Communist guerrillas kill an American army officer in a South Vietnamese jungle battle. Three Americans are missing after their helicopter crashes into the sea while on a rescue mission in the VC-infested area. The copter’s co-pilot swims ashore and hides in bushes until rescued by government troops. Rescue parties scout the beaches in search of the missing men.
Prince Norodom Sihanouk accused the United States of trying to “asphyxiate” Cambodia in canceling vital aid shipments to his country.
Under British pressure, the United States will consent to a non-aggression pact between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Soviet bloc if Britain’s new Conservative government can work out an agreement.
With explosive and contentious topics removed from the agenda, the semi-annual ministerial meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization council which opens tomorrow promises to be of a routine nature. But behind the scenes in two-way or four-way talks already underway, everything is being discussed from the French ultimatum to the Common Market in Brussels to the French plan for a complete reorganization of the 15-nation NATO itself.
Secretary of State Dean Rusk will preside tomorrow and present a message to the council from President Johnson. At noon Rusk will pay a courtesy call on President Charles de Gaulle and in the afternoon, after speeches by British, French, and West German foreign ministers, will state the United States view on problems facing NATO, and what should be done to maintain NATO’s collective defense for world freedom. In informal exchanges of views it has become clear that strong pressure exists from the British for NATO to include in its defense screen Malaysia, Aden, and Indian ocean areas where the British have direct defense commitments. An American spokesman denied reports that the United States is sending a naval task force to bolster Britain in that area.
A united Europe and the fate of the Common Market hinge on negotiations opening today in Brussels. Ministers from France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxemburg will concentrate on the problems of agriculture, which enjoys an importance far beyond the 30 million persons who depend upon it for a livelihood. France’s demands could wreck the meetings.
A top American diplomat’s statement that the United States was open to possible change in its relations with Peking brought only scorn from the Red Chinese.
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India said his nation must prepare to push Chinese forces out of Indian border territory. General Maxwell Taylor is due in India today to appraise Nehru’s military needs.
Red Chinese Premier Chou En-lai had his first formal talks with United Arab Republic President Nasser after a day of ceremonial tours seen by few spectators.
Western observers watch the convening of the Supreme Soviet for answers to how much defense spending will be cut and what effect this will have on the split with Communist China.
A delay developed tonight in carrying out an agreement for the release of four Americans and 15 other hostages held by striking tin miners in the Andes mountains. Reports from Catavi, where the hostages have been held for nine days, said the miners would hold a general meeting tomorrow morning to hear from their leader, Bolivian Vice President Juan Lechin. He was to explain the terms agreed on with the government for the release of the hostages.
Some miner radio stations criticized the agreement, saying the miner leadership had given in to the government. Despite these criticisms, however, sources close to the miners said it was expected that Lechin would be able to get general agreement from his rank and file to free the hostages tomorrow. Lechin, a leftist who has been feuding with President Victor Paz Estenssoro, arrived in Catavi today. He had flown to Oruro from La Paz with United States Ambassador Douglas Henderson and Derek Singer, who heads the United States peace corps contingent in Bolivia. Henderson and Singer stayed in Oruro, 30 miles from Catavi, to await developments. It had been expected release of the hostages would follow directly upon Lechin’s arrival in Catavi.
Bandits blew up a bus on a mountain highway today, killing 14 persons and injuring 23. A government announcement said a bomb had been placed in the road between the towns of Ataco and Coyaima, about 160 miles southwest of Bogota. The area has been the scene of bandit violence for the last decade. The government said the bomb was detonated from ambush near the roadside. There were no further details.
President Johnson outlines the goals and policies of his administration in Latin America in a letter to his newly appointed assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs, Thomas C. Mann, a fellow Texan and close friend. Johnson indicates that he expects Mann to have wider powers in hemisphere affairs than his predecessor.
West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt said he hopes agreement will be reached today for allowing West Berliners into East Germany for Christmas visits.
A referendum was held in the west African colony of Spanish Guinea, with about 95,000 voters deciding on the question of whether to have limited self-government and eventual independence. About 62.5% of the Equatoguineans approved autonomy, and on January 1, 1964, Pedro Latorre Alcubierre would become the Spanish High Commissioner of the “Autonomous Community of Equatorial Guinea”, with Bonifacio Ondó Edu as the community’s prime minister.
Totò Riina, the future supreme boss of Cosa Nostra, was arrested at a roadblock in Corleone after being found to have falsified identifications. The young Mafioso would be indicted for five murders but acquitted in 1969 and sentenced only for the stolen identifications.
Senator Barry Goldwater (R-Arizona) still plans to be a candidate for President and will enter the California primary in June, his chief California spokesman said.
