News stories from Tuesday July 25, 1972
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Democratic vice-presidential nominee Thomas Eagleton revealed that he has been hospitalized three times since 1960 for nervous exhaustion. The announcement was made after rumors of a possible drinking problem arose. Eagleton voluntarily entered hospitals on three occasions due to nervous exhaustion and fatigue; he said that he is an intense, hard-driving person and as a younger man he drove himself too far. Eagleton described the three hospitalizations in Barnes Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri, and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and stated that he has now learned how to pace himself in campaigning. Eagleton said that his treatment included psychiatric counseling and electric shock treatment, however he denied rumors that he had been an alcoholic.
George McGovern stated that he is fully satisfied with Eagleton and still would have chosen the Missouri senator as his running mate even if he had known about his hospitalizations. McGovern says that he only learned of Eagleton's medical history this week. The McGovern campaign decided to reveal the story before a distorted version was published.
McGovern adviser Lt. Governor William Dougherty of South Dakota (who is an admitted former alcoholic) said that Eagleton's disclosure could become a political asset. McGovern aide Frank Mankiewicz warned Republicans that if they make an issue out of Eagleton, there could be considerable backlash.
[CBS] - Doctors for former President Lyndon Johnson, who was hospitalized last night, report no evidence of a major heart attack. Johnson will remain in Brooke Army Hospital in San Antonio for further observation. [CBS]
- South Vietnam claims that its planes blew a third hole in the wall of the North Vietnamese-held citadel in Quang Tri, and 500 paratroopers moved inside. However, the accuracy of the South Vietnamese government's description of the fighting has been questioned. Some reports describe heavy fighting still going on in the city. [CBS]
- The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted to get all American servicemen out of southeast Asia by October 1, provided that American POWs are released; the amendment was attached to the foreign aid authorization bill. Yesterday, the Senate passed an end-the-war amendment by five votes. Senate doves were jubilant, so jubilant that five senators who had voted for the amendment left before the final vote on the foreign aid bill to which the amendment was attached. The five were Senators Percy, Muskie, Anderson, Moss and Eagleton. Republicans picked up dove votes from Senators Mansfield and Fulbright, who routinely vote against foreign aid on principle. Therefore the foreign aid bill was killed by six votes. Senate Republican leader Hugh Scott criticized George McGovern's absence, noting that McGovern had an opportunity to put his vote where his oratory is. Senator Edward Brooke then filed the same antiwar rider as an amendment to the military procurement bill. [CBS]
- George Bush, the American Ambassador to the United Nations, says he is certain that U.N. Secretary General Kurt Waldheim didn't mean to side with Hanoi when he claimed that North Vietnamese dikes were being bombed by the United States. The State Department postponed a news conference where it would have provided proof that bombs were not dropped on dikes deliberately.
Columnist Joseph Kraft, returning from North Vietnam, saw the bombed dikes but said that he does not think there is a policy to systematically destroy them. Kraft described bomb damage to dikes at Phu Loc and Nam Dinh, but said that such random hits indicate that no orderly plan of destruction is in effect. China has accused the U.S. of launching 100 bombing raids on dikes and dams.
[CBS] - One of the chief targets for U.S. bombers has been the Ho Chi Minh Trail, North Vietnam's supply line through Laos into South Vietnam. Despite massive U.S. bombing, the North Vietnamese continue to reconstruct the trail as fast as it is bombed, keeping it open and moving men and supplies down it in order to sustain battle. North Vietnam has better equipment due to Soviet and Chinese aid, but a large and indefatigable labor force is its greatest asset. The Pentagon says it has never contended that supplies could be completely stopped by bombing the trail, but it does hinder resupply efforts. [CBS]
- The Cost of Living Council exempted workers earning $2.75 an hour or less from wage controls. [CBS]
- British Prime Minister Edward Heath won a vote of confidence in Parliament regarding the growing labor crisis which has resulted from his refusal to intervene in the case of five imprisoned longshoremen. The dockworkers were arrested for ignoring a court-ordered ban on picketing during their labor dispute. The unofficial strike of British longshoremen has spread to other industries, with 150,000 union men off their jobs in sympathy. Union employees regard the Industrial Relations Act as anti-labor legislation. Striking workers marched to the prison where the five dockworkers are held and clashed with police there. [CBS]
- The seventh game of the world chess championship in Iceland adjourned; Boris Spassky sealed his next move in an envelope. Bobby Fischer has a one-point lead in the 24 game series. [CBS]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 934.45 (-0.91, -0.10%)
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* |
| July 24, 1972 | 935.36 | 107.92 | 18.02 |
| July 21, 1972 | 920.45 | 106.66 | 14.01 |
| July 20, 1972 | 910.45 | 105.81 | 15.05 |
| July 19, 1972 | 916.69 | 106.14 | 17.88 |
| July 18, 1972 | 911.72 | 105.83 | 16.82 |
| July 17, 1972 | 914.96 | 105.88 | 13.17 |
| July 14, 1972 | 922.26 | 106.80 | 13.91 |
| July 13, 1972 | 916.99 | 106.28 | 14.74 |
| July 12, 1972 | 923.69 | 106.89 | 16.15 |
| July 11, 1972 | 925.87 | 107.32 | 12.83 |