The United States tried today to clarify for South Vietnam its attitude toward Vietnamese events since December 20. The statement of the American mission’s opposition to the action by young Vietnamese generals in upsetting civilian influence was directed “especially to the Vietnamese press,” a spokesman said. Through the last two critical weeks. Saigon newspapers, both Vietnamese and English-language, have been rigidly censored to eliminate articles about the sharp United States reaction to the military’s elimination of the High National Council.
In some instances newspapers have appeared at newsstands followed soon after by a man with an ink pad and roller to blot out objectionable articles. The result has been ignorance among most Vietnamese that the disagreement between the United States and the military leaders has led embassy officials to threaten a “re-examination” of the American aid program, which is sustaining the war against the Communist guerrillas. The statement, approved in Washington, said: “The primary concern of the United States Government and its representatives is that there be in Saigon a stable government in place, able to speak for all its components, to carry cut plans and to execute decisions.”
The statement then linked the governmental stability to the United States aid, which was to have been increased substantially before the generals dissolved the council and jailed some of its members on charges of having spread discord. “Without such a government,” the statement continued, “United States cooperation with and assistance to South Vietnam cannot be effective.” The statement also defended Ambassador Maxwell D. Tayior’s role in recent events. The Ambassador’s representations to Vietnamese officials “have been made merely as the expression of the legitimate concern of a vitally interested ally for the outcome of the common enterprise,” the statement said. It added, “They have been accompanied by no insistence on the acceptance of any particular formula for resolving the problem.”
Mr. Taylor met again with Premier Trần Văn Hương this morning; as before there was no report on their conference. At the urging of the United States Embassy, Mr. Hương’s secretary issued a disclaimer of an account carried by United Press International of an interview the Premier had given to The Indian Express in which he was inclined to write off the current difficulties as little more than a personality clash between Mr. Taylor and Lieutenant General Nguyễn Khánh, commander of the armed forces and former Premier.
Qualified sources said today that President de Gaulle’s Government believed that the political and military situation in South Vietnam had deteriorated to the point where early negotiation was the only solution for the United States. The French sources did not regard as the wisest course President Johnson’s determination, voiced in his State of the Union message, to fulfill American commitments in Southeast Asia.
They fear it will prove impossible for the United States to establish a firm, democratic political base in South Vietnam. Without this, they maintain, the South Vietnamese forces will not have the political support necessary for decisive victory over the Việt Cộng. The United States, it is conceded, could enter the war with specially trained military units and inflict heavy defeats upon the Việt Cộng, but the French do not believe the move would establish a lasting peace.
Instead, the French are convinced that their often-proposed political solution embracing Cambodia and Laos as well as North and South Vietnam, can be negotiated to establish peace and neutrality in the Indochinese peninsula. The French reject the idea that negotiation with North Vietnam and with Communist China would necessarily weaken the Western position elsewhere in the area, notably in Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.
Thailand accused Cambodian troops today of having violated Thai territorial waters last month and of having killed five fishermen. The Interior Under Secretary. Phuang Suwannarat, said that 15 Cambodians crossed into Thai waters December 27 and seized a fishing boat. He said the soldiers had shot four of the Thai crewmen and that a fifth had drowned in the melee.
William Healy Sullivan, the United States Ambassador to Laos, opened a bridge across the Sane River outside Paksane, 100 miles east of Vientiane, today. The ceremony was Mr. Sullivan’s first since his arrival here December 9.
Cambodian and Vietnamese Communists failed to reach agreement on border problems in private talks held recently in Peking, informed sources said today. Delegates of the South Vietnam Liberation Front, the political arm of the Việt Cộng guerrillas, and officials of North Vietnam turned down a request for a treaty that would guarantee Cambodia’s frontiers. The proposed treaty would also have recognized a special status for nearly half a million Cambodians who live in South Vietnam.
The sources said that the Liberation Front had taken the stand that it was an independent entity and, therefore, could not join with the North Vietnamese Government in a proposed treaty valid for Vietnam as a unified whole. The negotiations, which lasted 10 days, were suspended in mid-December, shortly before talks in New Delhi between Cambodia and the United States ended inconclusively.
