Chinese troops have made attacks inside Vietnam. From 2 to 27 April 1984, China conducted the heaviest artillery barrage since 1979 against the Vietnamese border region, with more than 60,000 shells pounding 16 districts in Lạng Sơn, Cao Bằng, Hà Tuyên, and Hoàng Liên Sơn Provinces. 256 artillery pieces bombarded the areas with 414 targets being allegedly hit. Decoy ground attacks were used in an attempt to lure PAVN forces into the open so the artillery could hit them. This was accompanied by a wave of infantry battalion-sized attacks beginning on 6 April. The largest of them took place in Tràng Định District, Lạng Sơn Province, with several Chinese battalions assaulting Hills 820 and 636 near the routes taken during the 1979 invasion at the Friendship Gate. Despite mobilizing a large force, the Chinese were either beaten back or forced to abandon captured positions by the next day. Chinese documents later revealed that the ground attacks primarily served the diversionary objective, with their scales much lower than that reported by Western sources. The Chinese are planning a larger assault at Laoshan (Vị Xuyên).
Cambodian rebels said today that one of their units had destroyed Kompong Speu, a provincial capital about 25 miles south of Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. If their report is true, it marks the most dramatic military action in the heart of the country by the forces loyal to Pol Pot, the ousted Prime Minister. The rebels say they have temporarily seized other provincial capitals in recent months, but diplomats regard most of the claims as exaggerated. The radio of the anti-Vietnamese resistance group, monitored in Bangkok, said the guerrillas seized the town on the night of April 8 in a three-pronged attack. It said 372 Cambodians jailed by the Vietnamese in Kompong Speu had been set free by the attackers.
Konstantin U. Chernenko was named President of the Soviet Union. The selection of Mr. Chernenko indicated that the consolidation of Communist Party leadership and the nation’s presidency has now become custom.
Three Soviet women protesting the detention of two Jews seeking permission to emigrate have been ordered jailed for 15 days for “hooliganism,” dissident sources told Western correspondents. The three had stood outside the office of the Latvian general prosecutor in Riga for eight minutes, holding banners demanding the release of Zukhar Zunshein, a physicist, and Alexander Balter. The women were identified as Zunshein’s wife, Tatyana, and Balter’s wife, Paulina, and mother, Svetlana.
Britain announced that it has halted dumping of radioactive waste at sea until an independent inquiry has examined the dangers. It previously had repeatedly resisted pressure from British labor unions and other European nations to stop the dumping.
Poland published a 270-page report condemning the United States for trade sanctions and predicting that relations between the two countries will remain frozen indefinitely. The report said that American restrictions on trade have cost Warsaw $10.5 billion since the Communist government declared martial law in December, 1981, and banned the independent Solidarity union. Although recent comments by public figures in both countries have suggested the possibility of a thaw in relations, the Polish government study rejected that notion firmly.
The Solidarity underground called today for anti-Government marches next month, its first such action since the failure of nationwide demonstrations last December. Meanwhile, the Government issued a ”white book” that renews criticism of United States sanctions against Poland and says strained relations with Washington are not expected to improve soon. The 270-page book, published by the semiofficial press agency Interpress, said Western economic sanctions, including a freeze on credits, had cost Poland $12.5 billion. The sanctions were imposed in response to the imposition of martial law in Poland in December 1981. Solidarity’s fugitive four-member temporary coordinating commission set May 1 and 3 as the dates for demonstrations in a statement handed to Western reporters. Solidarity’s founder, Lech Walesa, reached by telephone at his apartment in Gdansk, said he could not openly echo statements by an outlawed group but tacitly backed its call for protests.
