News stories from Sunday July 4, 1971
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- In Buenos Aires, Argentina, Braniff airliner hijacker Robert Lee Jackson surrendered to police. $15,000 of the $100,000 ransom which was paid to Jackson for releasing the passengers in Monterrey, Mexico, is missing. [CBS]
- The wreckage of a Japanese airliner was found near Hakodate, Japan; all 68 passengers were killed in the crash. [CBS]
- Presidential adviser Henry Kissinger is meeting with South Vietnam President Nguyen Van Thieu, reportedly to discuss the new North Vietnamese peace proposal. [CBS]
- U.S. planes bombed enemy positions near the DMZ in South Vietnam. [CBS]
- Col. Anthony Herbert has accused General John Barnes and Col. Ross Franklin of covering up war crimes that were committed in Vietnam. Because of his failure to be promoted the last two times he was eligible, Army regulations require Herbert to resign by March, 1972. Herbert says that the only bad comments on his efficiency reports were written by Barnes and Franklin; he believes he is being forced to retire as a warning to other officers not to reveal war crimes, and he also believes that the Army wants the charges against Barnes and Franklin to be dropped. The Pentagon said that the cases against Barnes and Franklin will not be affected by Herbert's retirement. [CBS]
- Vice President Spiro Agnew is in Singapore on his world trip; he stated that the U.S. is seriously considering North Vietnam's peace proposal.
Agnew golfed with South Korean President Chung Hee Park.
[CBS] - Martha Mitchell told the Washington Star that the press may have to be suppressed if government secrets continue to be printed. [CBS]
- 39 Marine recruits on Parris Island, South Carolina, were hospitalized after too much physical training; three drill instructors have been replaced. An investigation is underway. [CBS]
- Jesse Hill Ford was acquitted of the murder of a black soldier. The victim's father, Reverend George Doaks, says that he is not satisfied with the verdict; he claims that his son was unarmed and shot in cold blood. The victim's sister said that if her brother had killed Ford, the verdict would have been different. Ford called the shooting a tragedy which will affect him the rest of his life. [CBS]
- Dorothy Andrews Kabis, the Treasurer of the United States, died of a heart attack at age 54. [CBS]
- The remainder of the Newport Jazz Festival has been canceled because of gate crashers. [CBS]