News stories from Saturday March 20, 1971
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- A rereading of the entire testimony of four key government witnesses was requested by the jurors in the court-martial of Lt. William Calley for his role in the alleged massacre at the South Vietnamese hamlet of My Lai. The review, which the judge said he would allow, would delay a verdict at least two more days; the jury had already been out for four days. [New York Times]
- Legislation requiring every student entering a state university in Ohio to repay the state subsidy for his education -- in payments that would begin when the former student was earning at least $7,000 a year -- will be introduced in Ohio's General Assembly by Gov. John Gilligan. The plan was said to be the most far-reaching deferred tuition proposal in the nation. [New York Times]
- Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate, disclosed that a congressional unit that had been actively promoting consumer causes since 1966 was abolished this year. The unit, the Special Consumer Inquiry of the House Government Operations Committee, was abolished because a new House rule prohibits members from serving as the chairman of more than one subcommittee, the committee chairman said. But the chairman of the unit said that he had offered to give up his other subcommittee chairmanship if the consumer unit was continued. [New York Times]
- Two more South Vietnamese positions in Laos were abandoned today following the heaviest series of enemy attacks since the Laotian campaign began. South Vietnamese armored vehicles were retreating toward the border with North Vietnamese tanks reportedly in pursuit. In Saigon, South Vietnamese spokesmen insisted the withdrawals were merely "tactical movements." [New York Times]
- James Chichester-Clark, the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, resigned his post in the face of growing pressure from Protestants for more militant action against Catholic demonstrators. Two key British defense officials flew to Belfast from London in an unsuccessful effort to prevent the resignation. [New York Times]
- Shiek Mujibur Rahman, the leader of East Pakistan, emerged from his fourth bargaining session with Pakistan's president, Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan, and reported "some progress" in the talks over East Pakistan's demands for self-rule. [New York Times]