As the Vietnamese Communists’ attacks continued to gather momentum, street fighting was still reported from the important Central Highlands capital of Buôn Ma Thuột (Ban Me Thuot), and the goyernment reported its forces were retreating from a key district capital 25 miles northeast of the town. The Saigon command announced this morning that government troops had been forced to pull out of the key Highlands district town of Buôn Hồ, 25 miles northeast of Buôn Ma Thuột. It was from Buôn Hồ that the government had been reinforcing Buôn Ma Thuột — flying rangers and infantrymen down from northern sections of the Highlands in big helicopters. The retreat from Buôn Hồ appeared to further weaken the defenses of Buôn Ma Thuột. The government was reported to have moved the bulk of the 2,000‐man 45th Regiment of the 23d Division from the Pleiku area to Buôn Ma Thuột.
As a result of these troop movements, the Saigon command said this morning that “the situation in Buôn Ma Thuột continues to improve.” But other sources said that government troops were fighting an uphill battle to enlarge a perimeter at the northeastern edge of the town. “It looks as if the other side has been moving some stuff in, too,” this informant added, alluding to movements of the North Vietnamese 320th Division, which is positioned in Darlac Province. According to some informants, the North Vietnamese relied most heavily on a battalion of demolition troops supported by tanks in their initial assaults on Buôn Ma Thuột and have held back from committing large numbers of troops, letting the government forces make the next move.
At this point, analysts say, it remains uncertain whether the North Vietnamese want to take and hold Buôn Ma Thuột, drawing government troops into a heavy battle or draw soldiers away from other fronts, such as the now weakened Pleiku region. But a bigger battle seemed to be shaping up as a large number of government reinforcements moved into the formerly placid Highlands city. An American Embassy spokesman in Saigon said that a plane that had been circling over Buôn Ma Thuột had lost radio contact with the town’s American province representative, six American missionaries, two of their children, a Filipino who has been working with refugees, his wife and daughter and an Australian. But the spokesman said that the group’s hideout in the city appeared not to have been hit in the fighting and that the battery on their transmiter‐receiver was known to have been running low.
With the battle for Buôn Ma Thuột in its fourth night, the Saigon command announced the loss of Trí Tám, a district town in rubber plantation country 40 miles northwest of the capital. The command said that a tank‐led force overran Trí Tám at 2 P.M. yesterday after three days of clashes between Communist ground troops and Government regional forces. The command said that nine of the enemy’s tanks were destroyed in the fighting. In isolated Quảng Đức Province, which lies southwest of Buôn Ma Thuột and northeast of Phước Long Province, which was captured in January, Saigon reported a tank‐led assault on the hilltop town of Kiến Đức. In the fighting across the country, Buôn Hồ was the sixth district town reported lost in five days. The command also reported that the Communists had captured another district town in rubber plantation country 90 miles north northwest of Saigon yesterday. The Saigon command yesterday reported extremely heavy fighting across the country, with the heaviest in the highlands and in the northernmost provinces of Quảng Trị and Thừa Thiên.
While the fighting spread, an Air Vietnam commercial airliner flying from Vientiane, the Laotian capital, was reported to have crashed yesterday — possibly after being hit by North Vietnamese antiaircraft fire—15 miles southwest of Pleiku City. Among the 26 persons on board the plane were the Australian chargé d’affaires in Hanoi and three men identified as Americans by the United States Embassy here. “What we know is the Air Vietnam plane blew up in midair,” said Lieutenant Colonel Lê Trung Hiền, the Saigon command spokesman. “It is believed that the plane was hit by enemy anti‐aircraft fire over the Thành An area, which is known to be an ack‐ack area.” Air Vietnam officials said that the cause of the crash was being investigated, but one well‐placed informant in the Civil Aeronautics Administration said that the DC‐4 appeared to have been shot down. The crash site appeared to be on the edge of government‐held territory. After the reported crash of the airliner, the government this morning canceled a planned press trip to Pleiku, whose airport and military headquarters have been regularly struck by rockets. In the last few days, soldiers are reported to have forcibly put their relatives and children on Air Vietnam flights out of the city, displacing scheduled passengers.
