[“Why the Hell did I want this job, anyway?]
The Việt Cộng strongly implied that the only acceptable head of a Saigon government would be General Dương Văn Minh, a longtime advocate of peace, neutrality and cooperation with the Communists. Without specifically naming General Minh, who is widely known to foreigners as Big Minh, a Việt Cộng broadcast rejected as unacceptable any new government that included President Trần Văn Hương, his Defense Minister, General Trần Văn Đôn, or the Senate president, Trần Văn Lắm. The Việt Cộng also made it clear that General Minh must have no mandate other than his acceptability to them.
The Việt Cộng broadcast came at the end of a day in which the rival Saigon politicians argued among themselves over who should lead the country to peace and how he should do it. North Vietnam and the Việt Cộng have not said that they will attack the capital if their demands are not met, but there is no question in the minds of Saigon’s residents that they are likely to attack soon. Military and political leaders as well as Western observers also are in no doubt that the result would be shattering. The Việt Cộng have continued to insist on two basic conditions—the departure of all of the “Thiệu clique,” specifically including President Hương, and the departure of all “American troops and military advisers disguised as civilians.”
An earlier Việt Cộng broadcast yesterday appeared to define the conditions somewhat more closely. It denounced President Ford, Secretary of State Kissinger and the American Ambassador to Saigon, Graham A. Martin, whose continued presence here the Việt Cộng have indicated is unacceptable. But the broadcast appeared to stop short of demanding a recall of the entire American Embassy staff. The statement did, however, call for the removal of “all C.I.A. agents” from Vietnam in addition to military personnel and advisers.
General Minh called on President Hương yesterday. Both are ethnic South Vietnamese and they share a common religious antipathy for the Roman Catholics — President Hương is a Confucian and General Minh a Buddhist. Both are interested in achieving peace as rapidly as possible. But these common viewpoints did not appear to have brought them together.
Informants said the two tended to talk around the main issues. One of those issues was plainly whether President Hương shouid remain in office and appoint General Minh as Premier with real power or should resign as his entire Cabinet did yesterday, leaving the way completely clear for a new government. The champions of each course were pursuing their causes as actively as possible, and factionalism was growing.
Politics in Saigon today are as complicated, contradictory and chaotic as they were in the mid‐nineteen‐sixties, and, most of the principals were assuming the positions and roles they did then. At that time, Saigon seemed caught in an endless succession of coups and countercoups, futile initiatives toward achieving political unity in some way, and dangerous and sometimes bloody, street battles.
A Senate-House conference tentatively agreed on legislation that would give President Ford limited authority to use United States troops to evacuate Americans and some Vietnamese from Saigon. The bill would also allot $327 million to pay for the evacuation and finance humanitarian aid to South Vietnam. The only military aid allowed would be that directly related to the evacuation. The agreement is expected to be approved formally by the conference committee tomorrow and to be voted and sent to the President early next week.
The measure would fall far short of what President Ford requested. He sought $722 million in military assistance for the Saigon Government, $250 million for humanitarian relief, and broad authority to use American troops to rescue endangered South Vietnamese. Nonetheless, Mr. Ford will probably sign the bill. Congress, seems unlikely to approve any more money and, without the measure, he would have no authority to use armed force to evacuate Vietnamese. Meanwhile, Major General Winant Sidle, an official Pentagon spokesman, said that the North Vietnamese “have the capability right now of mounting massive attack” on Saigon. General Sidle added that “something could happen any Minute.”
The head of President Ford’s Refugee Task Force in Washington said he was trying to accelerate the evacuation of Americans and Vietnamese from Saigon. As fears rose that time was running out for an orderly evacuation, the refugee official, Ambassador L. Dean Brown, said about 5,000 persons were being flown from Saigon to Guam daily, and that he hoped to see the evacuation rate raised to more than 8,000 a day. He said that if Communist forces begin shelling the Saigon airfield, the rescue program would be forced to stop.
Some 5,000 Vietnamese were flown from Saigon to Guam as the evacuation continued. Though Communists forces made only limited gains along Saigon’s shrinking defense perimeter, fear about the city’s future intensified. Pan American World Airways halted its flights from the city, four embassies closed and the number of Americans remaining in the city dropped to about 1,500 from 7,500 last month.
Four embassies — the British, the West Germans, the Dutch and the Thais — closed yesterday and evacuated most of their personnel. Diplomats spent the morning burning official papers and clearing out belongings. About 100 Britons were scheduled to leave for Singapore aboard a Royal Air Force C‐130 transport. Only the French and the Belgians, who have full diplomatic relations with Hanoi, have indicated they intend to stay. The French have been reported active both here and in Paris trying to arrange talks between the Communists and Saigon.
