Dương Văn Minh was unanimously (134-0) elected as President of South Vietnam by the National Assembly, and authorized to negotiate a peace agreement with the Việt Cộng and with North Vietnam. “Big Minh” replaced Trần Văn Hương, who had refused to step aside after a week as president, the next day. With an overwhelming Communist army moving closer to Saigon, South Vietnamese leaders moved toward total accommodation to initial Communist political demands. General Dương Văn Minh, a neutralist who is regarded as being acceptable to the Communists on an interim basis, was reportedly preparing to have the presidency handed over to him by outgoing President Trần Văn Hương, and there seemed the possibility that the Việt Cộng themselves may send a representative to the ceremony. During the night, Communist forces moved to within barely one mile of Saigon’s city limits, cutting the highway between Saigon and Biên Hòa. They fired another volley of rockets into Saigon.
Late last night, the Hanoi Communist party newspaper Nhân Dân published the text of a resolution passed by the National Assembly here authorizing President Hương to transfer all power to General Minh. The naming of General Minh to power was thought to remove the last major obstacle to meeting Communist demands. The Hanoi newspaper did not comment on the report, implying that the Communist side was at least not entirely dissatisfied with progress. That satisfaction was not complete was demonstrated by another seemingly symbolic rocket attack on Saigon at about midnight last night, in which a child was wounded by one of the four projectiles.
Of much more sinister portent was the extremely rapid movement of Communist land forces, including tanks and artillery, almost to the Saigon city limits. By this morning, Communist forces controlled a key bridge on the four‐lane Saigon‐Biên Hòa highway between here and the Saigon suburb of Thủ Đức. The bridge is about four miles from the city limits. It also appeared that Communist forces had practically reached the Saigon port complex known as Newport, the name given it by the Americans who built it. Newport is just outside the densely populated outskirts of the city.
There was a feverish, doomsday atmosphere in Saigon this morning, with all streets jammed with traffic, and people rushing around aimlessly in hopes of finding some sanctuary somewhere. Many Saigonese, including civil servants, army officers and others, were making last-minute desperate efforts to persuade foreigners to help them get aboard one of the presumably last regular flights out of here by American aircraft, short of an emergency evacuation of all remaining Americans.
Such an evacuation did not appear to be likely. The nucleus of the United States Embassy here and certain other key Americans, including relief officials, had no immediate plans to leave Saigon. The rockets that fell last bight, unlike those that hit Saigon the previous night, caused relatively little damage. There was a feeling of profound relief among most persons involved in the extremely difficult political process of the last few days, a feeling that the worst danger was past and that the crisis, if not over, would wane rapidly after today.
Maneuvering very large military units with great speed, the Communists have closed the road from Saigon to the sea and the road to the south over which food supplies must come. They have driven their way to Bến Lức, 12 miles southwest of Saigon, and have cut the road to Biên Hòa, 12 miles to the northeast. With an unusual blood‐red sunset over Saigon last evening, the Communists were drawing closer to the city by the minute, shelling towns, sealing roads and driving retugees before them from all directions. Starting Saturday evening. large Communist infantry units supported by tanks and heavy artillery began their move with a shelling followed by a tank and infantry attack against Phuoc Le. Phuoc Le, 37 miles southeast of Saigon, controls Route 15, the capital’s only access to the sea.
By yesterday evening the Communists had broken through local defenses and were in Phuoc Le. Thus the port of Vũng Tàu from which many Saigon residents have been hoping to escape the country in boats and ships at the last moment, was cut off. Swiftly moving up the road to Long Thành, a district seat, the Communists heavily shelled the area yesterday morning, especially a large refugee camp. This afternoon bodies of many victims were still strewn around the area and on the road itself.
By 9 AM yesterday, the situation had become so serious at Biên Hòa that authorities imposed a 24‐hour curfew on the town. Refugees from Biên Hòa and communities along Route 15 had been pouring toward Saigon before the Saigon‐Biên Hòa road was cut. Late yesterday the four‐lane road, the country’s widest and most modern highway, was so jammed with refugees that movement in the opposite direction, even for aramy trucks, had become impossible. Toward evening, army trucks were moving back into Saigon, loaded with ammunition. It was clear that all or most government troops in the area were being pulled back into the capital.