If the election were held today, President Johnson would “overwhelm the Republicans in a landslide rivaled in modern times only by Franklin Roosevelt’s victory over Alf Landon in 1936,” a Louis Harris poll says.
Rescue teams in Los Angeles today uncovered a third body in the mud-covered Baldwin Hills area where at least 10 million dollars property damage was inflicted by a wave of reservoir water unleashed by the collapse of an earthen dam. Police Chief William Parker said a square mile of the community suffered “acute devastation.” Almost 300 million gallons of water burst through the dam yesterday afternoon. Residents had almost four hours’ advance warning but Parker said “some simply were not taking the warnings seriously.”
Captain Max Schumacher, an official of the civil defense department, told city officials 23 homes were destroyed. He said 200 more were damaged so severely they might have to be razed. Between 1,000 and 2,000 homes were damaged by mud and water, Schumacher said. In an emergency meeting today city officials discussed problems such as health hazards from rodents, ruptured sewers and water mains, and disease-carrying insects. Five shelters were set up for the homeless in schools throughout the adjoining area.
Police threw a heavy patrol around the area to stop looting. Residents were not allowed to return to their homes without police passes. Looting became so serious during the night that some policemen reported losing their jackets from patrol cars. Red Cross headquarters was set up in Dorsey High school. They provided food and shelter for the homeless. About 40 people stayed there overnight. Helicopters from nearby military bases, coast guard, and police and fire departments rescued an estimated 1,000 persons in the height of the flood.
U. S. Ambassador Adlai E. Stevenson branded as “shocking” the House Appropriations Committee cut of more than $30 million from funds for voluntary American contributions to international organizations, most of them under the United Nations.
Senate Democratic leader Mike Mansfield declared that Congress has compiled a respectable record while Senator Jacob K. Javits called it a ‘standstill Congress.’
President Johnson names five American scientists, who will receive the congressional medal of science, now in its second year. The five selected by a 12-member commission are Louis W. Alvarez, a University of California professor; Vannevar Bush, retired; John R. Pierce, of the Bell laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey; Cornelius B. Van Neil, born in the Netherlands but naturalized in 1943, and Norbert Wiener, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The federal office of education discloses a 634-million-dollar program for the intensive training of elementary and high school language teachers. 71 educational institutions are included in the list through which the program will be administered. Summer classes in the United States will enroll 3,000 in French, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian and Chinese courses. Six hundred teachers will study in France, Germany, Russia, Formosa, Ecuador, and Argentina.
James R. Hoffa, national Teamsters Union president, failed to convince members of Local 478 in Newark, New Jersey, to approve on the spot his proposal for a national contract covering all teamster locals in a power squeeze.
A 19-year-old driver is arrested on charges of gunning his motor and forcing his car into a group of college students, causing the death of a sophomore basketball star. The City College of New York athlete is dragged a block and dies shortly after being taken to a hospital.
American winners of 32 Rhodes scholarships are announced by Dr. Courtney Smith, American secretary of the scholarships and president of Swarthmore college. These winners represent 27 states. They will enter Oxford university for two years of study in October, 1964. The scholarships are worth $2,520 a year, sufficient to meet necessary expenses for both college and vacations, Dr. Smith says.
A record-breaking cold wave continued to show no mercy over the plains as the mercury slumped to 30 below at Bismarck, North Dakota.
NFL Football:
Jim Brown ran his season’s rushing total past the mile mark and Frank Ryan pierced the Washington defense for three touchdown passes today as Cleveland scored a 27 to 20 National Football league victory over the Redskins. With 125 yards in 28 carries, Brown pushed his total yardage for the year to 1,863 yards and became the first NFL player to gain more than a mile on the ground in one season. The victory gave the Browns second place in the eastern division, with a 10-4 record, and the trip to the Runner-up “Playoff Bowl” game in Miami on Sunday, January 5. Their foes will be the Green Bay Packers, who finished second in the western division. Bobby Mitchell was the main offensive threat for the Redskins with four pass receptions for 99 yards. He also came through with a 92-yard kickoff return in the second quarter for Washington’s first touchdown. The loss gave the Redskins a 3-11 record for the year.
