The United States told Israel on Friday that it had no plans to sell military arms to either Egypt or Syria, according to State Department officials. They said that Secretary of State Kissinger gave the assurances in a meeting at the State Department with Simcha Dinitz, Israel’s Ambassador. Mr. Dinitz told Mr. Kissinger of growing apprehension in the Israeli press about the decision by the United States to negotiate the sale of a nuclear power reactor to Egypt, and the announcement that a team of American military officers was going to Egypt at the invitation of the Defense Ministry. Mr. Kissinger, his aides said, asserted that no sale of arms was contemplated to either Egypt or Syria, and that no military mission that had anything to do with arms is going to Egypt.
Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Shimon Peres was scheduled to arrive in Washington Monday to work out a multi-billion-dollar, long-term program for U.S. military and economic assistance to Israel.
Israel’s air strikes against Palestinian refugee camps in southern Lebanon are viewed by officials in Cairo as a systematic effort to disrupt the negotiating process for peace that was begun by Secretary of State Kissinger and dramatized by President Nixon. President Anwar Sadat of Egypt appealed to President Nixon in an urgent personal message to use American influence to stop the air strikes and the Cairo papers reported that Mr. Nixon had answered immediately. But the nature of the reply was not disclosed. Many Arab diplomats are convinced that Israel is seriously planning an invasion of southern Lebanon by her ground forces. The possibility of such an invasion is also taken seriously by some Western diplomats.
Pope Paul VI said there is a new ray of hope in the Middle East and urged a just and dignified solution to the Palestinian refugee problem. Addressing the Sacred College of Cardinals, he called the violence in Northern Ireland a “continuing tragedy” and reaffirmed his belief in the “rights of the peoples” in the Portuguese African territories of Mozambique, Angola and Portuguese Guinea.
The Soviet secret police crackdown on Jewish activists before President Nixon’s Moscow visit has resulted in nearly 50 arrests to prevent demonstrations, Jewish sources reported. Other Jews have gone into hiding or have been summoned by authorities and warned of possible criminal prosecution, the sources said. Among those arrested Friday were three organizers of a seminar planned during Mr. Nixon’s visit by unemployed Jewish scientists.
A 22-year-old American woman who has lived in Moscow since 1972 appealed to President Nixon to help her overcome Soviet red tape so she can marry a Russian next Thursday, the day Mr. Nixon begins his visit to Moscow. Diane Nemec of Chicago said she hoped to marry Sergei Ignashev, a librarian, who has received an army induction order since their marriage plans became known. Miss Nemec also was fired from her job as a translator with the English-language Moscow News. The authorities, she says, have refused to give her either a permanent residence permit or an exit visa which she needs before she can go through with the marriage.
Portugal’s military government issued laws to establish a committee empowered to fine and suspend news media, theaters and cinemas revealing military secrets and reports that could “perturb public opinion” or incite violence and strikes. The committee, composed of military and civilian members to be appointed this week, appears aimed at the far-left press. The new regulations were approved at a Cabinet meeting last night and will remain in existence along with the committee until a permanent press law is set forth. The committee will have authority over the press, radio, television, the theater and films, but its decisions can be appealed to the courts.
According to the regulations, it is legitimate to discuss and criticize political and religious doctrines, laws and acts of public administration, and the manner in which they are carried out. It is not legitimate to incite military disobedience, strikes, unauthorized demonstrations, or to offend the President of the republic, members of the Council of State and the Cabinet. Divulging military operations when not authorized by military authorities is also an offense. Publication of “false news” when done to counter the general objectives of the Government will also be punishable.