In a short dispatch from Kabul, the government said the U.S. Embassy’s third secretary, Richard S. Vandiver, had been declared ”persona non grata for espionage, collecting of information and actions against the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.” The expulsion was also reported by Afghanistan’s official Kabul radio, which said Mr. Vandiver’s activities were contrary to diplomatic norms. Afghanistan expelled two American diplomats last September on charges of spying that the State Department called preposterous. Soviet troops have been in Afghanistan since December 1979 battling Afghan insurgents. The State Department today rejected the charges made against Mr. Vandiver. ”We’re puzzled and concerned about this action,” a State Department official said. ”There is no substance whatever to these charges.” The State Department said Vandiver will comply and leave under protest. Kabul radio said Vandiver worked for the CIA and tried to obtain intelligence information from an Afghan secret police agent.
Assistant Secretary of State Richard W. Murphy has flown to the Mideast amid concern that a sudden battlefield setback could lead to the collapse of Iraq’s resistance in its war with Iran, Washington officials said. For the record, the Administration says “both sides have the capacity to fight almost indefinitely.” But other officials expressed concern over a possible Iranian breakthrough.
Sri Lankan security forces clashed with separatist guerrillas in the northern city of Jaffna today, killing 5 and raising the toll to 22 since Tuesday. Officials said an 18-hour curfew was reimposed. The curfew was first ordered Tuesday after attacks by guerrillas fighting for a separate state for Tamils, who make up a sixth of the 15 million people in Sri Lanka. Interior Minister Lalith Athulathmudali said a group of six guerrillas attacked an army patrol with guns and bombs today. The army returned fire and five guerrillas died with weapons in their hands, he said. The minister said 22 guerrillas had been shot dead and one soldier had been wounded in three clashes since Tuesday.
Yasuhiro Nakasone, Japan’s prime minister, who pledged in December to eliminate the political influence of convicted bribe-taker Kakuei Tanaka, appointed Tanaka’s chief lieutenant as vice president of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Susumu Nikaido, 74, accepting the position, said he will remain as chairman of Tanaka’s faction, whose support Nakasone will need to retain party leadership next fall. Tanaka, a former prime minister, was convicted last October of receiving a $1.8-million bribe from Lockheed Aircraft Corp.
The Foreign Affairs Committee of the House approved a resolution opposing the use of Government funds for the mining of Nicaraguan harbors. The resolution, approved by a vote of 32 to 3 with 2 abstentions, was identical to one passed by the Senate on Tuesday. At the same time, Administration officials, suddenly faced with a revolt even by Republicans toward their Central American policy, said that the latest phase of the mining of Nicaraguan harbors had ceased last weekend.
U.S. advisers flew with Salvadoran pilots on training missions in which they occasionally engaged in combat and targeted or bombed guerrilla positions, a United States military official said. The statement, if correct, reflects a dramatic increase in the American military’s role in El Salvador’s four-year-old civil war. A spokesman for the United States Embassy said the embassy knew of no pilots engaged in such activity calling it “contrary to orders.”
Salvadoran presidential candidate Jose Napoleon Duarte received the surprise endorsement of a small right-wing party as campaigning opened for the May 6 runoff. Duarte, a moderate, represents the Christian Democratic Party. He will face Roberto D’Aubuisson of the rightist Arena party. The surprise endorsement for Duarte came from the Popular Orientation Party. Meanwhile, the National Conciliation Party, whose candidate, Francisco Guerrero, ran third in the first round, announced that it is still uncommitted on the runoff.
The U.S. would be justified in assisting in the mining of Nicaraguan harbors as an act of collective self-defense, an Administration official suggested. Testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Kenneth W. Dam, Deputy Secretary of State, repeatedly declined to acknowledge that the United States was involved in the mining. But he said that if that were the case, it could be justified under collective self-defense clauses of the Charters of both the United Nations and the Organization of American States.
An anti-Sandinista group has decided to continue mining Nicaragua ports. Adolfo Calero Portocarrero, who heads the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, the largest anti-Sandinista insurgent group, said that leaders of the group made the decision at a meeting in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa.
Guinea’s prison at Camp Boiro was thrown open by the country’s new regime. In it, opponents of President Ahmed Sekou Toure were imprisoned and tortured, and thousands are believed to have died. Mr. Toure died after emergency heart surgery in the United States on March 26.
