News stories from Monday April 10, 1972
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird stated that more U.S. ships and planes are en route to Vietnam. The aircraft carrier Midway left San Francisco one month early for Vietnam. The Enterprise is reported to be the next carrier sent. Four destroyers are also heading into the Pacific, with no announced destination. The ships are rumored to be part of a new task force for Vietnam duty. The Pentagon emphasized that no more American ground troops will be sent to Vietnam. [CBS]
- South Vietnamese reinforcements are trying to block North Vietnam's threat to Saigon on Highway 13. Bo Duc, near the Cambodian border, has been abandoned by government troops; Loc Ninh fell last week. Fighting still rages around An Loc.
American B-52s hit enemy positions north of An Loc and flew their first bombing missions inside North Vietnam since 1967, dumping 100 tons near Vinh. Ban Karai Pass had previously been the furthest target hit inside North Vietnam.
South Vietnamese troops repulsed an enemy attack on Quang Tri city; Fire Base Bastogne, further south on Highway 1, was shelled by the Communists. Nine American warships shelled enemy troop positions in and south of the DMZ. South Vietnamese airborne rangers with tanks moved to clear Highway 13 for the reinforcements who are en route to An Loc. North Vietnamese forces continue to move south and engage South Vietnamese troops.
[CBS] - More than 70 nations signed a treaty outlawing weapons of germ warfare. [CBS]
- In Salt Lake City, the FBI recovered all but $30 of the $500,000 ransom that was paid to the parachuting hijacker of a United Airlines jet. The money was found at the home of Richard McCoy, who has been charged with the crime. [CBS]
- Stanley Speck, a Stanford University graduate, was charged with air piracy in San Diego. He allegedly tried to hijack a Pacific Southwest plane on Sunday. [CBS]
- Despite President Nixon's plea, the major league baseball players' strike continued. [CBS]
- The Senate Judiciary Committee resumed its inquiry into the ITT affair, hearing from California Rep. Bob Wilson. Wilson said that ITT lobbyist Dita Beard told him on March 1 that she didn't write the memo linking ITT's antitrust settlement with its pledge to contribute to the Republican national convention. Senator John Tunney asked why ITT president Harold Geneen's statement that he pledged $200,000 to the convention conflicts with Wilson's statement that $400,000 was pledged. Wilson replied that there is no conflict, and that Mrs. Beard was "mousetrapped" by someone who wanted her eliminated, which might have been ITT's Washington, DC director, William Merriam. Merriam says he doesn't know who wrote the memo.
Chairman Eastland read a letter from FBI director J. Edgar Hoover stating that the memo was written on approximately June 25, not later as ITT claimed, and it was typed on Mrs. Beard's typewriter.
[CBS] - The automotive industry has balked at the 1975 deadline to cut auto emissions by 90%. The EPA opened hearings today to consider a one-year extension. Sweden's Volvo company says that one of its anti-pollution devices meets standards for 23,000 miles. Environmental Protection Agency administrator William Ruckelshaus said that if even one company can meet the 1975 deadline, no company will be given an extension. [CBS]
- The first massive failure of the environmental crusade is the city of Los Angeles. After 25 years of anti-pollution efforts in laws and money, air in L.A. is as bad as ever. The explosion in the number of cars and the failure of their smog-control devices is the main cause of the problem. The California Air Pollution Research Center says that even if the devices worked, the rapidly growing number of cars would hinder efforts to curb air pollution.
California anti-pollution laws have triggered a dangerous new type of pollution. Anti-smog devices concentrate on hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide. But nitrogen oxides, which are uncontrolled, also cause smog and emission rates of this gas have risen.
[CBS] - President Nixon will visit Canada for three days starting on Thursday. Nixon and Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau will sign an agreement committing both nations to clean up the Great Lakes and to work together to control pollution in the future. [CBS]
- An earthquake leveled 30 villages in southern Iran; 4,000 people may have been killed. [CBS]
- Leftists in Argentina killed an Italian automobile executive who they had held hostage for three weeks. Terrorists also killed one of the nation's top generals. [CBS]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 958.08 (-4.52, -0.47%)
Arms Index is the ratio of volume per declining issue to volume per advancing issue; a figure below 1.0 is bullish. | |||||||||||||||
| Market Index Trends | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | DJIA | S&P | Volume* |
| April 7, 1972 | 962.60 | 109.62 | 19.90 |
| April 6, 1972 | 959.44 | 109.42 | 22.83 |
| April 5, 1972 | 954.55 | 109.00 | 22.96 |
| April 4, 1972 | 943.41 | 108.12 | 18.11 |
| April 3, 1972 | 940.92 | 107.48 | 14.99 |
| March 30, 1972 | 940.70 | 107.20 | 14.36 |
| March 29, 1972 | 933.02 | 106.49 | 13.86 |
| March 28, 1972 | 937.01 | 107.17 | 15.38 |
| March 27, 1972 | 939.72 | 107.30 | 12.18 |
| March 24, 1972 | 942.28 | 107.52 | 15.39 |