News stories from Sunday February 21, 1971
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- South Vietnam abandoned an outpost in Laos after suffering 300 dead or wounded, leaving behind 60 wounded behind in their retreat; now a second outpost is under attack. Four U.S. helicopters were shot down today. Retreating South Vietnamese crowded on medical rescue helicopters which were intended to be used for the wounded.
Despite the Laos operation, North Vietnam's truck traffic on the Ho Chi Minh Trail has reportedly doubled in the last two weeks.
[CBS] - Israel is pleased with Egypt's offer to sign a peace agreement, but rejected the condition that Israel withdraw from all occupied territory. [CBS]
- Leonid Rigerman and his mother have arrived in the United States from Russia after Rigerman's U.S. citizenship was finally established following a seven-month political struggle. Rigerman says that Jews cannot exist as Jews in the Soviet Union, so they want to leave. He stated that he doesn't approve of the Jewish Defense League's violent tactics, but protests against Soviet treatment of Jews must continue. [CBS]
- Chief administration budget author Caspar Weinberger stated that he is opposed to giving public service jobs to the unemployed because those programs are difficult to stop once they begin. Democrats have proposed legislation to create public service jobs for the unemployed. [CBS]
- Bernadette Devlin visited Angela Davis in jail to demonstrate leftist solidarity. [CBS]
- Cuts in federal spending and dwindling endowment incomes on the one hand and rising costs on the other were reported to have forced the nation's colleges and universities to adopt economy measures ranging from abolition of departments to cutbacks in snow shoveling and lawn mowing. [New York Times]
- Drafts of the bill on campaign finances prepared by Republican leaders in the Senate were found to contain no ceiling on the amount candidates may spend during campaigns. But the bill would require public reporting of all campaign contributions and expenditures and would limit the amount of money that any individual or committee could contribute. [New York Times]
- Leaders of the nation's construction unions were said to have been unwilling to promise the administration that they would serve on any wage and price review board set up in the construction industry. But sources said that their participation in such a program had not been ruled out completely. [New York Times]
- The North Vietnamese troops in South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia more nearly represent the nationalistic aspirations of the people of Indochina than do American forces there, Senator George McGovern, a Democrat presidential contender, said in a television interview. He called for a total American troop withdrawal from Indochina. [New York Times]
- British police officials estimated that almost 100,000 persons participated in a four-hour march and rally in central London protesting the Conservative government's proposed labor reform bill, the first British law regulating labor relations. [New York Times]