News stories from Monday April 23, 1973
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The Washington Star News reports that Nixon attorney Herbert Kalmbach had a $500,000 secret campaign fund, part of which was used for spying operations. The attorney for G. Gordon Liddy has quit because Liddy continuously disregarded his advice. Republican Senator Richard Schweiker is calling for the disbandment of the Committee to Re-Elect the President because of its involvement in the Watergate bugging. Watergate prosecutor Earl Silbert reportedly stated that Attorney General Richard Kleindienst told him to "go slow" in the Watergate investigation; the Justice Department denies this.
An attorney for the Nixon re-election campaign turned over financial records to the court after Common Cause asked for contempt citations for withholding those records. James McCord said that he gave the court information about the Watergate case as completely and as truthfully as possible. Judge John Sirica held a meeting with other judges regarding leaks of secret grand jury testimony to the press. Columnist Jack Anderson has published a series of articles with direct quotes from secret session testimony.
The White House now seems to be dividing into camps over the Watergate case. There have been no denials of reports that aide Charles Colson warned President Nixon last December that a Watergate cover-up might be underway. Press secretary Ron Ziegler remains in seclusion and Jerry Warren is handling news briefings. Presidential aide Henry Kissinger commented on the case, however, telling the Associated Press that President Nixon wants Watergate to be fully investigated and suggesting that people have compassion for those involved.
[CBS] - War continues to rage in Cambodia. Several CBS reporters, including Ed Bradley and cameraman Norman Lloyd, were wounded as government troops battled Communist forces near Phnom Penh. The State Department reported that North Vietnamese troops are helping Communist forces in Cambodia, but did not refute a recent statement by an American official in Cambodia that the war there is primarily a civil war. [CBS]
- The Pentagon released a study on drug abuse in the Army. The study reveals that while 20% of soldiers who were interviewed described themselves as heroin addicts, many of them were able to quit drugs on their own when they left the war zone. Assistant Secretary of Defense Dr. John Wilbur stated that recovery from heroin dependence is successful in the majority of cases involving servicemen. [CBS]
- In the trial of Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo, Leslie Gelb, who directed the Pentagon Papers study, testified that although he classified the papers as top secret, he did so without giving the matter much consideration. [CBS]
- Mrs. Russell Ryan, a New York City housewife, faces extradition to West Germany to stand trial as a war criminal. Ryan was a Nazi guard at the Majdanek concentration camp in Poland from 1942 to 1944. She married and moved to the United States in 1959, but was tracked down by Simon Wiesenthal, the Nazi hunter who also found Adolf Eichmann. Ryan's neighbors find the charges hard to believe.
An immigration service lawyer took testimony from former Majdanek inmates. Mary Finklestein recalled Ryan beating an inmate into unconsciousness; the victim was then cremated. Ryan claimed that she was just following orders and had no choice but to do as she did. Majdanek survivor Stella Kollin told of Ryan throwing small children onto trucks to be taken to the gas chambers and said that she can still hear the children and mothers screaming. Russell Ryan stated that he feels his wife never did anything wrong.
[CBS] - Economist Herbert Stein reported that the administration may increase some taxes as a means of slowing inflation. [CBS]
- The Watergate case is paralyzing administration work in Washington. White House staff business is at a standstill. [CBS]
- The Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal of a Baltimore reporter who is facing an indefinite jail sentence for refusing to disclose a confidential news source. [CBS]
|
Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 955.37 (-7.83, -0.81%)
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* |
| April 19, 1973 | 963.20 | 112.17 | 14.56 |
| April 18, 1973 | 958.31 | 111.54 | 13.89 |
| April 17, 1973 | 953.42 | 110.94 | 12.83 |
| April 16, 1973 | 956.73 | 111.44 | 11.35 |
| April 13, 1973 | 959.36 | 112.08 | 14.39 |
| April 12, 1973 | 964.03 | 112.58 | 16.36 |
| April 11, 1973 | 967.41 | 112.68 | 14.89 |
| April 10, 1973 | 960.49 | 112.21 | 16.77 |
| April 9, 1973 | 947.55 | 110.86 | 13.74 |
| April 6, 1973 | 931.07 | 109.28 | 13.89 |