News stories from Saturday October 7, 1972

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

President Nixon appealed in a nationwide broadcast for enactment of a ceiling on government spending. He told his audience that a ceiling would provide "absolute insurance" that no new taxes would be required next year. The President made no new promises but reiterated what he and his aides have been saying for weeks, mainly that the President himself would do nothing to cause a tax increase next year. [New York Times] Senator George McGovern issued a white paper in which he promised that a McGovern administration would institute a $3.5 billion annual program for "environmental restoration." The Democratic presidential nominee accused President Nixon of having "steadily retreated" under pressure from "special interests" from a pledge of "total mobilization" to prevent further deterioration of the nation's environment. [New York Times] Reports from New York Times correspondents in all 50 states show President Nixon in a commanding position all across the nation, with one month left until Election Day. The survey, supplemented by interviews with political leaders in the most populous areas of the country, indicates that Mr. Nixon appears within striking distance of one of the great electoral sweeps in American presidential history. [New York Times] The Republican Congressional leadership has filed a formal complaint with the Fair Campaign Practices Committee alleging that the Democratic presidential and vice-presidential candidates are conducting a "defamatory campaign" against President Nixon. The complaint charges both Senator George McGovern and Sargent Shriver with "smear," "innuendo" and "mud-slinging." [New York Times] The basic cost of going to college continues to rise, as it has in every academic year since the late 1960's, with college undergraduates and their parents enduring increases in combined charges for tuition, fees and room and board. However, three recent surveys of these basic costs show that for the most part the increase in 1972-73 does not appear to be as sharp as it was during the last four years. [New York Times] Communist troops held on to positions in three small hamlets only 20 miles north of Saigon for the second straight day. However, South Vietnamese government forces reportedly drove the infiltrators out of three other hamlets. The fighting is the closest to Saigon since the start of the Communist offensive last spring and demonstrates the extent to which enemy forces have succeeded in evading large government forces seeking to stop them from moving toward Saigon from neighboring Cambodia. [New York Times] Prime Minister Heath of Britain named Sir Christopher Soames, now Ambassador to Paris, and George Thomson, a Labor party Member of Parliament, as Britain's members on the Common Market's Commission. Both men are highly regarded in European capitals and their selection underscores the importance London attaches to strengthening European community relations. [New York Times] Egyptians have been told in strong terms that there has been no improvement in Soviet-Egyptian relations since President Anwar Sadat demanded the withdrawal of Soviet pilots, missile crews and advisers in July. The news appeared in an unusually strong editorial in Cairo that also said that the President's decision to send Premier Aziz Sidky to Moscow on Oct. 16 was not the result of any Soviet concession but the Dr. Sidky, on the contrary, would start tough new negotiations whose outcome was still very much in doubt. [New York Times]