This Day In 1970's History: Friday February 11, 1972
- More small-scale enemy attacks were reported in South Vietnam, in what may be the first stages of a Tet offensive. American and South Vietnamese air attacks have increased to try to thwart enemy activity. U.S. planes are taking off from aircraft carriers to bomb the Central Highlands and block the Communist offensive. Admiral Damon Cooper, commander in the Gulf of Tonkin, says that the Navy's role in Vietnam is no longer decreasing, but is expanding. Carriers are being used as floating air bases to replace closed-out land bases. [CBS]
- American dollars that were used to build and staff hospitals in South Vietnam are being withdrawn along with U.S. troops. An international group of physicians complained to President Nixon and the American Medical Association about the situation. [CBS]
- President Nixon must contend with Republican as well as Democrat critics of his Vietnam peace plan and other issues. In New Hampshire, Rep. Pete McCloskey is trying to gain acceptance as a serious presidential candidate with a dove platform. Rep. John Ashbrook takes a conservative stance, and Pat Paulsen is on the ballot for comic relief.
A Boston Globe poll shows McCloskey with 14% of the Republican primary vote while President Nixon carries 71%. Nixon says publicly that he's too busy running the country to worry about Ashbrook or McCloskey. Privately, his aides say that he doesn't take McCloskey seriously but worries a bit about Ashbrook. New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller will lead a rally for Nixon in New Hampshire. [CBS]
- Mrs. David Everson, the Minnesota coordinator for an organization of relatives of American POWs, refused the request of Republican official John Lofton to condemn Democratic presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey for signing a petition to end the war. [CBS]
- In New York City, a grand jury heard a police handwriting expert testify that the signatures of Howard Hughes on documents in the Clifford Irving book affair are forgeries. Swiss authorities are maintaining fraud charges against Mrs. Clifford Irving. Newspapers reported that Irving tried to make a deal with the Swiss, and that Irving and researcher Richard Suskind now admit they never met Hughes. Irving's lawyer denied the reports and Irving said that the press has distorted the story, making the whole episode seem "unreal" to him. [CBS]
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