In a final, devastating attack with MiG’s and ground troops, the Mainland Chinese apparently wrested complete control of the disputed Paracel Islands from a small and lightly armed South Vietnamese force, according to reports from the Saigon command. While refusing to concede defeat, the South Vietnamese spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Lê Trung Hiền, said that radio contact had been lost with soldiers on the islands after they were bombed by four MIG‐21 and MIG‐23 jet fighters, then assaulted by Chinese troops.
“We presume that our positions on those islands were overrun by Chinese invading forces,” Colonel Hiền said. But when asked if he considered the islands lost, he replied, “Not yet — not until we get further information on the fate of our troops stationed on the islands.” However, Colonel Hiền’s report left virtually no doubt about the outcome. The South Vietnamese were outmatched from the start. Diplomats in Saigon remain mystified about the motives of the Chinese for the attack, which capped incidents between the Chinese and South Vietnamese that began last Wednesday. There has been a long dispute between the countries over ownership of the Paracel archipelago, roughly 200 miles east of South Vietnam and 175 miles southeast of the Chinese island of Hainan, but it had never flared into a military confrontation.
Peking asserted today that the ‘Chinese people were “determined to defend their territorial integrity and sovereignty” and warned the Government of South Vietnam to “stop its encroachment upon China’s territory”
The Chinese warning in a dispatch from Peking by Hsinhua, the official press agency, recalled a statement made January 11 by the Foreign Ministry declaring that China had “Indisputable sovereignty” over the Nansha, Hsisha, Chungsha and Tungsha Islands, also called, respectively, the Spratlys, Paracels, Macclesfield Bank and Pratas Islands.
The Dutch oil tanker Kopionella rescued 23 South Vietnamese sailors who had survived the sinking of the South Vietnamese warship RVNS Nhật Tảo during the battle of the Paracel Islands. On the same day, Chinese troops took 47 Vietnamese soldiers and a U.S. advisor as prisoners of war, though the group would be released later. The RVNS Nhật Tảo was the former U.S. Navy Admirable-class minesweeper USS Serene (AM-300). Nhật Tảo took a direct hit from a ship-to-ship missile (China claims the weapon used was an RPG) on her bridge and went dead in the water. On fire with her guns silent, crew from below deck cleared the guns and renewed the fight. The Chinese again concentrated fire on Nhật Tảo and again her guns fell silent as she began to sink.
China will shortly release South Vietnamese prisoners captured during yesterday’s clashes in the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea, Radio Peking said today. The broadcast, monitored in Tokyo, quoted a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement saying that China had the right to self-defense and warning South Vietnam that it would have to bear all the consequences if it continued to fight against China.
The five members of the Soviet Embassy in Peking who were expelled from China yesterday on charges of spying had been held incommunicado for four days, according to Soviet sources in Peking. The sources said that two Soviet diplomats and their wives had gone out shopping last Tuesday and were arrested after dining at a hotel. An interpreter who was sent to assist them was also held with them until Saturday, according to the Soviet account.
On the Suez-Cairo Road, Israeli chief of staff David Elazar and Egyptian chief of staff Mohammed Gamasy met to work out the technicalities of troop withdrawal plans. The Geneva peace talks have been suspended until the disengagement plans are finalized.
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger returned to Washington after meeting with Syrian President Assad. Assad reportedly has softened his position about releasing the names of Israeli POWs who have been captured by Syria. Because of the new Syrian developments, which may for the first time bring Damascus into active negotiations with Israel, Mr. Kissinger decided to stop at Tel Aviv’s airport for talks with top Israeli officials, including Deputy Premier Yigal Allen, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan and Foreign Minister Abba Eban. Mr. Kissinger met for 90 minutes with the officials in a section of the airport lobby and afterward said that he had told them about Mr. Assad’s proposals and had informed them that the Syrian leader had given him assurances “that the prisoners are being treated in a humane fashion.” From Tel Aviv, the Kissinger party was scheduled to fly to Washington, with a brief stop in London.
