News stories from Sunday October 19, 1980
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Abadan was cut off from the rest of Iran by Iraqi infantry backed by a heavy artillery attack, according to an official radio broadcast from Teheran. It was the first time Iran has conceded that Abadan could fall at any time. The broadcast also carried an appeal for help from Ababan's defenders. The broadcast said that the Iraqi bombardment was so intense that the local hospital was evacuated and the patients moved to shelters. Radio Bagddad told Iraqis that a gift awaited them at the start of a Moslem holiday. [New York Times]
- Iran was reassured by Secretary of State Edmund Muskie that the United States was not taking sides in the war with Iraq, despite the American radar planes being sent to Saudi Arabia, and he said the United States shared Iran's concern about Jordan's outspoken support of Iraq. Mr. Muskie, in the administration's first high-level response to remarks made in New York by Prime Minister Mohammed Rajai, seemed to go out of his way to appear conciliatory. [New York Times]
- Ronald Reagan pledged to restore "the bipartisan tradition in American national security and foreign policy" and accused President Carter of having abandoned it. In a half-hour televised campaign speech, he responded to President Carter's sharp criticism of his opposition to the treaty with the Soviet Union, saying that "As President, I will make immediate preparations for negotiations on a Salt III treaty. My goal is to begin arms reductions." He did not specify when such negotiations would begin. [New York Times]
- War and peace was also the issue President Carter discussed in a 15-minute paid political radio broadcast prepared more than a week ago. Moving further to make the nuclear arms treaty with the Soviet Union a major issue of his campaign, Mr. Carter suggested that Ronald Reagan's attitudes toward arms contol could push the United States closer to a "nuclear precipice." [New York Times]
- President Carter's support in Florida is uncertain, and it appears to have slipped below the slim popular margin of 5 percent that gave him the state's 17 electoral votes in 1976. This has increased Republican confidence and has caused concern among Democrats. The President had lost support in the northern agricultural section of the state and in heavily populated Dade County, whose principal city is Miami. The most recent Florida Newspapers Poll two weeks ago gave Ronald Reagan 42 percent of the potential vote and Mr. Carter 40 percent. [New York Times]
- New York's three Senate candidates met in a televised debate and employed the familiar attacks and defenses that have characterized their campaigns. Senator Jacob Javits, a Republican seeking re-election on the Liberal line, showed unusual pugnacity. [New York Times]
- Hostility to civil rights laws among Americans is growing, civil rights officials say. They are especially concerned about eight restrictive amendments attached to money bills pending in Congress that they believe would virtually cripple civil rights enforcement by the government. [New York Times]
- J.P. Stevens employees voted approval of the first collective bargaining contract ever accepted by the North Carolina textile company, which has for years been an adamant opponent of unionization in the South. The vote ended a battle begun nearly two decades ago by Stevens employees for the right to unionize. The contract was signed with the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union and, with a raise, it will give 3,000 workers an average wage of $5 an hour. [New York Times]
- A state of emergency in Northern New Jersey was declared by President Carter because of the drought. Seven counties are affected. Vice President Mondale announced that the government would help the state build a three-mile pipeline to increase the flow of water into Boonton Reservoir in Morris County. Governor Byrne said he might start taking bids tomorrow for the work, which is expected to be completed in 60 to 90 days. [New York Times]
- Lech Walesa got tumultous greetings as he toured southern Poland, promising to complete the job he started in August when he led a labor revolt in the Baltic port of Gdansk to win the right to form unions free of government or Communist Party control. But the authorities made it clear for the first time that political difficulties stood in the way of legalizing his Solidarity independent trade union, which expects to enroll six million members. [New York Times]
- A bomb broke up a meeting in Manila of 3,500 delegates of the American Society of Travel Agents, and at least 18 people, 10 of them foreign delegates, were injured. Opponents of martial law in the Philippines apparently carried out their threat to disrupt the meeting. Attending the opening session were President Ferdinand Marcos and the United States Ambassador, Richard Murphy. Both were unhurt. All further public sessions of the meeting were canceled. [New York Times]