It was unclear whether the United States Embassy would then also close. Many Vietnamese are convinced that they will wake up one morning soon and find all the Americans have secretly disappeared. Embassy officials would only say that after they had reduced the number of Americans to 500 they would reconsider their options. This figure is considered sufficiently low to allow a speedy evacuation by helicopter if there is fighting or disorder in the city. Complicating the evacuation process, about 100 Americans flew in yesterday to pick up Vietnamese wives, girlfriends and children. In all 400 Americans arrived over the last week.
The growing sense of panic and the departure of thousands of Vietnamese drove the blackmarket rate for dollars soaring again. Brokers in the Cho Lon section of the city were demanding up to 5,000 piasters for a dollar. The legal rate is 755 to the dollar. On Wednesday, the black market rate had climbed to 3,800. The attempts to escape were causing widespread emotional stress. A secretary in one American office who had elected to stay when her fellow workers chose to be evacuated sat at her desk crying. “Everyone has gone,” she said. “How can work?”
The new Communist leaders of Cambodia today began three days of celebration of their capture of Phnom Penh and a week of mourning for those killed in five years of war.The Phnom Penh radio, broadcasting as the station of Prince Norodom Sihanouk’s Cambodian United Front party, said that there would be mass ceremonies in the capital later today, and urged Cambodians in the country and abroad to pay homage to those who died “for the sake of the liberation of our nation and people.” The formal celebrations and mourning, starting a week after Communist‐led troops took over Phnom Penh, indicated that the new rulers were organizing the capital. However, they kept silent about the situation in the city of 2.5 million.
The Khmer Rouge have not announced the composition of a new government or indicated how they are coping with rehabilitation problems. Today’s radio broadcasts repeated statements that the victorious forces were administering the entire country. But there were indications here that some enclaves and towns might still be held by troops loyal to the ousted regime of Marshal Lon Nol, whose coup against Prince Sihanouk in 1970 began the war. The newspaper Voice of the Nation here quoted Defense Minister Pramarn Adireksan of Thailand as saying that military intelligence reports that indicated fighting was still going on around the temples at Angkor, near Siem Reap in northwest Cambodia.
The news blackout at Phnom Penh held for the seventh day today. Informed sources here said there had been no change for refugees who are inside the French Embassy there, despite the arrival yesterday of supplies of food and water. The refugees — French diplomats, representatives of the International Red Cross, United Nations officials and foreign newsmen — were still inside the Chancellery and were being guarded by Khmer Rouge soldiers, the source said. Communications are still cut between the Cambodian capital and the outside world. Radio Phnom Penh gave no indication of the activities or the intentions of the members of the Royal Cambodian Government of National Unity who are now in the city.
Right‐wing Laotian military sources said in Vientiane today that they had regained control of an important road junction and an airfield north of here lost to pro‐Communist Pathet Lao troops earlier this week. The sources said that fighting, which broke out in the area Saturday evening and ended Tuesday night, resumed yesterday. The rightists reported that they had recaptured Sala Phou Khoun junction and an airfield 92 miles north of Vientiane. Phonsay Santavasi, a Pathet Lao leader, confirmed that “hostilities are continuing.”
The Loatian coalition Government, made up of rightists and leftists, has decided in principle to recognize the Việt Cộng’s Provisional Revolutionary Government in South Vietnam, a government spokesman said today. He said that the decision was reached at a Cabinet meeting yesterday and that the recognition date would be set by Premier Souvanna Phouma, who is expected back from visit to the royal capital, Luang Prabang, on Tuesday.
Terrorists shot their way into the West German Embassy in Stockholm, killed the military attache and seized hostages before blowing up part of the building after their demands for the release of 26 anarchists who are imprisoned in West Germany had been rejected. Six terrorists of the Baader-Meinhof Gang (officially the “Red Army Faction”) terrorists took over the West German embassy in Sweden, took 11 hostages, and demanded the release of 26 of the group’s jailed members (including Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof). Reversing prior West German policy, Chancellor Helmut Schmidt’s government refused to give in to terrorist demands, offering nothing but an opportunity for the group to get away. In response, the group murdered two embassy employees, military attaché Andreas von Mirbach and Heinz Hillegaard. As Swedish commandos were preparing to storm the building, a terrorist bomb detonated, apparently accidentally, destroying the structure and allowing the hostages to escape after the 12-hour siege. Two of the six terrorists were fatally injured by their own bomb, and the others were captured while trying to leave. The event marked the beginning of the decline of domestic terrorism in West Germany.
