Easter Sunday.
Defense Secretary McNamara announces that the United States will provide South Vietnam with $50,000,000 annually to finance the expansion of its armed forces (in addition to the current annual aid of $500,000,000). Mr. McNamara also said that United States troops who were training South Vietnamese soldiers for the continuing fight against the Việt Cộng guerrillas would return home when their necessary missions were properly completed. “Perhaps some can return later this year; some next,” he said.
The Secretary said, however, that Americans assigned to Vietnamese battalions and regiments as advisers on tactics and strategy “will remain as long as required to fully control the insurgency of the Communists.” The $50 million a year that Mr. McNamara mentioned to assist the draft would be in addition to the present aid cost of $500 million a year in South Vietnam. About 15,500 American military personnel are now supporting the war effort there. Mr. McNamara’s remarks were made in an interview on a National Broadcasting Company television show called “Sunday,” which today was devoted to Vietnam. Mr. McNamara discussed military aspects of the situation there.
Political aspects were discussed by Senator Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota. Senator Humphrey mentioned what have been called the three options for the U.S. in South Vietnam: continuing aid to the present government so that it can repel the Việt Cộng and regain control; pulling out; or extending the war into North Vietnam. Mr. Humphrey said the second and third alternatives were unacceptable and that thus the United States had no choice but to support the present government. Mr. Humphrey said he believed that any neutralization plan in South Vietnam alone would be “folly.” But, he said, once the situation in South Vietnam is stabilized, “it may then be possible to consider negotiating an agreement for the neutralizing of all the area included in Indochina.” “I do not believe,” he continued, “that this proposal has any less merit because it has been discussed by President de Gaulle.”
Major General Nguyễn Khánh bitterly criticized today a remark by a United States Senator that South Vietnam was not worth the life of a single American boy. General Khánh said he did not know the name of the Senator, but called him a “traitor” to the Americans who had lost their lives here. He invited the Senator to visit. The Senator who made the remark was the Oregon Democrat Wayne Morse. Senator Morse made the remark earlier this month in opposing continued American involvement here. “I regret that I do not know the name of the Senator,” Premier Khánh said. “However, I can say that if I were an American citizen, I would say this Senator would not be good, and is not good for the American people, and not good for the American fighting men right here in Vietnam. “He is a traitor, of the American people who shed their blood in fighting to defend the people here in Vietnam, in defense of a just cause.”
President Hồ Chí Minh of North Vietnam said that “shameful defeats” awaited the United States and its allies should they encroach on his country, the Communist North Vietnam press agency reported today. He made the remark in a report to a special conference in Hanoi, the capital.
Cambodia categorically denied today allegations that she provided “privileged sanctuaries” for Communist Việt Cộng rebels fleeing from Government forces in neighboring South Vietnam. The Government or prince Norodom Sihanouk declared in a communiqué that such “deliberately false assertions” were “calumnies against Cambodia’s strict neutrality.” The communiqué, issued by the Ministry of Information, protested specifically the phrase “privileged sanctuaries” in an editorial in The New York Times that was published March 22. The communiqué declared that such allegations, “not elsewhere supported by any fact of any kind,” were increasingly being put forward by the United States and South Vietnam “to explain and excuse their military reverses in the struggle against the Việt Cộng.”
The Cambodian Government asked The New York Times “to demonstrate more objectivity—if such be possible for it—and to point out to its readers that Cambodia has never deviated from her policy of absolute neutrality.” The editorial said that “the Communists are using Laos as a route into South Vietnam and are also hiding in Cambodian border villages as privileged sanctuaries.” It said that “the three Indochinese states, different as are their policies, are all faced with an identical threat.” It concluded: “A common front between them is their best — and perhaps their only — chance of saving themselves from being swamped by the Communist tide.”
