May 1962
May 1, 1962
London sources said yesterday that Secretary of State Rusk would canvass French and West German views on the status to be accorded East Germany in case his negotiations with Moscow approach a Berlin settlement. Mr. Rusk intends to raise the topic at the NATO meeting this week in Athens. Washington and London have already agreed that no trace of legality should be conferred on the East German regime, but Mr. Rusk wants to work out a full Allied position on East Germany before negotiating the subject with the Russians. (1:1)
President Kennedy got a cool response when he addressed the annual meeting of the United States Chamber of Commerce and told the business men that his Administration did not want to set prices. In an effort to ease bitterness aroused by the steel price episode, he said he hoped it would mark a turn for the better in Government-business relations. But the only time he was interrupted by applause was when he said: "We in the National Government have a large stake in your profits." And the chamber's president, Richard Wagner, said pointedly that both business and labor must be free to make decisions without Government intervention. (1:8; Texts, 16)
The Atomic Energy Commission has become the first Federal unit to give its employees and job applicants the right to confront their accusers in security cases. The step could lead to revised security policies in other agencies. (1:6)
The Justice Department brought its first action to have a Southern voting official held in contempt for failing to register qualified Negroes despite a court order barring discrimination. (1:5)
A belief is growing within the Administration that the United States should not hold further atmospheric nuclear tests after the current series. These tests are expected to have a total explosive force equal to about one-fifth of all the nuclear energy unleashed by American blasts since 1945. (1:2-3)
Maj. Gherman S. Titov, a man of relatively few words, directed some of them at earth-bound diplomats, frantic stockbrokers and New York traffic. The Soviet astronaut visited the United Nations, where Adlai E. Stevenson asked him whether it would be feasible for the Security Council to tour outer space. "Have you got things settled here on earth?" Major Titov countered. At the Stock Exchange (where he was both cheered and booed) he commented: "Everything was very clear in outer space. Here, nothing is clear." (22:3)
May 2, 1962
The East Germans, displayed some new military equipment as their troops goose-stepped in Berlin's Marx-Engels Platz. The parade included a squad of ground-to-air missiles said to be of the type that allegedly downed Francis Gary Powers' U-2 plane. This was the first indication that Moscow had given such arms to a satellite state. (3:1)
The Yugoslavs sprang a surprise, too, by parading twenty new Soviet-made T-54 tanks. Belgrade sources suggested they had been purchased in a straight commercial deal. (4:3)
The West made an arms deal of its own. Britain, West Germany, and the United States will finance the development of Britain's revolutionary P-1127 strike and reconnaissance plane, which would be able to take off and land vertically. (1:2)
President Kennedy's Advisory Committee on Labor-Management Policy recommended greater Government activity, influence and power in collective bargaining. The panel proposed rewriting a section of the Taft-Hartley Act to give the President more authority and flexibility to deal with industrial conflicts that threaten national interests. Specifically, an emergency dispute board would be empowered to recommend settlement terms and the President would be allowed to require a resumption of work for eighty days without going to court. (1:8)
President Kennedy's relations with the American Medical Association were less than harmonious. He and seven A.M.A. leaders discussed the best way to finance old-age medical care, but both sides agreed later that neither had made the slightest dent in the other's views. (17:1)
Mr. Kennedy signed a bill authorizing $32,000,000 for expanded educational television. (1:7)
Mayor Wagner called at the White House to give President Kennedy a list of suggested Democratic nominees for New York's fall election. (1:6)
Thurgood Marshall finally gets Senate hearing. (34)
May 3, 1962
India accused Communist China of creating conflict and tension among Asian nations. It was believed to be the first time in the Chinese-Indian Himalayan border dispute that India had openly criticized Chinese relations with other Asian nations. An Indian note to Peiping sharply rejected the often-repeated contention by the Chinese that they were non-aggressive. (1:6-7)
President Kennedy's free trade proposals created a heated debate and a policy reversal at the United States Chamber of Commerce convention in Washington. A resolution on the domestic-relief provisions of the President's bill was killed by protectionist-minded delegates, but then reinstated. (1:1)