If the Air Vietnam plane was indeed shot down, it was the second plane the company has lost to hostile fire in the last year. Last year, a Piper Cub belonging to Air Vietnam was downed by a missile over Hậu Nghĩa Province, west of Saigon, when, short of gas, it ventured over an unsafe corridor. Among the 26 passengers listed on the Air Vietnam manifest for the flight from Vientiane yesterday was Graham Lewis, the Australian chargé, d’affaires in Hanoi, and the highest ranking official of the mission there. The Australian Embassy here said that Mr. Lewis had flown to Vientiane from Hanoi and was coming to Saigon before going on leave. The American Embassy said that three of the passengers on the flight were believed to be Americans. Their names, as listed on the manifest, were: Edward Dolan, R. Seidl and G. Lewis. Mr. Lewis was thought to have worked for the United States Government in Laos.
The Democratic caucus of the House of Representatives voted 189 to 49 against any more military aid to Cambodia in the fiscal year ending June 30. Although a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee later voted 4 to 3 for a compromise plan to give some aid on a month-to-month basis contingent upon steps to end the Cambodian conflict by that date, Speaker Carl Albert said he believed the House would defeat any additional aid. Representative Philip Burton of California, chairman of the caucus, said the vote “clearly spells the end to any further military aid for Cambodia and South Vietnam for the balance of the fiscal year.” The Administration had requested $222‐million for Cambodia in addition to $275‐million already approved by Congress and $300‐million for South Vietnam in addition to $700‐million already approved.
For the moment, the struggle concentrates on the Cambodian aid. The White House has been saying, as it did again today, that the Lon Nol Government will fall unless the supply of ammunition continues. In view of Congressional opposition to the full aid request, the Administration has been searching for a compromise, such as the one approved today by the House subcommittee or the version approved yesterday by a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee. The Senate version would permit the Pentagon simply to transfer $125‐million in existing ammunition stocks to Cambodia. The principal purpose of the caucus, which was called largely at the initiative of freshmen members, was to block this movement toward a compromise by placing the Democratic majority on record as opposed to any additional aid.
Representative Bob Carr, who, as a 31‐year‐old newcomer from Michigan, sponsored the resolution approved by the caucus, said the effect of the vote was to “shore up a position that appeared to be faltering.” The Carr resolution expressed the sense of the Democratic caucus as being “firmly opposed to the approval of any further military assistance to South Vietnam or to Cambodia in fiscal year 1975.” An identical resolution is to be presented to the Senate’s Democratic caucus tomorrow by Senator James Abourezk of South Dakota. While the Senate is believed to be more evenly divided than the House on the issue, the Democratic leader, Mike Mansfield of Montana, does not expect the Senate to approve additional aid. While the action of the House caucus did not bind members, it provided a test of sentiment that the Administration may find difficult to reverse. With 189 Democrats now on record as opposed to aid, only 28 additional votes are needed for a majority.
Mr. Burton predicted that up to 20 votes would be picked up among the 47 Democrats who did not participate in the caucus. Based on past voting patterns, about 30 Republicans could be expected to vote against further aid. The caucus action appeared to have no impact on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which, in the past, has supported the Administration’s foreign policy. Thomas E. Morgan of Pennsylvania, chairman of the committee, dismissed the caucus action as an attempt by members to accommodate Common Cause, which described itself as a citizens’ lobby. The full House Committee will meet tomorrow to consider the compromise narrowly approved by the subcommittee after a switch by Pierre S. duPont, Republican of Delaware, who had voted against military aid yesterday. On the basis of the votes of committee members in caucus, it appeared that the committee would approve the compromise by a small margin. The subcommittee proposal would provide monthly installments of $45‐million, including $27.5‐million in military aid and $17.5‐million in economic aid. Each installment would be contingent on monthly certification by the President that the United States and the Phnom Penh Government were taking specific steps to end the conflict by June 30, and that the United States had requested Secretary General Waldheim of the United Nations to assist in ending the war.
