News stories from Sunday March 14, 1971
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- North Vietnamese forces reportedly moved back into Tchepone, Laos, as South Vietnamese forces retreated toward the border. An American plane mistakenly bombed a South Vietnamese unit, killing 10; two U.S. helicopters were shot down. [CBS]
- At a special Sunday session of Lt. William Calley's trial, defense and prosecution attorneys argued about the instructions that judge Reid Kennedy will give to the jury. Kennedy said that if the jury decides that Calley was mentally incapacitated at My Lai, they can declare him incapable of committing premeditated murder. They cannot acquit him on those grounds, but can find him guilty of a lesser offense. Kennedy also said that if the jury believes Calley received orders to kill Vietnamese civilians, they can acquit him unless they believe an ordinary, sensible man would know such an order to be illegal. Jury deliberations begin Tuesday. [CBS]
- Pentagon chief counsel Fred Buzhardt reported that an investigation into Army involvement in spying on civilians is proceeding. Buzhardt stated that three Army generals cannot testify at Senate hearings because they may be witnesses in formal proceedings later. [CBS]
- An antiwar group including Jane Fonda, Peter Boyle and Donald Sutherland put on a show criticizing the Vietnam war at Fayetteville, North Carolina. Fort Bragg refused to allow the show on the base so it was played at a Fayetteville coffee house. [CBS]
- Treasury Secretary Connally says that there is a lack of confidence in the U.S. economy and therefore investors are being too cautious; more help is needed from labor and industry. Connally feels that the government can control inflation without mandatory wage and price controls. [CBS]
- Environmental Protection Agency director William Ruckelshaus is urging the Interior Department to consider alternate routes through Canada for the Alaska oil pipeline. [CBS]
- Friends of House Ways and Means committee chairman Wilbur Mills are reportedly planning to enter him in the New Hampshire presidential primary. [CBS]
- India Prime Minister Gandhi's party won complete control of Parliament in the recent elections. Gandhi says that the victory means that socialism is the only path for India's progress. [CBS]
- An explosion occurred above the speakers' platform after President Allende of Chile finished a speech. One report states that the blast was caused by an electrical short circuit, another claims it was a Molotov cocktail. [CBS]