This Day In 1970's History: Monday January 21, 1980
- American pressure on Moscow continued as President Carter sent personal messages to more than 100 government heads, seeking support for his proposal that the Summer Olympics not be held in the Soviet capital if Soviet troops are not withdrawn from Afghanistan by Feb. 20, administration officials said. The State Department spokesman said the initial reaction was "most encouraging," but an internal department report indicated only fragmentary early responses.
Jimmy Carter's plea that the Olympics be moved from Moscow or postponed or canceled if Soviet troops remained in Afghanistan beyond Feb. 20 was officially denounced in Moscow as election-year politics by the President aimed at disrupting detente and obtaining campaign funds. [New York Times]
- Iranian leaders warned Moscow about the presence of Soviet troops in Afghanistan. A leading presidential candidate suggested that Iranians might boycott the Moscow Olympics if he is elected, and another prominent candidate said the Soviet incursion posed a serious threat to Iran. [New York Times]
- Afghanistan elaborated on charges that Hafizullah Amin, who was deposed as President and executed last month, had spied for the C.I.A. An official of the Soviet-backed regime told reporters that Mr. Amin had tried to end the country's guerrilla war by conspiring with a Moslem rebel leader and the United States intelligence agency and had planned to purge members of his own party in the plot. [New York Times]
- Canada is expelling three Russians on charges of having spied against the United States. Those accused are two Soviet Embassy military attaches and an embassy chauffeur. A United States citizen was also reportedly involved but was not named. [New York Times]
- President Carter will seek no tax cuts in his new budget, he told Congress. In a detailed, 75-page State of the Union message, he proposed only a few modest initiatives and said that "restraining inflation remains my highest domestic priority."
More than $3 billion in new spending has been forced on the Carter administration by the crises in Iran and Afghanistan, and administration officials predict that the figure will grow in the months ahead. [New York Times]
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