News stories from Thursday December 21, 1972
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Three more U.S. B-52 bombers were shot down in air raids over North Vietnam. U.S. bombers have struck Hanoi and Haiphong more than 1,000 times in the last four days.
American planes are alleged to have previously hit a U.S. POW camp in Hanoi. A small group of visiting antiwar activists, including Joan Baez and retired General Telford Taylor, viewed some of the bomb damage at the camp. The Pentagon insists that raids are not planned in areas where POW's are believed to be held. Reporter Mike McKinley interviewed Helene Knapp, head of the largest POW wives and relatives group. Knapp said that reports of the bombing of a POW camp are unverified.
Bombs have destroyed Hanoi's main power station, a railway depot, airport, embassies and other targets. The U.S. announced that in the last four days it lost six B-52's, one F-111 and one A-7. 27 men are missing. A Hanoi spokesman claims the U.S. has lost 12 B-52's, two F-111 s and 12 other planes.
[CBS] - North Vietnam called the U.S. bombing "demented" and apparently peace is no longer "at hand". Communists walked out of the Paris Peace Talks today in protest of the bombing of North Vietnam. North Vietnamese negotiator Nguyen Minh Vy stated that the U.S. is carrying out unspeakable crimes against the civilian population of Hanoi and Haiphong. U.S. negotiator Heyward Isham blamed North Vietnam for the breakdown of the Le Duc Tho-Henry Kissinger talks and called North Vietnam's walkout bad etiquette. [CBS]
- Hanoi called on China and Russia to pressure the U.S. into stopping the bombing. In Moscow, Communist party boss Leonid Brezhnev called the bombing "barbaric." [CBS]
- One American was killed and six were wounded last week in Vietnam before the U.S. bombing began. 356 South Vietnamese troops were killed along with 1,600 enemy. [CBS]
- President Nixon named James Schlesinger as chief of the CIA, replacing Richard Helms who becomes ambassador to Iran. L. Patrick Gray, the acting FBI chief, was named to a full term at the FBI. [CBS]
- The jail sentence of John Lawrence, Washington Bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times, has been lifted. Watergate witness Alfred Baldwin asked that the tape of the interview between himself and a Times reporter be turned over to the court, as Judge Sirica ordered. Lawrence stated that reporters are under attack in America with regard to the rights of a free press. Jack Nelson, the reporter who interviewed Baldwin, said that the tape will add little to what's already been published. The tape may not affect the Watergate trial, but it affects newsmen's rights. [CBS]
- The Washington Star-News said that if the Washington Post is excluded from White House social events, it should be too. If press secretary Ron Ziegler excludes the Post from those events, the Star-News won't attend either. [CBS]
- When George Wallace announced his 1972 presidential candidacy, nobody took him seriously, according to former Democratic party chairman Lawrence O'Brien. Time has changed this. New party chairman Robert Strauss is visiting all prominent Democrats, including Wallace. Strauss stated that Wallace is an important part of the party, and Strauss wants his help in reconstructing the Democratic party. Wallace says that the Democrats must look to the "silent people" who work for a living and pay taxes. [CBS]
- Former President Harry Truman is being treated to remove impurities in his blood caused by failing kidneys. His condition is still very serious. [CBS]
- Last night two planes collided on a runway at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago due to poor visibility. Nine people died and 15 were injured. Either the pilot of the Delta Airlines plane or the control tower made a mistake. Delta says that its plane was acting under specific instructions from the tower when it entered the runway on which another plane was taking off. [CBS]
- East and West Germany signed a treaty today in East Berlin. The treaty aims at bettering relations between the two countries. It recognizes the existence of both Germanys and clears the way for both to join the United Nations. [CBS]
- A government panel noted that housewives work hard but get no pay. The panel recommended that housewives get pensions and perhaps government subsidies. The panel also said that many workers are bored with their jobs and need a greater voice in running the business in which they work. [CBS]
- The government extended the suspension of meat import quotas, according to Treasury Secretary Shultz. The purpose is to keep meat prices stable. [CBS]
- The astronauts from Apollo 17 returned home to their families in Texas. For Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans and Harrison Schmitt, it's a two-week Christmas vacation. But at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Apollo program employees are now permanently out of work. Grumman Aerospace built the lunar landing module, but there is no more need for Grumman here now and its employees are relocating. [CBS]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1000.00 (-4.82, -0.48%)
Arms Index is the ratio of volume per declining issue to volume per advancing issue; a figure below 1.0 is bullish. | |||||||||||||||
| Market Index Trends | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | DJIA | S&P | Volume* |
| December 20, 1972 | 1004.82 | 115.95 | 18.49 |
| December 19, 1972 | 1009.18 | 116.34 | 17.00 |
| December 18, 1972 | 1013.25 | 116.90 | 17.54 |
| December 15, 1972 | 1027.24 | 118.26 | 18.30 |
| December 14, 1972 | 1025.06 | 118.24 | 17.93 |
| December 13, 1972 | 1030.48 | 118.56 | 16.54 |
| December 12, 1972 | 1033.19 | 118.66 | 17.04 |
| December 11, 1972 | 1036.27 | 119.12 | 17.23 |
| December 8, 1972 | 1033.19 | 118.86 | 18.03 |
| December 7, 1972 | 1033.26 | 118.60 | 19.32 |