This Day In 1970's History: Wednesday February 13, 1974
- Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn has been banished from the Soviet Union. Solzhenitsyn was arrested yesterday and then deported. Solzhenitsyn arrived in West Germany for a stay with Nobel Prize winner Heinrich Boll. Solzhenitsyn refused to comment to reporters, but phoned his wife in Moscow to assure her of his safety. The Kremlin announced that Solzhenitsyn's family may join him. Andrei Sakharov, the Russian physicist, may be dealt with in the same fashion as Solzhenitsyn.
Deputy White House press secretary Gerald Warren made no comment regarding Solzhenitsyn's deportation. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger stated that the Russian author is welcome to live in the United States, adding that he sympathizes with the fight for freedom of thought. [CBS]
- Randolph Hearst responded to the demands made by his daughter Patty's kidnappers. Hearst expressed happiness over his daughter's apparent safety, but said that the demands can't be met though he hopes that his counteroffer to the kidnappers will be acceptable. Hearst met with Reverend Cecil Williams to discuss the kidnappers' demands for $70 worth of food to be given to each needy person in the state of California. Hearst reassured his daughter of his intentions to work something out. [CBS]
- The world's major oil-consuming nations agreed to work toward a meeting with oil producers; France was the only dissenting country. French foreign minister Michel Jobert insisted that France did not disrupt the conference. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger believes the meeting achieved its main goals, and the U.S. doesn't consider that a break in its relations with France has developed. [CBS]
- The leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria and Syria are meeting in Algiers to review the oil embargo. That summit caused an abrupt cancellation of another conference of Arab nations which had been scheduled in Beirut to discuss the lifting of the oil embargo. [CBS]
- Using vastly increased oil revenues and the bargaining power of their oil reserves, Middle East oil countries are making great strides toward industrialization and taking a greater share of world trade. They are demanding -- and getting -- deals for enormous refineries, natural gas processing plants and petrochemical industries, in addition to deals for arms, textiles, steel, paper and other industrial plants. [New York Times]
|
