The United States sold more than $8.5 billion in arms in the fiscal year 1973-74, almost double the sales of 1972-73, according to official Pentagon estimates. This surge, many officials say, has been at least as much for economic reasons as to meet defense and diplomatic requirements. The bulk of the sales has been to the Middle East and the Persian Gulf area.
France exploded two atomic bombs at its South Pacific testing grounds over the weekend, not one as reported by Australia and New Zealand, French military sources said. Government officials, however, refused to confirm or deny the report. The reported blasts came 24 hours after the World Court in The Hague resumed its hearing of protests against the tests, a hearing France is boycotting.
The voting age in France was lowered from 21 to 18, in accordance with legislation that had been approved by the National Assembly on June 25 at the request of President Valery Giscard d’Estaing. France’s Justice Minister Jean Lecanuet said that the law also gave persons 18 to 21, for the first time, the right to choose where they could live, the right to get married without parental permission, the right to open a bank account, get a passport or travel abroad, set up a business, and drink alcohol.
France is prepared to rejoin Europe in fighting growing economic and political crises, according to statements issued at the end of a two-day Franco-German summit in Bonn. French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing and West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt agreed that the first priority had to be given to economic belt-tightening and to a drastic balance-of-payments situation created by soaring energy prices.
A decision by the Netherlands to cut 20,000 men from its armed forces drew a swift rebuke from the council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In a communique issued in Brussels, the council said that such a step would seriously weaken NATO defenses. Senior NATO officials said the Netherlands action would increase pressure for similar reductions in United States commitments in Europe and would set an example for defense cuts in Britain, Italy and elsewhere. Dutch officials, denying the charge, said increased defense spending would emphasize quality, not quantity, but said the cut would be suspended until international talks on troop cuts were completed.
On the last stop of his European tour, Secretary of State Kissinger today initialed a new declaration of military cooperation between Spain and the United States. It was described as closely paralleling the declaration of Atlantic alliance principles that President Nixon signed in Brussels last month on his way to the summit conference with Leonid I. Brezhnev in Moscow. The declaration initialed today was a forerunner — in Spanish eyes a virtual precondition — for negotiations on extending the agreement providing for United States military bases in Spain. Formal bargaining on renewal of the accord, which expires next year, is expected to start this summer. After the initialing, which was done for Spain by Foreign Minister Pedro Cortina Mauri. Mr. Kissinger left for Washington.
Shortly after he had arrived here from London this morning, the Spanish Government announced that Generalissimo Francisco Franco had been hospitalized with phlebitis in the right leg. This explained why the chief of state had not arranged to receive the Secretary. Some here had thought this represented a deliberate snub because President Nixon did not stop here on his recent European trip.
The militant Provisional wing of the Irish Republican Army rejected British plans for the political future of Northern Ireland and said it would continue its five-year “war of armed resistance.” Britain has proposed a constitutional convention for Northern Ireland to be elected within a year on the basis of proportional representation of the Protestant majority and one-third minority Roman Catholics. The IRA rejection was issued through a press bureau in Dublin.
International airlines tentatively agreed to increase fares between the United States and Europe by 7 to 10 percent on November 1. This is in addition to four increases either introduced or decided on earlier this year. The Fort Lauderdale meeting also agreed on discounts for purchases made 60 days before takeoff. Civil Aviation Board approval is expected to be received.
Italy’s three major trade-union groups began their campaign against austerity taxes, announced Saturday, with four-hour strikes and protest rallies in the northwest, Tuscany, and Sicily. Similar actions are mapped for all parts of Italy in the next few days. Spokesmen are demanding equal sacrifice by well-to-do Italians.
Portugal’s first effort at civilian government since the revolution in April collapsed when Premier Adelina da Palma Carlos and four of his middle-of-the-road ministers resigned. The conflict with Communists, Socialists and other leftists in the cabinet spilled over into the streets where for the first time the armed forces prevented an extreme left-wing demonstration. The government’s downfall was a setback for efforts to organize a democratic system.
Four people were killed in Norway while riding the Ulriksbanen aerial tramway near Bergen when a tow rope broke as the carriage was nearing the top of its travel. As the carriage, with eight people aboard, slid back down the carrying rope, it fell from a height of 49 feet (15 m), then tumbled an additional 98 feet (30 m) down a slope before being crushed up against boulders.