Before the road was cut, marines and airborne troops were preventing the tide of people from getting to Saigon, firing warning shots over their heads. One of their main reasons for doing so was the suspicion that many of the refugees might actually be Communist soldiers in civilian clothing. Adding to the pandemonium on the highway, along which Saigonese used to like to picnic on Sunday afternoons in the shade of rubber plantations the Communists had begun shelling the road. One would‐be traveler set out in his car for Vũng Tàu, east of here, yesterday morning but had to stop at a hastily organized government roadblock before reaching Long Thành. Meanwhile, other roadblocks were set up behind him, and he was forced to abandon his car, make his way on foot through the jungle back to the main road at Thủ Đức and thence return to Saigon.
The situation was nearly as bad to the south. In Long An Province only 12 miles southeast of Saigon, Communist roadblocks went into position in several places on Route 4 yesterday near the town of Bến Lức, which has an important bridge. The closing of the road cut Saigon off from the entire south, including the Mekong River delta, from which it obtains most of its food. A government spokesman said counterattack to open the road had been launched, but the chances of its success seemed remote. Military sources also disclosed that Route 1, one of the main roads to Tây Ninh and the Cambodian border, had been cut at Củ Chi, 17 miles northwest of here. All other roads were believed blocked by nightfall as well.
It is assumed by all competent military observers here that the Communists now have enough heavy artillery, rockets, field guns and mortars in position all around Saigon virtually to level the city, if the signal is given. Many large neighborhoods in Saigon are as inflammable as those that were consumed in the great fire storm that destroyed large parts of Tokyo in the spring of 1945 after American bombing. Even accidental fires, particularly during the dry season, which is almost at an end, can destroy thousands of shanties. One of the rockets that hit Saigon early this morning started a fire that rapidly burned several hundred houses, to the ground.
The business center of the city, whose axis is Tự Do Street, is less vulnerable. Large, fairly modern concrete buildings, including the Caravelle and Continental Hotels where many foreigners are now housed, line Tự Do Street. Despite the small but devastating rocket barrages, the desperate and deteriorating situation just outside the city and a harsh warning by the Hanoi radio last night to the effect that the Communists had about lost patience, the Pace of political deliberations in Saigon had seemed incredibly leisurely until today. “My God, don’t these people realize that hundreds of thousands of lives are in the balance, not some indefinite time in the future, but right now. tonight?” a Western official who is playing a pivotal role in developments asked, his voice taut.
Last week, the United States was moving as swiftly as possible to meet all demands made by the Việt Cộng, both on Washington and on the Saigon Government. It is widely felt that the loss of life in this city of more than three million would be staggering if the Communists should order an attack. The substantial government force now in the city, with the chance of a cease‐fire gone, exit routes sealed off and no other options, would probably fight hard in its final stand, making the situation far worse. There has been no discussion here of an outright, formal sur render, although Buddhist leaders informed their followers yesterday that the installation of General Minh as President would be tantamount to surrender and that they should prepare themselves for a new type of life.
When a Communist rocket smashed into a densely populated slum in Saigon at 4 AM today, it started a large fire. After the fire had been put out, a local official estimated that 500 houses had been destroyed and that 5,000 persons had been made homeless. The rocket was one of a barrage of five the Communists fired into Saigon, apparently in an attempt to force the Saigon government to meet their terms for peace talks. At least six persons were killed and 22 were wounded.
A heavy column of black smoke rose over the edge of Saigon today as advance Communist forces moved close to the city limits. South Vietnamese Air Force helicopters fired rockets into the Communist positions on the Saigon River at Newport, former United States port complex on the road to Biên Hòa. The Communists fired back with AK‐47 automatic rifles, and the noise was clearly audible inside the city. Only a few lightly armed South Vietnamese combat policemen and militiamen guarded the road on the northeastern edge of the city. They made no effort to dig in, and several Government officers simply stood around watching the helicopters firing at the Communist forces.
The Communist troops, who had seized the far side of the Newport Bridge over the Saigon River, were believed to be part of major North Vietnamese units moving rapidly toward Saigon from Biên Hòa, 15 miles to the northeast. Another group of Communist troops reportedly had occupied a crossroads two miles beyond the bridge on the way to the biggest South Vietnamese ammunition dump, at Cát Lái. The Communist advance blocked all traffic at the large Hàng Xanh intersection, the, main gateway to Saigon from the north. Combat policemen wearing flak jackets, helmets and mottled green and brown uniforms stood behind barbed wire barricades, forcing all traffic back into the city.