Heavy firing broke out in a northeastern suburb of Nicosia on the island of Cyprus early today and United Nations troops rushed in to keep the fighting from getting out of hand. United Nations spokesmen refused to comment on the shooting or to say whether there were any casualties, but heavy bursts of automatic fire were heard for about a half hour. Then there was more than an hour of intermittent small‐arms shooting. Observers considered the shooting the heaviest since the United Nations took over the job of keeping the peace on Cyprus last Week. Yesterday the uneasy Easter calm on this island was shattered by a burst of gunfire, but the incident was isolated. Canadian and British United Nations troops moved into battle stations as soon as the first shots this morning sounded. Col. Peter Lytton, a Briton, described the firing as “very heavy.”
Soviet Premier Khrushchev left for Budapest by train tonight to attend the celebration of the 19th anniversary of the liberation of Hungary from German occupation. The Premier, apparently in high good humor, was seen off at the Kiev station in Moscow by President Leonid I. Brezhnev, Deputy Premier Aleksei N. Kosygin and other leading members of the Soviet Government and Communist party.
Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko and Yuri V. Andropov, one of the secretaries of the Communist Party, traveled with the Premier. Mr. Andropov is in charge of relations between the Soviet Communist party and the parties of Eastern Europe. There had been speculation in Western capitals that Mr. Khrushchev’s presence in Hungary might serve as an occasion for a Communist heads-of‐state meeting dealing with the position of the Chinese Communists in the Communist camp. Informed sources here have discounted these reports.
The Budapest meeting is viewed here essentially as a Soviet-Hungarian affair, although prominent figures from other Communist countries of Eastern Europe may attend. Soviet leaders have been, in continuous consultation with other Communist parties on problems arising from the ideological dispute with Peking. It is taken for granted here that the subject will be discussed during the Budapest visit. Pravda announced today that a Soviet trade delegation flew to Peking yesterday to continue negotiations on Soviet‐Chinese trade for the current year.
Nearly 100 “ban‐the‐bomb” demonstrators staged a two-hour vigil in pouring rain today at the United States Air Force base near High Wycombe. There was no repetition of the mass arrests that followed a protest by 300 demonstrators at the South Ruislip base outside London yesterday. No incidents were reported. Members of the local committee for nuclear disarmament later joined demonstrators from the Midlands and Wales for a move into London, where they are to join a massive march tomorrow. They traveled in vehicles that carried banners depicting a dinosaur and bearing the slogan: “Too much armor, too little brain.”
Brazilian President Joao Goulart arrived in Rio de Janeiro tonight from Brasilia to face the naval officers who constitute the chief immediate opposition to his campaign for more power and changes in Brazil’s social structure. The naval officers have called on the country to oppose what they call “communization.” But unlike last night, they refrained from firing off another manifesto against the course taken by the Goulart Government. During the evening Brazilian Army officers, through their organization, the Military Club, were reported to have supported the naval officers’ position. Naval officers estimated to number 2,000 met during last night at the Navy Club to issue a warning and take an oath to resist any advance of Communism in Brazil. These officers, including 30 admirals, accused the Government of protecting a “clearly Communist” sit‐in strike by 1,425 enlisted men of the leftist Sailors and Marines Association.
Ethiopia and Somalia agreed today to a cease‐fire in their border dispute. They also agreed on complete withdrawal of troops starting Wednesday for distances of six to nine miles. Peace talks in Khartoum, Sudan between the two sides ended in agreement Saturday. But conference sources said that a joint communiqué was delayed to await approval of the Somali Government. Reports from both Mogadishu, the Somali capital, and Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, said that fighting was continuing in the disputed border region.
Pope Paul VI, in his first Easter message, appealed today to agnostics and atheists to turn to religion for a purpose in life and solutions of its problems. Emphasizing that the Resurrection of Jesus had “cosmic importance,” he urged modern man to seek fulfillment in the Christian faith. The Pope, speaking on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica before the customary Easter blessing, greeted all Christians, including “our brethren still separated from us,” all believers in God and “unbelievers or those who no longer believe.” The papal message contained no political reference or allusion. The Pontiff mentioned current Roman Catholic Church issues only fleetingly when, at the beginning of his address, he said 1964 was the third year of the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican.
