In a little over a week South Vietnamese President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu has dealt a stunning blow to his vocal but disorganized domestic opponents and has reinforced his power base in the army and the police. Acting swiftly, the government closed five opposition newspapers last week after purportedly discovering Communist agents on their staffs. South Vietnam, which had had a remarkably free press for a country at war, has only one opposition paper now. As the crackdown unfolded, Mr. Thiệu conferred promotions on the commander of the national police, Major General Nguyễn Khắc Bình; the head of the Saigon police, Brigadier General Trang Sĩ Tấn, and four other ranking police officers.
Then, in a move known to have chagrined members of the American mission, Mr. Thiệu named Lieutenant General Nguyễn Văn Toàn to head the important and politically sensitive military region that surrounds Saigon. Last October Mr. Thiệu, under strident opposition pressure to clean up the army, removed General Toàn from his command in the Central Highlands. The general has an established reputation for corruption. In 1972, when Mr. Thieu. indicated that he was going to name General Toàn to the highlands command, the American Ambassador, Ellsworth Bunker, vigorously but unsuccessfully opposed the appointment. Mr. Thiệu appointed General Toàn this time while the current Ambassador, Graham A. Martin, was in Washington for consultations.
The police promotions and the surprising resurrection of General Toàn, who is close to the President, were seen by Saigon politicians as signals that Mr. Thiệu will be leaning on them and the police, his traditional supporters, in the difficulties that appear to lie ahead. In particular, the choice of General Toàn seemed to indicate the end of a period of concessions. to the opposition, which forced a cabinet reshuffle, change in high military commanders and a long defensive speech out of Mr. Thiệu late last fall. President Thiệu aiso ended a long and inconclusive series of negotiations with the anti-Communist Hòa Hảo sect in the Mekong Delta and ordered security forces to disarm its militia, which, it is said, has become a haven for bandits and draft-dodgers.
Among the reasons given for Mr. Thiệu’s moves — no one is exclusive of the others — is that heightened North Vietnamese and Việt Cộng attacks, which have the avowed aim of “supporting the urban struggle” of the opposition, have given him cause for concern. A recurrent theme of his recent pronouncements is that the “rear area” — meaning the big cities, where the politicians operate — must remain calm. He presumably does not want to detail large numbers of policemen and soldiers, as he did last fall, to put down demonstrations when the men are needed elsewhere. Moreover, the government is scrambling to put together a sorely needed “strategic reserve” to meet expected Communist thrusts on several fronts. Railroad security guards, military policemen, psychological-warfare personnel, and other deskbound soldiers are being formed into fighting units.
The Mobil Oil Corporation has found oil and gas in its first exploratory well off the coast of South Vietnam, oil sources said today. The sources said a production test was run on the well yesterday and found a “flow” of oil and gas at a depth of “more than 9,000 feet.” The Mobil well is located 100 miles southeast of Saigon in the South China Sea and is being drilled from a floating rig. Drilling began at the site in late October.
An expanded American airlift went into operation today in an attempt to replenish some of Phnom Penh’s dwindling vital supplies — ammunition in particular. Air supply is becoming more and more important to the survival of Phnom Penh and the Cambodian government because the attacking insurgents, using mines end heavy guns from the river banks, have for the moment blockaded the Mekong River, the city’s main supply line from the outside. The expanded air operation — which involves an increase in the number of daily flights by a civilian contractor in Thailand using “retired” United States Air Force pilots and Air Force cargo planes with the insignia painted out—could not yet be described as a large airlift. The original operation was begun in October when the Ford Administration decided to phase out the politically sensitive use of the United States Air Force for supply flights here. It turned over the supply function, including airdrops to besieged garrisons, to the civilian contractor, Bird Air.
At the start there were only three to five flights a day by C‐130 cargo planes from the Americans’ air base at U Taphao in Thailand. Then, when the Communist‐led insurgents began their dry‐season offensive on New Year’s Day, the Bird Air operation was increased to 10 flights flights daily — which United States Embassy officials here said was the maximum allowed under Bird Air’s contract. Yesterday the Pentagon announced that the contract was being changed and that six or seven planes would be added to the five already given to Bird Air. Since these planes can fly two missions each day, this will probably mean a total of up to 22 to 24 flights a day — double what it has been. At 15 tons capacity for each cargo plane, this amounts to at most 360 tons of supplies daily — which represents about two-thirds of the Phnom Penh government’s ammunition needs, but only about a fifth of the city’s needs in food and fuel. The cargo on the Bird Air planes is almost entirely ammunition and other arms; as far as is known no food or fuel is carried.