It was the closest fighting to Saigon since the Communists’ Tết and spring offensives of 1968. The Communist troops this morning apparently had only small arms and no mortars or antiaircraft guns. If they had fired a few mortar shells into the city, it appeared that the few nervous government soldiers would have instantly fled. According to soldiers along the road, the huge column of smoke came from a gasoline storage dump operated by the United States Agency for International Development, It was unclear whether it had been set afire by the Communists or by South Vietnamese artillery after the Communists had entered the area.
During the morning government helicopters hovered over the edge of Saigon, firing rockets that made a heavy wooshing sound and left trails of brown smoke. But the rockets did not seem to have any effect on the Communist troops, who kept firing back with their AK‐47 rifles.
The Newport base complex that came under attack was built by the United States Navy and housed a large commissary that Americans used for their food shopping. Several American ships had been standing by at Newport to help if needed in the evacuation of Americans and Vietnamese from Saigon.
The American airlift of South Vietnamese refugees from Saigon to Guam was resumed after a 36 hour interval to give American officials and soldiers on the island time to prepare for the arrival of 6,000 persons a day. The airlift’s resumption was marked by the arrival of 821 refugees in 60 minutes at two airfields. Immigration officials vowed that they would improve efforts to move the 20,000 refugees who were flown to the island in recent days to the continental United States as quickly as possible.
The Portuguese Communist party, embittered by its defeat in Friday’s election, warned the victorious Socialists today to cooperate or find themselves in opposition to the ruling Armed Forces Movement. The Socialists, who won almost 38 per cent of the votes in the election for a constituent assembly, are at the center of a battle that could determine Portugal’s political orientation. On one side is the centrist Popular Democratic party, which came in second in the election and called on the Socialists to join it in promoting “democratic socialism.” On the other side are the Communists, who warned the Socialists against promoting an anti‐revolutionary “bourgeois democracy.” Mario Soares, the Socialist party leader, in a radio interview today, carefully kept his bridges open to both groups. He said that the Socialists were a party of the left allied with the Communists and other lefist groups in the Portuguese revolution. But he said that the Popular Democrats also had their place in the revolution as an ally.
Assistant Secretary of State Robert McCloskey said he expected that negotiations with Portugal on U.S. use of its Azores air base would become more active now that the Portuguese elections are over. He also said, during a television interview, that Portugal had not officially told the United States that the base would be barred to U.S. planes resupplying Israel in the event of another Middle East war.
U.N. Secretary General Kurt Waldheim met with Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders in Vienna in hopes of pinpointing compromise possibilities before Cyprus negotiations scheduled to start today. Greek Cypriot leader Glafkos Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktaş met with Waldheim for eight hours after arriving in the Austrian capital.
Bread, Turkey’s basic food, used to cost about 7 cents for a standard loaf. A few months ago the price doubled and the loaf shrank slightly. Turks like to buy their bread fresh daily, but that is not always possible now. “Before, people would eat half a loaf and throw the rest away,” said a baker in this prosperous port, Turkey’s third largest city. “Now they take better care.” This is one small way in which rising prices have affected life in Turkey, where inflation is running close to 30 per cent a year. When the new Premier, Suleyman Demirel, took office last week, he cited inflation as the country’s principal problem.
Terrorists kicked open a door and shot three men dead in a darts club used by both Protestants and Roman Catholics, police in Northern Ireland reported. A fourth player was seriously wounded in the attack on the club near Lurgan, 20 miles southwest of Belfast. All the victims were in their early 40s.
Striking gasoline-truck drivers in the Republic of Ireland voted to return to work after a 12-day work stoppage that virtually paralyzed the country. They had struck for higher pay. In the British province of Northern Ireland, weekend violence continued. There were two bombings, one of which injured three men, and snipers opened fire on British army patrols in the Catholic Lower Falls district of Belfast. The incidents followed a riot in Belfast Saturday in which several hundred Catholics tried to break up a parade of militant Protestants.
