News stories from Sunday April 4, 1971
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- President Nixon will make a speech on Vietnam Wednesday night; Nixon's intervention in Lt. William Calley's case has cooled public emotions. Telegrams in protest of the Calley verdict have leveled off, and administration officials feel that their intervention is a public relations victory.
Former Green Beret Robert Marasco confessed to being instructed by the CIA to murder a South Vietnamese double agent; Marasco is one of eight persons who were charged but never tried for that murder. Marasco told of drugging the double agent, taking him out to sea in a mail sack, then shooting him and dumping the body overboard. Marasco says he confessed because he is worried about the direction of the country as the result of Calley's trial. He hopes that him telling the truth can halt that trend.
[CBS] - Five soldiers were killed and one is missing after a battle for South Vietnam Fire Base No. 6; Communists attacked the base again today. [CBS]
- Lt. William Calley was trained at the Fort Benning Officer Training School. Officer candidates are taught to forget their own egos and accept Army discipline. Changes in the study of Geneva Convention rules have been made during the past year, and candidates are now required to take a course in ground warfare rules. Capt. Robert Jenkins, an instructor at Fort Benning, says that alternatives are discussed in class concerning what to do with a surrendering enemy. Jenkins stated that all orders are presumed to be lawful, but obviously illegal orders should be disobeyed. [CBS]
- Rep. Pete McCloskey is threatening to challenge President Nixon for the Republican presidential nomination in 1972. McCloskey was "disinvited" to a meeting of the Young Republicans due to his criticism of the President, but he spoke at a meeting of the Ripon Society recently, where he said he feels it's unjustifiable to substitute bombs and air power for the willingness of soldiers to fight and die, and he challenged the idea that it's worth continuing to kill North Vietnamese in order to support the South Vietnam government. McCloskey, a former Marine, said that he hopes he doesn't have to run for President, but he will if Nixon continues his bombing policy. McCloskey doesn't think the White House is taking him seriously now, but as the New Hampshire primary approaches it may. [CBS]
- Republican members of a Senate committee on the elderly stated that they support a guaranteed minimum income for poor people over age 65. [CBS]
- Chile elects mayors and aldermen today; the voting will be a test of Marxist President Salvador Allende's government. Despite the Socialist government, the rich are still rich, private business continues and the press is still free. Agriculture Minister Jacques Chonchol says that Chile is a democracy, but opposition party leader Patricio Mekis noted that it's difficult to remain democratic when everything falls into the government's hands. Allende has accomplished reforms through legal constitutional means -- in five months, 2.5 million acres of large estates have been broken up and turned over to peasants. Chonchol conceded that land owners don't like reform, but 90% of the people welcome the reforms. Allende is using the local elections as a vote of confidence for his government. [CBS]
- Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir rejected Egypt's proposal for reopening the Suez Canal. [CBS]