News stories from Tuesday January 19, 1971
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The American air role in Indochina fighting is escalating as U.S. helicopters are supporting troops in Laos and Cambodia. Air support has been increasing for several months. Pentagon officials admit that there has been a significant increase in helicopter use for troop transport and ground support. Helicopters are being given to South Vietnam as fast as their pilots can be trained. A White House spokesman maintained that the air war escalation is not a change in policy, and no restrictions were ever stated as to the use of U.S. air power in Cambodia. [CBS]
- U.S. military escalation in Cambodia is not what the country was led to expect. The American people were told that once enemy sanctuaries are cleared, no U.S. ground troops or advisers will be in Cambodia. Air strikes would be on supply lines only, not in direct battle support, and it had been stated that the U.S. is not committed to the survival of the Cambodian regime.
However the Nixon administration now says that, short of ground troops or advisers, anything goes in Cambodia. Yet officials claim that administration policy is unchanged though it certainly has been expanded beyond what we were led to believe. The upcoming session of Congress is certain to begin with a growl.
[CBS] - Senator George McGovern charged that the pattern being followed in Cambodia will lead to deeper involvement in Vietnam. [CBS]
- South Vietnamese paratroopers raided an enemy camp inside Cambodia where U.S. prisoners were believed to be held. They found no prisoners but captured 30 North Vietnamese. [CBS]
- House Democrats held a caucus to determine party leadership. Carl Albert was nominated as Speaker of the House, and Hale Boggs was elected Majority Leader on the second ballot. Many Democrats are unsure of Boggs' steadfastness; his victory was considered a compromise. Attempts to strip Mississippi representatives of their seniority failed. Senator Barry Goldwater endorsed the movement to reform the seniority system, citing his own difficulties in getting on the Armed Services Committee. [CBS]
- Senator Richard Russell was reported to be in critical condition with a respiratory infection. [CBS]
- Haverford College physics professor William Davidson was named as a conspirator but not a defendant in a plot to kidnap Henry Kissinger. Davidson said he discussed kidnapping Kissinger but wasn't meant to be taken seriously. [CBS]
- New York City police returned to work, but dissident policemen are angry after the strike vote because union leaders didn't allow a general vote. New York City Mayor John Lindsay stated that the city is complying with the law which penalizes public workers two days' pay per strike day. [CBS]
- Chrysler Corporation and the United Auto Workers reached a contract agreement. The two parties will conduct a study concerning a four-day, 40-hour week. [CBS]
- The Supreme Court ruled that publicly posting the names of excessive drinkers is unconstitutional. [CBS]
- A coroner determined that death of heavyweight boxer Sonny Liston was due to circulation problems. [CBS]
- United Airlines announced a 10% cut in its flight schedule by February 1 and a 20% cut by March. [CBS]
- A federal government report says that the danger of mass food poisoning from mercury is unlikely, but urged the prevention of further mercury pollution and the removal of mercury already in water. [CBS]
- Union Carbide laid off workers at its Marietta, Ohio, factory in order to meet air pollution reduction deadlines. [CBS]
- President Nixon ordered a halt to the building of a barge canal in Florida due to the threat of environmental damage. A study will be conducted to determine what to do about the one-third of the canal which has already been completed. [CBS]
- Oil that was spilled in a tanker collision in San Francisco bay is spreading throughout the bay and up the coast, reaching 50 miles of beaches. Volunteers are rescuing birds and cleaning beaches. [CBS]
- Cellist Mstislav Rostropovich is being forced to cancel his Paris concert, an action he believes is the Soviet government's retaliation for his support of novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. [CBS]
- A Soviet court sentenced a Lithuanian to death and his wife to three years in a labor camp for their attempted hijacking of a plane. [CBS]
- Jewish Defense League leader Rabbi Meir Kahane announced the suspension of JDL harassment of Soviets in the U.S., but said that orderly demonstrations will continue. [CBS]
- A joint statement from Russia and Egypt says that Middle East peace depends on the return of Israeli-occupied Arab territory. The Soviet Union pledged continued support to Egypt. [CBS]
- Israelis are used to living on the brink of war; they cannot believe that Egypt is ready for war just three years after being defeated. Taxes and prices are high in order to support the Israeli defense budget. [CBS]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 849.47 (+1.65, +0.19%)
Arms Index is the ratio of volume per declining issue to volume per advancing issue; a figure below 1.0 is bullish. | |||||||||||||||
| Market Index Trends | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | DJIA | S&P | Volume* |
| January 18, 1971 | 847.82 | 93.41 | 15.40 |
| January 15, 1971 | 845.70 | 93.03 | 18.01 |
| January 14, 1971 | 843.31 | 92.80 | 17.60 |
| January 13, 1971 | 841.11 | 92.56 | 19.07 |
| January 12, 1971 | 844.19 | 92.72 | 17.82 |
| January 11, 1971 | 837.21 | 91.98 | 14.72 |
| January 8, 1971 | 837.01 | 92.19 | 14.10 |
| January 7, 1971 | 837.83 | 92.38 | 16.46 |
| January 6, 1971 | 837.97 | 92.35 | 16.96 |
| January 5, 1971 | 835.77 | 91.80 | 12.60 |