News stories from Tuesday October 31, 1972
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- North Vietnam's deadline for signing the peace agreement has passed. The conference room in the Majestic Hotel in Paris is prepared but empty. Radio Hanoi accused the Nixon administration of being "crooked."
South Vietnam insists that North Vietnamese troops be withdrawn from South Vietnam, and it has rejected a coalition government. The international committee which will supervise the cease-fire will include Canada, Indonesia, Poland and Hungary. White House press secretary Ron Ziegler said that President Nixon wants a settlement which offers the best hope for a lasting peace, and he will not be pressured by deadlines.
[CBS] - Leaflets being distributed in Danang, South Vietnam, call for the extermination of Communists now and after the cease-fire. [CBS]
- American B-52's struck North Vietnam below the 20th parallel to try to stop the flow of Communist men and supplies into South Vietnam and Laos. Communists kept up their attacks to grab as much territory as possible before the cease-fire. Que Son fell to the enemy, and rockets fell on the outskirts of Saigon. [CBS]
- Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's Liberal party lost its majority in Parliament as a result of today's national elections; Trudeau apologized to candidates who lost. Opposition conservative party leader Robert Stanfield is prepared to form a new government. The Progressive Conservatives won 109 seats in Parliament, Liberals won 108 and the New Democratic party won 30. A new election is expected soon. [CBS]
- All 15 ministers in Chile's cabinet offered their resignations. They want President Allende to be free to do what he wants in order to try to withstand the country's grave political and economic crisis. Allende accepted two of the resignations. [CBS]
- Federal investigators are trying to determine the cause of yesterday's deadly commuter train wreck in Chicago. John Reed, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said that a specialist is checking out the signaling equipment. [CBS]
- A busload of American tourists skidded off a road during a rainstorm in Greece. Six people were killed, 28 injured. [CBS]
- Israel has called its ambassador to West Germany home for talks, angered by West Germany's release of three Arab guerrillas (of the Olympic massacre) to hijackers. Freed Palestinian terrorist Ibrahim Badran said that West Germany has given aid to Israel, so the Arabs chose that country for terrorism. He said that West Germany tries to portray Arabs as savage men, so whether or not he killed Israeli athletes is unimportant. The motive was to free Arab prisoners. [CBS]
- President Nixon made another radio and television blitz today, along with a few campaign appearances in Illinois, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and California. [CBS]
- A Harris poll shows President Nixon ahead of Senator McGovern 60% to 32%. [CBS]
- George McGovern is undismayed by his showing in the polls. On his 29th wedding anniversary, Senator and Mrs. McGovern campaigned in Syracuse, N.Y. McGovern said that he's never figured out why he got married on Halloween, but it's been a treat over the years. McGovern interpreted the sound of church bells as a sign that God is on his side, and he criticized President Nixon for excessive military spending as he cited examples of wasted defense funds. The Vietnam war, for the first time, was not mentioned. [CBS]
- Attorneys are working on an out-of-court compromise to make public some of the anonymous campaign contributors to President Nixon. Their action delays a suit filed by Common Cause to force the disclosures. [CBS]
- House Banking Committee chairman Wright Patman released a report of his short-lived investigation into the Watergate case. The report quotes second-hand testimony that Republican campaign officials monitored the bank accounts of Democratic members of Congress. A large secret fund was established in the Nixon campaign organization; Republican leaders have acknowledged the special cash fund but argue about its uses. Campaign treasurer Paul Barrick didn't even know it existed.
There has been a massive effort to conceal the sources of Republican campaign contributions. On April 5 (two days before the financial disclosure deadline) a Pennzoil company jet flew from Houston to Washington, DC with $700,000 in contributions, plus $89,000 in the form of four Mexican checks from a Gulf Resources attorney in Mexico, who was sending back the money which had been transferred to him through a company headed by Robert Allen, a Texas fundraiser for President Nixon. The $700,000 was turned over to Hugh Sloan and the Mexican checks landed in the Florida bank account of Watergate defendant Bernard Barker. Minnesota banker Dwayne Andreas gave $25,000 on April 9 to Minnesota campaign finance chairman Kenneth Dahlberg, who converted it into a cashiers check. It made its way through Maurice Stans to Barker's account. Barker withdrew all the money. At the same time, preparations for the Watergate bugging began.
A select group controlled the secret fund. Clark MacGregor named the group as consisting of Jeb Magruder, Bert Porter, G. Gordon Liddy, Maurice Stans and John Mitchell. The Washington Post added Herbert Kalmbach and H.R. Haldeman -- the naming of White House chief of staff Haldeman significantly moves the Watergate case into the White House inner circle. Hugh Sloan is said to have named Haldeman in his grand jury testimony; Sloan denied that report, and former Attorney General Mitchell denied having anything to do with the fund.
Time magazine reported that Dwight Chapin, President Nixon's appointments secretary, admitted to the FBI that he hired Donald Segretti to disrupt the campaigns of Democratic candidates. The White House calls these reports a political smear, but if President Nixon knew about Republican espionage and sabotage, it was through Mitchell, Haldeman or Chapin, all of whom refuse to answer specific allegations. There is a long history in America of election year shenanigans, but the Republican plan to disrupt the processes of election politics is the worst ever.
[CBS]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 955.52 (+9.10, +0.96%)
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* |
| October 30, 1972 | 946.42 | 110.59 | 11.82 |
| October 27, 1972 | 946.42 | 110.62 | 15.47 |
| October 26, 1972 | 950.56 | 110.99 | 20.79 |
| October 25, 1972 | 951.38 | 110.72 | 17.43 |
| October 24, 1972 | 952.51 | 110.81 | 15.24 |
| October 23, 1972 | 951.31 | 110.35 | 14.19 |
| October 20, 1972 | 942.81 | 109.24 | 15.74 |
| October 19, 1972 | 932.12 | 108.05 | 13.85 |
| October 18, 1972 | 932.34 | 108.19 | 17.29 |
| October 17, 1972 | 926.48 | 107.50 | 13.41 |