In a second straight day of raids, London police recovered another $100,000 worth of cash and some jewels taken in a holdup of a London branch of the Bank of America. A Scotland Yard spokesman said teams of detectives raiding buildings in the London area have so far recovered almost $340,000 out of $348,000 worth of British currency taken from the vault.
Premier Yitzhak Rabin of Israel barred formal cabinet motions for new Israeli peace initiatives when his ministers heard Foreign Minister Yigal Alton report on his visit last week to Washington. During a three‐and‐a‐halfhour meeting in Jerusalem, ministers sought clarifications relating to Mr. Allon’s meeting in Washington with Secretary of State Kissinger. But representatives of the dovish Independent Liberals were prevented from discussing proposed terms to be submitted at a planned Middle East peace conference in Geneva. Mr. Rabin and the cabinet majority reportedly believed it would he inadvisable to make conciliatory moves under such pressures as the reappraisal of United States policy toward Israel and the suspension of negotiations on arms aid on the ground that it could he interpreted as a sign of weakness and invite additional pressures.
Syria has agreed to let U.N. troops remain in the Golan Heights until July 30 so that authorization to keep the peace-keeping forces in Syria and Egypt will end at the same time, according to Suheil Sukkareva, a member of Syria’s ruling Baath Party’s pan-Arab command. Syria had previously criticized Egypt for the extension. Mr. Sukkareva said that Damascus had decided to extend the mandate of the United Nations troops on the Golan Heights two months past the scheduled May 30 expiration “so that the mandates of the U.N. forces would end at the same time.”
Good growing conditions in China for the winter-wheat crop offer optimistic early clues to her chances of narrowing the food gap for her more than 800 million people, but many uncertainties remain, United States experts said here last week.
Japan Prime Minister Takeo Miki’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party scored overwhelming victories in the second round of the nation’s local elections, taking roughly 80% of the 143 mayoralties at stake. The party also won two by-elections for the upper house of the national parliament, giving it 130 of the 252 seats in that body.
Australia is in the process of developing a police force modeled in part on the American Federal Bureau of Investigation, arousing fears in some circles of a threat to civil liberties or the emergence of a “supercop” in the mold of the late J. Edgar Hoover.
Black nationalist leaders declared they will not resume constitutional talks with the Rhodesian government until Salisbury fulfills a number of conditions allegedly agreed to in Lusaka, Zambia, last December. The decision was announced after a seven-hour meeting of the African National Council, umbrella group for Rhodesian nationalists.
A worldwide Soviet naval exercise involving 200 ships in six oceans is over. Tass reported. “The naval forces involved demonstrated high combat efficiency. After practicing their tasks, they have returned to base,” the Soviet news agency said. The Pentagon said the exercise was the biggest in Soviet naval history.
The USSR performs a nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan.
The economy will still be in trouble next year and will be the major campaign issue, but the concentration of power in the federal government could also be a growing concern. Senator Barry Goldwater (R-Arizona) predicted. The senator, appearing on CBS’ Face the Nation, added that he would like to see former President Richard M. Nixon clear his name, either in court or by a confession. Goldwater said the debate over governmental power will be a major issue, “one that could develop as early as 1976.” He said also that he did not expect a conservative challenge to President Ford for the Republican Party’s nomination and added that he would support the President for election. “I will resist any third-party movement,” he said.
Senator Goldwater called on former President Nixon to make a “full confession” of his complicity in the Watergate scandals as a first step toward his eventual emergence as senior spokesman for the Republican party. The Senator said he believed that if Mr. Nixon could “get his name cleaned up,” either through a public statement or before a court, he could become an asset to the Republicans.
A special commission has recommended that the federal government lift its moratorium on fetal research and establish an ethics board to regulate experiments. The Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects established the proposals in a weekend meeting and will submit them next month to Caspar W. Weinberger, health, education and welfare secretary. Congress ordered Weinberger to create the commission last year. Congress had blocked federal financing of research on live fetuses either before or after abortion until the commission made its recommendations.
The Idaho Republican State Central Committee has given Representative George Hansen, an admitted violator of the Federal Election Campaign Act, a vote of confidence. The Idaho Republican was originally sentenced to serve two months in Federal prison after he admitted two violations in filing financial reports during his successful 1974 campaign, but Judge George L. Hart Jr. reduced the penalty in United States District Court in Washington last Friday to a $2,000 fine. The central committee approved a resolution noting that Mr. Hansen “has rendered honorable and faithful service for many years” and urged him “not to resign but rather to continue in his post as Idaho’s Second District Congressman.”
