News stories from Sunday February 20, 1972

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

President Nixon is en route to China from Guam, where he spent last night. He will stop in Shanghai to take on a Chinese navigator, then on to Peking where he will be greeted by the leaders of China. In Peking, a correct but unenthusiastic greeting is planned for the President; anti-American slogans have been removed. Direct satellite communications will enable live coverage of President Nixon's arrival in Peking tonight. [NBC] President Nixon's trip to Peking is being interpreted by Chinese Communists as an admission of America's error 25 years ago in backing the Nationalist Chinese and Chiang Kai-shek. In Taiwan, President Chiang, who is now 84 years old, announced that he will not seek a fifth term of office, but will accept a draft. Chiang didn't mention President Nixon's trip to China. [NBC] Enemy attacks were reported in the Mekong Delta; 76 South Vietnamese soldiers were killed. One U.S. soldier was killed and two others wounded in a small battle near Saigon. [NBC] The Cambodian high command charged the Communists with using poison gas in their fighting around the temples of Angkor Wat. North Vietnamese soldiers are using the precious temples as a base area. Five thousand Cambodian troops have surrounded Angkor Wat to try to starve out the enemy troops. They resist fighting so as not to damage the temples, which were built between the 9th and 13th centuries. [NBC] What happened in Bangladesh will never be forgotten there, especially by the women. A 16-year-old widow in Dacca, pregnant after being raped by a West Pakistani soldier, exemplifies a national problem in Bangladesh. Her husband was a Mukti Bahini leader, and the West Pakistanis raped her in front of him. Now she is disgraced and no man will ever marry her. A government-sponsored rehabilitation group cares for many such women, some as young as 13 years old, whose parents and husbands have rejected them. Seventy woman have had abortions, and others plan to give their babies away. Sheik Mujibur Rahman says that these women are heroines, and they and their children are innocent victims of war. [NBC] A hundred thousand West Pakistani POWs are being held by India. India claims that it has offered Pakistan unconditional talks to settle the POW issue, but Pakistan says India has demanded that West Pakistan first recognize Bangladesh and its new western border. [NBC] The West coast dock strike is over and workers are expected back on the job tomorrow; some were already back today. In Los Angeles, 300 dockworkers reported but only 150 jobs were available. [NBC] British coal miners will vote on a new agreement to end their six-week strike. The 20% wage increase is expected to be ratified. [NBC] Time magazine reported that Howard Hughes moved from the Bahamas to Nicaragua last week to avoid meeting investigators from the office of the U.S. attorney in New York City. They were to serve him with a subpoena to appear in court over the Clifford Irving autobiography hoax. Now in Managua, Hughes occupies the top two floors of the Intercontinental Hotel. President Anastasio Somoza invited Hughes to Nicaragua. [NBC] Senator Hubert Humphrey said that the Nixon administration owes America an explanation of its "dismal failure" in the war against crime. [NBC] Pope Paul VI blessed President Nixon's trip to China. Speaking in Tel Aviv, Israel, Henry Ford II said he hopes that President Nixon's trip to China will open the door for U.S. investments there. [NBC] Violence erupted in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, as 300 British soldiers battled rioters. No casualties were reported. [NBC]