It is not clear whether the Pentagon intends to keep expanding the Bird Air operation as the supply shortage deepens or whether it will turn to what the United States Embassy here has said is the “last‐resort” contingency plan — a huge airlift by the United States Air Force using its own pilots, with perhaps 50 to 100 flights a day. The Americans are known to be reluctant to put the Air Force into operation for fear of further antagonizing Conpress by expanding direct involvement in this nearly five-year‐old war. But if they were to enlarge the Bird Air operation to the point where it was running 500 or more flights daily, it would amount to virtually the same thing. Two years ago, during the insurgents’ offensive of 1973, when the Mekong River was also cut for some time, the United States Air Force ran 40 to 50 flights a day into Phnom Penh from air bases in Thailand. This time the blockade of the vital river — which normally carries more than 80 percent of the city’s basic supplies from South Vietnam — is much more serious.
The insurgents have not only seized control of two‐thirds of the Mekong’s 60‐mile length from Phnom Penh to the South Vietnamese border, but by laying mines for the first time they have significantly escalated the battle. Nineteen supply ships — tugs, tankers, freighters and barges — have been sunk by the primitive mines and the gun emplacements along the banks. The last convoy to attempt the run from South Vietnam, consisting of four tugs pulling two ammunition barges, was blown apart a week ago. Three of the tugs were sunk. The other vessels steamed back to South Vietnam. An American Embassy official has described the state of the government’s ammunition stocks as “dangerous” and has said that if the Mekong is closed for 10 days more it will be “critical.” The expanded airlift, though, is expected to ease the ammunition situation considerably.
The Defense Department announced today that it had approved $1.2‐million in Cambodian aid funds to hire commercial planes and pilots until Bird Air’s build‐up is completed. A spokesman said the commercial planes would be hired for 10 days with provisions for extensions.
Four U.S. Senate advisers to last year’s 10-week U.N. conference on the law of the sea reported the session failed “to make any form of substantive progress” toward an international treaty. They blamed it on “inability to overcome regional and group politics” among the 149 nations negotiating on 25 major issues and 81 sub-items. The report was filed by Sens. Edmund Muskie (D-Maine) Claiborne Pell (D-Rhode Island), Clifford P. Case (R-New Jersey) and Ted Stevens (R-Alaska). Negotiations resume in Geneva next month.
Turkey’s caretaker premier, Sadi Irmak, said a second note had been sent to the United States protesting suspension of U.S. arms supplies to Turkey. Irmak reiterated Turkey’s threat to renegotiate U.S.-Turkish defense agreements unless arms supplies are resumed. Congress forced suspension of arms shipments to Turkey last week after it could not be shown that substantial progress had been made toward settlement of the Cyprus crisis.
Portuguese Socialist Party leader Marios Soares welcomed an appeal by President Francisco da Costa Gomes for unity in building a free democracy in Portugal. He told a news conference in Lisbon that the appeal, made in a speech Monday setting April 12 as the date for elections, was in line with Socialist Party thinking.
Italy’s chief art detective reported that the thieves who stole three priceless Renaissance paintings last week from the Ducal Palace in Urabino have been identified, and that one man was arrested. That man was being brought from Milan to Urbino for further questioning. The three paintings, however, have not been recovered and may have already been taken abroad, said Rodolfo Siviero, who heads the department in the Foreign Ministry that traces stolen cartworks.
Margaret Thatcher, the new leader of the Conservative party, today chose William Whitelaw, her main rival in yesterday’s election, as her deputy. Mrs. Thatcher called on Edward Heath, whom she replaces as party chief, at his London home this afternoon. He refused her offer to become a member of the Shadow Cabinet, the party’s leading spokesmen in the House of Commons. Mr. Heath announced that he would remain in the Commons, but sit on the back benches.
The New York Times observes:
“One need not share Margaret Thatcher’s political philosophy to applaud her overwhelming and historic victory in the struggle for leadership of Britain’s Conservative party. For the first time a woman has become head of one of the two major parties in Parliament, thus putting herself in line to become Prime Minister should the Conservatives win the next national election. The stunning nature of her triumph deals a mortal wound to the assumption that male chauvinism and political conservatism must inevitably go together.
“Americans will tend to think of Mrs. Thatcher as the Jackie Robinson of British politics. Just as it required an extraordinary human being to become the first black major leaguer in American baseball, so Mrs. Thatcher had to have outstanding personal qualities to work her own precedent‐setting political miracle. She is a grocer’s daughter, whose scholastic ability brought her to Oxford for training as a research chemist. After marriage she metamorphosed into a tax lawyer, won a seat in Parliament, and moved up to become a national political figure, reaching the top rung on the basis of character, intelligence and integrity.