The National Transportation Safety Board reported that several airlines had ignored a 1966 warning from Douglas Aircraft Co. to correct a potentially dangerous defect in the landing gear of DC-9 jet planes. Investigating an emergency landing last December, the board found that the Eastern Airlines crew could not manually lower the nose landing gear, which had iced up. The plane landed without causing any injuries. The board said Douglas had issued instructions on how to deal with the problem in October, 1966, but checks with airlines indicated that a number of them had not modified the equipment.
Once again, a sizable portion of the Democratic party is enacting a familiar scenario — waiting for Teddy. Despite Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s declaration last September 23 that he would neither seek the Presidential nomination nor accept a draft, he remains a principal element in the developing scramble among the Democrats. It is not that his party colleagues doubt his word; it is not that they expect him to become an active candidate. What has happened, instead, is that a surprising number of Democrats have come to the conclusion that they may be obliged in July of next year to go to the Massachusetts Senator, hat in hand, and implore him to carry their standard.
Three members of a Washington university climbing class were killed in an avalanche and three others were listed as missing. A search for survivors was called off because of 60 m.p.h. winds and heavy snow. Skamania County sheriff’s officials said the 29 members of the University of Puget Sound class had been struck by the avalanche near Mt. St. Helens. The names of the dead and missing were not disclosed. Rescue officials said other climbing parties had been in the area of the 9,677-foot Mt. St. Helens, in the southwest corner of the state, but it was not known if other persons had been trapped.
“A high level of military spending creates unemployment,” according to a new study by the student-controlled Michigan Public Interest Research Group. For every $1 billion spent in the military sector instead of the civilian sector, the nation forgoes 10,000 jobs in private industry or 21,000 jobs in state and local government, the study says. The report said a detailed analysis of military spending between 1958 and 1972 showed that 26 states-with 60% of the U.S. population-lost more jobs than they gained because of the defense budget. Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wisconsin). who distributed the study, said it “should put to rest the suggestion that lower defense spending and changing our national priorities reduces the number of jobs.”
A pollution-free supersonic transport engine could be developed in about 15 years for about $100 million, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology aeronautics expert said. Rene Miller said the clean-burning engine would end the danger of reducing the earth’s ozone layer by 15% — a danger attributed to use of currently produced SST engines. A National Academy of Sciences study indicated a fleet of 500 SSTs would increase by about 30% the number of deaths from skin cancer because of reduction in the ozone layer. Ozone high in the atmosphere filters out ultraviolet radiation from the sun. A proposal to develop an American SST was defeated by Congress in 1970. Opponents of the project focused on ozone problems and the thunderous sonic booms the planes leave in their wakes.
The rights of electric utilities to pass fuel costs on to consumers will be the subject of three days of hearings scheduled by Rep. John E. Moss beginning Thursday in Washington. Moss is chairman of the House sub-committee on oversight and investigations.
Activity at Cooper Nuclear Power Plant in Nebraska was cut by half and 10 other nuclear reactors in eight states were being asked to check for possible vibrations within the reactors. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Washington said the Nebraska Public Power District had reduced power and coolant flow at its Cooper plant by half. The NRC said it had also requested 10 other reactors to report to it within five days on the reactors’ possible vibrations. The reactors are made by General Electric.
The Environmental Protection Agency has suggested that the government slow development of a plutonium-breeding nuclear reactor on which many power utilities have based their plans for producing electricity at the turn of the century. A delay of four to 12 years was proposed on the ground that the Atomic Energy Commission had apparently overstated the probable electric-power demand in the years 1970 to 2020.
The Boston Celtics lost their way today. After playing a near‐perfect first half and leading by 12 points, the Celtic machine broke down in the second half and was embarrassed in a 100–95 loss to the Washington Bullets before a capacity crowd of 15,320 at the Boston Garden and a national television audience. The victory gave the Bullets a 1–0 advantage in the National Basketball Association four‐of‐seven‐game Eastern Conference playoff final.
Rick Barry scored 38 points and his Golden State team trounced the Chicago Bulls, 107–89, in the opening game of the National Basketball Association’s Western Conference final playoff tonight.
