News stories from Saturday May 3, 1975

Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:

President Ford spoke at commissioning ceremonies for the U.S.S. Nimitz, the world's largest warship, in Norfolk, Va., and pledged that the United States would keep its commitments abroad and would remain militarily strong. He said the Nimitz, the nation's second nuclear-powered carrier, along with other American forces worldwide, would make "critically important contributions" toward world peace. [New York Times] Key administration strategists admitted that President Ford almost certainly cannot get his two-year decontrol plan for oil prices through the House and will have to seek a compromise. The administration has begun putting out feelers to House Democrats for support of a decontrol program that would take effect over three or four years and that the administration believes would have less impact on consumer pocketbooks as the average cost of domestic crude oil rose. Unpublished preliminary federal estimates indicate that a gradual removal of crude oil price controls over two years would add 9 percent to retail prices of petroleum products by the end of 1977 and one percent to the Consumer Price Index. Federal energy officials were said to regard this as moderate and acceptable. [New York Times] Senators Jacob Javits and Claiborne Pell announced that they were drafting new legislation to provide funds the administration needs to move and resettle more than 120,000 Vietnamese refugees in the United States. Senator Javits said the bill would be ready tomorrow and would probably go to a House-Senate conference for quick action later in the week after committee hearings. [New York Times] More than 500 men, women and children who arrived in Aranyaprathet, Thailand, on Cambodia's border, refused to describe their trip by truck or their experiences in the French Embassy in Phnom Penh, where they took refuge two weeks ago when the Communist-led insurgents took over the city. The refugees, including eight newsmen, agreed among themselves not to tell their experiences until the new Cambodian government had allowed the remaining 250 foreigners in the embassy compound to leave the country. [New York Times] Women are joining the United States Army in record peace-time numbers and taking over hundreds of once-male jobs, from fixing tanks to flying helicopters, and they are moving closer to an assault on the Army's last bastion of male exclusivity -- the combat arms. Women's Army ranks have tripled in four years to 35,000 -- the highest in history -- and are expected to increase. The present female enrollment is 4.5 percent of the Army's force of 780,000. [New York Times] Nathan Hale did not say what most people believe he said when he was hanged by the British; Paul Revere never got to Concord on his famous ride, and George III was probably not crazy. These were among the highlights of a conference at Yale University in which Yale history professors lectured to Connecticut high school teachers on what should and should not be taught about the American Revolution. [New York Times] The Saigon radio announced today that North Vietnam had undertaken a widespread reconstruction program in South Vietnam to provide jobs and begin reversing the devastation of 30 years of war. Customary communications channels with Saigon have been cut since Wednesday when the Communists took over the city. The broadcasts, monitored in Bangkok, Thailand, suggested that a wholesale reorganization of South Vietnam was under way. The new regime has begun organizing "Revolutionary People's Committees," ostensibly to protect government property. The radio said that 5,000 people had signed up for duty. All members of the defeated South Vietnamese military forces were ordered to register with the new regime or face punishment. [New York Times] The United States carrier Hancock sailed into the home port of the Seventh Fleet at Subic Bay in the Philippines carrying 2,000 Americans and Vietnamese evacuees plucked out of Saigon. Other vessels of the 46-ship armada that had completed the final evacuation of South Vietnam were approaching the port. In all, about 20,000 evacuees are expected to arrive there. [New York Times]