The Soviet Union has begun demonstrating greater assurance in its foreign policy as it seeks to explore the possibilities offered by the reverses suffered by the United States around the world. An air of confidence is noticeable particularly in Moscow’s new willingness to place its prestige on the line in working to reconvene a new Middle East peace conference at Geneva following Secretary of State Kissinger’s failure last month to achieve another partial agreement. Communist victories in South Vietnam and Cambodia and leftist successes in Portugal have helped enhance the Kremlin’s view of itself as potential standard bearer of a worldwide Marxism triumphant.
Polish Army Major Jerzy Pawlowski, who had won a gold medal in fencing representing Poland at the 1968 Summer Olympics, was arrested on charges of espionage in Warsaw. Pawlowski, who had worked for Poland’s intelligence service since 1950, had been working since 1964 as an agent for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He would be sentenced to 25 years imprisonment after a court-martial and released after the fall of the Communist government in 1989.
Six gunmen broke into a Bank of America branch in London’s West End and got away with an estimated $720,000, Scotland Yard reported. The haul included $239,000 in U.S. currency, 144,000 pounds sterling and about $12,000 worth of other currencies, police said. The remainder was taken in undetermined currencies and securities from a number of safe deposit boxes.
Tass, the official Soviet news agency, took issue with reports that Jewish activist Mark Azbel had been threatened with induction into the army and had been indefinitely barred from living in Moscow. Azbel claimed the alleged actions were in retaliation for his dissident activities. The 43-year-old physicist left Moscow late in March to visit friends in the Ukraine.
A 24-year-old American, Lee Gunnar Haglund, has been arrested by the Finnish secret police on espionage charges, the Interior Ministry in Helsinki said. Haglund, a political science graduate of Finnish extraction, will appear in court Tuesday, ministry sources said. He is alleged to have collected material that could endanger Finnish neutrality if it fell into the hands of a foreign power, press reports said.
A member of the Spanish parliament urged the Franco government to set a date for U.S. military men to leave Spain and urged an end to negotiations for the continuance of American military bases in Spain. Laberto Jarabo Paya argued that renewal of the present agreement with the United States was undesirable because the U.S. attitude toward Spain has been “full of reserves, half-truths and bargaining, if not indifference and disdain.”
One Turkish student died and many policemen and civilians were injured during bloody clashes between rival student groups in Istanbul, Turkish Radio reported. At one stage, several journalists trying to cover street fighting were attacked by angry crowds and some were injured, the radio said. Fighting started when leftist and rightist groups clashed over whether Istanbul Science University should be closed down.
A 19-year-old Israeli soldier was killed when a parcel he had picked up at a post office exploded — a tactic rarely used by terrorists in Israel since a rash of such incidents in late 1972. Police said the youth had just collected the parcel from the post office in the Tel Aviv suburb of Herzliya when it blew up. His mother was wounded.
The State Department has modified an antiterrorist program under which it tightly screened applications by Arabs seeking to enter the United States, an official said in Washington. The tight screening operation was abandoned about a month ago and other screening measures are being used that involve less paperwork and overtime, the official said.
Syria and Jordan, reportedly prompted by the Soviet Union, have agreed to joint land and air force commands, according to official information reaching Paris from the Middle East. Such a decision would mean that Jordan, which has formerly relied on American arms and maintained a generally pro-American policy, was moving toward the Arab bloc supported by Moscow.
Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi declared today that Iran supported “the policies of Egypt 100 percent” in the Arab-Israeli conflict and other issues, and he predicted that those policies would “prevail at the end.”
Ambassador William B. Saxbe says he fears that the United States and India are drifting apart and that a recent wave of anti-American comments could have an impact on Congress and the Ford Administration. “I don’t think there can be much progress as long as the official criticism is at the level it is,” Mr. Saxbe said in an interview. “If India is determined to make an enemy of the United States there’s not a whole lot we can do about it.”
Rats, birds, insects and moisture spoil up to 10 million tons of food grains in India each year — enough to make up the entire world shortage, according to a U.N. Development Program report. India and U.N. experts are working to plug this grain drain with cheaper pest-and moisture-proof bins.
North Korean President Kim Il Sung might be briefing Chinese leaders during his current visit to Peking on possible North Korean attack against South Korea, highly placed South Korean government sources said in Seoul. “Kim appears to be seeking tacit Chinese understanding for his military adventure in Korea, rather than outright aid from China, during his current trip,” the sources said.