Quarterback Don Meredith fired a 25-yard touchdown pass to Frank Clarke with 1:10 left in the game to give the Dallas Cowboys a 28—24 National Football League victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. Defensive halfback Larry Wilson put the Cardinals in the lead in the third quarter when he picked up a snap on a fake field goal attempt and ran 35 yards for a touchdown. This gave the Cardinals a 21—14 lead. Jim Bakken booted an 11-yard field goal in the third period to boost the Cardinal lead to 24—14. In the fourth period, Meredith tossed a 12-yard touchdown pass to Pettis Norman to narrow the St. Louis lead to 24—21. After a scoreless first period, Meredith put Dallas ahead as he faked a pass, then made a sweep around right end for one yard and a touchdown. On the first Cardinal play from scrimmage after the ensuing kickoff, quarterback Charley Johnson passed to Sonny Randle for 62 yards for the tying touchdown.”
Bill Wade threw two second half touchdown passes and the Chicago Bears turned back a late Detroit threat today to score a 24—14 victory and gain the Western Conference title of the National Football League. The Bears, winning their first Conference title since 1956, will meet the New York Giants, the Eastern Conference champions, in Chicago December 29 for the NFL crown. Trailing, 7—3, in the third quarter, the Bears scored on a 51-yard touchdown pass from Wade to Johnny Morris and then made what proved to be the victory-clinching score three minutes later when Wade hit Mike Ditka with a 22-yard pass in the end zone. The Lions, who were knocked out of title contention in the final game of the season last year by the Bears, refused to quit today. They came back with a 71-yard touchdown drive early in the fourth quarter, capped by a 4-yard scoring pass from Earl Morrall to Terry Barr. Then in the final three minutes the Lions made a bid to score again. With the Bears leading. 17—14, Detroit gained possession on its 36. Tom Watkins went up the middle to the Bear 32, but the Chicago defenses stiffened and the Bears got control with less than two minutes to play. However, they were forced to punt and on the next play Dave Whitsell intercepted a pass by Morrall and ran 39 yards for a touchdown with 25 seconds to play as the crowd of 45,317, braving 15-degree weather, went wild and counted the final seconds off the clock. Once the Bears had moved ahead, 10-7, on the Wade-to-Morris scoring pass, the great Bear defense put on a tremendous rush and Doug Atkins, an end, forced Morrall to fumble. Wade then hit Morris with a 17-yard pass to the 22 and followed with the pay-off pass to Ditka on the next play.
Johnny Unitas set a National Football League pass completion record today, highlighted by a 14-yard touchdown toss to Tom Matte with 33 seconds left that gave the Baltimore Colts a 19—16 last-minute comeback victory over the Los Angeles Rams before a crowd of 52,834. Unitas had 21 completions in 37 attempts for 373 yards. This gave him 237 completed passes for the season and bettered the mark of 235 set by Sonny Jurgenson of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1961. The Colts had to rally to beat the Rams who had overcome a 10-point deficit and taken a 16—13 lead in the fourth period. The big Ram plays came on two passes by Roman Gabriel. The Colts had a 13—3 lead with less than two minutes remaining in the third quarter when Gabriel connected on an 11-yard scoring toss to Carroll Dale. On the next series of downs, Gabriel combined on a 7-yard pass play with a rookie. Ben Wilson, which accounted for the Rams’ 16—13 advantage. The Colts moved to the Rams’ 6, but Unitas fumbled in the end zone. Nat Whitmyer recovered for the Rams and it appeared that the Colt comeback would fail. However, Wilson fumbled on the Rams 39 and Bobby Boyd of Baltimore recovered with less than a minute to play. Unitas then completed four straight passes, the last going for the winning touchdown to Matte.
Ron VanderKelen, in his first starting assignment as a pro, today directed the Minnesota Vikings to a 34—13 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1963 National Football League finale for both teams. Minnesota took a 7—6 lead in the second quarter on a 2-yard touchdown plunge by Tom Wilson and the first of Fred Cox’s four conversions. Cox booted field goals of 43 and 39 yards to make the score 13—6 at halftime. In the third period, Bill Brown leaped into the end zone to make it 20—6. Sonny Jurgensen, whose 21- yard touchdown pass to Pete Retzlaff had given the Eagles a 6—0 first quarter lead, then rifled a 22-yard scoring pass to Ron Goodwin, Mike Clark converted, making the score 20—13. The Vikings put the game away in the final quarter on a 31-yard interception return of a screen pass by a defensive end, Don Hultz, and Brown’s 5-yard end sweep. Hultz had recovered his ninth fumble of the season earlier to break a league record held by Joe Schmidt of the Detroit Lions.
