News stories from Saturday April 18, 1970

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

President Nixon joined the Apollo 13 astronauts in Honolulu and awarded them America's highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom. The three crewmen had come from Pago Pago, American Samoa. The President flew to Hawaii from Washington, by way of Houston, where he had honored the ground crew of Apollo 13. For the crew of Apollo 13, there was an exotic Polynesian welcome with flowers as they arrived for a brief stopover in Pago Pago. After about a half hour of greetings the astronauts took off for Hawaii to meet President Nixon. [New York Times] After criticism for having approved Supreme Court nominees without sufficient investigation, the American Bar Association committee that evaluates nominees has decided to make its most extensive investigation ever before deciding if Judge Harry Blackmun is worthy of a seat on the nation's highest court. [New York Times] The proposal to substitute popular election of the President for the present electoral college system may be significantly amended in order to move the bill out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Proponents may agree to a plan by Senator Joseph Tydings to eliminate a runoff provision in the bill, replacing it with a system whereby if no candidate gets 40 percent of the vote the state-by-state electoral votes would be allocated to the winner of each state. [New York Times] A compromise plan for American troop withdrawals from Vietnam has been proposed to President Nixon by some high administration officials. The compromise plan suggests that President Nixon announce that the next troop cut would be from 45,000 to 50,000 men, with military commanders in Saigon empowered to increase the withdrawal if no major fighting erupts. [New York Times] Assistant Secretary of State Joseph Sisco arrived in Lebanon amid extremely tight security measures on the third stop of his Middle Eastern tour. He declared in a prepared statement that the purpose of his visit was "to listen to all the voices of all the people of the Mideast, friendly and critical." [New York Times] South Vietnamese troops are reported to have destroyed two enemy camps inside Cambodia, killing 450 enemy troops and seizing hundreds of munitions stockpiles. There was no evidence of American troop involvement except their use as blocking forces on the Vietnamese side of the border. [New York Times]