Shooting broke out today in Mbabane, the Swazi capital, as policemen and paramilitary forces searched for members of the African National Congress who escaped from custody Sunday. Swazi authorities had arrested the group, along with six other men, for entering the country illegally from Mozambique in the last two weeks. Today’s raids were carried out in accordance with a nonaggression treaty that Swaziland signed with South Africa two years ago, under which each country agreed not to allow its territory to be used by rebels fighting the other.
Soyuz T-11 returns to Earth.
Two astronauts aboard the space shuttle Challenger succeeded in replacing defective electronics units on the crippled Solar Max satellite in the first extensive repair job in space, 305 miles above the earth. They made it look easy, which was encouraging to planners of future space missions requiring the shuttles to make service calls on satellites for refueling, maintenance and even construction tasks. Working outside in the Challenger’s cargo bay, where the 5,000-pound Solar Max was berthed, Dr. George D. Nelson and Dr. James D. van Hoften used power tools designed for weightless conditions to replace two large modules and fix a scientific instrument 305 miles above the earth. This restored the satellite to operational health for the first time in three years and perhaps added years to its useful lifetime. After hours of checking out Solar Max’s condition, engineers at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said the overhauled satellite should be ready for redeployment in its own orbit Thursday morning. It was set to be released by the same mechanical arm that snared it and brought it aboard Tuesday.
The House approved a tax increase of $49.2 billion, the first step by either house of Congress to reduce future budget deficits. The bill, passed by a vote of 318 to 97, calls for closing tax shelter loopholes and raising liquor and diesel fuel taxes.
President Reagan visits a Ford plant in Kansas City and addresses 2,000 auto-workers.
A modern battles rages at the Alamo. Gary L. Foreman, a young entrepreneur from Illinois wants to refurbish the aging fort, and add such things as a sound and light show, period-costumed guides and a re-enactment of the battle itself. But the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, 4,000 members strong, have custodial care of the shrine and maintain that the Alamo should not be touched.
The three Democratic hopefuls turned their attentions to the second half of the nomination campaign, following the Pennsylvania primary. Walter F. Mondale expressed confidence that he can sew up the nomination by the end of the primary season on June 5. Mr. Hart’s top advisers plan meetings next week aimed at rejuvenating a candidacy crippled by a series of defeats in important primaries in the industrial states.
The Pentagon weapon budget for 1985 was cut by nearly $9 billion by the House Armed Services Committee. The vote was taken in closed session and provided the first indications of how the Reagan Administration’s military buildup will fare in Congress this year. The committee, widely considered to be the House panel most unsympathetic toward military spending, shrank funding for such politically important programs as the MX, Pershing II, and Patriot missiles.
Former Kentucky Governor John Y. Brown’s U.S. Senate campaign chairman was freed unharmed after being held for a day in an alleged extortion attempt by a former business associate, the FBI said. Police arrested a suspect in the kidnapping of Wallace G. Wilkinson, 42, a real estate developer, who was abducted Tuesday from his Lexington, Kentucky office. He was freed after a “sizable” ransom was paid, his family said. Acting on a tip from the FBI, police arrested Jerome Bush Jernigan. He was charged with extortion.
New Mexico authorities searched for the arsenic-tainted contents of Easter baskets imported from Taiwan. State Attorney General Paul Bardacke said the $45.95 brown wicker baskets are trimmed with lace and lined with green moss. They include two toy ducklings, two toy chicks and flowers made of duck feathers. Bardacke said the animals have been treated and stuffed with arsenic at levels that would be poisonous to children. The baskets have a tiny warning label, he said. The Wallace Oakes Collection of Ojai, California, is the importer, a label says.