Radio Caroline became the United Kingdom’s first pirate radio station, with a signal heard at 1520 kHz on the AM band. Founded by Ronan O’Rahilly, the station began broadcasting pop music from the ship MV Caroline, formerly the Danish passenger ferry Frederica. Since the ship was anchored three miles (5 km) off the coast of Felixstowe, Suffolk, England, just outside British territorial waters, it was beyond British jurisdiction.
Violent disturbances broke out between two youth gangs, the Mods and Rockers at the English seaside resort of Clacton-on-Sea on Easter Sunday.
The federal government’s disaster relief chief told President Johnson tonight that massive aid would be needed to enable Alaska to recover from earthquake damage. Edward A. McDermott, director of the Office of Emergency Planning, telephoned his report after a 600‐hundred-mile air trip from Anchorage to some the hardest hit areas.
A tremendous bill for surgery on the face and figure of Alaska was in prospect today. Stunned residents of the 49th state were still being jarred by aftershocks of the earthquake, two days after the agonizing convulsions in the earth’s crust Friday evening. A new earthquake was felt in Alaska today, the Associated Press reported. Seismologists at the University of Washington in Seattle said the new quake, recorded at 6:22 PM (9:22 PM New York time), was centered in the Aleutian Trench, 650 miles from the center of the Friday tremblor. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
Pending completion of official surveys, accumulated estimates of damages over the state were put by Governor William A. Egan at $250 million. Senator Ernest Gruening, former Territorial Governor of Alaska, called the figure far too low. A total twice as large would be conservative, he insisted. The state’s death toll, once reported as 600 and later as 10 or 20, was put by Governor Egan at 65 or 66. This was subject to revision with further search of buildings, determination of the fate of missing persons and the outcome of critical injuries. At least 100 persons were injured, Mr. Egan said.
After a search by hundreds of civil defense teams in Anchorage, the death toll here was put at 12, with at least two persons still missing. Sixty-seven injuries were reported in the city. A survey of hard‐hit areas was made by Edward A. McDermott, director of the Federal Office of Emergency Planning. Mr. McDermott had been sent to Alaska at the behest of President Johnson. He was accompanied by Senators Gruening and E. L. Bartlett, both Alaska, Democrats.
Whites and Blacks in Birmingham, long estranged by racial discord, found common ground today in an Easter service held in a football stadium. More than 35,000 of both races sat shoulder to shoulder in Legion Field, a municipally owned facility, and heard the Rev. Dr. Billy Graham call for a spiritual awakening throughout America that would end hate and prejudice. “What a moment and what an hour in Birmingham!” the evangelist said as he surveyed the integrated audience. “It is good to stand together for Christ.”
The audience and the choir of 3,000 appeared to be composed equally of whites and Blacks. After the service, at the invitation of Dr. Graham, several thousand poured from the stands to dedicate their lives in service to the church: Gathered before the pulpit for the ceremony, they filled half the football field. Authorities here said it was the largest thoroughly integrated audience ever assembled in Alabama. Leaders of both races said it was a significant step forward in racial relations in Birmingham, which has a history of rigid segregation in religious and secular public gatherings. The Rev. J. L. Ware, a Black minister who delivered the benediction, said after the service that today could be the beginning of the end of racial hatred and violence that has marked this industrial city in recent years.
Worshipers in New York at Radio City Music Hall’s Easter dawn service yesterday were urged to assist the Black in his “push toward full freedom.” The sermon speaker at the 45th annual service was the Rev. Dr. Richard Allen Hildebrand, pastor of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, and president of the New York branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. For the first time in several years, the service, which began at 7 AM, failed to fill. the Music Hall’s 6,200 seats. But the 5,600 persons who attended filled all but the upper balcony. A spokesman said he thought the attendance might have suffered because of a service held at Kennedy International Airport.