Yesterday the subcommittee divided 3 to 3 on the issue. Mr. du Pont switched his position today when a provision was inserted that it would be United States policy to achieve an end to the conflict by June 30 and that all military assistance would be ended by then. Voting for the compromise, along with Mr. du Pont, were Lee H. Hamilton, Democrat of Indiana, the subcommittee chairman; Larry Winn Jr., Republican of Kansas, and L. H. Fountain, Democrat of North Carolina. Opposed were Michael J. Harrington, Democrat of Massachusetts; Don Bonker, Democrat of Washington, and Gus Yatron, Democrat of Pennsylvania, who did not vote yesterday. In the Senate, the Foreign Relations Committee will meet Monday to consider a compromise adopted yesterday by a subcommittee by a vote of 4 to 3. The 17‐man committee was expected to approve the proposal, which would permit the Pentagon to transfer $125‐million in existing stockpiles without any new appropriation. At a breakfast meeting with a group of reporters, Senator Henry M. Jackson, Democrat of Washington, proposed that President Ford send Senator Mansfield to Peking to open discussions with Prince Norodom Sihanouk, nominal leader of the Cambodian insurgents.
Senator Mansfield, who is a supporter of Prince Sihanouk, said that he “would be glad to do anything to bring an end to the agony in Cambodia,” but that, under the Constitution, it was for the President to decide whether to send a spokesman. The White House reacted coolly to the suggestion. John W. Hushen, deputy press secretary, said the “problem in Cambodia is not a lack of channels of communications.” Ron Nessen, the press secretary, quoted President Ford as having told a Cabinet meeting that there is no lack of initiatives on negotiations but that “there can be no negotiations if the other side thinks it can win it all militarily rather than sharing power.”
Senator Jacob K. Javits, Republican of New York, told his staff yesterday to prepare a press release announcing his opposition to all further military aid to Cambodia. He then instructed them not to release the statement until he returned froth a meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee dealing with the aid issue. “I might change my mind,” he said. He went to the meeting, listened awhile, and then voted for aid. He cast the deciding vote in a 4‐to‐3 majority for an Administrationsponsored compromise to provide Cambodia with $125‐million in military aid. According to an account given by several present at the meeting and confirmed by Mr. Javits today, he said to his colleagues: “I don’t want to be the one who gave Cambodia the last push to a bloodbath.”
By all acounts, it is this argument alone — the specter of a bloodbath in Phnom Penh after an imminent Communist victory — that the Administration hopes will provide the vote for extra aid to Cambodia. “Falling dominoes, loss of American credibility —these arguments haven’t meant very much for a long time,” a Senate aide explained, “When you get right down to it, we’ve been fighting this war because no one wants to take responsibility for a prospective bloodbath.” Yesterday’s meeting of the Senate subcommittee to act on the Administration’s request for $222‐million in supplemental military aid for the Phnom Penh Government and other aid proposals centered almost exclusively on the bloodbath argument, sources present said.
The Cambodian insurgents, who in 1970 were a collection of disparate dissidents, now have a fairly unified, centrally directed government organization, with the Cambodian Communist party apparently the dominant force. Outsiders in Phnom Penh do not know the order of leadership or the influence of the various factions that include nationalists, supporters of the exiled Prince Norodom Sihanouk and Hanoi-oriented Communists. The view of most non-Cambodian observers in the capital is that an insurgent takeover is certain. Speculation centers on what the other side will do if it takes over in Phnom Penh and exactly who its top leaders are.
The Ford Administration says the insurgents are cruel fanatics who will massacre their opponents if they take power. The insurgents say there will be no bloodbath, promising, that only seven “traitors,” led by Marshal Lon Nol, will be executed and that everyone else who switches to the insurgent side will be pardoned. In any case most non‐Cambodian observers — foreign diplomats and military experts — view the bloodbath debate as essentially irrelevant because they believe that an insurgent take‐over is certain and that the wisest and most realistic approach would be to bend all efforts to make it as orderly and humane as possible. In a way the debate typifies how little is known about the Khmer Rouge — literally, Cambodian Red — insurgents five years after they actively began building their military and political structure. Their origins go much further back than that — far into the regime of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, who once denounced them vigorously.
