News stories from Saturday March 1, 1975
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- President Lon Nol of Cambodia, whose government is threatened by Communist-led insurgents, reaffirmed he would be willing to step aside if he is a barrier to a peace settlement. American Embassy sources said they saw nothing new in the remark, made to members of a visiting congressional delegation. They said the remark was not a hint that Lon Nol was about to step aside. [New York Times]
- The Department of Agriculture reported that errors in certification by state agencies gave numerous food stamp recipients 23.2 percent more assistance than they were entitled to in the first half of 1974, and it seems that the errors cost the government about $160 million. The department issued its report as another agency, the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, completed a study critical of both the structure and the administration of the food stamp program. [New York Times]
- The Equal Rights Amendment is scheduled to be voted in the Illinois Senate Tuesday, and its advocates believe the vote will mark the end of a recent series of defeats for the proposed addition to the Constitution. Opponents believe the Illinois vote will be "very close." The amendment, which would ban any form of discrimination based on sex by the federal, state and local governments, needs approval by 38 states to become the 27th Amendment. So far, 34 states have ratified it, but two have rescinded their ratification, a step of questionable legality. [New York Times]
- Six members of the congressional delegation touring Indochina spent less than eight hours in Cambodia and during much of that time were traveling in heavily guarded motorcades or surrounded by television cameras. When the legislators left, they gave no indication that anything they had seen or heard changed their opinions on President Ford's request for an additional $222 million in military aid. [New York Times]
- Secretary of State Kissinger said that the United States was "prepared to move in a new direction" in relations with Cuba, ending 14 years of boycott, provided that a majority of Latin-American countries agreed. He said that a decision by the United States depended on repeal of sanctions against Cuba by the 23-nation Organization of American States -- which could take place in May -- and Cuba's readiness to develop "a new relationship" with the United States. He made the statement on Cuba in a speech before the combined Service Club in Houston. [New York Times]
- Officials at the United States Embassy in Buenos Aires believe that the killing of a United States consular agent, John Egan, may be the first in a new wave of kidnappings and assassination attempts against American officials in Argentina. Mr. Egan, 62 years old, who was employed in Cordoba, was found shot to death Friday night two days after he had been kidnapped by leftist Peronist guerrillas. "We have had the most disturbing reports in the last four or five days than any time since I have been here," said an embassy official who arrived in Argentina last year. [New York Times]