The Iraqi news agency reported that Arab oil-producing countries will soon lift the embargo of oil shipments to the United States. Normal production will be resumed because of the Egypt-Israeli disengagement agreement.
A Protestant and a Roman Catholic were found shot to death in Northern Ireland, police reported. The Catholic was a factory worker in Carrickfergus, north of Belfast. He was killed by a sniper as he walked home. The Protestant was a captain in the militant Ulster Defense Regiment. His body was found in County Tyrone near the Irish Republic border. In Belfast, demonstrators clashed with police during a downtown march. The crowd demanded the release of suspected guerrillas jailed without trial. No injuries were reported.
The Socialist Party demanded that the Belgian government be given the right to set up state energy enterprises and to intervene in the Belgian energy sector as a condition for joining a new coalition government. The three-party coalition of Socialist Premier Edmond Leburton resigned because a Belgian-Iranian oil refining project fell through.
The European nations which had taken part in a joint float of their currencies along with France appeared determined to maintain their monetary ties despite the French decision yesterday to float the franc and drop out of the European Economic Community’s monetary system. The finance ministers of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, meeting in Antwerp this evening, said they would maintain the joint float. They also decided to close the exchange markets in their countries tomorrow.
Police and army troops at Dacca charged into a Muslim mosque and dispersed a jeering crowd of 500 demonstrators in Bangladesh’s first major civil disturbance in more than a year. The demonstrators, organized by radical socialists, sought sanctuary in the mosque after police, firing tear gas and swinging batons, foiled their attempts to hold a mass rally in Dacca’s central stadium. The crowd fell back and took refuge in the mosque. The troops, after being pelted with shoes and bricks, finally charged into the mosque despite reluctance to upset Muslims.
A well-informed source in Rawalpindi reported that China and Pakistan have agreed to cooperate in the production of ground-to-air missiles following the 12-day visit of a Chinese military mission. The disclosure follows Pakistan’s repeated expression of concern at India’s heavy arms program. “The missiles are already being made in China,” the source said, adding that when they come off the production line Pakistan “will have something to match the SAM-6, which the Indians were getting from Russia.”
In Pakistan, the fiery collision of a bus and an oil truck in Karachi burned 24 people to death and injured 50 others, as well as setting off a blaze that destroyed 42 shops and apartments.
Guerrillas of Argentina’s People’s Revolutionary Army, led by Enrique Gorriarán Merlo, completed their attack on the army base headquarters of the 10th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Azul in the Buenos Aires province. Mario Roberto Santucho organized the attack, in which base commander, Colonel Camilo Arturo Gay, and his wife Hilda Irma Casaux were killed, and Lieutenant Colonel Jorge Ibarzábal was taken hostage. Ibarzábal would be executed 10 months later. Later in the day, President of Argentina Juan Perón made a nationally televised speech in which he vowed “to annihilate as soon as possible this criminal terrorism”.
A bomb exploded on the grounds of the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City, the second such incident at the embassy in the past two months, police said. The latest explosion ripped a hole in the lawn and damaged the embassy residence’s main door. Four unexploded bombs were found on the grounds. There were no casualties.
State government authorities in Culiacan, Mexico, blamed recent violence there which left four dead and 20 injured on a “leftist conspiracy” designed to stir up agitation among farm workers and lead them to form a “People’s Army.” The charges, however, were scoffed at by the Leftist Popular Socialist Party in Mexico City, which said the clashes last week between youths. and police in Culiacan were “created” by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, is located about 1,000 miles northwest of Mexico City on the Pacific Coast.
Police reported that Raymundo Soberanis Otero, 73, the uncle of the governor of the Mexican state of Guerrero, has been kidnapped in Acapulco and that an unidentified group asked his nephew, Governor Israel Nogueda Otero, for a ransom equivalent to $400,000. A police spokesman announced at the same time that police and troops surrounded a house 75 miles east of Acapulco and rescued a previous kidnapping victim, wealthy town councilor Jorge Mendiola Velasquez, for whom a $300,000 ransom had been demanded. He was seized January 8.
