News stories from Sunday June 8, 1975

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

Attorney General Edward Levi said that it was not within the constitutional authority of the President of the United States to order the assassination of foreign heads of state. He emphasized that he was not suggesting that President Eisenhower and President Kennedy, under whose administrations the possibility of such plots was allegedly studied, had violated state or federal laws because "consideration of alternatives is not the same thing as ordering the violations." But, he left open the question of whether any of the living subordinates of the late Presidents who were involved in planning and attempting to implement alleged assassination plots would be subjected to a criminal investigation by the Justice Department. [New York Times] A Senate investigating team directed by Senator Edward Kennedy charged that the administration's program for resettling 131,210 Indochinese refugees has turned into a "shambles" because of "failure of leadership." A report to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Refuges and Escapees blamed the Interagency Taskforce on Refugees for "bureaucratic roadblocks." [New York Times] Democratic Governors gathering in New Orleans for an annual midyear meeting agreed that the only one of their colleagues running an active campaign for the presidential nomination -- George Wallace of Alabama -- would draw a big bloc of delegates but would not win. Gov. Calvin Rampton of Utah, chairman of the National Governors Conference, who is a moderate conservative, said at a news conference that he could not support a ticket with Mr. Wallace on it. Gov. Reubin Askew of Florida called on Mr. Wallace to support the Democratic nominee regardless of who he is, and not bolt to a third party. [New York Times] Government investigators have broadened their inquiries into illegal political contributions and bribery abroad by American corporations to include a dozen additional corporations that constitute a "who's who" of American industry. In addition to companies already identified publicly, the investigation has been extended to the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, the Exxon Corporation, the Mobil Oil Corporation, the Standard Oil Company (Indiana), the Del Monte Corporation and American Airlines. [New York Times] Soon after her father's death in March, Christina Onassis, who was born in New York, took steps to renounce her United States citizenship and to give the American portion of the Onassis shipping empire to a charity. In April, Miss Onassis relinquished control of Victory Carriers, Inc., a shipping concern that has eight United States-flag vessels. Miss Onassis reportedly established a United States-based trust that will operate Victory Carriers for the benefit of the American Hospital in Paris, where her father died. Both her actions were said to have important tax advantages. [New York Times] The North Vietnamese National Assembly urged that Hanoi eventually be made the capital of a reunified Vietnam. The statement, broadcast over the Hanoi radio and monitored in Bangkok, was in a report of the first meeting of fifth session of the National Assembly, at which the country's leaders were re-elected. [New York Times] Liberalization of the laws regulating the cultivation of opium and the narcotics traffic in Laos has been proposed by the Communist-led Pathet Lao. This is worrying United States officials and threatens to halt a two-month-old United Nations program to discourage opium production. [New York Times]