About 1,700 doctors, dentists and other health professionals have breached their contracts under the National Health Corps Scholarship Program. Senator Charles H. Percy (R-Illinois) said in Washington. Under the program, the government pays medical students’ expenses if they agree to work for three years in an area that is short on medical services. If they break their promise, they are supposed to repay the government for their schooling, plus interest and penalties. Percy said contract breaches by health professionals have resulted in debts to the government totaling $61 million. Current law permits the government to offset Medicare and Medicaid payments to collect such debts, Percy said, but this authority has never been used.
The U.S. Information Agency’s acting deputy director was present when officials decided to destroy documents linked to USIA’s speaker blacklist, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was told. John Mosher, director of the program that sends Americans abroad to speak to foreign audiences, testified that the agency’s No. 2 man. Leslie Lenkowsky, attended a February 3 meeting that dealt with how to handle media inquiries about the blacklist. Mosher told Lenkowsky’s confirmation hearing that USIA counsel Thomas Harvey ordered the destruction of the lists. Among those banned were former CBS newsman Walter Cronkite and Sen. Gary Hart (D-Colorado). Also testifying. Lenkowsky denied that destruction of the lists was discussed February 3. Harvey testified that he couldn’t recall talk of the lists.
The average child molester is a “nice” person working with children at home or at school — not a “dirty old man in a wrinkled raincoat,” the FBI told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee. The panel is holding hearings on legislation that would require governmental agencies that deal with children to conduct background checks for criminal records on all potential employees. But two FBI agents testified that the bureau has the power to conduct such checks now at states’ request.
A 9-year-old girl, alone with her younger brother in their burning home, telephoned an emergency dispatcher 50 minutes before firefighters arrived to find them dead, according to transcripts released by the Richmond, Virginia, city manager. The transcripts indicated that a child, believed to be Indea A. Eggleston, dialed 911 and told an emergency dispatcher and a supervisor that her home was on fire and gave its location. The information came in a series of conversations between 11:55 pm January 24 and midnight. The girl and her half-brother, Eljamin Grice, 5, were found dead of smoke inhalation about 12:45 am. The children’s mother, Cassandra Grice, has been charged with willful neglect. The dispatcher and the supervisor have been fired.
The Piper Aircraft Corporation has agreed to pay $10 million to the heirs of three people killed when their plane crashed in Ireland, ending a 6-year-old liability lawsuit. The settlement, among the largest for a product liability lawsuit involving general aviation, will be divided among the families of the three Digital Equipment Corporation officials who were killed in the 1976 crash, The Miami Herald reported today. Piper, which has a plant in Vero Beach, was held liable for damages because it destroyed engineering documents and test results relating to the safety and design of the Cheyenne II twin-engine turboprop, Federal Judge William Campbell ruled March 30.
Parents and counselors, concerned that three teen-age suicides this week in the Dallas-Fort Worth area may provoke other deaths, today began a suicide prevention program at schools. There also were fears the three suicides may follow a trend that brought national attention to the Dallas suburb of Plano, where eight teen-agers committed suicide within a year.
Florida adopted what officials called the strictest rules in the country to protect its fresh water, ordering that every community water supply be screened for 127 additional toxins. ”It’s a major new approach,” said Howard Rhodes, director of the Department of Environmental Regulation’s environmental programs. Federal and state water standards had limited the concentrations of only 18 chemicals, but department officials said that was not enough to protect public health.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1130.97 (-7.33).
Born:
Alejandro De Aza, Dominican MLB outfielder (Florida Marlins, Chicago White Sox, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, San Francisco Giants, New York Mets, Washington Nationals), in Guaymate, Dominican Republic.
Andrés Blanco, Venezuelan MLB second baseman, shortstop, and third baseman (Kansas City Royals, Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers, Philadelphia Phillies), in Urama, Venezuela.
Kelli Garner, American actress (“Dreamland”), in Bakersfield, California.
Died:
Fred Robinson, 83, American jazz trombonist (Louis Armstong’s Hot Five; Fats Waller; Cab Calloway).
History Diaries 