The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon made an unplanned first flight after sustaining damage to its right horizontal stabilizer during high-speed ground tests at Edwards Air Force Base, California. While taxiing at 130 miles per hour (210 km/h), pilot Phil Oestricher nearly lost control of the aircraft when it entered a series of roll oscillations. Oestricher elected, “in the interest of safety and preventing further damage,” to take the craft airborne to avoid crashing and remained in flight for six minutes. Oestricher would pilot the F-16’s official first flight on February 2.
Senate Republican leader Hugh Scott advised President Nixon to tell the American people everything about Watergate. Scott allegedly has information that would clear the President. Scott said that he had information that would clear President Nixon of wrongdoing in some aspects of the Watergate scandals, but declined to say what the information was. During a televised interview, he said “I have some information which is not yet public, which is enormously frustrating to me, because it seems to me to exculpate the President, but I cannot break through the shell down there of all of his advisers, who feel differently about it, who feel that the President no longer needs to make some of these replies.” “I think it would help if he did,” Senator Scott said.
The 93rd Congress will begin its second session tomorrow beset by two problems left over from its last one — the possible impeachment of President Nixon and the energy shortage. In sharp contrast to a year ago when the Democratic-controlled Congress convened after Mr. Nixon’s landslide re-election victory, Senators and Representatives will be returning after a month’s vacation with the President seriously weakened politically by the Watergate scandals and facing an impeachment inquiry.
For months now, in a tantalizing sidelight to the Watergate inquiry, investigators have been trying to learn more about reported relationships between gambling interests in the Bahamas and the bank in Key Biscayne, Florida, owned by President Nixon’s close friend Charles G. “Bebe” Rebozo. At least one investigator has been looking into the possibility that the bank may have served as a way-station for funds “skimmed” from the gambling tables in the Bahamas and, after an interval, funneled into the 1972 Republican presidential campaign.
The military reserves could be trimmed by about 300,000 men and still meet essential military commitments, according to a study by the Brookings Institution. In urging a one-third reduction of the present force of 900,000 paid reservists, the study estimates that a streamlining of the military reserves could reduce defense spending by $1.4 billion a year.
Top-secret messages to Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker or other high civilian officials in Saigon were routinely passed on to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says a man who worked as a document coordinator in South Vietnam. Steven M. Davis, 23, said in an interview that it was practice at the ITT communications center in Saigon for such messages to be retransmitted to Adm. Thomas H. Moorer, chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Frank Rauzi, security manager for the ITT subsidiary that ran the communications center, said the “allegations are not entirely wrong…” Moorer has acknowledged that top-secret information was passed on to him from Henry A. Kissinger’s office when Kissinger, now secretary of state, was President Nixon’s national security adviser.
President Nixon has decided to change the January 29 date for his State of the Union address to Congress to the following day because of a conflict with a Washington dinner honoring the returning Senate and House members. The change was made at the request of Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania because on January 29 the Washington Press Club will hold its annual dinner, at which representatives of the three branches of the government are to speak — Scott, Vice President Ford and Supreme Court Justice Potter R. Stewart.
The United States should spend far more than at present to prevent malnutrition in infants’ mothers, according to a Senate committee staff report published today. The report, from the Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, said there was a “staggering” prevalence of prematurity or low birth weight among babies born to poor families. “To a large extent these small babies are the result of poor fetal nutrition,” the report said. It cited evidence indicating that such babies were often handicapped in terms of their survival and health, and perhaps even mental development.
Two unions ratified new contracts, ending a three-day strike that had closed most of New York City’s schools for lack of firemen, boiler tenders and custodians. Officials said the schools would be reopened today as maintenance workers began returning to prepare the buildings. The engineers who operate the heating plants won an immediate pay increase of 40 cents an hour. They will average $18,000 a year at the end of the three-year contract. The three-year contract for the custodial workers will raise their salaries to $10,400 a year. It also eliminates a 16.5-cent hourly pay differential between men and women.