A report that an underground nuclear test is to be carried out in Nevada for the British Government aroused some left‐wing Labor Members of Parliament today. “All hell will break loose” if the test report is true, said Sydney Bidwell, a leader of the Tribune group, a faction of about 70 left‐wing Labor Members of Parliament. According to the report in The Daily Express, British physicists are assembling at the underground range in Nevada for the first nuclear explosion by Britain since 1965. A spokesman for the Ministry of Defense said he could neither confirm nor deny the story. In the absence of any official news, there was speculation that the tests were connected with improvements being made to the 64 Polaris missiles carried in four British nuclear submarines. The missiles were supplied by the United States, but the atomic warheads were developed in Britain. The Poseidon missile has superseded the Polaris in the United States Navy. Development of the Soviet Union’s nuclear defense capabilities had led to questions about whether the Polaris warheads could be destroyed before they reached their targets.
France has been opening to general scrutiny some of the cobwebbed financial corners of her public administration in order to improve services and get them operating with less waste and graft.
The Việt Cộng will suspend military talks with South Vietnam designed to carry out the Paris peace agreement, the North Vietnam press agency reported today. The agency said that the Việt Cộng’s Provisional Revolutionary Government had decided not to attend the joint military groups in Saigon on the ground that the United States and South Vietnam were obstructing the work and pushing ahead with the war. The Việt Cộng only recently resumed talks after facilities accorded to its delegation, withdrawn by the South Vietnamese Government in April, were restored. The commissions involved are the Joint Military Commission, designed to deal with matters related to the ceasefire, and the joint military team, which is intended to trace the dead and missing in the war. A statement issued by the Việt Cộng yesterday, and quoted by the North Vietnamese agency today, said that the Việt Cộng had decided “to suspend sine die its participation in the sessions.”
While the United States is gradually reducing its commitments in Asia, it is rapidly expanding its interests as it seeks a new role in the region. The themes that justified the American position in Asia for two decades appear to have been played out in the aftermath of the Vietnam war. But, if American intentions and assumptions are obscure now, American power is not. On the contrary, the solidity of the American presence — as seen in 10 Asian nations — makes a striking contrast to the tentativeness of American attitudes.
Fifty-five sailors who refused to return to the aircraft carrier USS Midway when it left Japan last week were “misled and exploited” into charging racial discrimination aboard ship, the U.S. Navy said. A Navy spokesman said an American antiwar group, which he declined to identify further, had encouraged the group to go AWOL and that charges of racism had been “determined to be unsubstantiated.” Of the 55 men, 22 have returned to the Yokosuka Naval Base and 33 are still at large, the Navy said.
The latest “big character” posters to be pasted up on walls in Peking are singling out factory managers as targets, accusing them of suppressing the workers and stifling criticism. A poster that appeared today was signed by five workers from a tractor factory in Kiangsi Province who charged that production there had virtually halted in the last six months as a result of “sabotage activities” by its managers. The managers were accused of fomenting strife at the plant and even switching off the electricity in order to undermine the campaign of criticism against Confucius and Lin Piao, the former Defense Minister who is said to have died in a plane crash in 1971 after the failure of an abortive coup. The poster charged that “sworn followers” of Lin Piao had made weapons at the factory that were to have been used in the coup attempt.
It is significant that the disgruntled workers were allowed to leave their jobs and travel to the capital to voice their complaints. Such action was an important feature of the Cultural Revolution in 1966 and 1967, when masses of young Red Guards and workers journeyed to Peking to express grievances. In the last week there have been posters whose signers identified themselves as having come from Szechwan, Heilungkiang and Hunan provinces, in addition to Kiangsi. This strongly suggests organized backing for the dissidents. Ordinary Chinese cannot normally purchase railroad tickets to travel outside their provinces without travel documents issued by local authorities. Moreover, the price of a ticket from Kiangsi would severely strain the resources of ordinary workers; arrangements would also have to be made for putting them up when they got to the capital.
The Argentine subsidiary of the U.S. Coca-Cola Corp. has been fined $100,000 for selling its product to retailers at higher than the officially authorized price. The company was one of 45 firms fined for the same alleged breach of Argentina’s “social pact” freezing prices. The company’s general manager denied his firm had engaged in the practice and said it would appeal the Commerce Ministry’s sanction.
