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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 1972)
( World News 4 Nixon urges Congress to co-operate on budget WASHINGTON—President Nixon summoned a Democratic Congress Thursday to join him in election-year partnership and pass, despite “the intense pressures” of a White House campaign, an array of stalled administration proposals, a bigger defense budget and a “new technology program” to promote research and create jobs. “Let us join in making sure that legislation the nation needs does not become hostage to the political interest of any party or any person,” the President said in a State of the Union message that challenged the House and Senate to act in 1972 on more than 90 proposals he already has sent to Capitol Hill. His new technology plan, with details due later, would feature a $700 million increase in civilian research and development spending. Nixon did not say exactly how much bigger his defease budget would be, but he detailed $3.7 billion in increases, including $2 billion more for the Navy, $900 million to improve the sea-based U.S. nuclear deterrent force, and $838 million in stepped up research and development spending. The leftover agenda was topped by his proposals for welfare reform, federal revenue sharing with the cities and states, reorganization of the executive branch, and a new health insurance program. In the latter area, he also proposed that Congress eliminate the $5.80 monthly fee now charged for medicare insurance for doctor’s bills. The President guaranteed a major fight in the Senate with his proposal for increased defense spending. He said it will be required by rising research and development costs, pay increases and a need to proceed with new weapons systems. He did not say how big the increase will be but did detail $3.7 billion in additional defense spending to be included in his budget next Monday. Sen. Allen Ellender, D-La., chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he had been told the overall defense budget would come to some $83 billion, an increase of about $3 billion. “We’ll have to do what we did this year—trim some of it,” he said. As predictable as the Democratic criticism was the Republican praise of Nixon's speech. Sen. Robert Griffin of Michigan called it "an inspiring message of hope and challenge.” House Republican leader Gerald Ford of Michigan said it was "statesmanlike...apolitical...realistic.” Sen. Robert Dole of Kansas, the Republican national chairman, said he hoped Democrats would respond to Nixon’s call for action on administration proposals, and would not “let their political purposes interfere...” A panel of Senate and House Democrats will present their version of the State of the Union Friday in a 55-minute television and radio broad cast on the major networks The Democrats were granted free broadcast time for their response to Nixon’s nationally televised 30-minute address. In foreign policy, Nixon said, the United States will maintain an adequate nuclear deterrent, defend its interests wherever they are threatened, limit its role where they are not. “We will not intervene militarily in such situations,’’ he said, “but we will use our influence to prevent war.” He said it would be a dangerous error to conclude that the United States should withdraw from in ternational responsibilities. “There has been a tendency among some to swing from one extreme to the other in the wake of Vietnam, from wanting to do too much in the world to wanting to do too little,” Nixon said. “We must resist this temptation to over-react.” Nixon said he is confident inflation will be broken in 1972 but said that is not good enough while unemployment is at six per cent. “Our goal is full employment in peacetime—and we intend to meet that goal,” he said. Nixon said his budget, which is expected to total nearly $247 billion, will help meet that goal. He said the new budget will have a deficit, but not an irresponsible one. Hie red ink forecast is expected to be well over $20 billion. In a related area, Nixon said he would soon send Congress a proposal for a new program of federal efforts to promote technological research and development. He said that will help meet a growing industrial challenge from abroad, create new industries and more jobs for American workers. Nixon said he will recommend a $700 million increase in civilian research and development spending, and a new emphasis on cooperation with private enterprise in that field. Nixon called for action on welfare reform, on a program of federal revenue sharing with the states, an the reorganization of the executive branch in four departments with responsibilities grouped by function and on health insurance. “In all, some 90 pieces of major legislation which I have recommended to the Congress still await action,” Nixon said. “It is now for the Congress to decide whether this agenda represents the begin ning of new progress for America—or simply another false start.” “Under the pressures of an election year, it would be easy to look upon the legislative program merely as a political device and not as a serious agenda,” the President said. “We must resist this temp tation... “Our progress depends on a continuing spirit of partnership between the President and the Congress, between the House and the Senate, be tween Republicans and Democrats.” My Lai investigation findings may never be made public WASHINGTON • Army and Defense Department officials indicated Thursday that the findings of the Army's in vestigation of the My Lai massacre may never be made public. 