“Reports from London indicate that the Labor party is delighted at Mrs. Thatcher’s victory, with some Laborites calculating that her right‐wing views— even within the spectrum of her party—insure a decade or more of electoral dominance for Labor. But Mrs. Thatcher’s opponents in the Conservative party, it is now evident, underestimated her appeal and her capacity for growth and change. It may develop that her detractors on the left will prove equally mistaken.”
Queen Elizabeth asked for a $1 million increase in her living allowance because of rising expenses. Her spokesman in the House of Commons, Prime Minister Harold Wilson, called it necessary but drew jeers, hoots and catcalls from leftist members. The increase would amount to some 49 percent of what is already budgeted for the royal household, including cooks’ pay.
The threat of a general strike in Bermuda may force cancellation of a scheduled visit there next week by Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip. The Bermuda Industrial Union said that its 6,250 members would walk off their jobs if a wage dispute between 660 striking transportation and garbage-collection workers were not settled by Friday.
Following a detailed discussion of the Middle East situation with President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, Secretary of State Kissinger said progress had been made in clarifying issues between Israel and Egypt and in pointing out the direction “in which a solution could be found.” Mr. Sadat called their talks “very good.” Soon after arriving in Cairo this morning from detailed talks in Jerusalem with Israeli leaders, Mr. Kissinger drove to Mr. Sadat’s country home for a four‐hour meeting, followed by additional talks tonight. Tomorrow, Mr. Kissinger will fly to Syria and then back to Israel to report his findings. Overall, the comments made by Mr. Kissinger and Mr. Sadat to reporters outside Mr. Sadat’s home along the Nile were optimistic, in line with Mr. Kissinger’s earlier statements that he believed he could work out a further Israeli‐Egyptian accord in Sinai when he returned to the Middle East next month.
Premier Yitzhak Rabin said in Parliament today that Israel would not withdraw from the mountain passes and the Abu Rudeis oilfields in the Sinai. Peninsula until t Egypt renounced any intention of resuming war. Speaking an hour after Secretary of State Kissinger’s departure for Egypt, Mr. Rabin said: “We shall not give up the passes as an effective defense line nor give up the oilfields at Abu Rudeis as an economic factor of the first order as long as Egypt does not withdraw from the war. Without an end to the state of war, the passes and the oilfields will remain in Israeli hands.” The right‐wing Opposition immediately seized on Mr. Rabin’s remark as a significant new hardening of Israel’s basic negotiating position. But Dan Patir, the Premier’s spokesman, disputed this interpretation and insisted that the remarks represented nothing more than a clarification of existing policy.
Palestinian guerrillas agreed at the meeting of the Arab Defense Council in Cairo last week to suspend operations against Israel from southern Lebanon, it was reported in Beirut today.
A Kuwaiti firm withdrew from two international lending syndicates led by Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. of New York because underwriters on the Arab boycott list will participate in the marketing. A spokesman in Kuwait said it could not co-manage an issue involving a contract with a blacklisted firm. He was referring to Lazard Freres, which was blacklisted for financial support of Israel.
Secretary of Defense James R. Schlesinger said today “there is no impropriety involved” in a Government contract with the Vinnell Corporation to provide training to internal security forces in Saudi Arabia. Mr. Schlesinger told reporters that the contract was “in fulfillment of the basic objectives of U.S. foreign policy to improve relations with nations of the Middle East and see that their security is enhanced.”
The flow of surplus oil revenues from Arab nations and other oil producers into the United States was substantially larger in 1974 than government figures indicate, according to a number of bankers, brokers and economists. Government analysts and economists welcome the inflow because it provides capital for government use, eases pressures in the market for Treasury securities, and helps the balance of payments. The so-called petrodollars also provide capital for American businesses but are not expected to be used for corporate control.
Indira Gandhi is buoyant about the future of India’s democracy and angrily dismisses foreign and domestic criticism that the nation is floundering.
A nobleman who opposed military dictatorship in Thailand for three decades, Seni Pramoj, was elected prime minister in a parliamentary vote reaffirming the ascendancy of civilians over the military in Thai politics. He received 133 votes to 52 for Chatchai Choonhavan, a diplomat and ex-general backed by the military. Seni was empowered to try to form a coalition government from the 22 parties that won seats in a January 26 national election.
President Park Chung Hee won a substantial vote of confidence in a national referendum. Voters in South Korea overwhelmingly reaffirmed the 1972 “Yushin Constitution”, with 80% of the eligible voters casting ballots. Because that constitution had given the President of the Fourth Republic greater power, the vote was seen as a referendum on the popularity of President Park Chung Hee.