Evidence gathered for the Senate Watergate committee indicates that former Attorney General John Mitchell bypassed the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division four years ago in giving the Howard Hughes organization approval to purchase a Las Vegas casino-hotel. The committee’s staff said in a report that Mr. Mitchell’s decision was without analysis by or of the knowledge of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. It was, the report said, “a classic case of governmental decision-making for friends” of the Nixon administration. The report also said that negotiations with Mr. Mitchell regarding the proposed purchase of the Dunes Hotel were conducted by Richard Danner of the Hughes organization, who delivered $100,000 in Hughes funds to Bebe Rebozo, President Nixon’s close friend.
The largest single contribution to the National Citizens’ Committee for Fairness to the Presidency has come from the Teamsters union, the committee president, Rabbi Baruch Korff, said today. Rabbi Korff said the teamsters had donated $25,000 to the group, which opposes the impeachment of President Nixon. A teamsters spokesman said he knew nothing of the contribution. The union’s president, Frank E. Fitzsimmons, could not be reached today for comment.
Representative John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan, member of the House Judiciary Committee, says the panel has heard evidence of “numerous impeachable offenses” by President Nixon that has not been made public. “The overwhelming amount of confidential material that is damaging to the President or could be construed as not favorable to the President has not ever been revealed,” Mr. Conyers said. “An impeachment article should have been sent to the Senate already,” he said, on the ground that Mr. Nixon “has impaired the constitutional process of impeachment to such an extent that it may never be workable against any future President.” Mr. Conyers was interviewed on a WPOP radio program, “Newsbeat,” to be broadcast tomorrow.
President Nixon’s fate in the House regarding impeachment may be decided by nine Republicans—eight members of the House Judiciary Committee and the committee’s special counsel. At 5:45 PM yesterday, 733 days after the Watergate burglary, the House Judiciary Committee completed six weeks of closed hearings on impeachment evidence assembled by the inquiry staff. In the next four weeks, the 38 members of the committee will decide whether the evidence warrants a recommendation that the President stand trial in the Senate for alleged constitutional crimes. Members of the House and officials of the impeachment inquiry whose views have been sought in the last few days believe that a majority of the Judiciary Committee will vote in favor of impeaching Mr. Nixon.
The issue of impeachment and alleged inaction in Washington on domestic programs were the principal topics at the opening of the 42nd annual convention of the United States Conference of Mayors in San Diego, which is meeting jointly with its sister organization, the National League of Cities. Many members were divided on whether the convention should go on record for impeachment. Mayor Roy Martin of Norfolk, Virginia, president of the mayors’ conference, and other municipal officials urged Congress to move quickly on impeachment proceedings. They charged that the federal government was not functioning because of impeachment politics. At a news conference before the meeting started, Mayor Roy B. Martin Jr. of Norfolk, Va., attacked what he called the inability of both the President and Congress to provide leadership.
Indianapolis Mayor Richard G. Lugar, 42, won nomination for the U.S. Senate at the Indiana GOP convention over Rep. Earl F. Landgrebe, who based his brief campaign on support for President Nixon. Lugar, serving his second term as mayor, will oppose Democratic Senator Birch Bayh in the November 5 election. Landgrebe entered the race after Lugar, once a strong Nixon backer, criticized the President in a speech May 12.
James W. Johnson, 35, one of three men charged in the March 15 kidnapping of Eunice Kronholm, wife of St. Paul bank president Gunnar Kronholm, was acquitted by a jury in Anoka, Minnesota. Johnson still faces a federal charge of extortion. Frederick Helberg Jr. has pleaded guilty to a kidnapping charge and testified for the prosecution at Johnson’s trial. Gary Hodgman awaits trial on the same charge. Johnson contended on the witness stand that he had been forced to take part in the abduction by a Chicago underworld figure.
Four Sunni Muslims were convicted in New York of the murder of a policeman during a 1973 shooting and 47-hour siege at a Brooklyn sporting goods store they were trying to rob. The four were also found guilty of kidnaping, possessing dangerous instruments, larceny and second-degree manslaughter. Convicted were Salin Ali Agdulan, 26; Shuaib Abdullaan Raheem, 24; Dawud A. Arrahaman, 22, and Abdullan Amussudug, 23.
