This Day In 1970's History: Wednesday January 31, 1973
- President Nixon held a press conference today; postwar Vietnam reconstruction was the major theme. Nixon said that if both parties have a sincere desire for peace, peace will endure. Henry Kissinger is going to Hanoi to discuss postwar relations, including the reconstruction of North Vietnam and South Vietnam by the United States. The President still opposes amnesty for draft dodgers, and he stated that the U.S. has achieved "peace with honor" in Vietnam.
The President said that he has great respect for John Connally, but isn't ready to endorse Connally for the Republican nomination for President in 1976. He announced that he personally authorized the firing of Ernest Fitzgerald, the Pentagon official who disclosed cost overruns for the C-5A transport plane. The President stated that he doesn't plan to meet the returning POWs, because he feels they deserve privacy with their families. He believes that China may free two flyers, Phillip Smith and Robert Flynn, who were captured early in the Vietnam war, but thinks that CIA agent John Downey will not be freed by China. [CBS]
- Seventy-one-year-old Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John Stennis is in very serious condition after being robbed and shot outside his Washington, DC home. Police have no hard leads in the case. FBI director L. Patrick Gray was personally on the scene to investigate. Last night Stennis was robbed and then shot by two youths. He was wounded in the leg and chest. Walter Reed Hospital spokesman Frank Garland reported that Stennis is doing well under the circumstances. Stennis was shot with a cheap handgun; Stennis recently voted against banning the sale of so-called "Saturday Night Specials." [CBS]
- Secretary of Defense Elliot Richardson expects fighting in Vietnam to decline steadily; the number of cease-fire violations was down today. The hamlet of Xung Bumh in Ben Xung province is about 45% sympathetic to the Viet Cong and had been the scene of post-cease-fire fighting, but today peace reigned. However one villager said that when the South Vietnamese soldiers leave, the Viet Cong will return. [CBS]
- The International Control Commission remains stuck in Saigon until the military commission makes arrangements for transportation and security in the field. The military commission, which is composed of the U.S., South Vietnam, North Vietnam and the Viet Cong, met for the first time today. There was no word on any progress. [CBS]
- In Laos, government and Communist representatives met privately to discuss a cease-fire. [CBS]
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