This Day In 1970's History: Thursday January 29, 1976
- The House, over the opposition of the Democratic leadership, yielded to the wishes of President Ford and the intelligence agencies and voted 246 to 124 to withhold the final report of the Select Committee on Intelligence until it had been censored by the executive branch. [New York Times]
- Ignoring the promise of a presidential veto, the House approved by a wide margin a $6.2 billion public works bill. Democratic leaders regarded the bill as a key antirecession measure and estimated that it could provide at least 600,000 jobs. The vote was 321 to 80, far more than the two-thirds needed to override a veto. The Senate has approved the bill. [New York Times]
- Secretary of State Henry Kissinger testified before the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Africa and said that the administration "is now seriously considering" open financial aid to two Angolan factions fighting a Soviet-supported nationalist movement. He said the overt assistance would have to be "considerably larger" than the $32 million sent the two groups covertly by the United States last year. [New York Times]
- In an article in Izvestia, the Soviet Union made known its willingness to accept a political settlement in Angola and said that its position was shared by the Soviet-backed Luanda government. This view, the article said, did not represent a change in Soviet policy, but in both wording and timing -- less than a week after visits to Moscow by the Luanda Foreign Minister and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger -- the statement seemed to indicate a revival of interest in a moderate solution. [New York Times]
- Morocco said that its campaign against Algerian-backed guerrillas in Spanish Sahara had achieved a victory, and the Algerian radio said that all Algerian troops were being withdrawn. But there were still doubts that the danger of war over the territory had passed. [New York Times]
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