News stories from Sunday July 18, 1971
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Britain announced that it will vote for the admission of the People's Republic of China to the U.N.; South Vietnam President Nguyen Van Thieu hopes that President Nixon's trip will lead to peace in Vietnam. The Communist negotiators at the Paris Peace Talks are also interested in Nixon's trip to China; they feel that the trip may lead to a war settlement to be negotiated at a Geneva-style conference on Indochina.
The Associated Press reports that Henry Kissinger traveled to China under an assumed name and with a foreign passport to arrange the President's trip.
[CBS] - U.S. command in Saigon reported that fighting in Vietnam is at its lowest level since 1965. [CBS]
- The telephone strike and Union Pacific railroad and Southern Railway strikes continue. Progress was reported in negotiations with postal workers however, and a tentative local agreement could lead to an overall settlement of the copper workers' strike. [CBS]
- Federal animal health experts are meeting with veterinarians to devise a program to combat the sleeping sickness epidemic which is killing horses in Texas. [CBS]
- Palestinian guerrillas are reportedly fleeing across the Jordan River after attacks by the Jordanian army. [CBS]
- The U.S. Army is removing nerve gas from Okinawa. Many residents who live along the route being used to move the gas are leaving the area; schools closed early so the buildings could be used for evacuation centers. General John Hayes says that the nerve gas will not be destroyed; the U.S. may retaliate if we are attacked with gas.
The transfer of the nerve gas to Johnston Island will take 55 days.
[CBS] - Vice President Spiro Agnew represented President Nixon today at a celebration of the 1936 Spanish civil war. Agnew's attack on U.S. black leaders yesterday has drawn reaction. In Atlanta, Reverend Ralph Abernathy said that Agnew is taking the focus off the real problems of hunger, housing, inadequate medical care, the Vietnam war and racism. Abernathy hopes that Agnew has learned from his meetings with African leaders. [CBS]
- Former Secretary of State Dean Acheson said that President John F. Kennedy was out of his depth as President; he was not a great man, and not decisive. [CBS]
- Former Senator Gerald Nye died at age 78. [CBS]