The first Apollo rocket mission since Skylab 3 lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 3:50 PM with a crew of three. In the last use of the enormous Saturn 1b rocket on a crewed mission, Donald “Deke” Slayton, Vance Brand, and Brigadier General Thomas Stafford were sent into space about eight hours after the launching of a Soyuz rocket with Alexei Leonov (the first man to walk in space) and Valeri Kubasov, who went up at 4:20 PM from the Soviet Union (7:20 AM in Florida). Slayton, who had been one of the original seven Mercury astronauts before being grounded in 1962 because of a heart murmur, radioed to ground control, “I’ll tell you, this is worth waiting 16 years for!”
The Soyuz 19 spaceship blasted off without major complications from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Soviet Kazakhstan toward its rendezvous in orbit with American astronauts, whose Apollo spacecraft was launched seven and a half hours later from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Flight controllers said the only problem with the Apollo ship was a helium bubble which should be easily eliminated. The meeting and link-up of the two vessels is scheduled to take place tomorrow.
Secretary of State Kissinger said today that “there is no alternative to coexistence” with the “Soviet Union and challenged critics to come up with a better policy in the nuclear age. In a speech in Minneapolis de voted to “the moral foundations” of American foreign policy. Mr. Kissinger used the occasion of the joint launchings of Soviet and American spacecrafts to defend efforts to improve relations with Moscow, despite continued differences between the two countries. The text of his speech today was made available here and newsmen were able to listen to a closed‐circuit account of a news conference later. Then Mr. Kissinger left Minneapolis to return to Milwaukee to throw out the first ball at the All‐Star game tonight. Apparently referring to, among others. Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, the exiled Soviet novelist who has called détente a smoke screen for Soviet repression, Mr. Kissinger said: “Today again courageous voices remind us of the nature of the Soviet system and of our duty to defend freedom. About this there is no disagreement.” But Mr. Kissinger quickly added that “in an era of strategic nuclear balance—when both sides have the capacity to destroy civilized life—there is no alternative to coexistence.”
The Department of Agriculture told other government agencies that U.S. grain supplies might be adequate to withstand Soviet purchases of as much as 14 million tons, it was learned in Washington. The suggestion that it might be safe to set a limit that high-substantially higher than any mentioned publicly since last week’s news of Soviet grain bargaining-has run into sharp opposition from a number of agencies represented on the Economic Policy Board.
Foreign ministers of the nine European Common Market countries agreed in Brussels to spend about $70 million for joint research between 1976 and 1979 on new sources of energy. The research will concentrate on the possibilities of energy from hydrogen, and the natural heat of the earth and the sun. Research is carried out at centers in Ispra, Italy; Petten, the Netherlands, and Karlsruhe, West Germany.
The poppy harvest is beginning in Turkey, and American officials are cautiously optimistic about the chances of controlling the illicit sale of opium gum, the raw material for heroin. Their optimism is based mainly on Turkey’s desire to show the world that it can stem the, drug traffic. As one official put it: “They’ve had a difficult time controlling smuggling in the past, but the motivation was lacking. Now they realize that they’re in the International limelight, and that the United States and Western Europe have a vested interest in what happens this year.” In recent weeks dozens of farmers have been arrested for planting more poppies than allowed by law, and the government has been quick to publicize the seizures. The arrests could indicate an active enforcement program, but they could also indicate that many farmers are trying to defeat the system.
A conference of 40 Islamic countries called early today for the expulsion of Israel from the United Nations and all other international bodies. A resolution entitled the “Question of Palestine” was adopted without dissent by the foreign ministers or their deputies from Muslim countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia — among them Turkey and Iran. The action was hailed as victory by the delegation of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which had put forward a draft resolution on the question. The resolution, like the one adopted at an Arab summit conference at Rabat, Morocco, last year, recognized the P.L.O. as the sole legitimate representative of the rights of the Palestinian people to establish an “independent national authority” in territories now occupied by Israel.
Administration officials told skeptical senators that the proposed sale of more than 800 antiaircraft missiles and guns to Jordan was to help King Hussein protect his kingdom from possible Israeli or Arab attacks and not for use in an offensive against Israel. They were testifying against resolutions to block the sale of $350 million worth of Hawk and Redeye missiles and Vulcan guns to Jordan.
Foreign Minister Ismail Fahmy announced in Cairo that Egypt would refuse to renew the mandate of the United Nations peace-keeping force in Sinai unless the Security Council acted to secure speedy Israeli withdrawal from occupied Arab territories. The present mandate expires July 24. He accused Israel of procrastination and obstruction of further steps toward peace. Cairo officials have been angered by reports from Tel Aviv that it might take several more months to conclude an agreement.