The military officers who seized power in Tegucigalpa Tuesday say they may need five to 10 years in office to carry out the social and economic retorms necessary to lift Honduras out of her chronic backwardness. “We’re going to prepare the country for true democracy.” said a spokesman for the movement of lieutenant colonels now controlling the government. “But we’re not going to hand the country back to the traditional conservative parties that exploit the ‐poor and illiterate. We’ll stay in of five as long as necessary, perhaps five or 10 years.” In a country where 70 per cent of the two million inhabitants are peasants and the per capita income is less than $300 a year, the officers have chosen to begin a controversial agrarian reform under which uncultivated properties will be expropriated and distributed to landless farmers.
Roman Catholic Church sources say Brazilian authorities have made more than 100 political arrests in Sao Paulo in the first three months of this year. Many cases of torture are said to have been involved. Such charges have been made against Brazil’s military rulers in the past, but these come a year after General Ernesto Geisel took office as President and assured the nation that such practices would he stopped under his program for a gradual return to democratic rule. The Archbishop of São Paulo, Paulo Evaristo Cardinal Arns has tried to protest against the arrests and tortures but his words have reportedly been censored in the archidiocese’s weekly newspaper.
Congress cannot satisfy President Ford’s goal of major progress on energy legislation by the end of this week, key Administration and Congressional sources said today. In private conversations, the sources agreed that Mr. Ford must decide in the next few days whether to give Congress more time or to take action on his own. The President was expected to meet with energy and political advisers tomorrow, Sunday and Monday. Almost certainly, Mr. Ford will ask leading Congressional Democrats to confer with him on Monday or Tuesday, a key official said.
Vice President Rockefeller apologized to the Senate for any “discourtesy” he might have shown when he presided over a debate on the filibuster rule two months ago. His refusal to recognize a leading defender of the old rule had enraged conservatives of both parties. But the carefully arranged ritual of apology and cordial responses from five Senators seemed to mark a cease-fire in the controversy.
The Senate voted today, 64 to 26, to protect the mortgages of jobless homeowners and to subsidize housing starts to build 400,000 new homes and create 800,000 jobs. Senior Republicans said that President Ford would almost certainly veto the bill, which was supported by Democrats as a significant antirecession move. The legislation would give unemployed homeowners loans of up to $300 a month for as long as three years.
The House of Representatives approved a far-reaching revision of securities industry regulation that would lay the groundwork for a national market system. The bill, similar to one previously passed by the Senate, was approved as the House Banking and Currency Committee announced a major review of the nation’s financial institutions and their regulation by agencies of the federal government.
The Justice Department has undertaken a high-level review of the way immunity from prosecution is granted to witnesses in criminal proceedings, Deputy Attorney General Harold R. Tyler Jr. said. The review comes after more than two years of growing public controversy, precipitated by the Watergate affair, over the lenient treatment prosecutors sometimes give persons involved in crimes in return for their testimony against others. Attorney General Edward H. Levi also has expressed his concern with the use of immunity, saying: “We have to remember that that’s glorified use of the informer and it carries with it all the temptations of the informer.”
Rep. Edward I. Koch (D-New York) demanded that the Federal Bureau of Prisons supply kosher food to orthodox Jewish prisoners. He brushed aside objections by Prisons Director Norman Carlson that prisons do not have kosher facilities and that supplying special meals would discriminate between prisoners. Koch said. “What the bureau in fact refuses to accept is that an incarcerated person has the right to observe religious dietary laws in prison.” The congressman spoke after Rabbi Meir Kahane, head of the Jewish Defense League, was ordered held in a Manhattan halfway house where he can go out for kosher meals. He has been given a one-year sentence for parole violation.
Former President Lyndon B. Johnson believed Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro “was behind Lee Harvey Oswald’s murder of President John Kennedy, syndicated columnist Marianne Means reported. Miss Means said Johnson made the observation to her after leaving the Presidency and swore her to secrecy. She said she was breaking that promise now “because Johnson’s opinion appears to debunk the current speculation that the Central Intelligence Agency might somehow have been involved in the Kennedy assassination.” She said Johnson refused to tell her the reasons for his belief “that Oswald did such an outrageous deed because he was under either the influence or the orders of Castro.”
Prison doors have not slammed shut behind Rep. George Hansen (R-Idaho) as he continues to look for ways to escape two months of confinement. “I would like to pay the penalty on my own time,” Hansen said, explaining that he could serve at night or on weekends. Hansen was ordered last Friday to report to the Allenwood, Pennsylvania, federal prison camp May 2. He received a one-year sentence after pleading guilty to two misdemeanor violations of campaign laws and 10 months of the sentence were suspended. He also vows not to resign his congressional seat, saying his concern “really is not to miss the job I was sent here to do. I would like to keep on voting.” Hansen also said that to resign would deprive his constituents of representation.
