearly three months turned out to be just what one would expect: the Los Angeles Rams walloped the New York Giants, 40—6. The Giants, suffering their 10th loss in their last 11 games after starting the season with a victory and a tie, were simply rolled over after taking a 3—0 lead near the end of a soporific first quarter. The 15‐yard field goal by Pete Gogolak seemed to awaken the Rams, who put 30 points on the board in the next 32 minutes of play, and added 10 more in the fourth period. The Rams have an 11‐2 won‐lost record and will visit either Dallas or Washington in a first‐round playoff game. There was pain as well as humiliation for the Giants. Walter Love and Pat Hughes had to be taken off the field on stretchers, and Jack Gregory limped out of action early in the second period. Love suffered a dislocated hip running back the opening kickoff. Hughes went out in the fourth with a possibly broken ankle, and Gregory’s injury was reported to be a badly sprained ankle. In the final minute, Ron Hornsby, who played middle linebacker all night, had to be helped off.
But the humiliation was bad, too. The Giants didn’t succeed in making a first down by rushing until the last three minutes. Neither Randy Johnson, in the first half, nor Norm Snead, in the second, could get any sustained offense going. And the defense, which seemed respectable earlier in the season, simply couldn’t stop anything. It has given up 245 points in the last eight games (including a victory over St. Louis), which averages out to 30.6 points a game. For the Rams, the high point was Larry McCutcheon’s attainment of the 1,000‐yard mark in rushing. He passed it with a 20‐yard run to the Giant 11 on the sixth play of the second half, and the game was stopped to give him the ball. He took it to the sidelines, accepted congratulations, and promptly squirmed through the remaining 11 yards to a touchdown on the next play. That one made the score 21—3, after a 65‐yard march from the second‐half kickoff. After the Rams kicked off, Snead took over and passed for a first down, but three plays later Isiah Robertson picked off one of his passes and ran 49 yards for the touchdown that made it 28—3. Neither McCutcheon nor John Hadl, the quarterback, had to play again as Jim Harris finished the game at quarterback.
New York Giants 6, Los Angeles Rams 40
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 851.14 (+13.09, +1.56%).
Born:
Bernard Holsey, NFL defensive tackle (New York Giants, Indianapolis Colts, New England Patriots, Washington Redskins), in Rome, Georgia.
Billy Lyon, NFL defensive end and defensive tackle (Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings), in Ashland, Kentucky.
Rusty LaRue, NBA point guard (Chicago Bulls, Utah Jazz, Golden State Warriors), in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
History Diaries 