News stories from Saturday January 27, 1973

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

The Vietnam accords were signed in Paris today in eerie silence, without a word or a gesture to express the world's relief that the long war was ending. Secretary of State Rogers wrote his name 62 times on the documents providing a settlement of the longest, most divisive foreign war in America's history. The official title of the text was "Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam," but the cold, almost gloomy atmosphere at the two separate signing ceremonies reflected the uncertainties of whether peace is now assured. [New York Times] The cease-fire officially goes into effect at 8 A.M. tomorrow, but widespread fighting continued, with heavy fighting reported near Tay Ninh. There were reports that an American helicopter sent to pick up a Viet Cong delegation had been shot down near Tay Ninh. [New York Times] President Nixon, like millions of other Americans, watched the signing of the Vietnam peace agreements on television and then, like many others, took part in a modest and somber celebration of the ending of the war. The President, relaxing in his home in Key Biscayne, Fla., had proclaimed 7 P.M. today as a "national moment of prayer and thanksgiving" and the 24-hour period thereafter as a day of prayer. Throughout the country, in cities and hamlets, church bells tolled, fire companies sounded their horns and small quiet gatherings were held in homes and public places. [New York Times] In Washington tonight, the State Department released the full list of American civilians acknowledged by North Vietnam to have been captured in South Vietnam during the Vietnam war. But the list left about half the 51 American civilians believed missing or captured unaccounted for. According to the list turned over to American officials in Paris by representatives of Hanoi, 27 American civilians were prisoners of the Viet Cong and another 7 had died in captivity. A spokesman said Hanoi apparently did not include those captured or missing in Laos or Cambodia. [New York Times] Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announced the end of the military draft and said that the armed forces henceforth would depend exclusively on volunteer soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines. The draft's end means that men born in 1953 who have not been drafted will have no further liability to the draft. These men will be the first in two generations with no prospect of being drafted. Except for a brief period in 1947 and 1948, men have been drafted since 1940. [New York Times] Following the Supreme Court's sweeping decision on abortion last week, medical institutions around the country have begin preparations to treat the estimated yearly total of 1.6 million American women who will seek to terminate pregnancies. A number of hospitals announced plans to expand their capacity to perform abortions and several national organizations including Planned Parenthood-World Population and the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, said they would hold workshops to teach physicians how to perform abortions and how to set up abortion facilities. [New York Times] At about the time that the Nixon administration was reversing a prior decision and granting an increase in the federal milk wholesale price level in 1971, Murray Chotiner, one of the President's oldest friends and a former Nixon political agent and fund-raiser, was using his access to the White House to tell presidential aides that "if you don't help the farmer, you don't get his support." Mr. Chotiner's role as a dairy industry advocate in the disputed milk price rise is described in his own words in the transcript of pretrial questioning by a lawyer for Ralph Nader. The price increase was followed by many generous dairy farm contributions to the President's 1972 re-election campaign, totaling at least $417,500 in a year and a half. [New York Times]