A tornado hit the southwest Missouri community of Neosho in the evening, killing at least three persons, injuring 13 others and destroying more than 100 homes. Three of the injured were in serious condition. The highway patrol said the tornado destroyed two apartment complexes, each containing 64 units, and overturned more than 40 mobile homes at a trailer park in the town of 7,500. City officials called on National Guard units to help in searching the rubble and pleas went out for emergency vehicles, supplies and blood donations.
Colorado Attorney General Joyce Murdoch invalidated all six marriage licenses for same-sex marriage that had been issued by Boulder County Clerk Clela Rorex since March 26. Rorex had issued the first license to two men after being advised by the District Attorney that nothing in Colorado law prohibited a marriage between two people of the same gender.
Legislation granting newsmen a qualified privilege to protect confidential sources by refusing to answer investigators’ question won broad support today from television networks, writers and newspaper publishers.
More than 11 million gallons of fuel worth $4.2 million was either dumped or lost at sea by Navy vessels during fiscal 1974, a Navy spokesman in Norfolk, Virginia, admitted. The admission came just a few months after the Navy publicly stated that fuel is dumped at sea “very infrequently.” The Navy spokesman explained that 6.2 million gallons of the fuel was “contaminated,” and said it is cheaper, safer and more efficient to dump it at sea than to unload it in port. The chief of naval operations has issued a directive forbidding carriers to dump fuel at sea, and a Navy spokesman said a new program has been initiated to halt all discharge of fuel and wastes into streams and oceans not later than the end of this decade.
The first step toward permitting the British-French Concorde supersonic airliner to land in New York was approved by the New York City Council’s Environmental Protection Committee. After five hours of debate, the committee rejected a resolution to ban the plane. It called instead for flights to be withheld until the Concorde could meet US. environmental protection standards set by the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA approved four flights a day to New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport and two a day to Washington’s Dulles Airport.
A study released today by manufacturers of emission control devices contends that the Environmental Protection Agency overestimated the potential danger of sulphate emissions from cars equipped with catalytic converters.
French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau said the health of the oceans was in an alarming state and could pose a long-term threat to human survival. The 63-year-old marine explorer told a news conference in Geneva that the “vitality” of the oceans had decreased by 30% to 50% over the past 25 years.
The U.S. performs a nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site.
Major League Baseball:
The Oakland A’s are back in their accustomed place in the American League’s Western Division standing — first. The defending world champions got there yesterday by scoring a 3–2 victory over the Kansas City Royals, the second straight triumph over the team that figured to give the A’s a great deal of trouble this season. This time it was Bill North, Bert Campaneris and Reggie Jackson who got seventh‐inning singles to undo Paul Splittorff, sending the Kansas City pitcher to his second loss in three decisions.
Deron Johnson’s pinch‐hit homer with a man on base highlighted a four‐run rally in the ninth and helped make Wilbur Wood a winner for the first time this season after four defeats as the White Soc edged the Twins, 4–3.
Johnny Bench and Tony Perez drove in three runs each as the Reds routed the Braves, 11–3, with four‐run outbursts in both the seventh and eighth. Jack Billingham gave up four doubles to the Braves in the first five innings but survived to win his first game in two decisions.
Ron Cey homers and drives in 4 runs and Ken McMullen hits a 6th inning grand slam to lead the Dodgers to an 11–6 win at San Diego.
Von Joshua’s two‐out single in the ninth inning drove home Derrel Thomas with the winning run as the Giants beat the Astros, 6–5. The victim was Ken Forsch, the sixth Houston pitcher.
Cincinnati Reds 11, Atlanta Braves 3
Texas Rangers 5, California Angels 0
Philadelphia Phillies 1, Chicago Cubs 4
San Francisco Giants 6, Houston Astros 5
Chicago White Sox 4, Minnesota Twins 3
Kansas City Royals 2, Oakland Athletics 3
Los Angeles Dodgers 11, San Diego Padres 6
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 803.66 (+1.17, +0.15%)
Born:
Michael Stewart, American basketball NBA center (Sacramento Kings), in Cucq-Trepied-Stella-Plage, France.
Sam Doumit, American actress (“Shameless”), in Sacramento, California.
Died:
Pete Ham, 27, Welsh musician who led the group Badfinger, hanged himself.
History Diaries 