A son of Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley received a $6,000 annual fee from a New York voting machine company that has done business with the city since 1948, the Chicago Sun-Times said. Michael Daley received the retainer for about two years until it was canceled last May after new management took over the firm, the newspaper said. Michael Daley was the third member of the mayor’s old law firm to receive the annual retainer from AVM Corp. of Jamestown, New York, the newspaper said. William J. Lynch received it until he became a U.S. district judge in 1966 and George J. Schaller received it until 1970, when he became a circuit judge, the paper said.
Some youths will be permitted to register for the draft by mail for the first time under a program being inaugurated this month by Selective Service. Draft Director Byron V. Pepitone emphasized, however, that the system was designed only for individuals who could not conveniently register in person. Pepitone said he approved the new system because some young men were finding it difficult to get to their boards to register since in many cases several boards had been consolidated into one for economy and efficiency.
For the first time in the history of English professional (soccer) football, a match in the The Football League was played on a Sunday. With a start moved to 11:30 in the morning to come before two other matches scheduled in the afternoon, Millwall defeated visiting Fulham, 1 to 0, in the League’s Second Division. Striker Brian Clark of Millwall became the first English professional footballer to score a goal on a Sunday “when he drove the ball into the Fulham net at 11:34 a.m.”
The sellout crowd of 6,500 was half the story at the $50,000 San Francisco Virginia Slims tennis tournament, won by Mrs. Billie Jean King last night. More than 2,000 fans were turned away. “I’ve waited 20 years to see crowds like this,” Mrs. King said before her 7‐6, 6‐2 victory over Chris Evert in the final. “It’s all too beautiful.” It was the first meeting of the two since the Wimbledon’ final, last July and Mrs. King’s victory at the Civic Auditorium evened her career record against Miss Evert at 4‐4.
Essex Community College beats Englewood Cliffs 210-67 in basketball.
7th ABA All-Star Game: East beats West, 128—112, at Virginia. Rookie Swen Nater scored 29 points and grabbed 22 rebounds for the West team, but the East team won the game and center Artis Gilmore of the Kentucky Colonels was named MVP.
24th NFL Pro Bowl, Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri: AFC beats NFC, 15—13; MVP: Garo Yepremian, Miami Dolphins, place kicker. Yepremian set a Pro Bowl record which still stands as of 2018, kicking five field goals in the game. This was the last American football game to have the goal posts on the goal line, before being moved back to the endline the next year to make field goals harder for teams to make.
Born:
Rae Carruth [as Rae Lamar Wiggins], infamous NFL wide receiver (Carolina Panthers), later convicted of conspiring the murder of his then-girlfriend Cherica Adams, who was pregnant with his child; in Sacramento, California.
Alvin Harrison and Calvin Harrison, U.S. Olympic track and field athletes and identical twins who won gold medals in the 4 x 400m relay in 1996 and 2000, respectively; in Orlando, Florida.
Tengku Muhammad Fa-iz Petra, Crown Prince (Tengku Mahkota) of the Malaysian state of Kelantan; in Kota Bharu, Malaysia.
Valeria Parrella, Italian author, playwright and actress; in Torre del Greco, Province of Naples, Italy.
Died:
Leonard Freeman, 53, American television writer and producer, creator of Hawaii Five-O.
Paul S. Martin, 74, American anthropologist and archaeologist.
Boris Balashov, 46, Soviet stamp collector, editor-in-chief of the Soviet magazine Filateliya SSSR.
Edmund Blunden CBE MC, 77, English poet, author and critic (“Undertones of War”) who was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature six times.
Harold Loeb, 82, American writer.
Hermann Weyland, 85, German chemist and paleobotanist.
History Diaries 