A radical Marxist Palestinian organization declared today that a Lebanese killed in Paris in the “Carlos” affair earlier this month was not a police informer but a “comrade” who went knowingly to his death. The weekly organ of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine also said that the 34‐year‐old Lebanese, Michel Moukarbel, was interrogated by Lebanese police authorities for five days in Beirut last month and then turned over to Paris police officials.
An Indian diffidently approached a group of American and British reporters standing outside a courtroom and interviewing a lawyer involved in the suit against Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Drawing a sheaf of paper from beneath the folds of his long flowing shirt, he whispered, “Read it later,” thrust it into the hands of one of the foreigners and slipped away into the crowd. The document turned out to be a six‐page letter from a man who said he used to be a personal assistant to Mrs. Gandhi and now accused her of having dealt “a real death blow to democracy.” While the charges in the case, due to be heard on appeal August 11, covered what has become familiar ground, the incident reflected something that sources with long experience say is a new quality in the daily life of India: Caution or, in many cases, fear. Before Mrs. Gandhi’s Government declared a state of emergency nearly three weeks ago, veering abruptly toward authoritarianism, this was a voluble and open society in which the press was free, dissent was animated and political arguments could rage all night. Now some people will not talk about politics at all. Others will, but they insist that the conversations be off the record, which used to be unusual.
In what appeared to be a major statement on the case for reunification of North and South Vietnam, the official North Vietnamese press agency said today that “almost all” the people in the South wanted to join the North and that historic ties between the two halves of the country outweighed any differences. The article gave no timetable for bringing the North and South together. But it said that “the process can be considerably shortened” if “classical methods” are avoided and reliance placed instead on the People. The article did not define what it meant by classical methods. Previous statements by munist leaders in Hanoi and Saigon on their plans for unification have been vague, though they have indicated that South Vietnam would probably be allowed to continue its separate existence for an undetermined period before merging with the North.
Advertisers appeared today to be ending a seven-month boycott of South Korea’s largest national daily that had reportedly been inspired by the government. Sources close to the management of the mass circulations newspaper Dong‐a Ilbo said today that business representatives had told them they would now advertise because the daily had returned to what was described as the fold of national unity. Advertisers will reportedly also resume buying commercials on Radio Dong‐a, the paper’s broadcasting affiliate.
China’s procurement of military equipment has fallen sharply in recent years and Peking may have had serious production problems with a home-designed jet fighter, a congressional study said. The report, “China, an Economic Reassessment,” published by the joint Economic Committee, suggested that Chinese leaders may believe the country is secure enough to delay modernization of its aging military weapons in order to concentrate resources on overall economic development.
Đặng Văn Quang, a former South Vietnamese general facing deportation from Canada, has requested permanent residence for himself and his family in the United States, a spokesman for the U.S. consulate in Montreal said. Quang’s request was in a letter now under study by the State Department, the spokesman said.
U.S. Ambassador William S. Maillard said in San Jose, Costa Rica, that there is a strong chance that sanctions against Cuba may be lifted during a two-week conference of the Organization of American States in that city. He told a news conference that he thinks the required two-thirds majority exists to end the diplomatic and economic blockade imposed on Fidel Castro’s Communist regime 11 years ago by the OAS. The conference opens today.
The United States “artificially detoured” Hurricane Fifi to Honduras to save Florida’s tourist industry, according to Director Jorge Vivo of the geographic research center of the University of Mexico. Vivo said in an interview he held the United States responsible for 10,000 deaths caused by Fifi last October in the Central American nation. But the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration discounted Vivo’s claim and said the United States had not even seeded a hurricane for the past four years.
President Isabel Martinez de Perón has won another temporary respite from her political crisis in the last few days after ridding her Cabinet of Jose Lopez Rega, the rightwing strongman. But her opponents within the Perónist movement and in the other political parties have continued to whittle away at her weakened government. A number of labor groups have staged strikes hoping to achieve wage settlements in line with those granted the larger unions. Political violence, almost absent during the two‐week crisis, has emerged again with the assassination last night of a big‐city mayor and an aide.
Eighteen emaciated Frenchmen, freed from jail by President Ahmed Sekou Toure of Guinea, arrived in Paris but refused to speak about their imprisonment to protect four other Frenchmen still held in the West African country. Sekou Toure released the 18 men Monday to mark the resumption of relations between France and its former colony after an 11-year break.
