At the conclusion of the meeting of the heads of state of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Brussels, President Ford said he found that the Atlantic allies consider the United States commitment “firm and vigorous,” despite what he called recent “traumatic experiences” in Indochina. Mr. Ford told a news conference that “many allies stressed that they did not feel the need of any special American reassurance” and that “their confidence is fully justified.” While the intensive private talks on the edges of the summit meeting focused on such trouble‐spots as Portugal and the Greek‐Turkish dispute, there was a parallel concentration in the formal sessions on the continued importance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the need to strengthen it to make détente work between East and West. That was reflected in the communiqué. For the first time in many years, the final communiqué was issued without prolonged discussion. Mr. Ford said he was “struck by the fact that all allies stressed common interests even when — as in the case of Greece and Turkey — there exist differences in particular instances.”
Sixty‐five nations today ended a four‐week review of how well the five‐year‐old treaty to halt the spread of nuclear weapons has worked. Most of them registered strong dissatisfaction. Because of their disappointment at the failure of the United States and the Soviet Union to undertake new commitments to curb their nuclear arsenals the majority delayed the closing session for more than two hours. The majority, consisting of nonnuclear countries that call themselves nonaligned, finally agreed to permit the adoption by consensus of a final declaration but only after stressing that it was in deference to mediation efforts of the session’s president, Inga Thorsson, Sweden’s Foreign Under Secretary.
Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of West Germany declared today that the Atlantic alliance was threatened “more by the world economic situation than in any particular geographical area,” and called for more coordination in economic policies. Mr. Schmidt’s remarks at the summit meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization won the concurrence of President Ford and Prime Minister Harold Wilson of Britain, among others. At a press conference later, Mr. Ford said: “We very much agree with Chancellor Schmidt — we feel that this political forum is a good and suitable one in which to have a broad discussion of the approaches.” Mr. Schmidt made a similarly pessimistic speech about the threat of a world recession here a year ago. Today, he said, “some countries are more on the edge of a depression than in a recession.”
Portugal’s leftist military rulers and the strong Socialist party reached an agreement that could ease tensions threatening the provisional government. The move was seen in Lisbon as further evidence that the armed forces were retreating from the brink of radical solutions to political and economic problems. A statement issued later said the military recognized that there were “distortions” in the political structure.
The military committee of the Norwegian Parliament tonight recommended the purchase of 72 American F‐16 fighter planes to replace the country’s F‐104’s. With the recommendation, Norway virtually committed herself to the General Dynamic F‐16 instead of the French Mirage or the Swedish Saab Viggen. The action increased the F‐16’s lead in the competition for a $2‐billion order for 350 planes to be placed by Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium.
The United States plans to continue flights of high‐altitude U‐2 reconnaissance planes over Western Europe despite the crash of one of them in West Germany yesterday. The Defense Department made this known as it said that the planes’ mission was to test electronic navigation equipment. A different explanation was given by a highly placed Government source, who said the plane that crashed was conducting a new kind of electronic surveillance with the aim of locating potential ground targets for missile or bombing strikes in any conflict between NATO and Warsaw Pact forces.
The European Space Agency (ESA) is formed.
The Premier designated to resolve Lebanon’s political crisis has encountered trouble in forming a cabinet. At the same time, new shooting incidents today closed shops and banks in Beirut after a day of relative order. The cabinet problem involves the insistence of Christian political leaders that the right‐wing Phalangist party be included. Most Muslim factions are opposed to working with the Phalangists. Rashid Karami, who was designated Premier on Wednesday with strong Muslim support after a cabinet of military officers resigned, met with President Suleiman Franjieh. They discussed his consultations with party leaders on the formation of a cabinet that could win support in Parliament. After the meeting, Mr. Karami said the consultations were continuing and that he would report again to the President. But he did not say when. Political sources said Mr. Karami, who has been Premier eight times before, had encountered difficulties.
For the first time in eight years, the Suez Canal became navigable once more, after the last two ships, trapped since the Six-Day War of 1967, were raised and removed. The British freighters Scottish Star and Port Invercargill, were towed 60 miles from the Great Bitter Lake to Port Said. The Suez Canal would officially reopen on June 5.
Foreign Minister Ismail Fahmy of Egypt today urged the United States to announce a position of its own on the Middle East, including recognition of the principle that no country must be allowed to acquire territory by armed force. He added that having clone so the United States must then act forcefully to help bring about an equitable settlement. This, in gist, is the request that President Anwar el‐Sadat will put to President Ford when they meet in Salzburg on Sunday, Mr. Fahmy indicated in an interview. Until now, Secretary of State Kissinger has been acting as a mediator between Israel and Egypt, without ever stating an American position on what the settlement should be. Mr. Sadat arrived here this morning for talks with the Austrian Chancellor, Bruno Kreisky.