Malaysia banned nighttime ship movements in territorial waters off the southern tip of the Malayan mainland today, fearing new Indonesian guerrilla raids. A communiqué said the dusk-to-dawn ban covered the southern coast of Johore State, next to Singapore, where there have been a number of Indonesian infiltrations. The ruling was the latest in a series of developments following reports of an Indonesian military build-up at bases surrounding Malaysia. British warships already patrol the area. Indonesia’s moves to quit the United Nations have been taken by Malaysia as a further indication the Indonesians want to be free to mount a major offensive against the federation, formed in 1963 of the British territories of Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak and Sabah, formerly North Borneo. A British-aided drive to strengthen Malaysia’s defenses is under way. The vanguard of a 1,000-man British contingent has arrived, with the rest expected in the next few days. Several hundred British Navy men are also awaited to man six warships being taken out of mothballs and added to the Singapore-based Far East Fleet.
Malaysia is considering bringing to the notice of the Security Council fresh information concerning a build-up of Indonesian forces on Borneo. Radhakrishna Ramani, the Malaysian representative at the United Nations. said today. The report, he said, would contain information on the number and type of troops and their location on the Indonesian side of the border on the island shared by Malaysia and Indonesia.
Communist China backed today Indonesia’s withdrawal from the United Nations. In an editorial in the Peking newspaper Jenmin Jih Pao, it described the United Nations as “an infamous organ” and “a vile place for a few powers to share the spoils.”
The Soviet Government announced today the legal rehabilitation of the Volga German minority accused by Stalin of collaboration with the Nazi invaders during World War II. No provision was made for the restoration of the minority’s autonomous republic from which the Germans were exiled in August, 1941, to Siberia and Central Asia. The Volga Germans are descendants of about 27,000 colonists invited to Russia in 1760 by Catherine the Great to develop uncultivated lands. Special privileges granted them were annulled a century later.
President Johnson’s travels this year may include visits to four countries in Western Europe and at least three in South America, according to present indications.
Izvestia said tonight that President Johnson had “expressed the hope” that the new Soviet leaders would be able to visit the United States to get “personally acquainted with it.” The official Government newspaper inserted the reference to the President’s expressed wish into a Washington dispatch by Tass, the official press agency. which had quoted the President only as having said that the two countries should get to know each other better.
The newspaper’s handling of the passage was regarded by Western observers as a sign that the Soviet Government leaders might be interested in the possibility of a visit to the United States. At the very least, it was felt, they seemed to regard President Johnson’s suggestion as a positive gesture in the framework of their own repeated calls for improved relations. It was noted, by contrast, that a British invitation to Premier Aleksei N. Kosygin to visit London had yet to be mentioned in any Soviet newspaper even though it was announced by Prime Minister Harold Wilson three weeks ago and apparently has been accepted by the Soviet Government.
The United States and the Philippines began new talks today on the question of jurisdiction over American servicemen accused of crimes in the islands. This problem has darkened relations between the two countries from time to time since the Philippines became free of United States rule in 1946.
Che Guevara of Cuba met in Brazzaville with MPLA leader (and future President of Angola) Agostinho Neto to discuss Cuban aid in the MPLA’s fight to liberate Angola from Portuguese control.
Cuba and Communist China announced today the signing of a five-year trade pact designed to make “new contributions to the struggle against imperialism headed by the United States.”
A Government shake-up in Yemen followed the return of President Abdullah al-Salal from a visit to Cairo, according to a broadcast tonight.
The People’s Republic of China and Tanzania signed an agreement for a loan of ten million British pounds from China, and Chinese aid of £3,000,000 to build a fully integrated textile mill.
Premier Levi Eshkol of Israel appealed to the West German people today to take steps to end the activity of German rocket experts in the United Arab Republic.
The world’s Roman Catholic hierarchy will reassemble in Rome on Sept. 14 for the fourth and final session of Ecumenical Council Vatican II.
Former Chancellor Konrad Adenauer celebrated today his 89th birthday, his second since leaving office in the fall of 1963. He appeared as untiring and energetic as ever in his long public career.
Shouting students forced five Perónist leaders today to cancel news conference, called to announce further attempts to bring Juan D. Perón, the former dictator, back to Argentina.
