The American merchant ship Mayaguez, seized three days earlier by Cambodian forces, was rescued after the U.S. Marines landed on Koh Tang Island, where the 45 crewmen had been held captive. Marines landed on Koh Tang in Air Force helicopters to rescue the crew, but incomplete intelligence made the operation a near disaster. Expecting only light opposition, the USAF helicopters instead faced heavy fire from a large force. The Cambodians shot down four helicopters, damaged five more and killed 14 Americans. More U.S. troops and aircraft urgently moved to reinforce the 131 Marines and five USAF aircrew trapped on Koh Tang. Another contingent of Marines had boarded the Mayaguez and found it deserted, while the 130-man force sent to the island fought in combat against the Khmer Rouge. Under the white flag of surrender, a Cambodian vessel brought 30 Americans to the destroyer USS Wilson. Thirty-eight U.S. Marines were killed in America’s last battle in Indochina. The American assault force that landed on Koh Tang expected only 20 Khmer Rouge defenders, and encountered 150. A Khmer rocket brought down “Knife 31”, a U.S. Sikorsky HH-53 helicopter, and 18 of the 231 Americans were unaccounted for when the attack force withdrew. It would later be revealed that three of the Marines (Joseph N. Hargrove, Gary L. Hall, and Danny G. Marshall) and two Navy medics (Bernard Guase and Ronald Manning) may have been alive when they were left behind on the island.
Around three hours after the operation had begun, the situation with regards to the hostages from the Mayaguez developed rapidly. A fishing boat waving a white flag approached Koh Tang and was intercepted by the destroyer USS Henry B. Wilson. Aboard was the crew of the Mayaguez; the ship’s captain reported that the Khmer Rouge moved them to another island the previous day, briefly interrogated them, and then freed them. The crew’s captors hoped that this would encourage the U.S. to call off bombing runs on ports and naval bases on the Cambodian mainland, which began on the morning of the 15th.
With the Mayaguez recovered and the ship’s crew safe, U.S. operations shifted towards successful extraction of all military personnel on Koh Tang. This initially required the insertion of more troops to stabilize the situation on the ground, particularly because personnel on the island were split into three separate groups. Additional helicopter-delivered reinforcements resulted in a total of around 230 Americans on the island, enough to maintain a defensive perimeter while withdrawals were continuing. Air Force helicopters extracted around 40 U.S. troops throughout the afternoon and evening of May 15, facing heavy enemy fire as the local perimeter continued to shrink with each successful transport. Gathering darkness also complicated operations, and the last 29 Marines reportedly left Koh Tang just after 8:00 PM.
The rescue team recovered all 40 Mayaguez crewmen — but at a cost of 44 lives.
The final 41 names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall represent 25 Air Force pilots and crew, 2 Navy corpsmen, and 14 Marines; these were the men killed in the operation to rescue the crew of the Mayaguez. Of these, 23 Air Force personnel were lost in a helicopter crash in Thailand in preparation for the rescue. The remaining 18 service members lost their lives on and around the island of Koh Tang. The DPAA and its predecessor organizations, including the JTF-FA and JPAC, conducted multiple missions to Koh Tang and the Cambodian mainland to search for further information on these 18 men. These include the first examination of the three downed helicopters that remained on and around the island and interviews with surviving Khmer Rouge in 1992, and trips in 2001 and 2008 that discovered burial sites. Remains were successfully identified and repatriated in 2000 and 2012. Five service members from the Mayaguez incident remain unaccounted for.
The attack by United States forces in the Gulf of Siam was already in progress when President Ford received word that the Cambodian government was willing to release the merchant ship Mayaguez and her crew of 39. There is considerable confusion as to why air strikes were carried out on the Cambodian mainland at almost the exact moment when the Mayaguez crew members were approaching a United States destroyer in a fishing boat.
It is apparent from the NSC minutes that President Ford and Henry Kissinger were concerned foremost with resolving the crisis in a way that enhanced the President’s and the Nation’s reputation. The rescue of the ship and crew were of secondary importance to the need to respond decisively and to resolve the crisis quickly and effectively. The crewmembers were means to an end.
Gerald Ford was still a new President and not yet tested in foreign policy, so he personally felt the need to gain a foreign policy win to secure his status and improve his popularity at home. Kissinger’s concern for reputation was more about the credibility of the country, having recently withdrawn from Vietnam, and as part of the larger Cold War competition. Kissinger believed that if the United States did not stand up to Cambodia, it would further harm the country’s credibility, weaken relations with U.S. allies in the region and elsewhere, and possibly embolden North Korea and the Soviet Union.