Portugal’s military rulers prepared today to send troop reinforcements to the West African territory of Angola where fighting between two black nationalist movements in the last week has left hundreds of dead and wounded. With plans to lead the territory peacefully to independence next November virtually wrecked, the High Council of the Revolution met in emergency session last night and later announced that it had discussed the reinforcement of the 24,000 troops already stationed in Angola. The Angolan capital of Luanda was quiet after fighting between two rival African liberation movements left more than 300 people dead and 1,000 injured in the past six days. The Soviet-backed Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola was close to holding military control in Luanda. However, an army of 3,000 guerrillas of the Front for the Liberation of Angola, which has some Chinese support, was reported to be poised for a possible attack on the capital.
Industrial production, one of the most important economic indicators, turned upward in June after eight months of mostly steep decline, the Federal Reserve Board reported. A continued upswing would leave May as the low point of the recession, but it would take many months of recovery to reduce the high unemployment rate significantly. Consumer goods led last month’s gains, including some rebound in the production of automobiles.
The Senate approved stop-gap legislation that would let crude oil price controls continue until next March, and there were indications that President Ford would permit this or similar action to become law. The House also approved a bill that would set fuel-efficiency standards for automobiles and penalize manufacturers whose cars get poor gasoline mileage.
Senator Frank Church (D-Idaho), head of the Senate panel investigating the CIA, promised that an uncensored account of the CIA’s reported assassination schemes would be issued by September, even if it meant working during the August congressional recess.
The Federal Trade Commission proposed rules to help consumers become better comparison shoppers by making it easier for them to study product warranties before they made their purchases. Stores would have to keep copies of all guarantees for the customer to see. In addition, companies would have to give consumers a copy of the warranty if they asked for it by telephone or mail. Companies would also have to maintain toll-free telephone lines for dissatisfied customers and dispose of all complaints in 40 days.
The Ford Administration proposed extension of unemployment benefits to nearly 6 million more workers and guaranteeing most eligible unemployed at least half their regular pay. Taxes paid by employers to finance the benefit system would also be increased under the proposal presented to a House ways and means subcommittee by Labor Secretary John T. Dunlop.
Former CIA agent E. Howard Hunt Jr. denied that he had ever named former presidential aide Alexander P. Butterfield as a CIA contact in the White House. Hunt, now serving a federal prison term for the Watergate burglary, described as false a report by retired Colonel L. Fletcher Prouty that Hunt had made such a statement to him. The report was an “unfortunate invention on Mr. Prouty’s part,” he said.
The CIA was monitoring domestic political activities of the Socialist Workers Party as early as 1950, according to newly disclosed CIA documents. The edited files, first to be obtained by the party in its lawsuit against the CIA, suggest that the agency began to keep tabs on leftwing political organizations in the United States far earlier than the Rockefeller commission report stated. The documents are being made public by the Political Rights Defense Fund, which provides legal assistance to the Socialist Workers. The documents included reports from informers spying on anti-war activities at universities in Washington, D.C.
President Ford hailed the launchings today for the United States-Soviet space mission as a “wonderful expression of cooperation.” He sent the crews of both the United States and Soviet spacecraft a prelaunchingme ssage saying: “You will be blazing a new trail of international space cooperation.” Mr. Ford added: Your flight represents another stage in man’s efforts to further his understanding of his environment. It has already demonstrated something else — that the United States and the Soviet Union can cooperate in such an important endeavor. I am confident your efforts and example will lead to further cooperation between our two countries.”
Former Governor Ronald Reagan of California moved closer to contesting President Ford for the Republican nomination next year with the formation today of a Citizens for Reagan committee. Senator Paul D. Laxalt of Nevada, chairman of the six‐member group, said it has Mr. Reagan’s written approval of a national fund‐raising and organizational drive. Mr. Laxalt estimated at 9 out of 10 the chances that the 64‐year‐old conservative and one‐time Hollywood star would declare his candidacy later this year.
Meanwhile Sargent Shriver, the Democratic Vice‐Presidential nominee in 1972, announced the formation of a similar fund‐raising committee and advisory group to open his way into the crowded field of Democratic contenders. The co‐chairman of the Shriver committee were listed with Federal election officials as Arthur Rooney Sr., owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers footballl club, and a nominal Republican; William McCormick Blair Jr. of Washington, a former Ambassador to Denmark and the Philippines, arid Chesterfield. Smith of Florida, who, as president of the American Bar Association in 1973 and 1974, was sharply critical of former President Nikon in the Watergate affair.