South Vietnam’s new government is expected to take office on Friday, June 6, the sixth anniversary of its founding in the Vietnam jungles, officials said today. The nation has been run since the fall of Saigon on April 30 by the military. Government sources said the Provisional Revolutionary Government and its advisory board will probably be introduced at a Saigon ceremony next Friday. Government members have been in Saigon for several weeks formulating new policies for South Vietnam. They have held major planning conferences with their counterparts from North Vietnam.
The United States Ambassador to South Vietnam, Graham A. Martin, promised helicopter evacuation last month for 150 top South Vietnamese policemen, but the aircraft never arrived, sources directly involved in the operation said today.
Top officials throughout the Laotian administration in Vientiane are resigning under pressure of demonstrators as the Communist-led Pathet Lao increasingly solidify their control over the government. The forced resignations were described as “virtual purges” by many persons inside and outside the government.
Eighty-two Cambodian military men, most of them fliers, returned to their country voluntarily today after six weeks of exile in Thailand. Many who passed through this border village said they were going because they had left their wives and children behind.
Retired Major General Edward G. Lansdale said tonight that in late 1961, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, acting on behalf of President Kennedy, ordered him to prepare contingency plans to depose Premier Fidel Castro of Cuba. In a telephone interview, General Lansdale said that at no time did he receive orders from either of the Kennedy brothers to plan an assassination of the Cuban leader. But he said that in the later operational planning the matter of assassination as one means of removing Mr. Castro from power may have been contemplated. He said that to his knowledge no plan to assassinate Mr. Castro had ever been approved by any high member of the Kennedy Administration.
The general said that in November or December, 1961, he was asked by Robert Kennedy to prepare a contingency plan to remove a leader whose actions “might endanger millions of Americans.” The leader, he acknowledged, was Mr. Castro. He said that the planning had centered on selecting a tight cadre of Cubans from the exile groups coming into the United States who were politically cohesive and might be able to start a popular uprising against Mr. Castro in Cuba.
With less than a month to go before Rhodesia’s main economic lifeline may be severed, there is no evidence that the black nationalists and the government, which is controlled by the white minority, are making progress toward settlement of their long constitutional dispute. The Prime Minister, Ian D. Smith, appeared in a speech today to give the black nationalists a two‐week ultimatum to begin serious negotiations and accused them of stalling. But in the last six months Mr. Smith has repeatedly taken steps that have made the convening of a constitutional conference almost impossible. Last Saturday he did so again by arresting a black politician who returned after two years’ exile.
African countries accused South Africa in the Security Council today of continuing to flout United Nations demands that it give up control over neighboring South‐West Africa. They called for tougher action by the Council, such as mandatory sanctions to compel South Africa to end its administration of the former German colony that they call by its African name, Namibia. Under a Council resolution adopted last year, South Africa was ordered to take steps to transfer power to the Namibians before May 30, when the issue would be reviewed, or face “appropriate” measures.
Revised projections for the United States economy for 1976 and for the rest of this decade that were a little less gloomy than those issued last February were published by the administration. But it was still estimated that unemployment would average 7.9 percent of the labor force in 1976, an election year, despite an economic growth rate of 6.3 percent projected for next year. The administration also issued revised budget projections for fiscal year 1976, estimating a deficit of $59.9 billion. High officials, however, conceded that the figures were essentially meaningless for a variety of reasons.
The Agriculture Department reported that prices farmers receive for raw agricultural products climbed 5 percent from April 15 to May 15, the second consecutive monthly increase. The department’s Crop Reporting Board said that higher prices for cattle, hogs, cotton, apples and calves contributed most to the increase.
Layoffs declined and new hirings and recalls picked up in manufacturing during April, the Labor Department said today. The April layoff rate was 25 per 1,000 workers, down from 28 in March, and the third consecutive month of decline. The rate for new hiring, recalls and internal transfers rose from 35 per 1,000 workers to 39 per 1,000 in April, the fourth consecutive monthly increase New hirings rose from 15 to 17 per 1,000 workers between March and April. The data are encouraging, since manufacturing is a sector of the economy in which unemployment reached a high 12.2 per cent in April.
