News stories from Sunday December 7, 1975
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The Republican National Committee, traditionally the obedient servant of any incumbent Republican president, has refused to give the President Ford Committee access to its valuable mailing list of major political contributors. It has instead decided to provide Ronald Reagan, who is challenging Mr. Ford for the presidential nomination, any services that it furnishes President Ford, including fundraising assistance. Its leaders have started making contingency plans with Citizens for Reagan against the possibility of Mr. Reagan's nomination. [New York Times]
- High law enforcement officials say that New York City is experiencing its worst illegal narcotics trafficking problems in five years. They believe that not since the late 1960's have such large supplies of heroin and cocaine been smuggled into the city. Open street sales are again a common sight in Harlem and the East Village and heroin overdose deaths apparently are increasing this year. [New York Times]
- The murder of a mother and her four children plunged Teaneck, N.J., and the surrounding communities into deep and incredulous shock. The bodies of Jean Diggs and her four children were discovered late Saturday afternoon shot to death in their home. There was a feeling among residents, who were already on edge over other recent murders in Bergen County, that the kind of violent crime that many of them moved to the suburbs to escape had finally caught up with them. [New York Times]
- President Ford proclaimed a "new Pacific Doctrine" in an address in Honolulu today, declaring that the stability of the world and the security of the United States "depend on our Asian commitments." This was the first comprehensive outline of White House policy in the Pacific since the collapse of the American venture in Indochina. Mr. Ford said he had found "common ground" with China in his journey to Peking and he held out the prospect of eventual recognition of new Communist regimes in Southeast Asia. Essentially, the doctrine is a restatement of existing policy, the various parts of which had not been assembled as a whole since the American withdrawal from Indochina last spring. [New York Times]
- Thornton Wilder, the playwright and novelist, died in New Haven, Conn. He was 78 years old. He was dead on arrival at the Hospital of St. Raphael, where he had been taken from his home in nearby Hamden. [New York Times]
- Indonesian troops, backed by planes and warships, moved to consolidate their hold over Portuguese Timor after having seized control of Dili, the capital, early today. They apparently met little resistance from the leftist Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor. In Lisbon, the Portuguese government announced that it had broken diplomatic relations with Indonesia. [New York Times]
- It is apparent that the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, aided by vast quantities of Soviet arms and Cuban fighting men, has made sharp military advances on three fronts in recent days. Military strategists for the coalition government opposing the Popular Movement acknowledged that their troops were losing ground. [New York Times]
- American officials believe that a Cuban expeditionary force equipped with Soviet armored vehicles and rocket launchers is turning the tide of the Angolan civil war in favor of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola. Their estimate was based on information reaching Washington through intelligence channels and from friendly governments. [New York Times]
- While kidnappings and executions continued in Beirut, the government announced that a 24-hour curfew would be enforced to check the violence that took at least 103 lives in two days. The government said that the curfew was intended to enable a liaison committee of major combatant groups to obtain the release of the people who had been kidnapped. [New York Times]