The last Israeli troops on the west bank of the Suez Canal departed on schedule. Precisely meeting the deadline set by the disengagement treaty, the last Israeli soldiers evacuated the bridgehead of Egyptian territory on the West bank of the Suez Canal seized during the October War. This was the fourth and final phase of the withdrawal from the western bank begun on January 25 under the military disengagement agreement signed by the Egyptian and Israeli chiefs of staff on January 18. The next phase for the Israelis is to be a withdrawal from the eastern bank of the canal to new lines just west of the Mitla and Gidi passes. This is to be completed by March 5.
The Egyptians, meanwhile, have been thinning out the forces they sent to the eastern hank in the early days of the war. Both sides, according to officers of the United Nations Emergency Force, have been adhering strictly to the commitments they undertook in their disengagement agreement. Informed sources said that with the disengagement proceeding smoothly, they expected Egypt and the United States to resume formal diplomatic relations next week, possibly during Secretary of State Kissinger visit to the Middle East. Cairo broke relations with Washington during the 1967 Arab‐Israeli war. The two countries agreed in principle to resume relations when Mr. Kissinger made his first visit here on November 7, and they exchanged ambassadors immediately afterward.
Associates of Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan said they doubted that he would accept a post in Premier Golda Meir’s new minority government, despite her repeated pleas.
Communist commandos charged into an airfield at the provincial capital of Quang Ngai — 318 miles north of Saigon — tossing satchel bombs in a surprise attack that killed eight persons and wounded 22 others, then withdrew as the government forces regrouped.
The Saigon command said student leader Huynh Tan Mam, freed in a prisoner exchange at Loc Ninh, refused to go over to the Viet Cong and declared himself a defector so he could return to Saigon. Also released was North Vietnamese intelligence officer Tran Ngoc Hien, older brother of Tran Ngoc Chau, former member of South Vietnam’s parliament who is still in prison for contacts with his brother.
Former Thailand Foreign Minister Thanat Khoman has called on Thai and U.S. authorities to speed up the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Thailand and also urged the elimination of Central Intelligence Agency activities. Despite congressional orders to cease war operations, he said, the U.S. government still remains in Thai bases “as if the war rages in Vietnam.” Thai authorities are expected to urge the United States to channel most of its military aid into economic projects when Deputy Secretary of State Kenneth Rush visits Thailand next month.
The official Chinese Communist newspaper warned yesterday, in a strikingly moderate editorial, that the current mass campaign in China should “avoid getting entangled” in certain questions. Although these questions were not specified by the paper, Jenmin Jih Pao, analysts here who follow Chinese affairs took the reference as a caution against continuing the bitter personal feuds and disputes over policy toward the West that appear to have been racking the party leadership in Peking in recent weeks. In the view of the analysts, the editorial seemed to be a response by Premier Chou En-lai or his associates to an increasingly strident series of attacks by radical leftists on Western culture and contact with the West. It was the first major pronouncement by the paper since an earlier more fiery editorial on February 2 announced the start of the ideology campaign.
Delegates to the 117-nation conference to update Geneva war conventions said the first working session of the five-week meeting, which opened Wednesday, would not take place until at least Monday because of procedural disputes. One controversy is whether to admit nationalist liberation movements, which are demanding to take part, and another is over who should chair the various commissions considering two draft protocols to the conventions, signed in 1949. Among groups demanding entry are the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam and 10 African nationalist groups.
President Josip Broz Tito proclaimed a new constitution that he hopes will hold Yugoslavia together after he is gone from office. A cold kept the 81-year-old president away from the special session of parliament that adopted the new charter. The constitution is designed to combat nationalist separatism in a country that has six nationalities, three religions, three official languages and two alphabets. The new constitution went into effect on the proclamation of President Tito after being approved in a special session of parliament. Since 1971, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had technically been ruled by the 23-member Presidency of Yugoslavia (in Serbian, the Predsedništvo), with Tito as the Chairman of the Presidency. The new constitution designated Tito as the Chairman for the rest of his life, and the Presidency was reduced to nine members (Tito and one leader from each of the six socialist republics and two autonomous regions). After Tito’s death, the chair would be rotated annually to one of the socialist republic leaders.