Israel’s latest raid on fishing ports in southern Lebanon was regarded in Beirut as restrained in comparison with the threats of violent reprisal issued by Israeli officials after a Palestinian guerrilla raid from the sea on the beach resort of Nahariya two weeks ago. Twenty‐one small fishing boats were destroyed in the Israeli raid last night and a minor port installation in Saida was damaged, the Lebanese government reported. The Lebanese fishermen, usually operate within sight of the Lebanese coast, but these small boats can slip down under cover of darkness a few miles to the south to the Israeli coast. Israel says such a single‐boat maneuver was carried out by the three Palestinian guerrillas who killed four people at Nahariya before they were shot dead. In last night’s raid Israel’s, fast missile boats carrying frogmen in rubber rafts slipped in from the sea and hit the fishing ports at Tyre, Saida, and Ras a‐Shak. The force was undetected and unopposed before it completed its demolition work.
Officials in Tel Aviv said that last night’s naval commando raids in Lebanese ports reflected the policy of striking at Arab guerrillas before they set out. The Israeli Minister of Information, Aharon Yariv, said at a briefing in Jerusalem that the actions were necessary to forestall terrorist attacks. The frogmen who carried out the mission belonged to the most elite unit in the Israeli armed forces.
An Israeli village was attacked by Soviet‐made rockets from across the Lebanese border today, an Israeli Army spokesman said. Observers said the attack may have been a retaliation by Palestinian guerrillas for Israel’s naval raids against the Lebanese ports last night. The army spokesman said the guerrillas and Israeli gunners exchanged rockets and shells across the border early this morning but that there were no casualties at the Galilee village, Kerem Ben Zimra.
Administration officials today defended the proposed sale of atomic power plants to Egypt and Israel on the ground that the two countries might obtain the nuclear assistance from other nations under less stringent safeguards. The Administration argument, presented by officials of the State Department and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, did not completely allay the concerns of some members of two House Foreign Affairs subcommittees, which are holding hearings on the proposed export of nuclear technology into the Middle East.
The Ethiopian armed forces, while stressing their continued loyalty to Emperor Haile Selassie, unveiled a 13-point plan for radical reform including a new constitution stripping him of many of his traditional powers. The military committee said it would try to replace divisions along tribal, religious and class lines with unity and equality and would remove obstacles to the functioning of Prime Minister Endalkachew Makonnen’s cabinet.
Five Burma air force jet fighters flying in formation crashed into mountains 100 miles north of Rangoon, killing all those aboard, the government announced. The five T33 jets, each with a two-man crew, were on a 300-mile flight Saturday from Rangoon to Meiktila when heavy rains and strong winds developed, the announcement said. The crashes occurred in the Peguyoma range.
Laotian Premier Prince Souvanna Phouma said today that he had told North Vietnam that North Vietnamese troops still in Laos must leave under the peace agreement that ended the Laotian war. He said in an interview that despite denials by the pro-Communist Pathet Lao, there still were North Vietnamese troops in Laos. “I’m taking a personal interest in this matter and have discussed it with the North Vietnamese Ambassador to make it clear to him that the North Vietnamese in Laos must withdraw,” the Premier said. The Pathet Lao and the former Vientiane administration share equal power in the coalition Government formed April 5 after nearly 10 years of war.
Logging operations on Vancouver Island in British Columbia were shut down as more sawmills and logging camps joined the unofficial work stoppage by coastal members of the International Woodworkers of America. An estimated 11,000 men were idle despite pleas by TWA officials to stay on the job until an official strike is called. Meanwhile, IWA leaders were meeting Labor Minister Bill King in Victoria to discuss deadlocked negotiations with Forest Industrial Relations, representing 120 companies.
The Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives released an enhanced version of eight of the White House tapes previously transcribed by Nixon’s team. These included potentially damaging statements suppressed in Nixon’s version. The House Judiciary Committee published eight tapes of President Nixon’s Watergate conversations that differ markedly from the White House version. The committee made no judgment about the differences, but they seemed likely to damage his case in the impeachment inquiry.
Among the major discrepancies between the two sets of transcripts are the following:
- The committee’s version contains several comments by Mr. Nixon that could indicate, in the view of critics, that he knew of and sanctioned the Watergate cover‐up before March 21, 1973 — the date he says he first learned the facts of the case.