The problem is that while the NSC did list its priorities, nobody relayed these priorities to the planners and local commanders. Moreover, the NSC never adequately addressed a number of critical questions, including why the Khmer Rouge seized the ship, what some of the nonmilitary options were, and what the potential risks of military action were.
The Cambodian government said that it had decided to let the Mayaguez go because “our country cannot have a confrontation with the U.S.A.” Information Minister Hou Nim accused the United States of systematic spying on Cambodia since the Communist takeover and he said the Mayaguez was only one of several spy vessels that had been seized in the Gulf of Siam.
Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktaş said it would be impossible for all 200,000 Greek Cypriot refugees to return to the Turkish-occupied north of the island of Cyprus. He told a group of Austrian newsmen in the Turkish quarter of divided Nicosia, “In Vienna last month, I offered the return of 10,000 of them, but the Greek side refused this.” On the return of all Greek refugees, he said, “It would mean there would be no Turkish region.”
The commander of the Portuguese air force, an outspoken moderate, has been relieved of his post and expelled from the ruling Revolutionary Council by the leftists who dominate it. Senior officers familiar with the case said that Gen. Narciso Mendes Dias was forced out for his open dissidence within the council over its leftist course. He was replaced by Morais da Silva, the pick of the radical faction.
Ten Spanish army officers and men have been captured by guerrillas, and Moroccan troops fired rockets at two Spanish helicopters, Spanish Sahara Governor Federico Gomez de Salazar said. The incidents coincided with a visit to El Aaiun by a U.N. fact-finding mission investigating conditions in this phosphate-rich Spanish colony, claimed by Morocco and Mauritania.
Hungarian Premier Jenoe Fock resigned after eight years and was replaced by Dep. Premier Gyoergy Lazar. The government said it had accepted Fock’s request for retirement “considering his state of health.” Fock, 59, is a member of the ruling Communist Party’s Politburo.
Armed thieves entered the Gallery of Modern Art in Milan’s Municipal Villa for the second time in three months and escaped with 38 paintings, including many of the famous Impressionist works stolen in the previous raid and that were only recently recovered.
A parked Arab‐owned bus was burned last night in the Old City of Jerusalem, and a short while later a man telephoned newspaper offices, the state radio and some leading citizens and said the arson had been the work of a new counterterrorist organization. He said the new group, called Terror for Terror, an Eye for an Eye, had burned the bus in retaliation for the burning of a Jewish‐owned bus in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank of Jordan, earlier this week. He said similar retaliatory operations were planned as response to other Arab terrorist attacks. The police tended at first to dismiss the caller ash prankster, but then a piece of wood with an inscription, “Terror Against Terror,” and a six‐pointed Jewish star was found near the burned‐out bus. A police spokesman said the matter was under investigation. The Minister of Police, Shlomo Hillel, denounced the reputed group as “brainless and senseless.” He pledged vigorous action against it.
Lebanese Premier Rashid al‐Solh resigned today, placing full responsibility for serious fighting here last month on the right‐wing Phalangist party, whose militia battled Palestinian guerrillas for several days. Mr. Solh, a Moslem, said in a statement before 89 of the 99 members of the Lebanese Parliament that Muslim officers should be given an equal role with Christian officers in command of the armed forces, and he proposed that many longtime Muslim residents be given citizenship. His resignation was a result of criticism of the government’s ineffectiveness in halting the fighting.
As he left the rostrum, Mr. Solh was manhandled by members of the Phalangist party, but he broke loose and departed for the Presidential Palace to submit his resignation to President Suleiman Franjieh. The resignation heightened Lebanon’s chronic political crisis. It was unclear which of the Moslem political leaders could be persuaded by President Franjieh to form a new government. By tradition, the Premier of Lebanon is a Sunni Muslim and the President is a Maronite Christian. There is apprehension of a new outbreak of violence. Incidents have been occurring almost daily despite a ceasefire agreement and efforts at mediation by religious and civic leaders of the Christian and Muslim communities.