When Prince Sihanouk was overthrown in March, 1970, by Marshal Lon Nol and his followers, the original Khmer Rouge was a band of no more than 3,000 dissident leftists who bore more resemblance to roadside bandits than to an insurgent army. Now, after five years of war and recruiting and indoctrination—and tutelage by the North Vietnamese — the Insurgents have perhaps 60,000 men under arms. The original Khmer Rouge, which fought against Prince Sihanouk and which was influenced by the French Communist party and had Soviet sympathies, was only one of many groups, that participated in the fight against the Phnom Penh Government after the Prince was ousted. They were joined by backers of Sihanouk, who were seen as nationalists and possibly autt‐Communists and who had refused to participate in the Lon Nol Government, and by French educated intellectuals such as Khieu Samphan, now believed to be the insurgents’ leader, who served Sihanouk and then went into the jungle to join the Communists in the nineteen‐sixties to fight against feudal privileges and social inequities. Also joining in was a group, of possibly 6,000 Cambodians who left in 1954 with the Viet Minh after the Geneva accords, were trained in Hanoi and returned here five years ago to assume leaderghip roles.
All have come together in a strange marriage, at least temporarily bound by the common goal of toppling the corrupt and ineffectual Lon Nol Government. They are generally known as the Khmer Rouge, but officially they are the National United Front of Cambodia, whose acronym, from the name in French, is FUNK. Some foreign analysts believe the insurgency has already evolved into a Communist rather than a nationalist movement, with the Hanoi group and the Khmer Communist party increasingly dominant. Other observers say that the Hanoi-trained group is influenced in turn by the nationalists and that a struggle is in process that could produce a more flexible nationalist socialism or Communism for Cambodia. The insurgents’ hierarchy has not yet come into clear focus. The most widely known figure, internationally, is Prince Sihanouk, who has lived in exile in Peking since 1970 as the nominal and ceremonial head of the insurgent government. His actual power is clearly limited; the government moved from Peking to the jungles of Cambodia late in 1973, and he sometimes acknowledges that his relations with the real insurgent leaders are poor.
Following Tuesday’s confused events characterized by Portuguese government officials as a reactionary military coup attempt, left-wing military rule tightened. A high military Council of the Revolution was formed of mainly leftist officers. Conservative officers allegedly implicated in the plotting were purged. At an all‐night meeting of the 200‐member Assembly of the Armed Forces Movement — a body where centrist officers had been strongly represented — all pretense at negotiation was dropped and it was decided to go forward with an idea that had previously been discarded because it seemed too extreme and smacked of Peru and other leftist regimes — the establishment of the ruling Council of the Revolution. Through the Minister or information, Navy Commander Jorge Correia Jesuino, the government gave assurances that elections for a constituent assembly would be held; as scheduled, on April 12 and the election campaign would open March 20. But with the military dominant, centrist and conservative forces disappearing, and anarchic revolutionary fervor sweeping the country, there were doubts that Portugal could carry out meaningful elections.
General António de Spínola, the former president who fled Portugal, remained a well‐guarded, wellattended and embarrassing guest today at a Spanish air base near the Portuguese border. Spanish authorities made it clear in statements issued within hours of his arrival that his stay in this country was temporary and that the Franco Government was anxious to avoid any tension with Portugal that might arise from the general’s prolonged presence in this country.
The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution calling on Greek and Turkish Cypriots to resume negotiations for a political settlement, this time under the personal auspices of Secretary General Waldheim. Both sides indicated privately that talks could probably begin here in a week or two, moving elsewhere later. The resolution was approved by the Council’s 15 members without a vote and was the outcome of three weeks of public debate and intensive private negotiation. Both the Greek and Turkish Cypriote representatives assured the Security Council that they were prepared to cooperate with Mr. Waldheim, although they made it clear they were not entirely satisfied with the compromise that had been reached. Glafkos Clerides, the representative of President Makarios’ Government, which brought the issue to the Security Council, told its members that, in a desire to offend no one, the Security Council might have “compromised” the existence of Cyprus and added: “We hope we are proved wrong.” Vedate A. Celik, the. Turkish Cypriot representative, declared: “We are ready and willing to continue negotiations with the Greek Cypriots.”