11ns apparent reversal of the Army's previous position was outlined by Undersecretary of the Army Kenneth L.BeLieu in let ters to Congress, and later by Daniel Henkin. the Pentagon's chief spokesman "While the appropriate com mittees of Congress have been given access to the report, we shall continue to abide by the longstanding policy that in vestigative reports are not subject to public release in order that individuals may be protected against release of raw and unevaluated allegations,” Be Lieu wrote The report was prepared by a panel of military and civilian personnel headed by Lt Gen William Peers "With respect to the Peers report, there is the additional factor that judicial proceedings arc still in progress concerning the matters covered by the in vestigation." he said. BeUeu's reference to “the longstanding policy . . . against release of raw and unevaluated allegations'' was a new justification offered by the Army for withholding the report. “Previously. Army and Pen tagon officials had said that it was being withheld only to insure against prejudicing continuing judicial proceedings, now evident only to Lt William Galley's appeal of his !ile sentence. Asked if BeLieu’s letter meant the Army has decided against releasing the report, tlenkm replied: “I would not quarrel with your assessment that the Peers report may never be released in its totality for the reason stated in Secretary BeUeu’s letter ’’ The I Vers report is the official Army investigation into the mass civilian slayings, and served as the basic document in prosecuting those soldiers charged with crimes at My Lai and those involved in the alleged cover-up of the March 16, 1968 incident. BeLieu's letter was prompted by congressmen inquiring about an article written by Seymour Hersh in the current issue of New Yorker magazine. Hersh, who said his in formation was based mainly on the Peers report, wrote that the Army’s document set the civilian death toll at My Lai at 347 and also describes a second massacre nearby in which nearly 100 other Vietnamese civilians were killed. In March 1970. then Secretary of the Army Stanley Resor released a highly censored version of the Peers report and promised that "ultimately, substantially all of the report will be made public ” DENVER — A young man who hijacked a Hughes Air liner was captured Thursday in an isolated area of Colorado less than three hours after he parachuted from the plane with $50,000 of the airline’s money. The Colorado State Patrol said the hijacker, described as about 25 with a moustache, was taken into custody in an area about 130 miles northeast of Denver. The man’s identity was not immediately known. Law officers and aircraft, including two Air Force Fill fighter-bombers, converged on the grassy plains area after the man bailed out of the plane. The man, described by an airline spokesman as “very nervous,” claimed to have a bomb when he commandeered the jet at Las Vegas, Nev. NEW YORK — New York Mayor John Lindsay headed for a weekend of campaigning in Florida on Thursday amid charges by Sen. George McGovern, D-S.D., that the mayor was ignoring party guidelines with “an expensive Madison Avenue media campaign” to woo Florida voters. Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty, meanwhile, said he would not be a can didate in the March 14 Florida primary and would go to court if necessary to have his name removed from the ballot. Sam Bretzfield, Yorty’s campaign manager, said the mayor’s name “was put on the ballot over his objections because supporters of Edmund Muskie and Hubert Humphrey are scared to death of George Wallace and want someone to split the conservative vote.” SALISBURY, Rhodesia — The government reported Thursday that police killed three blacks and arrested 44 persons during rioting by thousands of blacks who stoned shops and set automobiles ablaze in a Salisbury township. Two dozen of those arrested suffered gunshot wounds, the government said, as police moved into Harare to restore order Wednesday night. By dawn Thursday, they reported the all-black township was calm. The black riots, which began Sunday at Gwelo 200 miles southwest of Salisbury, were touched off by the arrival of a British commission assigned to feel out public opinion on a proposed Rhodesian British settlement. The agreement holds that settlement is not possible until the commission finds a majority of Rhodesians—including the white-ruled country’s black majority—accepts the terms. London’s political circles appeared convinced the outbreak of violence spelled doom for the agreement. MOSCOW — Andrei Sakharov, the nuclear physicist who fathered the Soviet atom bomb, has appealed to Communist party chief Leonid I. Brezhnev for release of the imprisoned dissident Vladimir Bukovsky. In an open letter to Brezhnev and the Soviet procurator general, Roman Rudenko, Sakharov declared Bukovsky’s rights were violated at a one day trial on Jan. 5 and that “the episodes which incriminated Bukovsky have no judicial significance.” A copy of Sakharov’s appeal—dated Jan. 18—was made available to western correspondents Thursday. The internationally renowned scientist, a cofounder of the unofficial Soviet Committee on Human Rights, asked Brezhnev and Rudenko to use their “influence and rights to quash the sentence on Vladimir Bukovsky and secure his release.” GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Circuit Court Judge John Crews said Thursday that Florida Corrections Director Louis Wain wright might find himself in contempt if he keeps his vow to lock new arrivals out of the state’s overcrowded prisons. Wainwright held fast, however, and his stand drew praise from Ellis MacDougall, Georgia’s corrections director. "He’s the first man in the history of American prisons who has had the guts to stand up on his two feet and tell the courts and everyone else that prisons are their problem as much as his,’’ MacDougall said. Wainwright closed the doors of the prison system Tuesday, warning county sheriffs that new prisoners would be turned away. He said the population of a system built to house 8,323 convicted felons stands at 9,568. The Lake Butler Reception Center, where convicts are processed into the prison system was built for 710 but its head count has reached 1,320, Wainwright said, adding no new prisoners would be accepted there. SANTIAGO, Chile — President Salvador Allende’s Cabinet resigned Thursday to let him restructure the government in the wake of defeats in two special congressional elections. A two-paragraph resignation statement signed by all 15 ministers climaxed a week of meetings among Allende. his Cabinet and political leaders in the leftist coalition government. Allende promised last week he would make readjustments in the Cabinet. Overwhelming defeats for government candidates by anti-Marxist op position in the elections last Sunday appeared to hasten the reshuffle. A spokesman at the Interior Ministry said Allende will name a new Cabinet over the weekend or at the begin ning of next week. The present Cabinet will remain in office on a temporary basis, he said. The ministers represent all seven parties and political movements in Allende’s Popular Unity coalition, including four Socialists and three com munists.