Blacks were turned away at all‐white Easter services today and later picketed the Easter parade to protest segregation. Winston Davidson, identified as a chaplain at Yale University, was arrested when a crowd of about 20 white men attempted to keep him from picketing with Blacks by blocking his path and elbowing him. Ten persons were arrested during the day.
Nearly 13 years of community sacrifice, frustration and seemingly endless litigation over the admission of Blacks to the white public schools of Prince Edward County in Virginia is finally arriving at a climax in the courts. But so is segregationist resistance. On Monday, the United States Supreme Court hears final oral arguments on the Prince Edward County case. Observers here at the county seat and in Washington agree that the Court is likely to order an end in the next few months to Prince Edward’s unusual position among the “legal” resisters to school integration. It is a position that has taken the county down the road to the calculated abolition of public education as a means of evading Federal Court mandates to admit Blacks to white schools. White authorities here indicate that they will not accept an unfavorable supreme Court decision without a further fight, bringing into play again the doctrine of abdication of government responsibility that has worked successfully in keeping Blacks out of the white schools.
Lieutenant Colonel John H. Glenn Jr. will hold a hospital‐room news conference here tomorrow. Informed sources say he will announce his intention to stay in the race for the Democratic nomination for Senator from Ohio even though he must forego personal campaigning for at least another month. That would mean the former astronaut, the first American to orbit the earth, would have only four days, if that, to state his political views before the primary. His opponent in the Democratic contest is the 74‐year-old incumbent, Senator Stephen M. Young. Colonel Glenn, who was severely injured in a bathroom fall February 26, is understood to have been seriously considering pulling out of the race.
A predawn fire destroyed a New Orleans tenement building early today, killing seven persons, six of them children. District Fire Chief Edward Ray said the cause of the fire was unknown.
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur underwent his third operation in 24 days early today and hours later was under emergency life‐supporting therapy, including intravenous feeding, blood transfusions and oxygen. At 9:45 PM a hospital spokesman said the 84‐year‐old general was under sedation and was still critically ill. However, he was said by his physicians to have temperature, pulse and blood pressure “within normal limits for his post‐operative condition.” The entire medical‐surgical team that has been treating him was in attendance. The general required the transfusions after the emergency operation for removal: of an eight‐foot section of the small intestine, after it became strangulated in an old hernia. At 2:45 AM, Army surgeons brought the general back to the operating table — his second emergency surgery in seven days. After the three‐hour operation his condition was described as critical. At 10:15 AM, his condition was unchanged.
A Rockefeller Institute scientist reports that she has, in effect, reached into a living cell, plucked out a specific heredity‐determining unit of life and inserted it in another cell, thereby giving that cell a new trait. The scientist is Dr. Muriel Roger. What she has reported, specifically, is the apparent breaking down of hereditary material into individual genes and the isolation of specific genes that determine particular cell characteristics. She showed that she had done this by introducing one of these specific genes into cells that did not have the trait it determined. Her action changed the cells. Since 1944, scientists have known how to transform cells by injecting them with the hereditary material from other cells. No “fine control” over this procedure has heretofore been possible, however, because the injection consisted of mixtures of genes of many types. Now it appears possible to change a cell’s nature, with respect to a single, specified characteristic, by injecting genes of just one type.
Born:
Elle MacPherson, Australian supermodel and actress (“Sirens”), in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Jill Goodacre Connick, American model (Victoria Secrets), in Lubbock, Texas.
Catherine Cortez Masto, American politician (Senator-D-Nevada 2017-), in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Richard Kromm, Canadian NHL left wing (Calgary Flames, New York Islanders), in Trail, British Columbia, Canada.
Scott Robinson, Canadian NHL right wing (Minnesota North Stars), in 100 Mile House, British Columbia, Canada.
Barry Pettyjohn, NFL guard (Houston Oilers), in Cincinnati, Ohio.
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