Four alleged members of the Baader-Meinhof terrorist group went on trial in Hamburg. Sigurd Debus, Wolfgang Stahl, Karl-Heinz Ludwig and Gerd Wieland are charged with bank robbery, membership in a criminal group and contravention of West German firearms and explosives laws. The court rejected a defense plea that presiding Judge Gert Ziegler, victim of a bomb attack last year, be replaced, observing that the attack on his house was not perpetrated by the defendants.
Two Japanese, apprehended while taking photos and making detailed sketches of an embassy building in Stockholm, were expelled from Sweden and put on a plane to Japan, according to Swedish police. A police communique said the two were preparing some kind of terrorist act but that police intervened too soon for it to be proved. Tokyo police identified fingerprints of one of them as belonging to Jun Nishikawa, 24, accused of taking part in a raid on the French Embassy at The Hague in September.
A new underground journal of politics, economics and literature is circulating among Soviet intellectuals. The journal, titled 20th Century, is a successor to a private typewritten publication distributed for six years until late 1970. The first issue of the new publication identifies the editor as Roy A. Medvedev, the dissident Marxist historian. Mr. Medvedev notes in the new journal that it will publish the works of non‐Marxists and of writers from other Communist countries. He seems to be risking a confrontation with the Soviet authorities, who seek to maintain tight control on publications.
Beginning the second phase of his latest diplomatic shuttle, Secretary of State Kissinger asserted today that both Israel and Egypt wanted a new Sinai agreement but remained at odds over key issues. On the way to this resort town on the Upper Nile, Mr. Kissinger told newsmen on his Air Force jet that after completing initial talks in Egypt and Israel he believed not only that there was a desire for an accord but also that “both sides are working seriously on the problem.” “Whether it is possible to match the requirements of the two sides, even though they want an agreement — that remains to be seen,” he said. Mr. Kissinger, who received some precise ideas from President Anwar el‐Sadat of Egypt Saturday at the start of his shuttle, had hoped to bring firm Israeli counterproposals to Mr. Sadat today. For what were described as political reasons, Premier Yitzhak Rabin of Israel decided not to seek authorization for new proposals at his special Cabinet meeting yesterday, and no fresh ones are due until the Cabinet meets Sunday. The Israelis have treated Mr. Sadat’s ideas coolly. It was understood that Mr. Rabin did not want to appear too eager to respond.
Israel, reacting to measures voted against her by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, has decided not to permit another inspection of controversial excavations in Jerusalem by an agency archeologist. The decision suggests that Israel sees no way for the moment of reversing or softening the resolutions offered to the agency’s general conference last fall by a coalition of Arab and Communist members, with third world support. The agency’s action led to an outcry among intellectuals in the West and prompted Congress to withhold the United States contributions to the agency, amounting to 25 percent of its budget. According to Israeli officials, the decision was not intended as a rebuke to Prof. Raymond Lemaire, a Belgian archeologist who made four earlier inspections of the Jerusalem diggings for the agency.
The 15,999-ton tanker July Star broke in two and sank in the Mediterranean off the coast of Algiers, Lloyd’s officials reported in London. A spokesman said there was no sign of the crew of 35. The stern part of the Singapore-registered tanker was reported still afloat, but the bow had sunk.
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat appointed a national press council, with powers to approve the publication of new newspapers. Under a decree appearing in all Cairo newspapers, the council will draw up what was described as a code of ethics to ensure freedom of the press, plan for press expansion and arbitrate disputes.
Dutch Foreign Minister Max van der Stoel said he is calling off an official visit to Saudi Arabia because the Saudi government refused an entry visa to a Dutch Jewish journalist based in Israel. The announcement came after press reports that Jaap Ivan Wesel, a correspondent in Israel for several Dutch news organizations, was refused permission to accompany Van der Stoel to Saudi Arabia on a visit originally scheduled for March 22-25.
The Dubai Islamic Bank was established in the United Arab Emirates, becoming the first private institution to operate under the principles of Islamic banking. With the charging of interest on a loan prohibited by Islamic law, the banks instead make an investment in the item upon which the loan is planned, without a fixed interest rate. Similar Islamic banks were established in 1977 in Kuwait, Egypt and the Sudan. (See also for February 9, 1972, Cairo meeting to fashion the Islamic banking system).