- The committee’s transcripts include additional statements by the President that could also indicate to critics his acquiescence in a payoff to buy the silence of one of the Watergate conspirators.
- The newly released documents contain suggestions by the President that his aides “stonewall” the investigating authorities rather than tell them the truth.
- The President is depicted in the committee’s version as having been pleased with the work of John W. Dean 3rd, his former legal counsel, in keeping the cover on the Watergate case through the 1972 election.
President Nixon’s chief defense lawyer, James St. Clair, told reporters that he did not know whether the President would obey a Supreme Court order to turn over subpoenaed White House tapes. Making it clear that the option of defying the Court was still open, he said the President’s grounds would be “the public interest.” To comply, he said, it would take perhaps two months to process the tapes.
The House Judiciary Committee, plodding through apparently inconclusive questioning of witnesses at closed hearings, will be unable to meet its tentative deadline for completing the impeachment inquiry, the committee chairman said today. The chairman, Representative Peter W. Rodino Jr., Democrat of New Jersey, said “any slippage” in the effort to conclude the investigation of President Nixon’s conduct was attributable to a refusal by the House to curtail questioning of witnesses by committee members and to Mr. Rodino’s reluctant agreement to call all of the witnesses proposed by the White House.
President Nixon will meet Thursday with a group of leading businessmen and economists on ways to curb inflation. Kenneth Rush, his counselor for economic policy, said it would be the start of an effort at “national dialogue” on the subject and that he hoped that labor leaders would be invited to later meetings.
Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the United States from 1953 to 1969, died at the age of 83 in Washington. The retired Chief Justice had entered the hospital a week ago with what was diagnosed as coronary insufficiency and congestive heart failure — his third hospitalization with heart problems this year. He suffered a cardiac arrest at 8:10 this evening, a hospital spokesman said.
Four men who said they were veterans determined to discuss their grievances with President Nixon eluded guards and barricaded themselves in a room in the east wing of the White House. They never saw the President and abandoned their demonstration after 40 minutes when they were assured of a conference with Roger Semerad, a White House aide. The four, who were released without charges, left still angry after their meeting with Semerad, contending that the White House had failed to keep a promise not to place charges against five other members of the American Veterans Movement — two of them in wheelchairs — who were arrested after taking over an elevator at the top of the Washington Monument.
The government established a nationwide toll-free hotline — 800-621-4000 — on which the estimated 1 million children who run away from home each year will be able to pass messages to their parents without disclosing where they have gone. Caspar W. Weinberger, secretary of health, education and welfare, said the hot line would begin operating Aug. 12 under the control of MetroHelp, a Chicago-based runaway clearing house, which currently is handling 2,000 calls a month under its own program. Weinberger said he hoped the $100,000 experimental program could work both ways in that the parents might be able to get messages back to their children.
A Fulton County (Atlanta) grand jury indicted Marcus Wayne Chenault on two counts of murder and one of aggravated assault in connection with the June 30 shooting at Ebenezer Baptist Church in which Mrs. Martin Luther King Sr. was killed. The indictment was returned shortly after Judge Sam Phillips McKenzie ordered Chenault, 23, of Dayton, Ohio, to undergo psychiatric examinations to determine if he was mentally competent to stand trial.
President Nixon signed a bill which guarantees that the aged, blind and disabled who receive benefits under a special Social Security program will not lose their right to food stamps. The problem was created by a provision in a previous law saying that recipients of the new Supplemental Security Income program could not receive more in benefits than they received under old welfare programs. The major problem was in California, New York, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Wisconsin, which had programs granting cash payments to some recipients in lieu of stamps.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the recall of 300,000 gasoline-powered McCulloch chainsaws because of a leaky fuel hose which poses the danger of explosion and fire. The commission and the McCulloch Corp. of Los Angeles said owners of Mini Mac saws should return them to their dealers for inspection and possible replacement of the hoses. The company blamed the trouble on a shrinking gas line, probably caused by some fuel additives.
Two women missing on Yellowstone National Park’s rugged 10,500-foot Mt. Washburn since Friday were found alive and well. Park spokesman Joe Carder said a helicopter spotted Cristen Smith of Shreveport and Rebecca Russell of Memphis, both 21, in a drainage canyon along a ridge on the mountain. The pilot said the women were waving and standing in a small clearing where they had scratched out an SOS on the ground.
