News stories from Tuesday April 11, 1972
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- American ground troops were airlifted to Phu Bai, the northernmost base in South Vietnam. North Vietnam attacked Fire Base Bastogne nearby, and Hue is still endangered. At Phu Bai, a full battalion of U.S. infantry was flown in from Danang to protect American installations in northern South Vietnam, including a radio and research center outside of Hue and a Coast Guard radar station which guides American warplanes on bombing missions. The soldiers, anxious to get home, are disgruntled with their new assignment. The Pentagon says that these troops will not be used in combat, but for defense. UPI reported that the soldiers will begin a "dynamic defense" (aggressive patrolling) in an area where thousands of the enemy are reported.
The Pentagon announced that the U.S. command in South Vietnam will no longer make daily reports to newsmen about allied air strikes over North Vietnam. Reports will be issued periodically at the discretion of General Creighton Abrams.
[CBS] - Nine American warships off the Vietnam coast bombarded enemy targets just south of the DMZ, destroying two tanks. The ships received return fire, but were not hit. U.S. B-52s flew airstrikes over enemy positions in northern South Vietnam. A U.S. helicopter was shot down near Hue; three crewmen were wounded. Renewed fighting broke out to the south and in the Central Highlands. North of Saigon, South Vietnamese reinforcements near An Loc came under attack. South Vietnamese rangers evacuated from Bo Duc, which is also in danger. Americans pulled out of a mountaintop radio base at Nui Ba Den after two soldiers were killed in a raid on Sunday.
Admiral Thomas Moorer says that the tide of combat is turning in favor of South Vietnam. The South Vietnamese no longer believe they are beaten. They claim to have knocked out 47 Russian-built tanks in one day. North Vietnamese troops who were trying to cut Highway 1 were stopped in their tracks. Reinforcements are arriving every day, and peasants are returning to their hamlets and crops. The South Vietnam high command believes that the big battle is over.
[CBS] - The Nixon administration is emphasizing the amount of military aid that North Vietnam is receiving from Russia and China. The State Department released cost estimates on Soviet and Chinese military equipment and economic aid to North Vietnam in order to stress that, without this support, the current North Vietnamese offensive could not have been launched. However, U.S. military aid to South Vietnam is 10 times larger than Russian and Chinese aid to the North. [CBS]
- The Senate Judiciary Committee turned its attention from Dita Beard and the ITT affair to Life magazine's charges that the Justice Department dropped its prosecution of prominent Republican party financial backers in San Diego. Assistant Attorney General Henry Peterson conceded that federal prosecutor Harry Steward acted improperly, but with no evidence of corruption. [CBS]
- Cost of Living Council chairman Donald Rumsfeld said that 24 of the nation's 105 largest companies took excessive profits during the price control period; those companies may be subject to price rollbacks. [CBS]
- Vice President Spiro Agnew has criticized "self-righteous" intellectuals who consider themselves superior to the point of infallibility. Agnew now claims that even some encyclopedias are guilty of leftward bias and he criticized the politicizing of the educational process. Agnew predicted criticism of his speech, as he believes that it will be misinterpreted. [CBS]
- Hundreds of young "Jesus freaks" have come down out of the hills north of Los Angeles to register to vote as Republicans. Many are former drug users who are now living in farms and dorms supplied by the Alamo Foundation near Saugus, California. One of the "freaks", 25-year-old Gail Bingham, accused Democrats of being too soft on drug use and said that the conservative Republican viewpoint is closest to the law of God. [CBS]
- A Department of Health, Education and Welfare study reported that the reading ability of a college graduate is necessary in order to fill out the 1972 income tax forms. Wisconsin Rep. Les Aspin said that the study refutes the IRS claim that almost anyone can understand the forms. [CBS]
- A federal grand jury indicted New Jersey Rep. Cornelius Gallagher for tax evasion, conspiracy, and perjury. He also allegedly helped two imprisoned former Jersey City officials (Mayor Thomas Whelan and City Council president Thomas Flaherty) evade taxes. Gallagher denied any wrongdoing. [CBS]
- Annette Gilly changed her plea to guilty on charges related to the murder of United Mine Workers official Joseph Yablonski in December, 1969. Gilly agreed to turn state's evidence against her father, another defendant in the case, if the death penalty is not sought. Three other defendants have already been found guilty. [CBS]
- The Justice Department accused a southwest Arkansas school district of violating a school desegregation order by racially separating children on buses. In Bradley, Arkansas, two schools have been integrated without incident for the past year and a half. A school board attorney reported that there are more blacks than whites, and policy says that the minority group sits behind the driver for safety purposes, not segregation. [CBS]
- President Nixon's doctor, Walter Tkach, says that Chinese acupuncture is superior to Western methods of anesthesia. He wants Chinese physicians to demonstrate it at the American Medical Association convention. [CBS]
- A happy ending to a year-old Vietnam story occurred outside Tacoma, Washington. Sgt. and Mrs. Donald Fryer have adopted a Vietnamese orphan after much difficulty. A test had shown Fryer to be a drug addict, which he was not. President Nixon cut through the red tape and had orphan David sent to the Fryers. [CBS]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 962.60 (+4.52, +0.47%)
Arms Index is the ratio of volume per declining issue to volume per advancing issue; a figure below 1.0 is bullish. | |||||||||||||||
| Market Index Trends | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | DJIA | S&P | Volume* |
| April 10, 1972 | 958.08 | 109.45 | 19.47 |
| April 7, 1972 | 962.60 | 109.62 | 19.90 |
| April 6, 1972 | 959.44 | 109.42 | 22.83 |
| April 5, 1972 | 954.55 | 109.00 | 22.96 |
| April 4, 1972 | 943.41 | 108.12 | 18.11 |
| April 3, 1972 | 940.92 | 107.48 | 14.99 |
| March 30, 1972 | 940.70 | 107.20 | 14.36 |
| March 29, 1972 | 933.02 | 106.49 | 13.86 |
| March 28, 1972 | 937.01 | 107.17 | 15.38 |
| March 27, 1972 | 939.72 | 107.30 | 12.18 |