The Soviet Union’s negotiator in the long-standing border dispute with China has flown to Peking, apparently to resume the border talks after an absence of six months.
A drastic downturn in the Canadian economy has touched off demands in Parliament that Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s government resort to huge spending programs as a stimulant.
The continuing fighting in the northern province of Eritrea, now in its 12th day, has begun to be regarded by some foreign diplomats and a number of prominent Ethiopians as a war for Ethiopia’s survival as a nation.
Most of the police rebels blamed for the assassination of the Malagasy head of state surrendered tonight at their camp outside the capital, informed sources said. A military camp seized by rebels who were blamed for the assassination of President Richard Ratsimandrava of the Malagasy Republic was stormed by government troops. as a 19-member military junta took over control of the island nation off the African coast. Unofficial reports said that about 400 rebels were forced to surrender although some escaped. Radio Madagascar said the assassination was committed by mutinous police who tried to seize power last December.
Prime Minister Ian Smith held new talks in Salisbury with Rhodesia’s black African leaders. Smith and the leaders of the African National Council met — reportedly on details of holding a proposed constitutional conference — for only 45 minutes. A first round of talks a week ago lasted for more than two hours. Sources said brevity of the meeting should not be interpreted to mean the talks were stalled. Neither side would say what happened at the meeting.
The Senate Finance Committee approved by 12 to 2 the House-passed measure that would bar President Ford for 90 days from raising import fees on oil. It was another step toward a showdown with Mr. Ford over how to reduce dependence on imported oil. The White House reaction was to renew the charge that Congress is wasting time when it ought to be working on the Ford program. Senate Democrats are drafting a measure to increase energy prices much more slowly than the Ford plan.
President Ford has been getting a mixed reception in his travels to win support for his economic and energy policies. There are high marks for his efforts and considerable support for cutting income taxes to stimulate the economy, but almost universal coolness to his energy conservation plan. He shows no sign of changing strategy or policy and is planning to step up his campaign.
President Ford’s release of $6-billion in impounded construction funds over the last two weeks and a visit today by the Secretary of Labor-designate have produced some signs of optimism among leaders of the building trades unions.
The $2-billion in highway funds released by President Ford will be used mainly to update and renew existing road systems and not for new construction, Federal Highway Administrator Norbert T. Tiemann said today.
The Interior Department withdrew its invitation to oil companies to designate mid-Atlantic Coast drilling sites they might want to bid on. This followed the threat of a lawsuit by Governor Byrne of New Jersey over alleged violation of a prior agreement to defer the tract nominations pending a Supreme Court ruling in a boundary dispute between federal and state governments. Ogden Reid, newly named New York Commissioner of Environmental Conservation, said that the state was ready to join New Jersey in the lawsuit against the department.
The nation’s growing unemployment rate has produced a new and controversial social-welfare issue: whether the Federal Government should provide health insurance coverage for people who lose their jobs and also their medical insurance.
Sometime this week Defense Secretary James R. Schlesinger will send to Congress a letter seeking to justify the construction of a squadron of airborne radar command posts at a cost of about $4‐billion. If all goes according to plan, the letter will be followed by an urgent private briefing at the Pentagon for Senator Howard W. Cannon, Democrat of Nevada, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air Power who is also a major general in the United States Air Force Reserve. If, under the plan, Senator Cannon consents, the Defense Department would quickly enter into a contract with the Boeing Company to build for the Air Force the first six of the planned 31 airborne warning and control system planes, known AWACS.
The Army has won a court battle to keep treasure seekers from entering the White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico to search for a legendary $225 billion in buried gold. A federal judge ruled that the state could not force the Army to grant access to the range to persons seeking the bullion supposedly buried on Victorio Peak. The Army says no such treasure exists and has denied access to these wishing to search for it. The ruling came in a suit filed last year seeking permission for a group led by Boston attorney F. Lee Bailey to enter the area.
Efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to combat Arab guerrilla terrorism — the efforts allegedly included a burglary of the Arab Information Center in Dallas by Government agents — are likely to come under the scrutiny of a new Senate committee, according to Senate sources.
White House officials have asked the Veterans Administration to draw up legislation to end education benefits for future veterans. Odell W. Vaughn, deputy VA administrator, said action was being sought in connection with a VA request that President Ford declare an end to the Vietnam wartime period. That would immediately cut off such benefits as pensions and burial allowances, for which only wartime veterans are eligible. Limiting educational benefits for peacetime veterans would be similar to action taken after World War II and the Korean war. A cutoff would not affect anyone now eligible.
