News stories from Saturday March 8, 1975

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

Former Gov. Ronald Reagan of California took a firm stand against President Ford, Vice President Rockefeller and others who called last week for a Republican party broad enough to include moderates and liberals as well as conservatives in a speech at the closing session of the Republican leadership conference in Washington. He repeatedly brought the crowd of more than 2,000 grass-roots party leaders to its feet with his old-time Republican religion -- a sermon on the desirability of a balanced budget, strong national defense, individual freedom and domestic law and order. [New York Times] The Federal Bureau of Investigation mailed what some agents considered an "unsavory" tape recording made from an electronic bug to Coretta King to frighten her husband, the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., into halting his criticism of the bureau, according to a former high official of the agency. The mailing of the tape to Mrs. King was part of nearly a decade of "harassment" of the late civil rights leader by the bureau, several former agents and officials say. [New York Times] Political candidates and their contributing committees had more than $20 million left over at the end of last year. One reason for the large surplus appeared to be the broad collapse of Republican election efforts in 1974, which let many Democratic candidates coast to victory and keep their money in the bank. The figures were compiled by the foundation-funded National Information Center on Political Finance from reports by federal office-seekers, the parties and the special interest committees that support them. [New York Times] Secretary of State Kissinger began his latest round of "shuttle diplomacy" today by holding an extensive and detailed discussion with President Anwar Sadat of Egypt that produced precise ideas on how to bring about a new Sinai agreement between Egypt and Israel. Nevertheless, the gap between the two countries seemed still to be wide. Mr. Sadat said at a news conference that he believed Mr. Kissinger's effort would be "very hard," tougher than the previous Israeli-Egyptian negotiations. Mr. Kissinger said at the same news conference that he remained convinced "progress is possible". [New York Times] John Gunther Dean, the United States Ambassador in Cambodia, was rebuffed last spring when he proposed to Secretary of State Kissinger that an attempt be made to establish contact with a key insurgent leader to find out whether peace negotiations were possible, authoritative embassy sources said today. Secretary of State Kissinger rejected the proposal, the sources said, on the ground that the battlefield situation was going poorly at the time for the Phnom Penh government and that the United States would have been in a position of negotiating from weakness rather than strength. Long time observers note, however, that the situation has never been favorable for the Phnom Penh government since the war began in 1970. [New York Times] The World Bank, a major source of aid for agriculture in developing countries, announced that it plans to double its annual investment by 1979 to help the poorest people in rural areas to improve food productivity. Its investment would grow from about $500 million to $1 billion a year. The bank said that part of the funds would come from contributions of the International Development Association and part from the bank, which raises funds through traditional capital markets. [New York Times]