An officer in Al Fatah, the Palestinian guerrilla group, was killed in Beirut today in an explosion in his automobile as he drove through a Muslim district. The victim, Ahmed Rahmeh, was identified as a captain in Al Fatah. He arrived here recently from Israeli‐occupied Gaza. “We think his car was boobytrapped by Israeli agents,” a spokesman of the Palestine Liberation Organization said. A series of Israeli raids across Lebanon’s southern border during the last three days, in which at least six persons were taken to Israel for guestioning, has added to the tension here and a sense of weakness of the Lebanese Government.
The Soviet Union and Libya, in a joint communique issued in Tripoli, demanded the closing of all foreign military bases in the Mediterranean. The demand came at the conclusion of a visit to Libya by Soviet Premier Alexei N. Kosygin, who went on to Tunisia after five hours of talks with Libyan leaders. Kosygin also pledged continued Soviet aid to Arab nations, according to the communique.
Iraqi forces have executed 38 Kurdish captives and a Kurdish military commander who had returned from Iran to seek amnesty, according to reliable reports from Baghdad. The information, made available in Beirut, described the first confirmed reprisal killings since the Kurdish revolt collapsed on March 25 and a general amnesty was proclaimed by the Iraqi government. The 38 executed Kurds had been captured behind Iraqi lines shortly before the revolt ended.
President Ford and the Shah of Iran discussed the outlook for Middle East peace today and the White House said later that both leaders were worried about a” possible “stalemate” in efforts to obtain an Arab‐Israeli settlement. But the White House said Mr. Ford told the Shah during their 95‐minute meeting in the Oval Office that the United States would “continue to play an active role” in the attempts to gain permanent peace in the Middle East — an allusion to the President’s scheduled talks with President Anwar el‐Sadat of Egypt and the Isreali Premier, Yitzhak Rabin, next month. In a statement, the White House also said that Mr. Ford and the Shah had agreed that “close consultation and cooperation would be continued and intensified” between their two nations, coupled with increasing trade. Mr. Ford, along with Secretary of State Kissinger, met with the Shah soon after he arrived on an official visit.
“It’s really very hard for us to understand,” said Dolly Saxbe, wife of William B. Saxbe, the U.S. ambassador to India. “We always think we’re the good guys, but, as a government, we’re not very popular in India.” Mrs. Saxbe, home in Mechanicsburg, Ohio, for a visit, said the only thing she did not like about India was the animosity toward the United States. But she is enthusiastic about the people, culture and food. She said the Indians “were gleeful” over the fall of South Vietnam, delighted that the United States got our comeuppance.” Mrs. Saxbe also cited a little of the “rich relative” reaction to all the humanitarian assistance the United States has given India, and a little “snobbery” left over from English rule.
Laotian student demonstrators who seized three American aid officials Wednesday in Savannakhet, a city in central Laos, have reportedly allowed them to go to their homes under voluntary house arrest. But they are demanding that the Americans testify against Laotian officials at a hearing into corruption charges.
Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos favors a civilian trial for former Senator Benigno S. Aquino, who has refused to face a military tribunal after 31 months of martial law detention, an American lawyer who saw both men said in Manila. William J. Butler, New York attorney, quoted Marcos as preferring a civilian court for his long-time political opponent, who is accused of subversion, murder and illegal possession of firearms.
A former British black‐power leader, Michael Abdul Malik, has failed in his bid for clemency and will be hanged for murder, it was announced late today. Mr. Malik, who is 41 years old, and was known as Michael X in London’s black districts, has been in death row here for 33 months. The five‐member committee that reviewed Mr. Malik’s death sentence for the machete slaying of a barber three year ago, rejected his appeal that hanging was a cruel and unconstitutional form of punishment.
Mexico accused the United States of “bad taste” in staging a large underground test explosion at the same time a conference is reviewing the 1968 treaty banning the spread of nuclear weapons. “This is in very bad taste… I am sure the test was not so urgent it could not have waited until after the end of the conference,” Mexico’s chief delegate, Ambassador Alfonso Garcia Robles, commented before going into a conference committee meeting in Geneva.
The Federal Reserve Board announced a reduction in its discount rate to 6 percent from 6¼ percent — its first overt move toward easier money since early March. The announcement was made after the board reported that industrial production continued to decline in April, but much less sharply than in the preceding months.
Treasury Secretary William Simon said that he had conducted an “analysis” of what the effect would be if New York City defaulted on its obligations and had concluded that the impact on the national economy would be “negligible.”