Clarence M. Kelley, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said today that the FBI would not reopen the investigation into the assassination of President Kennedy. His comment, made after a news conference during his visit here for a speech, was quoted in The Dallas Times Herald. Mr. Kelley was also quoted as saying that the FBI believed that E. Howard Hunt Jr., a convicted Watergate conspirator, was not the man shown in a photograph taken in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, when the President was assassinated. The photograph was among evidence turned over to the authorities recently by a group headed by Dick Gregory, the comedian and Civil Rights activist. The group accused the Central Intelligence Agency of being involved in the assassination and cited the photograph, which it said was of Mr. Hunt, as evidence.
Folk singer Chad Mitchell was sentenced to five years in prison by a federal judge in San Antonio for conspiracy and possession of 400 pounds of marijuana. U.S. District Judge Adrian Spears handed down the maximum prison term for the offense despite pleas for mercy from Mitchell, 38, of New York, and his attorney. Mitchell, founder of the Chad Mitchell Trio which toured South America as part of President John F. Kennedy’s cultural exchange program in the 1960s, told the judge he had “never been involved in anything” up to that time.
Actress Ann Sothern has filed a negligence suit against the Thunderbird Motor Hotel in Jacksonville, Florida, claiming a heavy pole fell and hit her during a 1973 performance at the hotel. thus ending her acting career. The suit did not specify the damages sought. It named as defendants the Thundereal Corp. and Master-Host Thunderbird, Inc., motel owners who filed for bankruptcy in December, 1974. Miss Sothern said she had not been able to perform since she was injured August 15, 1973, when a post used to hold up scenery in the play. “Everybody Loves Opal,” fell and hit her in the back. She said she did not realize the extent of her injuries until later.
Deficits in Social Security funds are twice as large as previously predicted, the Senate Finance Committee reported. The deficiency over the next 75 years will be 6% instead of the 3% estimated last year by the Social Security Board of Trustees, the report said. An advisory panel named by the committee cited two reasons for estimating a larger deficit: a higher anticipated rate of inflation and a less rapid increase in birth rates.
Lawyers for former California Lieutenant Governor Ed Reinecke have asked the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington to overturn his perjury conviction. Reinecke was given a suspended 18-month sentence last year for lying to the Senate Judiciary Committee about an offer from International Telephone & Telegraph Corp. to finance the Republican National Convention in San Diego in 1972. Reinecke had testified that he did not inform then-Attorney General John N. Mitchell of the ITT offer until after settlement of an antitrust case against the firm.
Arrest warrants were issued in Pierre, South Dakota for the president and three employees of financially ailing American Beef Packers, Inc., one of the nation’s leading meat packing companies, according to state Attorney General William Janklow. He said he issued the warrants charging ABP president Frank R. West and the employees with obtaining property under false pretenses, issuing no-account checks, issuing insufficient funds checks and grand larceny. Meanwhile, at a hearing in Omaha where American Beef has filed for financial reorganization, a creditors’ committee was selected to make an assessment of the company, which reported sales of $890 million for fiscal 1975
For the second time, Judge Samuel A. Larner of New Jersey Superior Court has rejected an appeal by Rubin (Hurricane) Carter and a co-defendant for a new murder trial based on defense contentions of newly uncovered evidence.
Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall of the Supreme Court entered Bethesda Naval Hospital with a respiratory infection Tuesday night and was said to be in satisfactory condition.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 715.03 (+7.53, +1.06%)
Born:
Regla Torres, Cuban women’s volleyball player (Olympic gold medalist, 1992, 1996, 2000; designated “Best Player of the 20th Century” by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball); in Havana, Cuba.
Scot Pollard, NBA center (Detroit Pistons, Sacramento Kings, Indiana Pacers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Boston Celtics), in Murray, Utah.
Seth Payne, NFL defensive tackle and nose tackle (Jacksonville Jaguars, Houston Texans), in Clifton Springs, New York.
Matt Finkes, NFL defensive end (New York Jets), in Piqua, Ohio.
Cliff Bleszinski, American video game designer (“Gears of War”), in Boston, Massachusetts.
Died:
Carl Lutz, 79, Swiss envoy to Hungary and humanitarian who was credited with helping 62,000 Hungarian Jews to emigrate during the Holocaust.
Sir Franklin Gimson, 84, British colonial administrator and former Governor of Hong Kong (1945) and Governor of Singapore (1946–52).
André Beaufre, 73, French general.
Dagmar Godowsky, 77, American silent film star from 1919 to 1926;
History Diaries 