News stories from Saturday August 17, 1974
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The White House announced that a mysterious tip linking Nelson Rockefeller, the former Governor of New York, to "dirty tricks" in the 1972 presidential campaign had been referred to the special Watergate prosecutor last week and, after an investigation, was dismissed as baseless. Jerry terHorst, President Ford's press secretary, said in one of a number of news briefings on the matter that the tip was the work of "extremists who wished for reasons of their own to discredit Governor Rockefeller." He said that the investigation was "completely closed" and would have no further bearing on Mr. Ford's choice of a vice- presidential nominee. [New York Times]
- On the day he announced that he would resign, President Nixon changed the terms of the gift he had made to the National Archives of his pre-presidential papers and stipulated that no one could have access to them until Jan. 1, 1985, without his personal permission. The paper's were originally donated with the provision that access would be restricted only as long as Mr. Nixon was President. [New York Times]
- A Gallup poll has found that nearly half the adults in the United States have despaired of the nation's economy and believe the country is headed for a serious depression. However, a wellspring of hope, based on President Ford's desire to curb the soaring rate of inflation, was apparent in a series of interviews conducted by the New York Times across the country. [New York Times]
- A new thrust southward on Cyprus by Turkish armor and artillery broke the cease-fire agreed on Friday night with Greek Cypriote forces. After seizing the northern third of the island, the Turkish army appeared to be seeking to reach Turkish communities in the Greek Cypriote part of Cyprus. An armored column progressed well beyond the line that was assumed to be the southern boundary of what would be Turkish-controlled Cyprus. [New York Times]
- Anti-Americanism is sweeping Greece and American and Greek officials are now assuming that the United States will eventually be asked to vacate or reorganize at least some of the seven military installations it maintains in Greece. Greek hostility to the bases -- which were established through negotiation between Athens and Washington -- was emphasized Friday when the Greek government prohibited all American military aircraft from landing or taking off anywhere in the country. The order was modified today to allow operations only in Athens, and then only with a six-hour notice. [New York Times]
- Since the start of their invasion of Cyprus three weeks ago, the Turkish armed forces suffered 250 dead and 550 wounded, Gen. Semih Sancar, the chief of the Turkish General Staff, said at a news conference in Ankara. He spoke of Turkish military operations on the island as ended, and said that the Turkish attack had been renewed Wednesday after the problem of the Turkish-Cypriote minorities in enclaves under Greek Cypriote control had been "left for a week to the politicians." [New York Times]
- King Hussein of Jordan said he had received sympathy but no commitments from American officials that the United States would meet his desire to press for Jordanian-Israeli negotiations as the next step in the Middle East. In an interview in Washington, King Hussein affirmed his government's threat to boycott a resumption of the Geneva conference on the Middle East unless the Israelis withdraw from at least part of the West Bank of the Jordan River, which was seized by Israel in 1967. [New York Times]