The Senate voted overwhelmingly today to create an agency giving consumers a strong and independent voice inside the Federal Government. The bill, passed 61 to 28, now goes to the House. The legislation would set up an agency for consumer advocacy with authority to represent cosnumers before the regulatory agencies and in the courts and to serve as a clearinghouse for consumer information and complaints. The bill would give the new agency a three‐year life span and a total $60‐million authorization. Congress would have the opportunity to review its record and continue it or shelve it after the time limit expired.
William E. Colby, Director of Central Intelligence, presented the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence today an “overview” of the covert operations of the Central Intelligence Agency in the last 30 years at a closed hearing here. Mr. Colby bustled past newsmen in the Capitol at 1:40 PM accompanied by three aides, two of whom bore large black leatherette chart cases. He began his testimony about 15 minutes later, according to a committee press spokesman, and left the hearing shortly before 4 PM. He declined to comment on his testimony. Mr. Colby was the first witness in the first formal hearing of the Senate committee. Later, the committee chairman, Senator Frank Chûrch, Democrat of Idaho, told newsmen that what he heard today “I’d known about before” and that nothing startled him in today’s testimony. He also said Mr. Colby completed his introductory remarks today and would return next week to permit the Senators to ask questions.
Robert Strauss, national chairman of the Democratic Party, called President Ford incompetent and indifferent and said he was “totally ill-equipped” to lead the nation. Strauss, speaking to reporters in Washington, D.C., said he was not referring to Mr. Ford’s handling of the seizure of a U.S. ship by Cambodia but to his general leadership and domestic policy.
Congress has not taken one single step toward increasing the nation’s energy supply since the crisis began. a Houston oil man told an energy forum of the U.S. National Committee of the World Energy Conference in Washington. Instead, it has put up “every conceivable roadblock” to the development of new energy sources. said Michael T. Halbouty. “I shudder to think what will happen to the United States if we reach a 50% final dependence on foreign energy supplies,” he said.
A new proposed university to train doctors for the armed services should be scrapped because its graduates would be too expensive, the Defense Manpower Commission recommended. The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences is a longtime pet project of Rep. F. Edward Hebert (D-Louisiana), who was deposed this year as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. A report said the cost of the school had ballooned to well over double the expected $100 million and the cost per graduate could reach $200,000.
A land fraud scheme that allegedly has bilked thousands of persons of millions of dollars will not be stopped until “a lot of attorneys, bankers, brokers and appraisers” are put in jail, a Florida state prosecutor said in Tallahassee. “We feel there is a definite conspiracy between those groups,” said Louis St. Laurent, an assistant state attorney. He added that officials were close to beginning presentation of their case to the grand jury. And there is hard evidence that organized crime also is involved in the scheme, another official reported. The fraud allegedly involved the sale of high-interest corporate notes secured by fake first mortgages on lots in Florida land developments.
Authorities hunted 11 accused felons, three of them charged with murder, as an investigation got under way of a mass breakout of the Cook County (Chicago) Jail. Seventeen inmates chopped their way through a foot-thick brick wall of a laundry room and cut through a chain-link fence before dispersing into the night. No alarm sounded and they had an hour’s start before prison guards discovered their absence during a nightly head count. Six of them were caught shortly afterwards. An official said the daring escape was made “through a combination of our negligence, their cunning and their ability to seize an opportunity.”
An excessive delay by New Jersey state police in closing a smoke-filled section of turnpike contributed to a series of collisions in 1973 that killed nine persons and injured 39 others, the National Transportation Safety Board said. Sixty-six vehicles were involved in the series of collisions the night of October 23-24 during limited visibility caused by heavy smoke from a burning dump at Hackensack Meadowlands and by fog. A report said the police did not close the roadway until more than two hours after the first accident.
A large amount of money, perhaps more than $500,000, was stolen from a Wells Fargo Co. armored truck stopped to make a routine cash pickup near downtown Memphis, police said. The money and a part-time guard who had been in the back of the truck disappeared while two other guards were inside a vending machine company, police said. One man was apprehended in a car shortly afterward and was held without charge for investigation and police were looking for the part-time guard. FBI agent Ted Gunderson said money bags, a Wells Fargo uniform and some checks were recovered, but no cash.
A lawyer for Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis said in New York that the former First Lady has no intention of taking legal steps to resume using the name of her first husband, President John F. Kennedy. A gossip columnist for the London Daily Express had reported she would drop the name of the late Greek shipping magnate, Aristotle Onassis. “There is no such intention,” the lawyer said. “So much fiction has been written about Mrs. Onassis in the past month that it’s almost impossible to keep up with it.”