The Democratic National Committee is prepared to hold the party’s 1976 convention in Madison Square Garden if problems involving the Garden’s facilities can be worked out within a month. Robert Strauss, the national chairman, said there was “a definite tilt” toward New York City. The question is whether the Garden could support the volume and kind of activity involved.
An unidentified man on National Airlines Flight 1601 committed suicide by self-immolation as the DC-10 flew from New York to Miami. The man locked himself in an airplane restroom, put fuel on himself and then set himself ablaze. Nobody else was injured as the plane made an emergency landing in Jacksonville.
A man who shot a pregnant woman during a holdup in Camden, New Jersey, was convicted of murdering the twin fetuses she was carrying. Winfield Anderson, 24, was charged with firing the shot that wounded Nikki Spearman. Her twins were born prematurely and one of them, struck in the spine by a bullet, died shortly after. The other survived 15 hours. The conviction carries a mandatory life sentence. Judge Leon A. Wingate ruled in effect that an unborn fetus could be the victim of murder and rejected a defense motion to throw out the murder charges.
F. David Mathews, secretary-designate of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, told the Senate Finance Committee during his confirmation hearings that as a “practical man” he believed forced busing had failed to achieve its goal of equality of education. “My view is that it has not produced good results,” said Mathews, 38, president of the University of Alabama.
At least 12 present and former executives of three large corporations are under investigation in the federal inquiry into alleged corruption in the grain export trade, according to sources close to the case. They are or were officers of the Bunge Corporation, Cook Industries, Inc., and Mississippi River Grain Elevator, Inc., an American affiliate of an international company. The investigation is clearly broader than had been previously apparent.
Corn husks, cornstalks and other materials left in fields after food has been harvested could produce enough fuel to power 100 million cars a year, a General Motors Corp. engineer said in a paper presented to the recent annual meeting of the American Nuclear Society. Farno Green, executive engineer on GM’s manufacturing development staff, said research by universities and private firms into alternative energy sources has indicated that the residues, processed and used as supplements to other fuels, could eliminate the need for imported oil in the United States.
An Arizona fish and game official said the list of animals on the endangered species list should be cut by 90%. Steve Gallizioli, chief of the research division of the Arizona Game and Fish Department, in an address to the 55th Annual Conference of the Western Association of State Game and Fish Commissioners in Seattle, said that many animals now listed are not really endangered and added that his department has no intention of cooperating with federal endangered species programs so long as the list remains as it is.
The chairman of Mobil Oil Corp. denied charges that the oil industry manipulated refinery output to raise gasoline prices this month. Mobil had “rational reasons” for raising prices, Chairman Rawleigh Warner said in a statement. Congressional hearings on the price increases will start this week. Some legislators have accused the industry of keeping down gasoline output in an effort to raise prices. Mobil blamed the price increase on a hike in the tariff on imports and on recovery of previous increases in operating costs.
Torrential rains pounded the New York metropolitan area for the seventh straight day. New Jersey was especially hard hit as rivers crested, and homes and factories were flooded. Crop and property damage was estimated in the millions of dollars, and Governor Byrne asked President Ford to declare the state a disaster area. In New York City, the old record for the day was surpassed when a fall of 1.58 inches was reported by 10:30. A.M.
Saensak Muangsurin of Thailand defeated World Boxing Council light welterweight champion Perico Fernández of Spain with a technical knockout (TKO) in the 8th round in a bout in Bangkok, setting a record for taking the shortest time to win the world title after going professional. His first pro bout had been eight months earlier, on November 11, 1974.
Major League Baseball:
The National League rallies for 3 runs in the 9th inning to win the All-Star Game at Milwaukee, 6–3. The Cubs Bill Madlock and the Mets Jon Matlack share the game’s MVP award.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 881.81 (+5.95, +0.68%)
Born:
Jill Halfpenny, English actress (“EastEnders”, “Humans”); in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom.
Jon Hilbert, NFL kicker (Dallas Cowboys, Carolina Panthers), in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Cherry [Kara Drew], American professional wrestler and manager, in Morristown, New Jersey.
Said Bahaji, German-Moroccan terrorist and 9/11 plotter; in Haselünne, Niedersachsen state, West Germany (d. 2013).
Died:
Charles Weidman, 73, American choreographer.
Modoc, 78, the oldest elephant in captivity, died at the San Francisco Zoo. Her story would later be novelized in 1998 in a children’s book by Ralph Helfer, Modoc: The True Story of the Greatest Elephant That Ever Lived.
History Diaries 