News stories from Thursday June 24, 1971
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- A water tunnel at a mine exploded in Sylmar, California. Methane gas, ignited by a spark from machinery, caused the explosion; one survivor has been found. One fireman said that they can't get any closer than 1,000 feet from the fire because of the intense heat. The death toll is expected to reach 16. [CBS]
- Four workers are missing in a ship fire in Lorain, Ohio; 15 were injured in the fire aboard the U.S. Steel company ship "Roger Blough". [CBS]
- North Vietnamese forces overran Fire Base Fuller in South Vietnam; South Vietnamese forces suffered 250 casualties in the raid. American planes kept the enemy from occupying the base.
Despite reports of Cambodia's victory near Phnom Penh yesterday, UPI says that U.S. helicopters are evacuating many wounded.
[CBS] - North Vietnam politburo member Le Duc Tho has returned to the Paris Peace Talks. Tho left the talks 14 months ago and said he would return when the situation warranted it. Tho stated that passage of the Mansfield resolution proves that the majority of U.S. senators oppose President Nixon's Vietnam war policy. [CBS]
- The case involving the New York Times' publication of the classified Pentagon report has reached the Supreme Court; a grand jury is investigating the source of the leak of the report. The Los Angeles Times and 11 other newspapers have published articles based on the report. Daniel Ellsberg said that he doesn't think the Nixon administration can prevent publication of the report, and he said that reading the truth about the Vietnam war in the press is "like breathing clean air".
The Baltimore Sun cited a message from former President Lyndon Johnson to South Vietnamese ambassador Maxwell Taylor in December, 1964, refuting the Pentagon report's claim that Johnson deceived the American people as to his intentions about bombing North Vietnam.
[CBS] - A retired Pentagon security expert testified at a House hearing that too many documents are classified as top secret; he stated that only ½ of 1% of all the documents which are presently classified that way actually need to be. [CBS]
- CBS president Frank Stanton still refuses to give a House committee unbroadcast material from "The Selling of the Pentagon" documentary. Stanton said he believes that turning over unbroadcast material would have a chilling effect on broadcast journalism; the nub of the issue involves first amendment rights. Rep. Harley Staggers said that the era of Big Brother has arrived if television bosses can control what America thinks; Staggers said that the unbroadcast material is necessary in order to verify testimony about the fraudulent use of interviews. The House is expected to vote Stanton as being in contempt. [CBS]
- The Senate voted to extend the military draft for two years, but reaching agreement with the House on the final version of the bill may be difficult due to the Senate's inclusion of the Mansfield amendment. Senator Barry Goldwater said that the Democratic Party is attempting to gain credit for what the Republican party will accomplish by getting America out of the Vietnam war. [CBS]
- Iraq and the Soviet Union signed an agreement for economic and technical cooperation. [CBS]
- Israeli officials denied reports that Israel and the Soviet Union are nearer to a renewal of diplomatic ties. [CBS]
- 1,000 demonstrators at the U.S. embassy in New Delhi, India, protested American arms shipments to Pakistan. [CBS]
- Capt. Ernest Medina's pre-trial hearing has ended. Medina's attorney F. Lee Bailey concluded his argument that the Army conspired to insure Medina's prosecution to satisfy the public. Bailey claims that the Army feared that the public would be incensed if only Lt. William Calley was convicted for the massacre at My Lai. The judge will issue his ruling tomorrow. [CBS]
- President Nixon began a two-day tour of Indiana and Illinois. [CBS]
- In Yuma, Arizona, Charles Fox's private plane took off without a pilot after Fox started it from outside the plane; it circled for hours over the desert and crashed after running out of gas. [CBS]
- Like its American counterparts, the British press is also having difficulties with the government. The British government complained of lack of fairness in press treatment, and Harold Wilson has threatened to sue the BBC for its handling of interviews with him and others in a recent documentary.
The British government expressed concern about diplomatic revelations in the Pentagon Papers.
[CBS]
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Dow Jones Industrial Average: 877.26 (-2.19, -0.25%)
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* |
| June 23, 1971 | 879.45 | 98.41 | 12.64 |
| June 22, 1971 | 874.42 | 97.59 | 15.20 |
| June 21, 1971 | 876.53 | 97.87 | 16.49 |
| June 18, 1971 | 889.16 | 98.97 | 15.04 |
| June 17, 1971 | 906.25 | 100.50 | 13.98 |
| June 16, 1971 | 908.59 | 100.52 | 14.30 |
| June 15, 1971 | 907.20 | 100.32 | 13.55 |
| June 14, 1971 | 907.71 | 100.22 | 11.53 |
| June 11, 1971 | 916.47 | 101.07 | 12.27 |
| June 10, 1971 | 915.96 | 100.64 | 12.45 |