“Star Trek: The Animated Series,” the Star Trek franchise’s second series, won the franchise’s first Emmy Award.
What started as an anticlimax tonight turned into another victory for the defending Stanley Cup champions. Cramming all their goals into the last 17 minutes, the Philadelphia Flyers captured the first game of the National Hockey League championship playoffs by beating the Buffalo Sabres, 4–1.
Major League Baseball:
Steve Busby was lucky; Luis Tiant wasn’t. The result was a 3–0 victory for the Kansas City Royals over the Red Sox in Boston’s Fenway Park last night before 10,200 fans. Busby, whose 22 victories last season were the most in Kansas City’s history, struck out five and walked two. Jim Rice, Boston’s designated hitter, was a strike‐out victim twice.
The Brewers won two from the Rangers, 3–2 in 15 innings, and 8–5 in the nitecap. Jackie Brown hit Don Money with a patch with the bases loaded in the 15th inning, forcing home the winning run in the completion of Wednesday night’s game. It had been suspended by curfew at the end of the 14th. The Brewers also won the regularly scheduled game as Henry Aaron drove in four runs with a sacrifice fly and a three‐run homer, the 737th of his 22‐year‐major league career.
The Twins edged the Indians, 7–6. Rod Carew singled home the deciding run with two out in the ninth inning and scored two runs in the Twins triumph. Carew’s hit came after Steve Braun walked and was replaced by Dan Ford, a pinch‐runner. Ford had moved to second on a sacrifice by Danny Thompson. Jim Perry, (1–6), was the loser after replacing Don Hood in the fourth.
The Phillies swept the Reds, 6–3 and 5–3. Ollie Brown pinch‐hit a three‐run homer with two out in the ninth inning to cap Phil adelphia’s four‐run rally, and Tug McGraw got the decision with two innings of shutout relief in the first game. McGraw came back with another scoreless two ‐ inning relief effort in the second game to save Gene Garber’s victory on an unearned run in the seventh.
The Cubs beat the Astros, 4–2. Tim Hosey doubled down the leftfield line in the eighth inning, driving in two runs that carried the Cubs and Rick Reuschel to victory. Reuschel, who had a no‐hitter until two were out in the sixth, gave up three hits. walked two and struck out five in evening his record at 3–3. Mosley’s tiebreaking two‐bagger scored Jerry Morales and Pete LaCock, and the triumph gave the Eastern Division leading Cubs a 20‐10 record and a three‐game lead over idle Pittsburgh.
At Parc Jarry, a rain delay in the 4th inning becomes a successful protest when Atlanta manager Clyde King protests that the umpires didn’t wait long enough nor did they physically test the field. The Braves are ahead, 4–1, but the Expos just scored after the first two batters in the inning hit safely. The game will be resumed on July 20 and Atlanta will win, 5–4. As noted by Frank Vaccaro, this is one of a record 7 suspended games this year. One other, today’s Milwaukee-Texas game, is suspended after 14 innings and completed tomorrow.
After suffering eight defeats in 10 American League games on the road, the Yankees came back to Shea Stadium last night and roughed up their landlords, the Mets, 9–4, in the 13th annual Mayor’s Trophy game.
Kansas City Royals 3, Boston Red Sox 0
Houston Astros 2, Chicago Cubs 4
Cleveland Indians 6, Minnesota Twins 7
Atlanta Braves 5, Montreal Expos 4
Cincinnati Reds 3, Philadelphia Phillies 6
Cincinnati Reds 3, Philadelphia Phillies 5
Milwaukee Brewers 8, Texas Rangers 5
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 848.80 (-9.93, -1.16%)
Born:
Ray Lewis, NFL linebacker (Pro Football Hall of Fame, inducted 2018; NFL Champions-Ravens, Super Bowl 35 [MVP], 2000, Super Bowl 47, 2012; Pro Bowl, 1997-2001, 2003, 2004, 2007-2011; Baltimore Ravens), in Bartow, Florida.
Steve Woodard, MLB pitcher (Milwaukee Brewers, Cleveland Indians, Texas Rangers, Boston Red Sox), in Hartselle, Alabama.
Graham Koonce, MLB first baseman (Oakland A’s), in El Cajon, California.
History Diaries 