News stories from Saturday June 9, 1973
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- John Dean has said that he was told by an aide to H.R. Haldeman that Mr. Haldeman had ordered pertinent documents destroyed right after the Watergate burglary, according to a report by Senator Lowell Weicker, who interviewed Mr. Dean last month. The documents were said to indicate that Mr. Haldeman knew of "actual data" obtained from the wiretap of the Democratic headquarters. [New York Times]
- The State Department said that it asked Costa Rica to extradite Robert L. Vesco, who is facing charges in connection with his financial dealings. The announcement gave no details on the exact charges on which he was to be extradited. [New York Times]
- Dr. Morton H. Halperin, whose home telephone was bugged while he was a National Security Council staff member, is expected to announce this week that he is suing those allegedly responsible for the wiretap. Among the defendants in a civil suit, Dr. Halperin has told close friends, will be Henry Kissinger, the presidential adviser, and Gen. Alexander Haig, who served as Mr. Kissinger's deputy during the period of the tap in 1969 and 1970. General Haig is now President Nixon's Chief of Staff. [New York Times]
- America's cities are smothering in garbage and nearly half of them will run out of dumping places within five years, according to a major study, "Cities and the Nation's Disposal Crisis," by the National League of Cities and the United States Conference of Mayors. It said action was urgently needed to avoid strangulation of cities on their solid wastes. [New York Times]
- The Penn Central Railroad said that "man failure" appeared to be the cause of the crash of two trains in Mount Vernon, New York, Friday evening that killed a man and injured 140 other persons. A railroad spokesman said he could not elaborate on the preliminary finding that human error rather than equipment failure had caused the crash of an express from Grand Central Station into the rear of a local train that was discharging passengers at the Mount Vernon station. The man killed in the crash was Dominic Gomes, 26 years old, of Port Chester. [New York Times]
- Late last January and again in February and March, Charles Colson, then special counsel in the White House, warned President Nixon that he must force John Mitchell, the former Attorney General, to admit he played a role in planning the Watergate burglary, Mr. Colson says. As late as the middle of March, however, Mr. Nixon told Mr. Colson, one of his closest confidants, that he did not believe Mr. Mitchell or any of his senior aides were guilty and that, with specific reference to Mr. Mitchell, he would not make a scapegoat of an innocent man, Mr. Colson says. He interpreted the President's remarks, in a long interview last week, as constituting proof that Mr. Nixon knew no more than he has publicly stated. [New York Times]
- Fighting in South Vietnam reached its highest level since mid-February today and both the Saigon government and the Communists appeared to be jockeying for more territory. The increase in fighting was reminiscent of last October, when a peace agreement was first expected, and of the end of January, just before the accords were finally signed in Paris. During both of those periods the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese appeared to be trying to seize key towns and highways so that they would control them after the cease-fire. [New York Times]
- Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho of Hanoi broke off their latest round of talks in Paris on how to strengthen the Vietnam peace accords and did not sign a draft document that was expected to be released this weekend. One high American official had expressed optimism that the document would be signed promptly but added that difficulties had arisen because of a "triangular agreement" among the United States and North and South Vietnam. Mr. Kissinger returned to Washington. Mr. Tho will remain in Paris. Their top aides are expected to resume Paris negotiations Monday. [New York Times]