American Presbyterians began an effort to heal a century-old rift between North and South with the governing assembly of the Southern Branch, the Presbyterian Church in the U.S., acting favorably on reunion. The delegates, meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, authorized study of a plan for reunion with the United Presbyterian Church, a larger body. The assembly invited conservative dissidents, who have broken away to form their own small Southern branch, to return.
Loud applause and scattered boos greeted a 17-year-old New York girl as she received her high school diploma over the objections of the local school board, Roseann O’Brien of Lake Ronkonkoma was graduated from Sachem High School on orders of state Education Commissioner Ewald G. Nyquist. The girl, who underwent a spinal operation in 1972, had appealed to Nyquist after the board voted to deny her a diploma because she lacked a quarter of a credit in physical education.
The Sears Tower in Chicago, at the time the tallest building in the world at 1,353 feet (412 m), opened its observation deck for the first time, with the public at the 103rd floor of the 110-story building.
Tornadoes, thunderstorms and flooding struck the nation’s midsection, causing at least three storm-related deaths in Iowa and widespread damage elsewhere. In Iowa, a flash flood swept a 6-year-old boy to his death and two other persons were electrocuted by downed utility lines. Thunderstorms, accompanied by high winds, hammered Illinois and Indiana throughout the day. Several tornadoes touched down but no deaths were reported and there were few injuries. Clashes of warm and cool air masses brought tornado watches for parts of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia. Flash flood watches were posted for parts of Illinois and West Virginia.
Rough night in New York: The New York Mets lost a double‐header tonight to the Philadelphia Phillies, 5–2 and 8–5; their wives were beaten, 3–0, in softball, their relief pitchers were bombarded with exploding cherry bombs and forced to abandon the bull pen, and their left fielder, Ed Kranepool, was pelted with golf balls so that he had to play with a batting helmet.
Gaylord Perry pitched a four-hitter for his 13th consecutive victory, and Frank Duffy drove in five runs as the Cleveland Indians routed the Boston Red Sox, 11-0, today in the opener of a day-night double-header.
For the first, and only time in soccer football, the national teams of West Germany and East Germany played against each other after both had been placed in Group 1. In the match played in Hamburg, part of the first round of the 1974 World Cup, East Germany won, 1 to 0, on a goal by Jürgen Sparwasser, over the heavily-favored West German team (which would go on to win the 1974 World Cup). Finishing in first and second place in Group 1, both advanced to the second round.
Born:
Bryan Robinson, NFL defensive end and defensive tackle (St. Louis Rams, Chicago Bears, Miami Dolphins, Cincinnati Bengals, Arizona Cardinals), in Toledo, Ohio (d. 2016, of hypertensive heart disease).
Matt Henderson, NHL right wing (Nashville Predators, Chicago Blackhawks), in White Bear Lake, Minnesota.
Donald Faison, American actor (Scrubs – “Dr. Turk”), born in Harlem, New York, New York.
Vijay (stage name for Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar) Indian film actor in Tamil cinema, known for Ghilli and Pokkiri; in Madras (now Chennai), Tamil Nadu, India.
Devayani (stage name for Devayani Jayadev), Indian film and television actress in Tamil cinema; in Bombay (now Mumbai), India. Devayani and Vijay, born on the same day, were co-stars in the 1998 romance, Ninaithen Vandhai.
Dimitrios Giannakopoulos, Greek businessman, CEO of Vianex Pharmaceuticals and co-owner of Superfoods S.A.; in Athens, Greece.
Joelma (stage name for Joelma da Silva Mendes), Brazilian pop singer; in Almeirim, Pará, Brazil.
Jo Cox (born Helen Joanne Leadbeater), British politician and Member of Parliament who was murdered while in office; in Batley, West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom (d. 2016).
Died:
Darius Milhaud, 81, French composer.
History Diaries 