The newly elected Grand Dragon of the Texas Fiery Knights of the Ku Klux Klan says he owes it all to a Dale Carnegie personality improvement course on “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” “It has really helped me in the Klan work. I’ve shown a great improvement,” said Dimmie Johnson, a Houston Machinist. His election puts the youth in the No. 2 post, just behind Imperial Wizard Scott Nelson of Houston, who estimates membership at 200. Johnson says he wants to change the Klan’s image. “We’re trying to stay away from this violent sort of thing,” he said. He added that he joined “because I’m a white racist and I believe in the separation of the races and I believe the Klan is the best way of achieving that goal.”
[Ed: Fiction has to make sense; Reality can be as bizarre as it likes.]
A marine scientist who reported last December that the New York City metropolitan area’s sewage sludge dumped in the Atlantic Ocean was within half a mile of Long Island’s Atlantic Beach now finds it as close as a quarter of a mile. The scientist, Dr. William Harris, predicted the beach would be unusable because of contamination by 1976.
Mexican boxer Rubén Olivares, who had previously been the world bantamweight boxing champion, won the World Boxing Association featherweight title at a bout in Los Angeles, knocking out Zensuke Utagawa of Japan in the 7th round. Both boxers had been fighting for the vacant title left after Ernesto Marcel of Panama had retired earlier in the year.
At Royals Stadium, the New York Yankees score 6 in the 1st — 4 on a grand slam by Graig Nettles — as they beat the Kansas City Royals, 8–2. Dave Pagan, the rookie right‐hander, encountered no difficulty protecting the lead. The Canadian‐born Pagan, who gained his first triumph in the big leagues, held the home team to six hits while striking out seven. The performance provided a crowning touch to recent Yankee successes.
Luis Tiant, who came to the Boston Red Sox as a free agent in May of 1971, has turned out to be one of Boston’s best bargains. Last night in Fenway Park, the 33‐year‐old right‐hander made two first‐inning runs stand up for a 2–1 victory over the Texas Rangers. And Tiant did it with four‐hit effort that gave him his 12th triumph of the season in 19 decisions, a fine effort for a team that has won only two of its last eight games.
Harmon Killebrew’s run-scoring single off Detroit’s relief pitcher, John Hiller, star reliever, John Hiller, with one out in the 11th inning provided Minnesota’s 3–2 victory over the Tigers. Bill Hands, who relieved Vic Albury in the ninth, was the winner, raising his mark to 2–4.
The Oakland A’s shut out the Cleveland Indians, 7–0. Catfish Hunter stopped Cleveland on three hits for his second straight shutout and fourth consecutive victory. Oakland broke out for three runs in the first inning.
At Wrigley, the Reds hit 6 homers — 5 solo — as they beat the Cubs, 8–5. Chicago hits 2 homers. The major homer was George Foster’s third of the year, a three‐run shot in the sixth inning. The Reds homers were by Joe Morgan, Tony Perez, Cesar Geronimo, Dan Driessen, Johnny Bench, and Foster. The major league record of seven was set by Baltimore against Boston in 1967.
Steve Garvey and Bill Russell hit homers, and Al Downing, with relief from Mike Marshall, kept the Dodgers 10½ games in front in the Western Division, beating the Philadelphia Phillies, 8–4. Downing pitched 6⅔ innings and struck out seven to even his record at 3–3.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 772.29 (+1.72, +0.22%).
Born:
Kārlis Skrastiņš, Latvian National Team and NHL defenseman (Olympics, 2002, 2006, 2010; Nashville Predators, Colorado Avalanche, Florida Panthers, Dallas Stars), in Riga, Latvia, Soviet Union (d. 2011, in a plane crash).
Omar Stoutmire, NFL safety (Dallas Cowboys, New York Jets, New York Giants, Washington Redskins, New Orleans Saints), in Pensacola, Florida.
Tom Evans, MLB third baseman (Toronto Blue Jays, Texas Rangers), in Kirkland, Washington.
Anne Vanschothorst, Dutch harpist and composer, born in Emmen, Netherlands.
Nikola Šarčević, Swedish rock bassist and singer (Millencolin), born in Örebro, Sweden.
Sian Berry, British politician (Green Party), born in Cheltenham, England, United Kingdom.
Died:
Earl Warren, 83, former Chief Justice of the United States from 1953 to 1969.
Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, 90, French Dadaist artist and writer.
History Diaries 