News stories from Saturday March 23, 1974

Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:

President Nixon, in a radio broadcast from Camp David, asked for public support for administration education proposals now before Congress, ranging from anti-busing legislation to programs that would broaden local controls over schools and finance loans and grants for postsecondary education. He referred to a House debate scheduled this week on what he said was "a bill that represents a step in the right direction toward more community and state control over their elementary and secondary schools." [New York Times] The White House reacted angrily to reports that it was prepared to turn over 42 additional Watergate tapes to the House Judiciary Committee, which is considering presidential impeachment. In a statement, Ron Ziegler, the presidential press secretary, accused the committee of having violated its own rules of confidentiality and said, "This lack of regard for the responsible handling of the materials provided to the committee cannot help but influence the White House attitude with respect to providing additional materials in the future." [New York Times] Congressional staff experts who are investigating President Nixon's taxes have reportedly become convinced that the deed establishing the President's right to a $576,000 tax deduction never existed, despite the assertion of his lawyers to the contrary. Sources said that the investigators believe they have sufficient documentary evidence to refute the argument made by Mr. Nixon and his lawyers that the deduction was legal, even in the absence of the deed. That argument rests on a contention that Mr. Nixon's pre-presidential papers were delivered to the National Archives before a change in the tax laws that disallowed big deductions for gifts of personal papers. [New York Times] Vice President Ford, speaking to Republican fundraisers in Millburn and Atlantic City, N.J., said that the party could be in serious trouble across the country if it succumbed to pessimism as a result of the Watergate scandal. But he ridiculed predictions of huge losses in this year's congressional elections, calling predictions or losses of 50 to 100 seats "nonsense." [New York Times] When 1975 automobile models go on display next fall, prospective buyers will find few surprises, even though the industry has been undergoing a radical transformation because of the energy crisis. There will be more of the smaller cars to choose from, buyers may no longer have to wait to get a small car and there will be some improvement in fuel economy for most models. But buyers will look in vain for major changes in economy or technology. [New York Times] New York City and state officials are planning to revive the controversial effort to get the federal government to designate the entire corridor of Manhattan's western shore, from the Battery to the George Washington Bridge, as an interstate highway route. Vehement community protests greeted two previous attempts to obtain the designation, which would permit 90 percent federal financing of studies on what to do about the dilapidated route of the West Side Highway and, north of 72nd Street, the Henry Hudson Parkway. [New York Times] China charged that the crew of an armed Soviet reconnaissance helicopter had been on a spying mission when it was captured recently in Habahe County in the northern reaches of strategic Sinkiang Province, about 150 miles southwest of the juncture of the Soviet, Chinese and Mongolian borders. A formal diplomatic protest made in Peking to the Soviet Ambassador dismissed as "a bunch of lies" a Soviet report last week that the helicopter had been flying to pick up a sick soldier when it was blown off course in a storm and forced to make an emergency landing in Chinese territory. Peking's note of protest charged that Soviet aircraft had committed 61 intrusions so far this year in Sinkiang Province. [New York Times] The Saigon government responded skeptically to the new Viet Cong six-point peace plan, but carefully avoided outright rejection of the idea of speeding up an effective Vietnamese settlement. Saigon's delegation to the Vietnam talks in Paris called on the Viet Cong to set up working groups for detailed negotiations on four points: restoration of democratic liberties, establishment of a National Council of National Reconciliation and Concord, national elections and the future of armed forces on both sides. These were mentioned in the Viet Cong proposal made Friday. Two more points, a new cease-fire order and exchange of prisoners, should be handled by the joint Military Commission in Vietnam, the Saigon delegation said. [New York Times] A renewed sense of rivalry and frustration with the United States now colors the Soviet policy of detente, so warmly proclaimed when President Nixon visited Moscow 22 months ago. On such key issues as trade, strategic arms negotiations and European security, the Soviet leadership acts as if it felt that Washington has not come through with the kind of accommodation that was promised, either explicitly or implicitly, in Mr. Nixon's talks with Leonid Brezhnev in 1972 and 1973. [New York Times] Secretary of State Kissinger left on a trip to Moscow concerned about signs of a chill in Soviet-American relations but hopeful of progress toward another accord on strategic arms and of big-power cooperation in Middle East diplomacy. His latest trip to Moscow "comes at a very important time," Mr. Kissinger said last week, because of recent indications that strains were developing in Soviet-American affairs. On his way to Moscow he is to stop in Bonn for talks on European and East-West problems. [New York Times] Britain's new government gained substantial concessions from its eight Common Market partners during a three-day meeting in Brussels at which agreement was reached on farm support prices for the coming season. At the meeting, the nine agricultural ministers agreed to increase their farm support prices by an average of 8.5 percent, but special exceptions were made to protect British consumers of beef, pork and butter from price increases. Immense satisfaction was expressed over the compromise package among diplomats who had feared that there would be a major dispute between Britain and the others. [New York Times]