News stories from Saturday August 12, 1972

Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:

Despite internal resistance, the McGovern campaign organization will open an office of Urban Ethnic Affairs as part of an intensive effort to broaden the voting base of Senator George McGovern's presidential campaign. Democrats predict that the struggle to attract the ethnic vote will be one of the major struggles of the election campaign for both parties. [New York Times] A large number of Southern Democrats, including seven former governors, three big-city mayors and several dozen state legislators, have announced in recent days that they will support President Nixon for re-election. Many other Democrats who hold or have held high state office in the South have expressed only cool support for the Democratic presidential candidate. [New York Times] Problems of social unrest are shaking the foundations of society of the Hawaiian Islands. There are about 750,000 people in the state. About 150,000 are Hawaiian or part Hawaiian, and most are at the bottom of the social and economic scale. Interviews indicate unhappiness among them with job opportunities and the quality of life in a system that is shifting from a plantation economy to one based on tourism. [New York Times] A United States Air Force announcement in Saigon today said that since Friday B-52 bombers carried out "probably their heaviest raids ever" over North Vietnam. The announcement said the bombers flew 13 missions over the north, all against supply points within 63 miles of the southern panhandle city of Dong Hoi. The raids, like most of those in recent weeks, were evidently intended to hamper Communist efforts to supply their forces in the northern part of South Vietnam. [New York Times] W. Averell Harriman and Cyrus Vance, in a joint statement issued in Washington, supported the assertion of Sargent Shriver, the Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee, that President Nixon at the outset of his administration "blew" an opportunity for a negotiated peace in Vietnam. Secretary of State Rogers at a news conference on Friday had called Mr. Shriver's assertion "bunk" and "political fantasy." [New York Times] The $1.4 billion Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system, the nation's first new regional rapid-transit line in 50 years, will start running in San Francisco in September, after 15 years of planning and eight years of construction. It is said to be a stunning showcase of modern transit concepts that urban planners and transportation specialists will be observing for years to come. A big question is can something like this get an automobile-oriented society out of its car? [New York Times] In Danang, there were no martial flourishes, not even a parade, as the Third Battalion of the 21st Infantry and other units of what was Task Force Gimlet said good-bye to the Vietnam war. For all practical purposes, the last American ground troops were gone. Remaining were about 43,500 men, mainly in administrative and supply jobs, including several hundred advisers and pilots and crews of about 600 helicopters and 200 other combat planes. [New York Times]