Walter Emery, professor of Egyptology at London University, has uncovered tunnels, tombs and ancient Egyptian structures that he believes to be the tomb of Imhotep, the third dynasty physician, astronomer and architect who built the stepped pyramid at Sakkara.
The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company announced an agreement with Romania for Firestone to design and equip a synthetic rubber plant in the Communist republic.
The Renault 16, the world’s first production car with a hatchback rear door instead of a trunk, was introduced at a press conference on the French Riviera, three months before it was to be made available to the public.
President Johnson began today to stretch the fabric of specific proposals over the framework of policy he revealed in hisState of the Union Message last night. He also put finishing touches on a Federal budget that will probably call for expenditures of $99 billion to $100 billion. One report was that the budget, with a few decisions still to be made, provisionally totaled $99.2 billion. A well-informed source questioned the precise accuracy of that figure but indicated it might not be far from right. The President has kept his budget goal a close secret, and has publicly expressed doubt: that spending can be kept below $100 billion. But he did the same thing last year and came in with a budget of $97.9 billion. Mr. Johnson spent part of the day working on a special message on health that he will submit to Congress on Thursday. Government sources said it would request the creation of a system of regional medical centers and local treatment stations for heart disease, cancer and stroke and would cost about $1.2 billion over a five-year period.
Before his inauguration on January 20, Mr. Johnson will submit four other special messages to Congress on education, immigration, foreign aid and the space program. The President will submit other specific proposals to fill in details of his sweeping State of the Union Message in the weeks and months thereafter. His Education Message, which will be submitted a week from today, will ask for a new authorization of about $1.5 billion for aid to education. Total spending on education, including funds for legislation that has already been passed, is expected to exceed $3 billion in the next fiscal year. In his speech before a joint session of Congress last night. Mr. Johnson spoke movingly of his hopes to lay the foundation of a great society that would improve the quality of American life.
President Johnson’s determination to ask Congress for a Cabinet-level department of housing and urban development will lead him over legislative and political terrain that his predecessor found thoroughly boobytrapped two years ago. In 1962, President Kennedy sought, first through legislation and then through his reorganization powers, to create such a department. He was blocked in the first instance by the House Rules Committee, which refused to let the legislation come to the floor, and in the second by adverse votes in both the House and the Senate on his reorganization plan.
In addition to the housing department, Congress will be called on to consider the creation of a department of education. This legislation, which will seek one office to handle the Government’s far-flung educational programs, will be introduced tomorrow by Senator Abraham A. Ribicoff, Democrat of Connecticut. While the Administration has not yet taken a stand on Mr. Ribicoff’s proposal, the President has said that the department of housing and urban development is necessary to fill out the mosaic of the Great Society toward which he is aiming. He mentioned such a department in his State of the Union Message last night, but the details will not be spelled until a message is sent to Congress, probably some time after the Inauguration, January 20. The general outlines of the plan, however, have already emerged.
Supporters of a program of medical care for the aged are predicting quick approval of the long-stalled legislation, possibly as early as Easter. A plan for the replacement of an ailing President appeared certain today or early Senate and House consideration. The plan, which also calls for keeping the Vice-Presidency filled, is expected to have President Johnson’s active support. He urged such action in his State of the Union message last night. The plan would be presented as a constitutional amendment, which requires a two-thirds majority approval by Congress and ratification by three-fourths of the states. A similar bill was approved by a 65-0 vote of the Senate last September. It was sent to the House but Congress adjourned before hearings could be started.
Democrats fashioned new leverage for passage of Administration bills today by increasing their representation on all legislative committees in the House. Party ratios on the committees were fixed at about two Democrats for each Republican,, reflecting as nearly as possible the 2-to-1 Democratic majority in the House. Most committee ratios in the last Congress were about 3-to-2 in favor of the Democrats. For the first time in many years, ratios on the Ways and Means and Appropriations Committees were among those adjusted to conform with election year shifts of party strength in the House. One effect was to strengthen prospects of early approval by the Ways and Means Committee of a program of health care for the aged along lines proposed by the Johnson Administration.
Congressional Republicans are going to present a virtually united front in support of a constitutional amendment on apportionment of state legislatures. The amendment will be introduced in the Senate tomorrow. It will state that one house of a state legislature can be apportioned on factors other than population. It will also provide, however, that any plan for apportionment on a basis other than population must be approved by the voters. Thus its effect, if adopted, would be to overturn the Supreme Court’s ruling of last June that districts for each house of a state legislature must be substantially equal in population.
