News stories from Thursday May 18, 1972
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- In the Atlantic Ocean north of the Azores, British frogmen are searching the Queen Elizabeth II for bombs. A telephone caller from New York City made the bomb threat at 2:45 p.m. to the New York City headquarters of the Cunard Line. The anonymous caller asked for Charles Dixon, Cunard vice-president. The caller said that two people on board the ship are prepared to detonate bombs if $350,000 is not paid. Cunard is preparing to pay the ransom.
A four-man team of British army bomb experts left England in an RAF jet, parachuted into the ocean, and boarded the ship in an attempt to diffuse the bombs. The Queen Elizabeth II is due to arrive in Cherbourg, France, on Saturday with 1,550 passengers and a crew of 900. 90-year-old conductor Leopold Tchaikovsky and George Kelly, the uncle of Princess Grace of Monaco, are aboard.
[CBS] - George Wallace is receiving hourly physical therapy treatments for paralysis of his lower body. Wallace's wife Cornelia brought flowers to Secret Service agent Nick Zarvos at Walter Reed Hospital; Zarvos was wounded when Wallace was shot. Mrs. Wallace says that her husband will continue to campaign. She noted that Franklin Roosevelt campaigned from a wheelchair, and Alabama Rep. Bill Nichols walks after having been told that he never would again. Wallace's neurosurgeon, Dr. James Galbraith, reported that Wallace is tired and is resting under mild sedation and Wallace's pain has decreased. Thousands of letters, telegrams and phone calls have arrived at the hospital. Wallace's mother-in-law, Mrs. Ruby Austin, and two others are sorting through the communications.
The Wallace campaign announced a list of speakers who will campaign for Governor, including Senator James Allen, Alabama Congressmen Walter Flowers and Bill Nichols, and Alabama educator Max Rafferty.
[CBS] - The car of Arthur Bremer contained books on the assassination of Robert Kennedy, along with George McGovern campaign literature. Agents are investigating the possibility that Bremer was following McGovern as well as Wallace. In Milwaukee, Bremer's father and brother were interviewed following their return from their visit to see him in the Baltimore County jail. William Bremer, Arthur's father, said that no one spoke much during the visit, but he was glad to see his son, even if only for five minutes. An attorney was present during the visit. Bremer's apartment is now up for rent. [CBS]
- Senator George McGovern was endorsed by Mrs. Martin Luther King. [CBS]
- South Vietnamese forces were airlifted to within 2 ½ miles of An Loc. American B-52's hit enemy targets around the city as well as in the Central Highlands at Kontum. Fighting was reported near Hue. [CBS]
- American jets raided North Vietnam, destroying six bridges around Dong Hoi as well as ammunition and fuel dumps. Radio Hanoi announced that the bombers hit populous areas, including some near Hanoi, and claimed that five American jets were downed.
Hanoi displayed eight captured U.S. pilots. POW Lt. David Hoffman stated that POWs were shocked to learn of American bombing raids on North Vietnam, and said that bombing and mining won't end the war. Hoffman said that peace comes through freedom and independence, and noted that although President Nixon has expressed concern for the safety of Americans in Vietnam, he has increased bombing and commenced the mining of North Vietnam, putting Americans in far greater danger and causing death among the civilian population.
[CBS] - The earlier report that seven Americans were killed when their cargo plane was shot down near Kontum city is now said to be incorrect; two crewmen were wounded and three are missing.
13 Americans were killed in Vietnam combat last week, 26 wounded, and five missing. 14 others are missing from aircraft that were shot down over North Vietnam, and are not included in the figures. Of the 32 men killed in helicopter crashes, some are among the 18 who are listed as having died of non-hostile causes; 18 men are listed as missing from non-hostile causes.
[CBS] - The Reuters news agency reports from Peking that a top-level delegation from Hanoi is in China to coordinate the delivery of Russian supplies through China for North Vietnam. [CBS]
- Lyndon Johnson's Secretary of Defense. Clark Clifford. called President Nixon's mining of North Vietnamese harbors and railroad bombings "dangerous and reckless". Testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Clifford predicted that U.S. involvement in Vietnam will continue if policies aren't changed. [CBS]
- The White House reported that President Nixon and Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin met today at Camp David, Maryland, to discuss the President's trip to Moscow. At the State Department, Dobrynin and Secretary of State Rogers signed the Seabed Arms Control Treaty, which bans the placement of nuclear weapons beneath the sea. Dobrynin stated that Russia looks forward to having President Nixon visit Moscow. [CBS]
- President Nixon urged Congress to cut red tape on federal aid programs including ones related to health, job training, rehabilitation and nutrition. [CBS]
- A congressional committee opened hearings on the possible staging of television news. Most of the witnesses before Harley Staggers' Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee are television technicians. The leadoff witness is the owner of a dynamite store who claimed that he and a young man were hired by CBS to stage a phony dynamite sale for the news cameras. Witness Jack Reynolds, a CBS soundman, backed up the testimony of the store owner. Reynolds told the committee that he complained to the reporter on the job about what they were filming.
CBS cameraman Tom McKinley, who also filmed the dynamite store scene, said that a story regarding young people drinking was partially staged. Former CBS reporter Bill Stout stated that a story on hitchhikers, including a shot of his daughter thumbing a ride, was staged. Technician Roy Gardner accused Walter Cronkite and CBS news vice president Gordon Manning of re-staging a speech by Indiana Governor Roger Brannigan in 1968. CBS news president Richard Salant claims that staging violates the network's news policy and he said that the reporter in question has been suspended.
[CBS] - The drought in Arizona continues; there has been no rain in Phoenix for the last 141 days. In Prescott, Arizona, fire has burned 21,000 acres of forest. Air Force planes bombarded the flames with chemicals, and 2,000 men are fighting the blaze. The fire is believed to have been started by a campfire. Ranchers are selling off cattle as the grass dries up. [CBS]
- The Commerce Department reported that corporate profits were up $5.6 billion in the first quarter of 1972, a 6% gain. The growth in the gross national product was revised upward to 12%. Economic adviser Herbert Stein predicts continued expansion and hopes that the government can hold down inflation. [CBS]
- George Wallace, wounded while campaigning for president, is likely to suffer depression at the realization that he is a cripple, as did Franklin Roosevelt; Roosevelt emerged even stronger. Wallace now will be less content to merely influence the Democratic national convention, but a third party run might hurt President Nixon more than the Democrats this time. [CBS]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 951.23 (+10.08, +1.07%)
Arms Index is the ratio of volume per declining issue to volume per advancing issue; a figure below 1.0 is bullish. | |||||||||||||||
| Market Index Trends | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | DJIA | S&P | Volume* |
| May 17, 1972 | 941.15 | 106.89 | 13.60 |
| May 16, 1972 | 939.27 | 106.66 | 14.07 |
| May 15, 1972 | 942.20 | 106.86 | 13.60 |
| May 12, 1972 | 941.83 | 106.28 | 13.99 |
| May 11, 1972 | 934.83 | 105.77 | 12.90 |
| May 10, 1972 | 931.07 | 105.42 | 13.87 |
| May 9, 1972 | 925.12 | 104.74 | 19.91 |
| May 8, 1972 | 937.84 | 106.14 | 11.25 |
| May 5, 1972 | 941.23 | 106.63 | 13.21 |
| May 4, 1972 | 937.31 | 106.25 | 14.79 |