News stories from Sunday November 22, 1981
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The House defied President Reagan and, facing a presidential veto, narrowly approved a $428 billion stopgap financing bill needed to avert a shutdown of the government. The vote in the Democratic-controlled House was 205 to 194. The Republican-controlled Senate late in the evening approved the measure, 46 to 39. A veto appeared certain. The closeness of the House vote indicated that the Democrats lacked the two-thirds majority to override a veto. [New York Times]
- Cuts in the military budget were suggested to President Reagan by four Republican Governors from the Middle West. They told the President in a meeting Friday that their states could not take more federal budget cuts soon, and proposed that he cut back military spending. Mr. Reagan rejected their proposal, according to Gov. James Thompson of Illinois, vice chairman of the Republican Governors Association. [New York Times]
- The investigation of Richard Allen by the White House and the Justice Department was strongly defended by Edwin Meese, the White House counselor. He said in a television interview that both the White House and the Justice Department had been "scrupulously" correct in their contacts during the investigation into a $1,000 payment to Mr. Allen by a Japanese magazine. Mr. Meese acknowledged that the controversy might "do some damage" to the Reagan presidency. "We hope it won't be a great deal of damage," he said. [New York Times]
- William J. Casey's stock holdings have been kept under his control while he is serving as Director of Central Intelligence. He has, while having access to secret government information on international economic developments, reversed the practice of two predecessors who put their stock in trusts by keeping control over his investments. Mr. Casey and his wife own stock worth at least $1.8 million -- perhaps more than $3.4 million -- in 27 corporations with major foreign operations, some of them in nations of interest to American intelligence. Fred Fielding, the White House counsel, said that Mr. Casey had not violated the administration's guidelines on stock holdings. [New York Times]
- Potential U.S. arms sales to Taiwan are leading to a "very delicate moment" in Washington's relations with Peking, former Vice President Walter Mondale said at the conclusion of private talks in Peking with China's leaders. An additional, though "not fundamental" grievance in Peking, Mr. Mondale said, was the continuing American delay in delivering several large computers that the Carter administration had promised, including one that China wants for a census next year. [New York Times]
- Greece will set a timetable for the removal of American bases from the country. The timetable is the firm intention of the Socialist government of Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, who said in his first major policy address that his government will also proceed to unilateral nuclear disarmament and the renunciation of the 1980 agreement that returned Greece to the military wing of NATO. The Prime Minister made it clear that he intended to carry out the broad lines of his radical election platform on which his Panhellenic Socialist Movement won a sweeping victory last month. [New York Times]
- Soviet-West German talks on arms are due in Bonn with the arrival there of Leonid Brezhnev, who will discuss with Chancellor Helmut Schmidt possible nuclear arms reductions in Europe. The schedule of the three days of talks was spaced to allow the 74-year-old Soviet leader long periods of rest. The basic issues are the Soviet Union's buildup of its SS-20 nuclear missiles, NATO's intention to deploy new American-made weapons to counter them, and the American-Soviet arms talks in Geneva. [New York Times]