News stories from Sunday April 6, 1975
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Communist attacks were stepped up today for the second day in the Mekong Delta, the populous rice-producing area south of Saigon, the South Vietnamese command said. In the region around Saigon there were no signs of a major attack, although government and Communist forces continued to probe each other's lines. Northward along the South Vietnamese coast, two important ports, Nha Trang and Cam Ranh, both of which the Communists said they had occupied, apparently still remained in government hands. [New York Times]
- The American plan to evacuate thousands of South Vietnamese children is a criminal operation that his people would never tolerate, said Premier Pham Van Dong of North Vietnam, who made a number of comments on South Vietnam and the United States involvement there after voting in Hanoi in elections for a new National Assembly. "The American plan is unhealthy and abominable," he said, asserting that public opinion must be aroused over the issue. He also said that events in South Vietnam were progressing satisfactorily. [New York Times]
- "It was the most incredible scene of deprivation and illness I've ever seen," Dr. Alex Stalcup said as he described conditions aboard a chartered Pan American World Airways 747 jet that arrived in San Francisco with 313 South Vietnamese children, most of them infants. Emergency airlifts continued to fly hundreds of children to the United States, and many were rushed to hospitals. Dr. Stalcup was among a group of physicians that boarded the Pan American plane. There were severe cases of dehydration, pneumonia, diarrhea, chicken pox and other viral diseases. [New York Times]
- The United States was continuing to build up its forces off Vietnam with at least one aircraft carrier, three destroyers, a half-dozen amphibious ships and units of a Marine Corps division, according to independent sources in Saigon and news releases from the American Embassy there. Three other aircraft carriers, including the nuclear-powered Enterprise, were said to be in the zone. [New York Times]
- In the South, which traditionally has been the most bellicose and military-minded part of the nation, there seems to be virtually no sentiment for any new American military involvement in Indochina. Except for the strong feeling that the United States should provide humanitarian aid -- food, medical supplies, help for refugees -- there is also little sentiment for sending more American money into Vietnam. [New York Times]
- A recent and rapid succession of developments that have been dismaying in many ways to people concerned about environmental progress has raised the question of whether energy problems and inflation are sidetracking environmental quality. The answer seems to be a fence-straddling yes and no. [New York Times]