[Ed: Yeah. About that…]
Walter J. Stoessel Jr., the new American Ambassador to the Soviet Union, arrived here today to fill a post that was vacant for 13 months. In response to questions, the 54‐year‐old career diplomat said that he looked forward to “working for the strengthening of United States‐Soviet relations, which I think is in the interests of stability and peace in the world.” Mr. Stoessel was met at the airport by Dmitri S. Nikiforov, chief of the protocol department at the Soviet Foreign Ministry. A cluster of about 50 Embassy officers and wives applauded Mr. Stoessel and his wife, Mary Ann, as they entered an airport lounge shortly after landing at 6:30 P.M. on an official embassy flight from Wiesbaden, West Germany. Mr. Stoessel said that he had seen President Nixon before leaving Washington “and he asked me to convey his best and warmest personal regards to the Soviet leadership, and I look forward to doing that.”
In his speech at the opening session of a three-day meeting with 24 American and Caribbean foreign ministers in Mexico City, Secretary of State Kissinger called on the Latin nations to join the United States in creating a new “Western Hemisphere community,” with practical help from the United States. Mr. Kissinger’s emphasis on a geographic alignment was in sharp contrast to the remarks of two Latin American leaders, who stressed South America’s identity as part of the “third world.”
Rioting broke out in the Argentine oil town of Comodoro Rivadavia, about 900 miles south of Buenos Aires, after a 20-minute gun battle involving police and rival union factions. At least two people were killed and a dozen wounded, including five policemen. The shooting erupted when about 500 left-wing Peronist members of the Petroleum Workers Union tried to rush the union headquarters where moderate Peronists were staging a sit-in. The moderates accused union leaders of Marxist tendencies.
Torrential rains flooding Bolivia for more than a month have cut road and rail links to neighboring Argentina and Chile, authorities in La Paz said. Thousands have been left homeless in Bolivia. The death toll in Bolivia is believed to be at least 46 while estimates of the death toll in extensively flooded northern Argentina vary between 100 and 160.
The use of chemical defoliants by American forces in the Vietnamese war caused damage that may last at least a century, according to a report from the National Academy of Sciences. The study said herbicides, long a subject of controversy, caused serious and extensive damage to inland tropical forests and destroyed 36 percent of the coastal mangrove forests.
In India, the collision of a fast-moving passenger train and a stalled freight train killed 40 people and injured 19 others near Moradabad in the Uttar Pradesh state.
Demonstrators in Addis Ababa fought with police, stoned cars and interrupted all public transportation in continuing demonstrations against the soaring cost of living. Food prices have doubled in the past few months. Although no official news was available from the Ethiopian government, the city appeared to be under a state of emergency.
Silver hits a record $5.96½ an ounce in London.
Republican Governor Tom McCall of Oregon will leave office next January; his mother hopes to succeed him. Mrs. Dorothy McCall said she wants to change campaign tactics for seeking office. Asked about national politics, Mrs. McCall stated that she won’t lower herself to discussing that subject. Her son Tom said he’s concerned about his mother’s plans but won’t interfere.
Reg Murphy, editor of the Atlanta Constitution, was apparently kidnapped last night. Murphy is being held by a right-wing militia group calling itself the “American Revolutionary Army”. Executive editor William Fields said that Murphy was chosen as a target because he’s often in the public eye. Murphy’s father-in-law Roy Rawls pleaded with the kidnappers to return Murphy safely to his family.
New demands have been received on tape from Patty Hearst’s kidnappers. One demand is that $4 million more be added to the $2 million “free food program”. If the demands are not met by Randolph Hearst, the kidnappers threatened to hold Patty until Symbionese Liberation Army members Russell Little and Joseph Remiro are released from prison. Patty Hearst’s voice was on the tape to prove she’s still alive.
Hearst plans to study the demands and act accordingly. He has 24 hours to make the additional $4 million commitment; grocery stores may be asked to donate food.
The House Judiciary Committee’s legal staff issued a report regarding impeachable offenses. The report is aimed at helping the committee with its impeachment probe against President Nixon.
The Constitution outlines impeachable offenses only vaguely, so the committee’s legal staff studied the case histories of previous impeachments. Republican Representative Edward Hutchinson said that impeachment conclusions should be drawn by the House Judiciary Committee and not its staff. The committee will soon formally request evidence from the White House for its impeachment probe.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is reportedly investigating the apparent removal of two paragraphs from a subpoenaed White House document delivered to the special Watergate prosecutor. Sources who confirmed that the FBI was conducting the investigation, ordered by Leon Jaworski, refused to identify the document.