Four‐hundred thousand more persons joined the food stamp program last month, bringing the total enrollment to 19.6 million, the Department of Agriculture reported today. The adjusted enrollment figure for March showed that 19.2 million persons were enrolled at that time. While the food stamp program continues to grow, the rate at which people are entering the program appears to be slowing down. Last January, for example, 700,000 new recipients were signed up. One year ago, 13.7 million persons were receiving the food purchase coupons, which they buy from the federal government and redeem at retail grocery stores for food worth more than they pay for the stamps.
Russell E. Train, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said today that “significant progress” had been made toward cleaning up the nation’s air, but that there was “still a long way to go” before health-related primary standards on six pollutants were met in urban and industrial areas. Under the Clean Air Act of 1970, those standards were to have been achieved by tomorrow through state implementation plans for stationary sources and Federal limitations on auto emissions. In a “progress report” at a news conference today, Mr. Train gave figures to support his claims of achievement and his admission of failure to realize the targets set four and a half years ago.
Attorney General Edward H. Levi named today Henry S. Dogin, a Deputy Assistant Attorney General and a former assistant district attorney in Manhattan, as acting director of the Drug Enforcement Administration, which is responsible for the Federal campaign against the illicit drug traffic. In a brief announcement late this afternoon, Mr. Levi appointed Mr. Dogin, 40 years old, a graduate of Columbia University Law School and Cornell University, to head an agency that has been severely criticized in recent months. The appointment came only a few hours after the forced resignation of the previous administrator, John R. Bartels Jr., had become official.
The Chrysler Corporation said today that it would extend its $200 rebates on compact cars into June “because of the success of the program during May.”
In another development, the Ford Motor Company said it would halt production on three assembly lines beginning Monday for one week. Layoffs in the industry will rise to 166,466 next week after dropping to a 1975 low of 159,725 this week.
Bankers who, with investors, were members of an advisory group to the New York City Controller, expressed alarm over the city’s financial problems as far back as April, 1974, and in several subsequent meetings with Mayor Beame sought to convince him of the gravity of the situation. Confidential minutes of the meetings show strong differences of opinion between the Mayor and the bankers, especially over the issue of deficit financing. Mr. Beame said three times that it was the obligation of the bankers to “sell the city to the rest of the country.”
The hostess and a guest at a midday card party identified Joseph Kallinger in court today in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania as the intruder who bound and robbed them last December 3. The hostess, Mrs. Henry Bogin, said Mr. Kallinger had tied her to a bed frame, blindfolded her with adhesive tape, gagged her and knifed her in the chest and then burglarized her house. Mr. Kallinger, a Philadelphia cobbler, is accused of committing this and four other crimes last winter, together with his 13‐year‐old son, Michael.
Some close advisers to former President Richard M. Nixon have urged him to establish a new base of operations in New York, The Los Angeles Times says. Mr. Nixon has resided at his seaside estate in San Clemente, about 75 miles south of Los Angeles, since he resigned the Presidency last year. In an article today, The Times said Mr. Nixon had made no decisions yet on selling his estate in San Clemente, moving to New York or retaining his estate and setting up an office on the Fast Coast.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development, not satisfied that the idea of urban homesteading has been fully tested, will invite about 10 communities across the nation to take part in a $5-million demonstration beginning this summer.
The five-team International Volleyball Association (IVA) played its very first game before a crowd of 2,451 as the San Diego Breakers defeated the visiting El Paso – Juarez Sol in a five-game match, 11-13, 12-10, 12-6, 8-12 and 12-1.
Steve Prefontaine, America’s finest distance runner and an outspoken critic of the track and field establishment, died early yesterday morning in an automobile accident in Eugene, Oregon. The 24‐year‐old Prefontaine had won a 5,000‐meter race about four hours before at Hayward Field in Eugene, his favorite track. He then attended a party for six Finnish athletes he had brought to America to compete. After taking a woman friend home, he was driving on a residential street at about 12:30 AM. His convertible jumped a curb, hit a rock embankment and flipped. Prefontaine was pinned under the car.
Major League Baseball:
Willie McCovey’s broken-bat grand slam off Bob Apodaca lifts the Padres over the Mets 6–2. It is McCovey’s 3rd career pinch slam, tying the Major League record held by Ron Northey and Rich Reese. It is Stretch’s 16th lifetime bases-loaded homer, tying the National League record held by Aaron.
A pinch‐hit leadoff double by Pittsburgh’s Richie Hebner and another pinch‐single by Ed Kirkpatrick snapped a 1–1 tie and pushed the Pirates 3 percentage points past the Chicago Cubs, who had held the division lead for most of the season. The 2–1 triumph earned Jerry Reuss his fourth victory against four defeats. The leftbander scattered eight hits — three by Ralph Garr—and fanned seven. The Atlanta run came in the second on a single by Larvell Blanks, a walk, a sacrifice and an infield single by Garr.