Senator J.W. Fulbright, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, suggested today that consideration should be given to cutting off aid to countries that failed to prevent mob attacks on United States libraries.
Senator Harry F. Byrd, Democrat of Virginia, urged President Johnson today to “exert every effort to get the country out of the red.”
A Republican study group has recommended loosening the seniority grip on prestige Senate committees, but has declined to deal with the problem of assigning Senator Strom Thurmond, a Democratic defector.
The United States should begin now to consider international cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear explosives, Glenn T. Seaborg, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, told the Congress today.
Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower has proposed that the Republican party overhaul its national leadership setup. His plan, it was learned yesterday, would center responsibility for all the party’s national organizational, fundraising and campaign managing functions in a revamped national committee. The plan would also give Republican state chairmen, congressional leaders, governors, and other significant officials direct control of that top-level organization.
Governor George C. Wallace, who ran in several Presidential primaries last year as a conservative, is now busy putting through the most liberal spending program in Alabama’s history.
Bitterness between younger and older civil rights proponents over the conduct of the Mississippi integration campaign has increased in recent weeks. Observers now believe that some public controversies are likely.
Six promient Bogalusa, Louisiana citizens called off today a talk on racial problems by former Representative Brooks Hays, Democrat of Arkansas, because of what they termed threats by the Ku Klux Klan.
NASA Headquarters provided Flight Operations Division with preliminary data for revising the Gemini 3 flight plan to cover the possibility of retrorocket failure. The problem was to ensure the safe reentry of the astronauts even should it become impossible to fire the retrorockets effectively. The Headquarters proposal incorporated three orbit attitude and maneuver system maneuvers to establish a fail-safe orbit from which the spacecraft would reenter the atmosphere whether the retrorockets fired or not. This proposal, as refined by Mission Planning and Analysis Division, became part of the flight plans for Gemini 3 and Gemini 4.
Dempsey Bruton, a NASA engineer at the flight facility at Wallops Island, Virginia, filed a report of an unidentified flying object leading to an investigation by the U.S. Air Force. The incident would be embellished in later years, with descriptions of a NASA satellite tracking station who “calculated its speed at 6,000 mph” and witnesses in downtown Washington, D.C., later seeing “strange, disclike objects zigzagging effortlessly north to south across the sky toward the Capitol building.”
One 18-year-old man and three teenage boys were found dead inside their cell in the city jail in Payson, Arizona. The young men, who had been arrested the night before for petty theft, had not been checked upon until 10:30 the next morning. The only inmates, all four were victims of carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty space heater.
The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation was sold to CBS for $13,000,000.
James M. Johnston and James H. Lemon purchase the remaining 40 percent of Washington Senators stock to acquire complete control of the club.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 875.86 (+6.08)
Born:
Patrik Sjöberg, Swedish Olympic high jumper (Olympic silver 1984, 1992; bronze 1988) who held the world record from 1987 to 1988 after clearing 2.42 meters (7’11.3″); in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Rick Tuten, NFL punter (Pro Bowl, 1994; Philadelphia Eagles, Buffalo Bills, Seattle Seahawks, St. Louis Rams), in Perry, Florida (d. 2017, of heart failure).
Kirk Jones, NFL running back (Cleveland Browns), in Long Beach, California (d. 2001, of a heart attack).
Juan Nieves, Puerto Rican MLB pitcher (Milwaukee Brewers), in Santurce, Puerto Rico.
Brian McReynolds, Canadian NHL centre (Winnipeg Jets, New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings), in Penetanguishene, Ontario, Canada.
Vinnie Jones, English-born soccer star who captained the Wales national team; in Watford, Hertfordshire, England, United Kigndom.
Died:
Billy Wade, 34, American stock car racer and 1963 NASCAR Rookie of the Year, was killed when he was testing tires for the Goodyear Tire Company at the Daytona International Raceway. When he entered a turn at 170 miles per hour (270 km/h), the right front tire blew and he crashed into a wall.
Nell Craig, 73, American actress (“Dr. Kildare” (films); “The Queen of Sheba”).
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