News stories from Sunday August 25, 1974
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Preparation for the orderly elevation of Gerald Ford to the presidency were begun months before President Nixon decided to resign and were kept secret from Mr. Nixon and, at first, Mr. Ford. The transition was initiated by Philip Buchen, Mr. Ford's closest friend, and a program for the first days of the Ford administration was drafted in June by Mr. Nixon's adviser on telecommunications policy, Clay Whitehead, and three other young men, including a stanch Democrat, who have not been identified. The details of the transition were settled 36 hours before it came about. [New York Times]
- Jack Grayson, who was in charge of the short-lived Price Commission in the Nixon administration, said on a television program that the voluntary approach on wages and prices advocated by President Ford would in same cases lead to higher rather than lower prices. He said he believed that the new Council on Wages and Price Stability would be of little value and might even do some harm. James Lynn, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, who participated in another TV program, gave a pessimistic view of the housing market. [New York Times]
- Interviews with families of Vietnam war evaders across the country find that most parents now view their sons with respect. They believe that amnesty should be unconditional and that President Ford's "earned re-entry" proposal is unfair and impractical. Most of these parents believe that the Vietnam war was illegal. [New York Times]
- The bill passed by the Senate for the improvement of Amtrak, the national rail passenger system, provides major incentives to the states to begin expanding regional rail transportation. Under the bill, Amtrak would expand its nationwide network to include routes requested by state, regional or local agencies if the agencies agreed to make good one-third of any start-up and operating deficits. States formerly could get Amtrak routes into operation only by paying two-thirds of any deficits. [New York Times]
- Guerrilla warfare against the Turks occupying what had been Greek Cypriote territory in Cyprus is possible, Glafkos Clerides, the Greek Cypriote President, said in an interview with Greek Cypriote newsmen, which was made public by the Greek Cypriote administration in Nicosia. He made the statement shortly before the arrival in Cyprus of Secretary General Waldheim of the United Nations, who is expected to try to persuade Mr. Clerides and Rauf Denktash, the chief of the Turkish Cypriote administration, to meet for the first time since the second Turkish military offensive in Cyprus began 11 days ago. [New York Times]
- Authoritative Greek sources said that the government will tell the Soviet Union tomorrow that any international conference on Cyprus must concentrate on finding "ways and means" to implement Security Council resolutions calling for the removal of foreign troops from Cyprus. In a note to the Soviet Ambassador in Athens, the Greek government will ask for clarifications and make some suggestions for the talks on Cyprus proposed by Moscow. [New York Times]
- Prime Minister Abdul Razak of Malaysia and his National Front coalition government won a landslide victory in last Friday's national elections, but it did not remove the problem of racialism from Malaysia's political life. It may, in fact, have exaggerated it. The government Front, a multiracial conglomerate composed of nine different parties, appeared headed for control of nearly 90 percent of the seats in Parliament and for big majorities in the state assemblies. The victory wiped out all the moderate and non-racial parties and left a militant, racially-oriented Chinese party as the only alternative to the Front. [New York Times]