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News stories from Friday March 31, 1972
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- An Air Force B-52 bomber crashed in Orlando, Florida, killing all seven aboard and destroying four homes. Seven of the eight people on the ground who were injured are children; nine-year-old Charles Garland pulled his brother from their burning house. Also in Florida, a tornado hit part of the Kennedy Space Center, 10 miles from the Apollo 16 spacecraft which is scheduled to launch next month; there were no injuries. [CBS]
- Communist forces overran South Vietnamese bases below the DMZ and in the Central Highlands. A U.S. AC-130 gunship was shot down over Laos; all 15 crewmen were rescued, but five crewmen aboard an American helicopter which was shot down over Laos are feared dead.
Defense Department officials believe that the long-awaited Communist offensive is now underway. American ground troops will not be involved in the fighting, and President Nixon is confident that South Vietnamese forces can handle the situation. [CBS]
- Madame Binh, the Viet Cong foreign minister, met with French foreign minister Maurice Schumann to complain about the U.S. suspension of the Paris Peace Talks. [CBS]
- Susan Lichtman, former secretary to ITT lobbyist Dita Beard, told reporters about a memo she typed for Mrs. Beard. Lichtman recalled typing a sentence implicating Attorney General John Mitchell in ITT's pledge to the Republican national convention, but not linking the pledge to the settlement of ITT's antitrust suit. Lichtman objected to ITT's publication of her affidavit about the memo and denied certain wording. She also said that Democrat Senator Vance Hartke had called ITT to request the loan of a company plane. [CBS]
- United Mine Workers president Tony Boyle was convicted for the illegal use of union funds for political contributions. [CBS]
- President Nixon blocked two railroad strikes for 60 days: the Trainmen's union vs. Penn Central, and the sheet metal workers vs. all railroads. Boards have been established to settle the disputes. [CBS]
- In the Wisconsin primary campaign, George McGovern was endorsed by Wisconsin Senator William Proxmire. All of the major Democratic presidential candidates promised voters in Wisconsin that they would lower taxes if elected. [CBS]
- The Justice Department filed a petition for permission to participate in the Virginia school busing case involving the merger of Richmond city schools with suburban Henrico and Chesterfield County schools. [CBS]
- In Atlanta, Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz said that farmers are the victims of higher food prices and he blamed organized labor. AFL-CIO president George Meany asked that corporate profits resulting from Pay Board wage cutbacks be passed on to consumers. [CBS]
- The Associated Press reported that in Inverness, Scotland, a dead "monster" was fished out of Loch Ness; the Loch Ness Monster may finally have been proven. [CBS]
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