Major League Baseball:
The Dodgers downed the Giants, 7–3, as Don Sutton gave up six hits, all in the first five innings, and notched his 16th victory in his last 17 decisions, including last season’s playoffs and World Series. Joe Ferguson broke a 3–3 tie with a run‐scoring double in the sixth. Willie Crawford and Lee Lacy drove in three runs apiece as Los Angeles swept the three‐game series.
A two‐run single by Johnny Bench capped Cincinnati’s four‐run 10th inning, in which the Reds sent 10 men to the plate against four Houston pitchers, as the Reds won, 6–2.
The Pirates’ Dock Ellis scatered six hits and squelched Philadelphia’s only scoring threats with strikeouts in the fourth and fifth innings as he picked up his first victory of the season, blanking the Phillies, 2–0.
In the first of two games, Hank Aaron hits a left field double off Dick Tidrow of the Yankees, tying Babe Ruth’s career RBI record (later revised) of 2,209. The Brewers win, 7–0. Aaron has no ribbies in game 2, as the Yankees win, 10–1.
Baltimore jumped on Jim Perry, Indian starter, for four runs in the first two innings and went on to win, 6–1, behind Jim Palmer’s seven-hit effort. Ken Singleton hit his first American League home run in the fifth after the Indians had scored in the top of the inning.
The White Sox beat the Royals, 8–6. Jim Kaat got relief help from Rich Gossage and won his 10th straight game over two seasons and his third this season.
The New York Yankees make a fruitful trade with the Cleveland Indians, acquiring first baseman Chris Chambliss and pitchers Dick Tidrow and Cecil Upshaw for four players, including pitchers Fritz Peterson and Steve Kline. Chambliss and Tidrow will become key contributors to the Yankees’ pennant-winning teams from 1976 to 1978.
Cleveland Indians 1, Baltimore Orioles 6
Oakland Athletics 7, California Angels 1
Oakland Athletics 1, California Angels 9
Boston Red Sox 4, Detroit Tigers 5
Cincinnati Reds 6, Houston Astros 2
Chicago White Sox 8, Kansas City Royals 6
New York Mets 7, Montreal Expos 6
Milwaukee Brewers 7, New York Yankees 0
Milwaukee Brewers 1, New York Yankees 10
Philadelphia Phillies 0, Pittsburgh Pirates 2
Atlanta Braves 12, San Diego Padres 8
Atlanta Braves 4, San Diego Padres 1
Los Angeles Dodgers 7, San Francisco Giants 3
Born:
Chris Carpenter, American baseball pitcher (World Series Champions-Cardinals, 2006, 2011; NL Cy Young Award 2005; MLB All-Star, 2005, 2006, 2010; Toronto Blue Jays, St. Louis Cardinals), in Exeter, New Hampshire.
Pedro Feliz, Dominican MLB third baseman, first baseman, and outfielder (World Series Champions-Phillies, 2008; San Francisco Giants, Philadelphia Phillies, Houston Astros, St. Louis Cardinals), in Azua, Dominican Republic.
Benj Sampson, MLB pitcher (Minnesota Twins), in Des Moines, Iowa.
Rabih Abdullah, NFL running back (NFL Champions, Super Bowl 39-Patriots, 2004; Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Chicago Bears, New England Patriots), in Martinsville, Virginia.
Michael Booker, NFL cornerback (Atlanta Falcons, Tennessee Titans), in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Kenny Harris, NFL defensive back (Arizona Cardinals), in Durham, North Carolina.
Zendon Hamilton, NBA center and power forward (Los Angeles Clippers, Denver Nuggets, Toronto Raptors, Philadelphia 76ers, Milwaukee Bucks, Cleveland Cavaliers), in Floral Park, New York.
Vlastimil Kroupa, Czech NHL defenseman (San Jose Sharks, New Jersey Devils), in Most, Czechoslovakia.
Kazuyoshi Funaki, Japanese ski jumper and 1998 Olympic gold medalist; in Yoichi, Hokkaidō
Died:
John B. McKay, 52, U.S. Air Force test pilot, twelve years after sustaining serious injuries in the November 9, 1962, crash of an X-15 aircraft.
Nicholas Soussanin, 86, Russian-American actor (“Last Command”, “Captain Fury”).
History Diaries 