News stories from Wednesday January 31, 1973
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- President Nixon held a press conference today; postwar Vietnam reconstruction was the major theme. Nixon said that if both parties have a sincere desire for peace, peace will endure. Henry Kissinger is going to Hanoi to discuss postwar relations, including the reconstruction of North Vietnam and South Vietnam by the United States. The President still opposes amnesty for draft dodgers, and he stated that the U.S. has achieved "peace with honor" in Vietnam.
The President said that he has great respect for John Connally, but isn't ready to endorse Connally for the Republican nomination for President in 1976. He announced that he personally authorized the firing of Ernest Fitzgerald, the Pentagon official who disclosed cost overruns for the C-5A transport plane.
The President stated that he doesn't plan to meet the returning POWs, because he feels they deserve privacy with their families. He believes that China may free two flyers, Phillip Smith and Robert Flynn, who were captured early in the Vietnam war, but thinks that CIA agent John Downey will not be freed by China.
[CBS] - Seventy-one-year-old Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John Stennis is in very serious condition after being robbed and shot outside his Washington, DC home. Police have no hard leads in the case. FBI director L. Patrick Gray was personally on the scene to investigate. Last night Stennis was robbed and then shot by two youths. He was wounded in the leg and chest. Walter Reed Hospital spokesman Frank Garland reported that Stennis is doing well under the circumstances. Stennis was shot with a cheap handgun; Stennis recently voted against banning the sale of so-called "Saturday Night Specials." [CBS]
- Secretary of Defense Elliot Richardson expects fighting in Vietnam to decline steadily; the number of cease-fire violations was down today. The hamlet of Xung Bumh in Ben Xung province is about 45% sympathetic to the Viet Cong and had been the scene of post-cease-fire fighting, but today peace reigned. However one villager said that when the South Vietnamese soldiers leave, the Viet Cong will return. [CBS]
- The International Control Commission remains stuck in Saigon until the military commission makes arrangements for transportation and security in the field. The military commission, which is composed of the U.S., South Vietnam, North Vietnam and the Viet Cong, met for the first time today. There was no word on any progress. [CBS]
- In Laos, government and Communist representatives met privately to discuss a cease-fire. [CBS]
- The Air Force remains on full alert in the Philippines to pick up U.S. prisoners of war on short notice. There will be no news conferences with POWs when they are released. [CBS]
- Two U.S. Phantom jets collided over the Gulf of Tonkin. [CBS]
- The Pentagon Papers case took an unusual turn. Daniel Ellsberg says he leaked the Pentagon Papers because the government lied and concealed facts about the Vietnam war. Ellsberg and co-defendant Anthony Russo are on trial for violating the Espionage Act and for disclosing facts harmful to national defense. Judge Matthew Byrne ordered the federal government to turn over information tending to prove the defendants' innocence by showing that little or no damage was done to national security.
Prosecutor David Nissen had assured the judge in the past that he knew of no such material. Now the government has given up a thick stack of Defense Department studies of the Pentagon Papers. Eleven of the 20 volumes of the Papers, the studies say, were not harmful to national defense. The defense attorney claimed that Pentagon affairs director Jerry Friedheim ordered a low-level official to remove from the files other studies which showed that no harm was done to national defense by the other nine volumes of the Pentagon Papers. Today Nissen gave the judge those studies, saying that nobody high in the government previously knew they existed. Defense attorney Leonard Boudin served notice that he will ask for the case to be dismissed tomorrow because of government wrongdoing.
[CBS] - The FBI arrested reporter Les Whitten and three Indians on charges of possessing stolen government documents which came from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Whitten works for columnist Jack Anderson. The documents show how Indians were defrauded and cheated by the federal government. [CBS]
- The Senate confirmed the nomination of Peter Brennan as Labor Secretary and James Lynn as Housing and Urban Development Secretary. Only Caspar Weinberger as Health, Education and Welfare Secretary remains unconfirmed. [CBS]
- Teachers are now on strike in Cleveland, and strikes continue in Philadelphia and St. Louis. [CBS]
- Pan Am has decided not to buy the Concorde supersonic transport. [CBS]
- New York City police chief Patrick Murphy says that a total of almost 400 pounds of heroin and cocaine have been stolen from the police department since 1960. Much of that was stolen by police in 1962. The missing drugs have a street value of $73 million. [CBS]
- Defense Secretary Richardson expects some military bases to close. [CBS]
- Steak has been removed from Navy menus for being too expensive. But two Navy ships will be in New Orleans to house Navy marching units during the Mardi Gras celebration. [CBS]
- Volcanic eruptions continued on the Icelandic island of Heimaey. [CBS]
- The Oklahoma House of Representatives refused to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, saying that the amendment defies the teachings of the Bible. [CBS]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 999.02 (+6.09, +0.61%)
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* |
| January 30, 1973 | 992.93 | 115.83 | 15.27 |
| January 29, 1973 | 996.46 | 116.01 | 14.68 |
| January 26, 1973 | 1003.54 | 116.45 | 21.13 |
| January 24, 1973 | 1004.59 | 116.73 | 20.87 |
| January 23, 1973 | 1018.66 | 118.22 | 19.06 |
| January 22, 1973 | 1018.81 | 118.21 | 15.57 |
| January 19, 1973 | 1026.19 | 118.78 | 17.02 |
| January 18, 1973 | 1029.12 | 118.85 | 17.81 |
| January 17, 1973 | 1029.12 | 118.68 | 17.68 |
| January 16, 1973 | 1024.31 | 118.14 | 19.17 |