Supplies of ammunition and other military material for Kurdish rebels in Iraq are becoming critically short now that the Iranian Government has ended its support to their cause, highly placed sympathizers with the rebellion reported here today. As a large‐scale Iraqi ostensive against the rebels went into its sixth day, the informants said that the rebels had shot down a second Iraqi fighter‐bomber and an Iraqi helicopter and had destroyed nine Iraqi tanks. Iraq is pressing the attacks near Ruwandiz and on “practically all fronts” in the Kurdish enclave in northeastern Iraq, one well informed source reported. “The question of ammunition and things like that is getting critical,” he said bitterly. “The Iraqi Government is trying to take advantage of the termination of Iranian support to push through to the Iranian border as soon as they can.”
Thailand’s National Assembly today elected Kukrit Pramoj as premier to succeed his brother Seni. Mr. Kukrit Pramoj, a journalist, former assembly speaker and veteran public figure, won 135 votes of 253 members present. He defeated a last‐minute candidate, the Socialist party leader Col. Somkid Srisangkom. The previous Government was defeated in a vote of confidence in the assembly last week after the Premier had been in office only four days. Mr. Kukrit Pramoj, leader of the Social Action party and a compromise choice backed by a group of conservative parties, received the bare absolute majority required in the 269‐member assembly.
A growing revolt by newsmen demanding the right to publish news that officials consider critical of the government spread today as South Korea’s largest national daily was taken over by more than 100 of its employes. Occupying the editorial and printing facilities of the daily Dong‐A Ilbo, the newsmen accused the government of trying to stifle freedom of the press by influencing their publiher to order a series of dismissals. They demanded that Kim Sang Man, publisher of Dong‐A Ilbo, take a tougher stand toward the Government of President Park Chung Hee and reinstate the 20 journalists dismissed earlier in the week for announced reasons of economy and discipline. Mr. Kim countered tonight by ordering the dismissal of 17 more newsmen for challenging his prerogatives.
Six persons, including two policemen, have become the latest victims of the wave of politically motivated violence in Argentina that has claimed 67 lives this year. The two policemen were shot to death when left-wing guerrillas attacked a police control post on an avenue separating the capital from the surrounding Buenos Aires province. Three youths were found shot to death in Buenos Aires and a guerrilla was killed in a raid on a police station in Rosario.
Riot policemen chased student demonstrators through the deserted city of Nairobi, Kenya today as fears of violence grew in the the slaying of an opponent of the government, J. M. Kariuki. Student supporters of Kariuki ignored Kenya President Jomo Kenyatta’s appeal for calm and demonstrated in the streets of Nairobi, demanding the body of the slain politician, the most popular in the nation. Riot police patrolled the streets and police cars ringed the city morgue where Kariuki’s body lay. It was identified Tuesday by one of Kariuki’s wives after it had been in the morgue for about a week. Hundreds of banks, schools, offices and shops were shut. Law courts closed after a bomb hoax, one of many false alarms following a recent terrorist explosion that killed 27 in a bus. Dozens of frightened Kenyans were reported fleeing past police roadblocks around the capital to seek safety in the country. Mr. Kariuki had been missing since March 2. Many Kenyans attributed his death to enemies within his own Kikuyu tribe, Kenya’s dominant political force, who were angered by his calls for social reform.
The House of Representatives passed by a 313 to 113 vote a $5.9 billion appropriations bill to create 900,000 public service jobs and stimulate the economy. Republicans called it a “boondoggle” that would only worsen the nation’s economic ills. There were strong hints that President Ford would veto the measure if it is passed in the Senate. Democrats argued that the threat of a depression was hanging over the country and that Congress had to act quickly to avert it by passing this sort of legislation. During the four hours of floor action in the House, which was marked by often heated debate, the Republicans charged that the measure’s intent was merely “to throw large chunks of money at the recession in hopes that it would go away,” as it was put by Representative Bill Frenzel, Republican of Minnesota.
