News stories from Wednesday July 4, 1973
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Three prosecutors (Earl Silbert, Seymour Glanzer and Donald Campbell) gave special prosecutor Archibald Cox a status report prior to withdrawing from the Watergate case. Their report calls the investigation 85% complete and recommends the indictment of four White House aides for obstructing justice -- H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, John Mitchell and John Dean. The report suggests that co-conspirators offer guilty pleas in exchange for lighter sentences. These include L. Patrick Gray, Gordon Strachan and Jeb Magruder; Herbert Kalmbach should get complete immunity for his testimony.
The report says that the motivation for the conspiracy was fear that disclosure of the cover-up would hurt President Nixon's chances for re-election, and the fear that it would lead to the discovery of other illegal acts, including the break-in at Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office. The report includes enough evidence for an air-tight case against John Dean. Evidence against the four White House aides is both documentary and verbal, but Constitutional problems remain as far as taking action against the President.
[CBS] - Julie Nixon Eisenhower said that the consensus during a Nixon family discussion was for the President not to resign because his resignation would seem to be an admission of wrongdoing. [CBS]
- The Associated Press reported that John Mitchell's wife Martha will not sit with him at the Watergate hearings, as did the wives of John Dean and Jeb Magruder. The report added that Martha turned down an offer of a private room if she stays away from the hearings. [CBS]
- Lowell Weicker attended a Fourth of July parade today in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Watergate has thrust the rebellious Republican senator onto center stage; he could cause problems for the White House. Weicker's national prominence increased when he kicked Charles Colson out of office. Weicker doesn't mind his new-found publicity, whether good or bad. He noted that a parade spectator can boo him, and not go on an "enemies list". [CBS]
- Senator Edward Kennedy celebrated July 4 with George Wallace in Alabama and defended Wallace's right to speak his mind. Kennedy's trip was designed to increase Democratic party unity, reduce Republican influence in the South, and boost Kennedy's position for the presidency in 1976. [CBS]
- Food shortages threaten the holiday picnic table. Food supplies will run short because of the increase in grain prices. Meat packing executive Roy Edwards believes that price controls will lead to meat rationing. Some farmers say they are better off selling their grain than feeding it to livestock. The egg business may already be in a depression, and chicken farmers have cut back; baby chicks are being destroyed because the cost to feed them is too high. Producers warn that shortages will increase unless the government alleviates the situation. [CBS]
- U.S. Air Force Academy professor Capt. Lewis Moore filed a lawsuit, claiming that his position was terminated when he refused to join the officers club and buy a savings bond. Moore said that there is intolerance at the academy toward new ideas and an attitude that no one makes waves. This creates the general impression that everyone must follow the party line, like in the Soviet Union and China, Moore said. [CBS]
- Many of the 1,500 entrants at the U.S. Air Force Academy each year don't finish. Senator Birch Bayh has requested a General Accounting Office study of attrition at the academy. Bayh reported that the 1970 dropout rate was 27.9% and then increased to 33.2%, 39.5% and 29.8% in 1971-1973. The dropout rate was higher than at Annapolis and West Point. The son of the late astronaut Edward White quit. White said he had hoped for a career like his father's, but the academy didn't motivate him.
Most complaints regard minor things; what is considered as tradition at the older academies is called nit-picking at the Air Force Academy. Some charge that bright students are eliminated, and only "robots" are left behind. Former academy psychiatrist Lee Coleman said that the best cadets often leave. Graduating cadets dispute this view. Cadet Michael Chase said that he couldn't have depended on those who left. The GAO report is due in mid-July.
[CBS] - Smog in Los Angeles was heavy due to an temperature inversion holding the hot air down. Air pollution in the area was bad except at the beaches. [CBS]