News stories from Sunday February 4, 1973
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- American prisoners of war should be coming home this week, says International Control Commission head Michel Gauvin. Members of the Joint Military Commission met today. Viet Cong delegation chief General Tran Van Tra said it was nice to be back in Saigon. A North Vietnamese colonel stated that he would like to talk with reporters, but the South Vietnamese government is keeping the Viet Cong and North Vietnam isolated at an air base. The ICC, which is composed of representatives from Canada, Hungary, Indonesia and Poland, met with the Joint Military Commission. Within a week the ICC will be supervising the cease-fire.
Tomorrow, an American admiral will fly to Hanoi to discuss removing U.S. mines from North Vietnamese waters. The U.S. is flying 200 North Vietnamese officials to Saigon to be members of the Joint Military Commission.
[NBC] - Nine people were killed and 20 wounded in Belfast last night. Six were killed in a gun battle with British soldiers. In the last 13 months there have been about 130 sectarian murders. Two-thirds of the victims were Catholics, most of whom were the innocent victims of terrorism.
Fourteen-year-old Philip Rafferty is the latest victim. He was kidnapped on his way home from band practice and then murdered. Maureen Rafferty said that her son died because he was Catholic. Philip Rafferty said that he can't understand why anybody should murder any child for any religion, and he wants people on both sides to come together.
[NBC] - The American Hospital Association recently proposed a Patients Bill of Rights, stating that a patient has the right to know his state of health and the right to refuse treatment. New treatments can keep patients alive even though there is no hope for recovery. David Cass was 80 years old and had had a series of strokes. Medical treatment kept him alive for 10 days before he died. Cass' daughter Anita Schickler says she knew her father wouldn't recover, and told her children that if she was ever in the same condition her father was in she would want to die rather than just lie in the hospital.
But a moral argument remains; life is sacred. Besides, no matter how hopeless a patient's situation appears to be, a cure is possible. As medicine allows more people to live longer, the question of the right to die becomes more important.
[NBC] - John Ehrlichman, President Nixon's domestic adviser, declared that the administration will refuse to spend money it considers to have been appropriated for wasteful or unnecessary programs. Ehrlichman defended the impounding of money for pollution control programs.
At the same time, Mayors were meeting to try to find a way to convince Congress to stand up to the President. Eleven Mayors met in New York City today. Mayor John Lindsay conducted a tour to show the alleged impact of proposed budget cuts. Tour sites included low income housing projects and a pollution control project on the Hudson River. These projects would be killed by budget cuts. Milwaukee Mayor Henry Maier said that priorities need to be changed, and the poor need help.
[NBC] - The Cleveland teachers strike may be almost over; negotiators have reached a tentative settlement. [NBC]
- Lindy Boggs, the widow of Rep. Hale Boggs, won the Democratic nomination to succeed her husband in the House of Representatives from Louisiana. She faces Republican Robert E. Lee in the general election. [NBC]
- The cease-fire has left much of South Vietnam under Viet Cong control. Reporters visited a Viet Cong village in the Mekong Delta. Villagers pointed out the damage done to their town by South Vietnamese troops after the cease-fire; they claim that 29 people were killed by attacks after the truce. Residents say that two South Vietnamese soldiers live in the village and commute to outposts. This has been happening in the Mekong Delta for years. The village has no Viet Cong soldiers though it has a few political officers, and the villagers help Viet Cong units when they are in the area. [NBC]