News stories from Saturday November 4, 1972

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

Senator George McGovern warned the American people not to "buy this Nixon line on peace." Before beginning a final campaign tour through Texas, a crucial state where observers believe he will face one of his most difficult fights, Mr. McGovern held a news conference in Chicago in which he intensified the harsh accusations he had made on a campaign television broadcast that President Nixon's reports of an approaching settlement of the Vietnam war were politically motivated. Asserting that he had made the charges "as a patriot and not as a candidate," Mr. McGovern said of President Nixon "He has no plan for ending this war. He has not let go of General Thieu. He's not going to let that corrupt Thieu regime collapse." [New York Times] Senator McGovern's final drive for the presidency appears to have failed, and President Nixon seems likely to carry at least 48 states on Election Day, according to a final survey by correspondents of the New York Times in 50 states. There is a possibility, the survey indicates, that Mr. Nixon will carry all 50 states in the greatest sweep in American political history. The Democratic nominee, according to the Times study, holds a solid lead only in the District of Columbia, with the outcome in serious doubt in only two states, Massachusetts and Virginia. [New York Times] The United States command in Saigon reported today that B-52's dropped at least 2,200 tons of explosives on North Vietnam in the 24-hour period ending this morning. At the same time, 140 jet fighters were said to have struck targets in North Vietnam below the 20th parallel limit set by President Nixon as a gesture of goodwill in the peace negotiations. [New York Times] North Vietnam has invited the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Refugees to send a medical group to study immediate and long-term relief needs. The invitation is being accepted, according to aides of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the subcommittee's chairman. They said that a team of prominent American physicians was preparing to leave Wednesday and would remain one week in North Vietnam. The invitation was extended by North Vietnam's Foreign Minister in August, the Senator's aides said, and was transmitted to Mr. Kennedy through private channels. [New York Times] Volunteer neighborhood civilian patrols, which have been springing up in cities around the country for several years, are now spreading to the suburbs in an effort to reduce crime. John Naisbitt, president of the Urban Research Corporation in Chicago, says that their number is up sharply in cities and suburbs over the last eight months. [New York Times] Despite years of fighting that have largely shattered the Viet Cong guerrillas, the Communists in South Vietnam have managed to preserve the core of their political apparatus with what many well-informed Vietnamese and American officials believe to be a dedicated cadre of 40,000 to 60,000. The Viet Cong network is spread throughout the country and will pose a serious threat to the Saigon government under a cease-fire. Its continued existence seems to be a major reason why President Nguyen Van Thieu and other Vietnamese are nervous about the peace settlement worked out by Hanoi and Washington. [New York Times]