World News
Laird says Laotian drive
will hasten withdrawal
W ASHINGTON Al’—Secretary of State William
Rogers ami Secretary of Is*fenw- Melvin Laird said
Tuesday South Vietnamese drive* in Laos and
Cambodia will speed th«- end of the U S ground
combat role in Vietnam
But they left in doubt tlie question of when all
l) S force* would be withdrawn
I-aird told the House and Senate Armed Ser
vice* Committees in separate, closed sessions that
the new toleration* are on schedule and will enable
the United State* to meet or beat plans to bring
home 50,000 more troops by May 1
Hotter*. s|>enking to newsmen after a closed
hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, said "the fact is we will have
Americans by and large out of combat roles by the
middle of this year " lie declined to give a more
precise date
Rogers said also U S policy "contemplates a
withdrawal of all of our forces eventually from
South Vietnam ”
But m response to a nig lie r question from
newsmen alxrtit residual forces tliat might lie left
t>chind indefinitely, lie said "let's wait until we get
to that "
The twin appearances by the Cabinet officers,
both armed with maps and charts, came two days
after several thousand South Vietnamese troops
borne by American piloted helicopters and backed
by U S air and artillery firepower moved against
supply routes in lams Another 20,000 South Viet
naiiiese have t>een o|M*ratmg in Cambodia for the
l>u*l two weeks
Both men also assurtd tire committees that no
U S ground troops were involved in either
operation
l>aird added, however, that some 10,000 U S
ground troops are being used for “backup
responsibilities" in South Vietnam
Rogers said the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos,
target of the latest thrust, is the “choke point’’ or
the last major supply route available to the enemy
Rogers, who promised new troop withdrawal
announcement by President Nixon in April, said
"when people talk about war escalation it just isn't
true ”
He said that over the past two years casualties
are down, air sorties are down and the cost of the
war has been halved
“There is practically no combat in Vietnam
now,” he said
“The only conclusion I can draw is the
President made clear we are operating in l-aos in a
way we consider in the national interest,” said
Foreign Relations Chairman J W Fulbright, D
Ark "I have grave questions about it.”
"I don't know that I could say I am reassured,”
said Sen Frank Church, I) Idaho
“This new operation is new evidence this
continues to be a war without end.”
He called on the administration to support a
joint congressional resolution stating that it is
national policy to withdraw all forces from Vietnam
as quickly as possible
Asked about that proposal, Rogers said "I don't
think the resolution is necessary The President has
already said it ”
News Roundup
from AP reports
LOS ANGELES—Tail, slender Susan Atkins, her voice
husky, testified Tuesday that she killed actress Sharon Tate.
"I killed her, 1 stabbed her and she fell And I stabbed her
again 1 don’t know how many times I stabbed her and I don’t
know why ! stabbed her,” the long-haired brunette told a
jury
NEW YORK—Premier Golda Meir responded Tuesday
to Egypt’s call for a partial withdrawal of Israeli troops from
% the Suez Canal area with a counterproposal that both sides
reduce their armed strength along the waterway. The Israeli
leader also urged talks with Egypt aimed at reopening the
canal, blocked by vessels sunk in the 1967 war, but said her
government was not willing to tie such a move to an Israeli
x troop pullback in the area
WASHINGTON—The Defense Department said Tuesday
v the Army has been told to continue development of a sup
plementary antimissile system to bolster the Safeguard
missile defense program The system, called Hardsite
Defense, is built around use of modified Sprint interceptor
missiles and smaller and less expensive radars than
currently used in Safeguard
WASHINGTON—The railway clerks union Tuesday ¥
threatened to renew a nationwide rail shutdown at 12:01 $
a tn. March 1 at the expiration of an emergency 80-day ¥
postponement ordered by Congress Union President C.I. ¥
Dennis said his 200,000 ticket sellers and other clerical 3
workers would walk out then unless a new agreement is §
reached Such a walkout would mean a total shutdown of the •$
nation's railroads if other unions honor the clerks’ picket
lines, as they did during a 24-hour, four-union strike last
December :¥
Hising death toll — cracked dams — fires
Los Angeles struck by massive quake
LOS ANGELES Al* A
powerful eartlxpiake staggered
Southern California Tumdiy,
leaving at least XI dead atxl
trapping vimic io persons in tlx
rubble of a i ol!it|«sod hospital
Their lale was in doubt
Eighty thousand persons in a
20 sijuare mile area near a
ijuake weakened dam in the San
Fernando Valley w ere ordered to
evacuate tin* area or lie forcibly
removed Authorities, in making
the evacuation "mandatory."
said they feared a strong new
tremor might cause a flood
Fvlrnsli r da mange
Properly damage was ev
tensive as wall* collapsed
sfreels buckled and caved m
bridges (ell and windows slut!
teres I in heavily populated area*
around lavs Angeles, (hr nation's
third most populous city
Thr sheriff's office estimated
that more than R50 persons were
injured in the quake area
In Washington. President
Nuon issued a forma)
declaration of a major disaster,
opening the way for help from
more than a dozen government
agencies Vice President Spiro
Agnrw was due in the quake area
Wednesday for consultations
Nine of tl*e deaths were at
tribuled to heart attacks
\ A Hospital
Heaviest loss of life was at the
Veterans Administration
Hospital at Sylmar in (he west
end of the San Fernando Valiev
some 10 miles from the quake's
center
There 17 Ixxiies were found,
and about 100 persons were in
jured Ten hours after the first
shock an estimated :u> persons,
mostly patients, were reported
still trapped
"We still have live people in
there," said a spokesman.