President Ford’s chief economic adviser, Alan Greenspan, said today that the nation was “on schedule” toward a recovery in the second half of this year and said that there was now a danger of overstimulation of the economy by Congress. Mr. Greenspan, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, and James T. Lynn, director of the Office of Management and Budget, both said in testimony before the Senate Budget Committee that increased spending and bigger tax cuts being considered by Congress to fight the recession could set the inflationary spiral off again. But Senator Edmund S. Muskie, Democrat of Maine, chairman of the committee, along with several other Senators said that the Administration ought to worry about the dangers of doing too little to stimulate the economy and reduce unemployment. And at another Senate hearing this morning, George Meany, president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, urged that Congress cut taxes by at least $30‐billion to stimulate the economy and create jobs.
The seventh and last “draft lottery”, for conscription of 18-year-old American men into military service. Men born on December 8, 1956, would have been drafted first, in the event of a national emergency, followed by those born June 19 and March 22, while a February 12 birthday was drawn 366th and last. By 1975, the U.S. armed services were recruiting volunteers only. The draft registration requirement was suspended 20 days later, on April 1, and processing of all registrations would end on January 27, 1976.
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Activities voted unanimously today to ask President Ford for the Central Intelligence Agency’s written report on its domestic activities. The vote, which had been expected, concerned a report Mr. Ford received while on a Colorado skiing vacation late last year from William E. Colby, the Director of Central Intelligence. The report has thus far been furnished by the President only to the commission on the C.I.A:’s domestic intelligence activities headed by Vice President Rockefeller, and not to any Congressional bodies. Senator Frank Church, Democrate of Idaho, the chairman of the select committee, said, following a two‐hour closed session in which the vote was taken, that a letter would be sent to the White House today containing a formal request for “the document that Mr. Colby placed in the President’s hands.” The “Vail‐Report,” as it has become known after the ski resort where Mr. Ford and Mr. Colby met, is believed to be about 50 pages in length and to concern itself with the agency’s domestic activities, some of which Mr. Colby has termed of “questionable” legality.
Central Intelligence Agency employes have attended training sessions conducted by the District of Columbia Police Department for the last several years, the city’s police chief said today.
The Senate passed overwhelmingly today virtually the same bill to curb the worst environmental abuses of strip mining that President Ford vetoed last December. The President had said the bill was a threat to his plans for doubled national coal production. With only a handful of Senators, all conservatives, voting “no,” the Federal strip mine measure was cleared, 84 to 13. The “yea” tally was 18 votes greater than the two‐thirds majority required to override another veto, should it come. Congress could not attempt a challenge of Mr. Ford’s veto of last December 30 because it had adjourned by the time he acted. The strip mine bill would impose Federal environmental standards — over spotty and generally weaker regulation by the states — that would require the reclamation of millions of acres scarred by surface mining. The Federal standards would require the regrading of strip‐mined land to approximate the original contour and the re‐establishment of vegetation before performance bonds posted by mine operators could be returned.
Legislation to create a consumer protection agency won committee approval today and was sent to the Senate floor with a chance that it would finally pass after four years of unsuccessful efforts. The legislation would create an agency to intervene in Government decision‐making on behalf of the consumer when such decisions involve price, safety and other issues. The Senate Government Operations Committee approved the bill by a vote of 11 to 1 after deciding to retain a controversial section exempting labor‐management negotiations from the control of the proposed agency. The committee also added a section that would require any agency of Government to issue a “consumer cost impact statement” any time it writes a regulation affecting individual pocketbooks. A filibuster killed a similar proposal in the Senate last year, but the Senate recently eased its requirements for ending filibusters.
Former Secretary of Commerce Maurice Stans, who in 1973 called himself an innocent victim of Watergate, pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington to five misdemeanor charges of violating campaign laws while finance director of the 1972 Nixon re-election campaign. He said later that the violations were not willful.
Midway in his first foray into New York as a Presidential candidate, former Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia said yesterday that. he could appeal to New York Democrats as “a good Southern alternative to Wallace.” The 50‐year‐old Presidential hopeful said that as governor he had worked on a friendly basis with his neighbor, Governor George C. Wallace of Alabama, but added that nevertheless “it is inconceivable that Wallace will be on the ticket.” However, he pleaded that he had to be “evasive” when asked whether he could support such a ticket. Mr. Carter, who stepped down as governor two months ago, is spending all or part of five days in New York meeting largely with potential contributors and Democratic workers.