The New York Giants defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers, the team that had come up to challenge them for the Eastern title on the last day of the season, and they did it on a frozen field before a capacity crowd of 63,240. The score was 33—17, a margin that made victory look easy. It was not that easy. Y. A. Tittle, the Giants’ quarterback, threw three touchdown passes yesterday and ended the season with 36, a league record. Joe Morrison, the often unappreciated fullback, scored three times, twice on passes from Tittle, and the defensive unit stopped the Steelers five times when the Giant goal was threatened. All the Giants played well, better than they have in a month. They had to. In the high-scoring pro contests, it is often hard to name the key play, the one that turns the tide of battle, but Coach Buddy Parker of the Steelers had no trouble fingering the decisive moment of yesterday’s action. It came in the third period after the Steelers had scored easily on a 21-yard pass from Ed Brown, the quarterback, to Gary Ballman, the swift split end. That touchdown cut the Glant lead to 16—10. Then New York was almost immediately in trouble again, with the offense stalled on its own 24-yard line, third down and 8 yards to go.
Tittle threw a pass, which came as no surprise, and it went to Frank Gifford, his flanker. Gifford, cutting into the middle, caught the ball at his knees with one hand for a first down on the Steeler 47-yard line. It was the big play of the big game, the kind the Giants make over and over again. On the next play. Tittle threw again to Gifford on the inside for 25 yards, and on the following play to Morrison on the outside. Morrison went 22 yards down the sideline for a touchdown. Three minutes later, New York had scored again, on a leap into the end zone from the 1 by Morrison. The touchdown followed a 15-yard pass from Tittle to the ever-present Gifford on a down-and-out pattern. Those two touchdowns pushed the Giant margin to 30—10 and the game was beyond the Pittsburgh grasp.
Cleveland Browns 27, Washington Redskins 20
Dallas Cowboys 28, St. Louis Cardinals 24
Detroit Lions 14, Chicago Bears 24
Los Angeles Rams 16, Baltimore Colts 19
Minnesota Vikings 34, Philadelphia Eagles 13
Pittsburgh Steelers 17, New York Giants 33
AFL Football:
San Diego combined three interceptions and the running of Paul Lowe for a 17-point second quarter today and went on to a 20—14 victory over the Houston Oilers to clinch a tie for the Western Division title of the American Football League. The defeat eliminated Houston from title contention and set up a December 28 playoff between the Buffalo Bills and the Boston Patriots for the Eastern Division crown. It was the first time since the league was formed in 1960 that the Oilers had failed to win the Eastern title. San Diego, with a 10-3 won-lost record and a one-game lead over Oakland, needs only a tie against the Denver Broncos next week to nail down its third division title in four years. The Chargers jumped to a 14—0 lead in the second period after interceptions by Emil Karas and Chuck Allen. Karas had intercepted a pass thrown by Jacky Lee at the Charger 39. Lowe, behind beautiful blocking, then broke loose for 59 yards to the Oiler 2. Tobin Rote scored from the 1 two plays later. Four plays later, Allen intercepted at the Houston 30 as George Blanda operated from the Oilers’ first use of the shotgun formation this season. Rote passed 9 yards to Lance Alworth but Lowe, in three plays, gained 19 of the 30 yards to set up Bob Jackson’s 1-yard touchdown plunge. Blanda then struck quickly with passes of 27 and 24 yards to Bob McLeod and Willard Dewveall to cut the San Diego lead to 14—7 but Paul Maguire intercepted at the Oiler 24 and George Blair kicked a 22-yard field goal six plays later for a 17—7 edge.
The Oakland Raiders, with Tom Flores passing for five touchdowns, kept their American Football League title bid alive today when they outlasted the Denver Broncos, 35—31, to stay within one game of San Diego in the western division race. Each team has one more game remaining on the regular schedule. Next Sunday the Raiders play host to Houston while the Broncos face San Diego, which clinched at least a tie for first place today by beating Houston. The clubs will meet in a divisional playoff in San Diego December 29 if they end up in a tie.
San Diego Chargers 20, Houston Oilers 14
Denver Broncos 31, Oakland Raiders 35
Born:
Helen Slater, American actress (“Supergirl”, “Billie Jean”, “Ruthless People”), in New York, New York.
Samura Kamara, foreign minister of Sierra Leone, in Kamalo, Sierra Leone.
David Wingate, NBA shooting guard and small forward (Philadelphia 76ers, San Antonio Spurs, Washington Bullets, Charlotte Hornets, Seattle SuperSonics, New York Knicks), in Baltimore, Maryland.
Gary Walker, NFL center (Dallas Cowboys), in Hassfurt, Bavaria, West Germany.
Died:
Rikidōzan (Mitsuhiro Maomota), 39, Korean-Japanese professional wrestler, of peritonitis, seven days after being stabbed.
Marie Marvingt, 88, French aviator and athlete, and the first woman to ever fly combat missions.
Wilibald Gurlitt, 74, German musicologist and pioneer in the redesign of the pipe organ.
History Diaries 