Nine more persons were chosen as eligible for jury service at the federal conspiracy trial in New York City of former Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former Commerce Secretary Maurice H. Stans. The selections brought to 15 the number picked from which the final jury will be chosen. With 37 more to go, the process was expected to continue into next week. Mitchell, 60, and Stans, 65, are accused of trying to derail a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of Robert L. Vesco’s far-flung financial empire. In exchange, it was charged, Vesco made a secret $200,000 contribution to President Nixon’s reelection campaign.
Some major oil companies are deliberately cutting back imports of crude oil because of unhappiness over the government’s allocation program. The result, according to sources close to the energy situation, is that the production of gasoline and heating oil is being held below anticipated levels.
Representative Angelo Roncallo and four other Republican officials of Nassau County (New York) were indicted on federal charges of extorting money from a Long Island contractor to benefit the Republican party. A sixth official was indicted for perjury by the grand jury, which is also investigating possible jury-tampering by the county’s District Attorney and its Republican chairman.
A pay raise for congressmen, judges and top federal officials cleared a major legislative hurdle because nothing happened. Enough members of the House Post Office and Civil Service Committee stayed away from a scheduled meeting to prevent debate on a resolution by Rep. H. R. Gross (R-Iowa) to kill the plan to raise pay by 22% during the next three years. Unless either the House or the Senate blocks the pay raise by March 6, the increases go into effect automatically next month. Asked if he thought the 14 members had boycotted the meeting to prevent a vote on his resolution, Gross replied, “They weren’t here, were they?”
A former press secretary and speechwriter for Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley was indicted by a federal grand jury on 12 counts of mail fraud. Earl Bush was charged with maintaining secret ownership of Dell Airport Advertising, Inc., which held exclusive contracts for display advertising at O’Hare International Airport, in a scheme to “defraud the city of Chicago, its mayor, officials and employees.” Bush resigned as press secretary last August 1 after a falling out with the mayor. Daley reportedly will be a witness for the government.
Rebellious inmates holding the San Juan, Puerto Rico, district jail released 17 hostages after the government agreed to an eight-point pledge for better conditions in the prison. The jail, built for 200 inmates, now houses 400 men. Lawyers who negotiated for the inmates said the settlement provided for better food and greater quantity, expansion of medical services, greater flexibility in receiving visitors and the right to confer with their lawyers for lengthier periods.
Near Weaverville, California, Trinity High School students conducted a mock funeral for the Trinity River, claiming that the Trinity Dam had ruined it as a habitat for fish.
Today in Charles Schulz’s syndicated cartoon strip “Peanuts” Snoopy declares, “I have a trivia question that will drive Woodstock up the wall.” In the next frame: “Who played shortstop for St. Paul when they won the American Association pennant in 1938?” After Woodstock answers, Snoopy shakes his head in amazement: “How did he ever hear of Ollie Bejma?” Bejma, who played for Schultz’ hometown team, was the co-MVP with teammate Whitlow Wyatt in 1938 (beating out Triple Crown winner Ted Williams) before playing for the White Sox.
New York Mets ace Tom Seaver becomes the highest-paid player in major league history. Known as “The Franchise,” Seaver signs a one-year contract worth $172,500. In 1973, Seaver won 19 games while leading the National League in ERA.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 846.84 (+15.80, +1.90%).
Born:
Kevin Sawyer, Canadian NHL left wing (St. Louis Blues, Boston Bruins, Phoenix Coyotes, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim), in Christina Lake, British Columbia, Canada.
Alexei Lojkin, Belarusian hockey forward (Belarus National Team, Olympics, 1998), in Minsk, Belarus.
Died:
Tim Horton, 44, Canadian ice hockey player and co-founder of the Tim Hortons restaurant chain, was killed in a car accident while driving eastbound on the Queen Elizabeth Way in Canada in St Catherines, Ontario. According to a local police constable whom he passed, the defenseman for the Buffalo Sabres NHL team had been driving “over 100 miles an hour” while on his way home to Buffalo, New York, after a 4 to 2 loss the night before to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Horton was thrown from his Ford Pantera car after the car ran onto a grass median and rolled over several times.
History Diaries 