The South would lose some voting strength and the big states would gain slightly in the proposed delegate apportionment for the 1976 convention made public by the Democratic National Committee. Few states have significant gains or losses from their 1972 delegation size, but California would have the biggest, up eight votes to 279, while New York and Pennsylvania would lose four votes each. The proposal calls for a convention with 3,006 votes, 10 fewer than in 1972. Drafted by Mark Siegel, executive officer of the national committee, it was sent to the executive committee by National Chairman Robert S. Strauss.
A Federal jury reported tonight that it had not reached a verdict in the bribery and conspiracy trial of David Hall, former Oklahoma Governor, and W. W. Taylor, a Dallas mortgage broker. The trial judge ordered the jury to stop its deliberations until tomorrow. The jurors began considering the case shortly before noon today after 11 days of testimony. After beginning deliberations, the jury asked to hear again the testimony of a main prosecution witness, R. Kevin Mooney, as well as about 12 hours of tape recordings. Federal District Judge Fred Daugherty refused the request “at this time,” but said he would reconsider if the seven men and five women were unable to reach a verdict in a reasonable time.
The Food and Drug Administration has been so lax in regulating heart pacemakers that it was unaware of many of the recalls of 23,000 pacemakers in the last three years, the General Accounting Office said. The result, it said, has been that defective pacemakers are not always removed promptly from the market. But acting Director David Link of the FDA Bureau of Medical Devices said the agency lacked the legal authority to require manufacturers to inform it of recalls. FDA records indicate that seven deaths and two injuries were caused by some of the 574 machines recalled in 1972 by General Electric without the FDA’s knowledge at the time.
Patricia Elizabeth Swinton, sought since 1969 for conspiracy in eight bombings in New York City ascribed to radical terrorists, was arrested in Brattleboro, Vermont, where she had been working in a health-food store and living on a communal farm in Guilford. She was taken to Federal Court in Rutland, Vermont, where she agreed to her removal for trial here. Bail was set at $500,000.
Cameron David Bishop, sought on 1969 charges of dynamiting four Colorado power transmission towers which supplied power to defense plants, was arrested in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, outside a bank, police said. Bishop, 32, and a companion, Raymond Levasseur, 28, were in a car that contained a small arsenal of weapons. Police Chief Alfred E. McCall said he believed the men were planning to hold up the bank or an armored car.
Speedometers on some 1976 General Motors cars will be made to register only 85 m.p.h, an action the government has been seeking for eight years. Safety officials hope — but cannot prove — that limiting the highest number to 85 will remove a psychological inducement to speed. Most speedometers have markings in excess of 100 mph and some go as high as 160. GM’s voluntary decision was disclosed in a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The reduction will be made initially for the smaller size cars, GM said.
The bureau of enforcement of the Civil Aeronautics Board accused Braniff International Airways and American Airlines of diverting up to $1.2 million into secret political slush funds. It urged the C.A.B. to consider revoking Braniff’s operating license. The new charges were much more extensive than the illegal contributions to President Nixon’s 1972 campaign fund for which they were fined earlier. Braniff’s issuing more than 3,000 unreported flight tickets and diverting the proceeds was considered more serious than American’s falsification of records, according to the charges.
The National Federation of Priests Councils overwhelmingly opposed today church law that excludes divorced and remarried Roman Catholics from the sacrament of holy communion.
Wholesale neglect and abuse of mental patients at Bronx State Hospital in New York are detailed in a 30-month survey by State Controller Arthur Levitt that assails personnel from the director down to maintenance workers.
In spring training, Boston Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk suffers a broken arm.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 763.69 (-7.20, -0.93%)
Born:
Herman Li, British-Cantonese heavy metal guitarist (DragonForce), in British Hong Kong.
Kéllé Bryan, British pop singer (Eternal – “I Wanna Be The Only One”), in Plaistow, England, United Kingdom.
Kevin Pickford, MLB pitcher (San Diego Padres), in Fresno, California.
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