( 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.