The Astros and Doug Konieczny, a 23‐year‐old right‐hander, blanked the Phillies on seven hits, 5–0, and won for the third time against six defeats, striking out eight Phillies. Milt May gave him plenty of assistance with a pair of doubles that accounted for three Houston runs. A three‐run rally in the seventh against Jim Lonborg wrapped up the decision for the Astros.
The Cardinals edged the Reds, 5–4. Reggie Smith hit his sixth home run in six games since May 4 and Lou Brock singled in the winning run in the ninth inning to snap Cincinnati’s winning streak at seven games.
Darkness at Wrigley Field forced the suspension of the game between Los Angeles and Chicago with the Dodgers leading the Cubs, 3–1. Steve Garvey slapped two doubles and a single and scored twice leading a 10‐hit Los Angeles attack. Dave Lopes hit his third homer for the other Dodger run. Don Sutton, bidding for his ninth victory, gave the Cubs only five hits. The game will be completed tomorrow without further scoring before the start of a regularly scheduled contest.
Two well‐placed hits in the ninth inning tonight gave the Rangers a 6–5 victory over the Yankees after Texas had rallied three times to tie the game. Toby Harrah opened the ninth with a line drive that hit at the base of the foul pole in left field and out of the reach of Roy White, the Yanks’ left fielder. Roy Howell, the Rangers’ rookie third baseman, got his third single and fifth run batted in of the night when his hit fell a foot fair and just out of the reaches of Graig Nettles and White. The hits came off Sparky Lyle, who absorbed his fourth loss against one victory. Lyle had given up a game‐tying home run to Jeff Burroughs in the eighth.
The Twins broke a 2–2 tie in the seventh on a walk to Rod Carew, a stolen base, a run‐producing single by Tony Oliva and another scoring hit by Eric Solderholm, and went on to beat the Red Sox, 4–3. The Twins had taken a 2–0 lead in the fifth on Steve Braun’s fourth homer and Solderholm’s single. But the Red Sox tied it in the sixth on Fred Lynn’s two‐run homer, his seventh of the season.
The Orioles blanked the Angels, 5–0, as Jim Palmer hurled his fourth shutout of the season (his second over California) with a four‐hitter for his eighth triumph. The Orioles, who have only won nine games when Palmer was not pitching, stole five bases — two each by Don Baylor and Bobby Grich.
The A’s downed the Indians, 6–2. Dick Bosman earned his second victory in six days over his old club and Reggie Jackson hit his third homer in three games for Oakland.
Deron Johnson of the White Sox homered in the second inning at Tiger Stadium only to see rain cancel the game before it was official.
Baltimore Orioles 5, California Angels 0
Los Angeles Dodgers 3, Chicago Cubs 1
Boston Red Sox 3, Minnesota Twins 4
San Diego Padres 6, New York Mets 2
Cleveland Indians 2, Oakland Athletics 6
Houston Astros 5, Philadelphia Phillies 0
Atlanta Braves 1, Pittsburgh Pirates 2
Cincinnati Reds 4, St. Louis Cardinals 5
New York Yankees 5, Texas Rangers 6
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 832.29 (+17.29, +2.12%)
Born:
CeeLo Green [stage name for Thomas D. Callaway], American singer-songwriter, pianist, producer, and actor; in Atlanta, Georgia.
Marissa Mayer, American technology executive (CEO of Yahoo, designed Google home page), in Wausau, Wisconsin.
Dainon Sidney, NFL defensive back (Tennessee Oilers-Titans, Buffalo Bills), in Atlanta, Georgia.
Evan Eschmeyer, NBA center (New Jersey Nets, Dallas Mavericks), in New Knoxville, Ohio.
Died:
Steve Prefontaine, 24, American long distance runner described as “holder of every American distance record above 2000 meters”, was killed in an auto accident at the intersection of Skyline Boulevard and Birch Lane in Eugene, Oregon, after crashing into a rock wall and being pinned beneath his vehicle. Prefontaine, who held the U.S. records for the 5000m and 10000m races, as well as for two, three and six miles, died hours after having run the second fastest 5000m race in NCAA history. An autopsy showed that he had a blood alcohol level of .16.
Michel Simon, 80, French actor (“Panic”, “Plague”, “Two of Us”).
Tatsuo Shimabuku, 66, founder of Isshin-ryū form of karate.
History Diaries 