News stories from Saturday August 10, 1974
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- "I believe that is what the country wants," President Ford said when he asked the members of Mr. Nixon's cabinet to stay on in his administration in the name of "continuity and stability." He told the cabinet members that he did not want any pro forma resignations, but would meet with each cabinet officer individually, He also asked the members to be "affirmative" in their relations with the press. [New York Times]
- The House and Senate, which had been preparing for impeachment, will now prepare to confirm a nomination for a new Vice President that is expected to be submitted by President Ford in the next 10 days. The leadership of both houses conferred with the President Friday in the general mood of accommodation that prevails in the White House and Congress. The President plans to address a joint session of Congress at 9 P.M. Monday to outline his legislative priorities. With impeachment considered moot, the House is planning to recess from Aug. 22 to Sept. 11, and the Senate from Aug. 23 to Sept. 14. [New York Times]
- President Ford asked for vice-presidential suggestions from among Republicans in Congress, the nation's governors and his party's national committee. He has asked that preferences be listed in one-two-three order, sealed in envelopes for his eyes only, and presented to the White House by Wednesday. His press secretary, Jerry terHorst, said that Mr. Ford would also consult Democratic leaders in Congress and his personal staff and advisers. [New York Times]
- Administration officials said that President Ford had sent a personal message to Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet Communist party leader, indicating that he intends to maintain the top-level dialogue begun by Mr. Nixon in 1971. Meanwhile, in addition to the messages sent to all heads of state or government and foreign ministers, the administration held meetings with envoys in Washington to stress the "continuity" of American foreign policy. [New York Times]
- President Ford has told top assistants that he wants to try a new approach to an old problem that both he and former President Nixon believe is of the most urgent facing the nation -- the reduction of government expenditures as a means of fighting inflation. What would be new would not be the amount to be cut from the budget but instead the method of deciding where the reductions will be made, Mr. Ford would seek the cooperation of Congress in making the cuts. At his meeting with government economic advisers, it was decided that the Ford .administration would ask Congress to sustain Mr. Nixon's last veto, which was on a budget matter. [New York Times]
- When Mr. Nixon returned to San Clemente and the immaculately restored old villa that once was called the Western White House, it was as if he had pulled the ladder up behind him after a few greetings and handshakes. The gates were closed and guarded and no calls were taken. Now that Mr. Nixon is private citizen, San Clemente, a city of 20,000, faces a loss of prestige as well as a cutback in federal funds that had been provided to protect Mr. Nixon when he was President. [New York Times]
- While Generalissimo Francisco Franco was still recovering from an illness, Prince Juan Carlos de Borbon, Spain's acting chief of state and future king, presided over his first cabinet meeting on Friday. The meeting was overshadowed by the change of administrations in Washington, which captured the big headlines in Spanish newspapers, but Spanish political observers believed it foreshadowed momentous change in Spain, too. [New York Times]
- Portugal published a two-year blueprint for the granting of independence to her African territory of Angola. However, portions of the plan were rejected by the leading liberation movement in Angola, Portugal's largest African territory. On Friday, a member of the Armed Forces Movement, Col, Carlos Galvao de Melo, said that a statement on independence for Portuguese Guinea might be made on Monday or Tuesday. But today official sources said negotiations had stalled over the future of the Cape Verde Islands and independence was not imminent. [New York Times]