“Rescue workers hear voices
Nobody s been able to get into the
basement area People could be
alive in there
Screams of "Help me! Help
me!" could lx* heard as workers
moved gingerly to remove rubble
without endangering those
trapped
Officials at the hospital said it
could lx* two days before they get
to the bottom of the rubble
Tall buildings swayed in
downtown law Angeles when the
tpiake hit at 6 01 a m Windows
shattered and walls fell out or
Apollo 14 ends successfully
ABOARD I’SS NKW ORl.KANS Al* Apollo
14 astronauts splashed doMn safely right or target
in the South Pacific and Mere brought aboard this
tamer Turedas after completing mans nioat
succoaaful moon missnm
Astrxmauts Alan Shepard Jr Stuart Kooaa anti
Kdgar Mitchell droptwsl mlo llse Stsuth Pacific at
4 05 p m KS'T ending a nine <lav, I 15 million mile
voyage
"We re all fme m here said Shepard, sireonds
after the Apollo command ship splashed into the
hoppy aatet
• Welcome htsnie the carrier radioed
‘ Thank you air came a tjuick reply
The splakhdoMn Mas one of the moat accurate
ever achiev ed
“U seems like you broke the record Milhout
much doubt Admiral Thomas llawtard com
■wander of the recovery forte- tukf the astronauts
“You Mere smack dab on the target
Scientist* Mere delighted Milh the mnuin
ul,ng the SJ‘* hour alay on litr moon Shepard and
Mitchell collected rocks that may be < 6 billion
years old and they set up an atomic powered
science station already working smoothly and
pros itv*c valuable information
White suited sailors limn# the deck at this
prime recovery ship cheered loudly after two
subdued vxuc booms first announced the spacecraft
was coming down nearby
Moments later the spacecraft was sighted
dragging two small white parachutes These were
followed by three white pilot parachutes and
finally three huge orange and white parachute*
blossomed in lull > tew of the earner
The spacecraft splashed into the warm
l*ol\nr a scan waters helicopters hovered over head
and swimmers leaped into the sea to secure the
craft with a flotation collar so that it wouldn't sink
The astronauts scrambled into an orange life
raft 1 irst Koosa then Mtuhell and finally Shepard
were taken up mto a helicopter and flown to the
earner deck
roofs fell in on some older
structures The city estimated
that 427 buildings received
structural damage. 42 suf
ficiently to force evacuation The
county estimated damage to its
buildings alone at $125 million
Quake center
Seismologists placed the
quake's center 26 miles north
west of downtown Lais Angeles in
the rugged San Gabriel Moun
tains and assigned it a magnitude
of 6.5 on the Richter scale The
scale grades anything over 7 as a
major quake
The first shook was followed by
hundreds of aftershocks, one
registering 5 5 on the scale
Residents of the San Fernando
Valley, with a population of 13
million, had a tense day as police
warned them by the thousands to
move out of the path of possible
water flow from Van Norman
Lake dam, the city's largest
reservoir
The initial shock shattered the
concrete facing and caused wide
fissures in its 1,500-foot main wall
of compressed earth There was
some leaking and pari of the dam
fell into the lake Officials began
draining it and said it should
reach a safe level by late Wed
nesday The evacuations were
ordered as a precautionary
measure in the event of a strong
new shock
The dam s two fake* can hofd
6 7 billion gallons of water Both
were being emptied into river
beds and catch basins
The mandatory evacuation
order officials said came
because some families refused to
leave Police equipped with
loudspeakers rolled through
neighborhoods passing the word
ard said any persons refusing to
leave would be removed forcibly
Authorities estimated that 75
per cent of the 80,000 people in the
area had left voluntarily Earlier
Gov. Ronald Reagan had asked
for evacuation of 250,000
residents of a w ider section of the
valley before he flew from
Sacramento fora first hand view
At Granada Hills in the valley's
west end some 4,000 persons who
fled areas near the Van Norman
Lakes came by car, bus and
police vehicle to a high school
refugee center
‘ I d like to go back," said one,
"but I'm not that dumb It's just a
house ”
Most of the homes evacuated
were in the $40,000 and up class
Mrs Fred Grunek said she left
her two-story $75,000 home after
seeing every window broken and
furniture tossed about
Business continued
Despite the quake it was
business almost as usual in
downtown Los Angeles on
Tuesday, with some exceptions
At the central library, for
example, they offered free
parking to anyone who would
come in and help restore to
shelves 100.000 books scrambled
on floors
Except for a few buildings
closed for inspection, most were
open for business, shattered
windows and all There was
heavy absenteeism as many
workers stayed home to clean up
quake damage
Employees arriving early
heard scores of burglar alarms
still ringing the shriek of fire
sirens and found sidewalks lit
lered with glass