News stories from Sunday April 30, 1972
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- All available U.S. bombers in the western Pacific (almost 100), with 25 tons of bombs each, struck Communist-held positions in South Vietnam today, including those around the cities of Quang Tri and Kontum. Five U.S. aircraft carriers sent their bombers into battle, while two cruisers and 15 destroyers pelted enemy positions along the coastline. In the last 10 days, U.S. planes have struck inside North Vietnam 700 times.
North Vietnamese forces have driven to the edge of Quang Tri city. A government relief force moving up Highway 1 has been stopped by heavy fighting. Helicopters are being kept from the city by heavy ground fire. North Vietnam is throwing everything into the current offensive.
The average North Vietnamese soldier captured during the offensive is inexperienced but well-equipped. Most are between 18 and 24 years old. Some are so scared, they are glad to be captured. 200 Russian-built tanks have been brought into South Vietnam from the North, firing 100 millimeter, three-foot long shells. 130 millimeter artillery pieces, surface to air missiles and other sophisticated weapons have been supplied to North Vietnam by Russia. Chinese-made weapons are also present.
[NBC] - North Vietnam politburo member Le Duc Tho arrived in Paris to begin secret peace talks with American negotiators. [NBC]
- Democratic candidates are campaigning in Indiana and Ohio prior to presidential primaries there. In Ohio, George McGovern hopes to defeat Hubert Humphrey; in Indiana, Humphrey hopes to beat George Wallace.
Wallace has toned down the delivery of his segregationist speech -- but not its content -- in order to be more acceptable to a broader range of people; Wallace claims that other candidates are stealing his issues. Humphrey fears Wallace's "invisible vote", but is in good shape in Indiana. Humphrey is supported by organized labor and the entire state Democratic party (since McGovern isn't running in Indiana). Humphrey is ignoring Wallace so as not to make a martyr of him, and is attacking President Nixon instead. Humphrey is running hard in '72, aware that he lost his best chance at the presidency in 1968 for not breaking with Lyndon Johnson over Vietnam.
[NBC] - President Nixon flew to the Texas ranch of Treasury Secretary John Connally, a Democrat, to speak to 200 guests consisting mostly of wealthy, conservative, Texas Democrats. [NBC]
- The British charged the IRA with escalating violence in Northern Ireland; an 8-year-old girl was shot to death and five others were wounded. [NBC]
- In Bonn, West Germany, those opposing Chancellor Willy Brandt staged a demonstration; pro-Brandt demonstrators tried to disrupt the rally. Rallies yesterday were in support of Brandt and his treaties with Russia and Poland, and were much larger than today's anti-Brandt rallies. In West Berlin, thousands massed to see Brandt in John F. Kennedy Plaza. Much depends on the ratification of Brandt's treaties: the four-power agreement on Berlin, reduction of forces and arms in Europe, and friendship between East and West. [NBC]
- Pakistani President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi will meet soon to draw up a peace treaty, formally ending the India-Pakistan war. [NBC]
- Apollo 16 astronauts Thomas Mattingly, Charles Duke and John Young began technical debriefings at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. [NBC]
- Senator William Proxmire says that anti-inflation controls have failed. [NBC]
- The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that Ethel Kennedy (widow of Robert) will endorse Senator General McGovern for the Democratic presidential nomination. [NBC]