News stories from Saturday March 29, 1975
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- A spokesman for the Saigon government said radio contact with the encircled city of Da Nang had been lost, indicating that it had fallen. Another highly informed source said, however, that he was in contact with observers in a boat just off shore. But it was clear that Saigon had written off South Vietnam's second largest city. The observers said that there did not appear to be any fighting going on, but added that there was no way of knowing whether North Vietnamese troops had entered the city. [New York Times]
- President Ford announced tonight that he has ordered United States Navy ships and other vessels to evacuate "helpless refugees" from coastal cities in South Vietnam and take them to "safe haven in the south." He also called on "all nations and corporations that have ships in the vicinity of the South Vietnamese coast to help evacuate refugees in the south." Four Navy LST's, part of the Seventh Fleet, were moving toward South Vietnam from various points in the Pacific, a Defense Department spokesman said. [New York Times]
- "Only the fastest, the strongest and the meanest" got out on what may have been the last refugee plane from Da Nang, said Paul Vogle, a correspondent for United Press International who was on the plane. People fought one another and died trying to get aboard. He said it was a flight out of hell and only the expertness of the American pilot "got us back to Saigon's Tan Son Nhut base alive." "As we started rolling, insanity gripped those who had missed their chance. Government troops opened fire at us," the reporter said. [New York Times]
- A wave of anti-American sentiment and charges of betrayal by the Ford administration are sweeping Saigon. The anger against Americans is evident in newspaper editorials, political speeches and private comments by South Vietnamese. The anti-American mood is not expected to diminish despite the announcement that the United States would begin an emergency airlift of military and medical supplies to South Vietnam. Government and army officials, stunned by the rout of the army and the huge loss of military equipment, believe that the reduction of American aid was a major factor in the nation's military defeat. [New York Times]
- President Lon Nol of Cambodia has decided to leave for visits to Indonesia and the United States, according to Cambodian political sources in Phnom Penh. While plans for his trip have not been officially announced, they have been made known to officials at the State Department. Senior Cambodian officials reportedly will leave tomorrow to prepare for Marshal Lon Nol's visits. The purpose of the trips is understood to be closely linked with efforts that may be undertaken to start talks with Khmer Rouge officials on ending the fighting in Cambodia. [New York Times]
- President Ford, saying that he had no choice but to "take it or leave it," signed the $22.8 billion tax-cut bill passed by Congress last Wednesday. Announcing his decision over nationwide television and radio, Mr. Ford expressed serious reservations about the legislation, which will provide one of the biggest tax cuts in the nation's history. [New York Times]
- The auto industry in Detroit, already shaken by the energy crisis, has been plunged into an economic crisis that has left many of its executives feeling helpless and uncertain. They still have confidence in the predominance of the industry, but their feeling is that the pressure of energy supplies, inflation and further government intervention will determine much of the industry's future. The days are over, they believe, when designers could indulge their fantasies, engineers ignore efficiency, and when top executives could smugly predict an ever-expanding auto market. [New York Times]
- President Anwar Sadat of Egypt announced that he would open the Suez Canal to international shipping on June 5 despite Secretary of State Kissinger's failure to bring about a new Egyptian-Israeli agreement on Sinai. He also declared that he would renew the mandate of the United Nations Emergency Force in Sinai for three months. The present term expires April 24. His declaration, made in a televised speech to the National Assembly, took his listeners by surprise. [New York Times]