The first megaton-range explosion was set off by the United States in the current Pacific nuclear tests. The Atomic Energy Commission said that a detonation in the "low megaton yield range" took place at about 2 P.M. (E.D.T.) in the vicinity of Christmas Island. A megaton is equivalent to the explosive force of 1,000,000 tons of TNT. It was believed that the explosion had the force of a few megatons. The two previous explosions were of less than a megaton. (1:7)
Stahr quits Army post to head Indiana University. (1)
Kennedy intervenes in fight over food agency. (17)
Kennedy farm bill stalled again in committee. (18)
Titov and Glenn to call on Kennedy today. (16)
May 4, 1962
The dispute between the United States and West Germany over American talks with the Soviet Union appeared to be nearing a solution. Secretary of State Dean Rusk insisted at Athens, that the West Germans must agree to negotiate with East Germans. They agreed it would be "well worth exploring." (1:8)
President Kennedy ordered the military to cut back orders for nuclear warheads by several thousands, according to Pentagon sources. Existing stockpiles will not be altered and the reduction will mostly affect small, battlefield-type weapons. (1:5)
A Presidential emergency board recommended wage increases for 500,000 non-operating employees of the nation's railroads. It classified the increases as "non-inflationary." It also asked for a change in the spirit with which railroads and non-operating unions had been facing labor problems. (1:1)
Major Gherman S. Titov and Lieut. Col. John H, Glenn, Jr. discussed their space experiences in Washington before a group of international scientists. Major Titov provided some new details of his twenty-five-hour flight. (1:2-3)
Congressional Republican leaders called for a Congressional investigation of the Department of Agriculture. The Billie Sol Estes scandal of Texas was mentioned prominently. Senator Everett Dirksen told a news conference that the Estes scandal was only a symptom of a basic sickness in the department. (1:2)
Senator John Tower of Texas gave the Peace Corps its first blast on Capitol Hill since the Nigeria post-card incident eight months ago. He charged that a 65-year-old constituent, Mrs. Janie F. Clethcer, had been subjected to abuse and dropped without justification from training in Puerto Rico. (1:6-7)
President hears Gorbach on Austria's aims. (12)
Kennedy moves to quiet Reserve-cut fears. (14)
Kennedy urges stronger attack on school segregation. (26)
May 5, 1962
The United States fired a middle-size nuclear device, its fourth in the Pacific tests. (1:4)
New Orleans gave President Kennedy an enthusiastic welcome on his arrival to deliver two addresses. Almost a quarter million people cheered him. Fears that his civil rights policies might provoke hostility proved groundless. (2:3)
The President chose the ceremonial opening of a huge New Orleans wharf as a dramatic setting to promote his plans for liberalized trade. He said the country was moving toward full trade partnership with all free nations. To facilitate this, he urged Congress to pass the Trade Expansion bill intact. The United States, he warned, faced an economic choice: "trade or fade." (1:8; Text, 2)
An Agriculture Department employee confronted his superiors at a news conference and charged that officials had shown "favoritism" to the indicted Texas financier, Billie Sol Estes. To the employee's face, a key official immediately branded the story "a complete lie." The department had called the conference to let the employee speak. (1:5-6)
United States ordered G.I.ís in Vietnam to lie. (8)
U. S. worried by reports of India's buying MIG's. (10)
May 6, 1962
The United States committed five fully equipped Polaris missile-firing submarines to the North Atlantic alliance yesterday. At a secret session of the NATO Council meeting in Athens, Secretary of Defense McNamara also said that the entire Atlantic Polaris force--expected to total forty-one submarines--would be pledged to NATO. The five already committed carry eighty nuclear missiles. The immediate effect of the Administration's action was to create a NATO nuclear deterrent. (1:8)
American military sources supported Laotian charges that Communist Chinese troops temporarily invaded northern Laos last week to help Pathet Lao forces capture Muong Sing. (1:7)
A leading House Republican said that the Administration's Trade Expansion bill must be revised "in many details" to win broad bipartisan support. Representative John W. Byrnes of Wisconsin said he believed the Ways and Means Committee--of which he is the second-ranking G.O.P. member--would go a long way toward making needed changes. President Kennedy called Friday for passage of the bill undiminished by crippling amendments in order to forge a true trade partnership among free nations. (1:6-7)
John B. Connally, Jr., former Secretary of the Navy in the Kennedy Administration, led a field of six Democrats in the Texas gubernatorial primary. Former Major General Edwin A. Walker was running last. (1:2-3)
Kennedy to name W.C. Battle envoy to Australia. (59)
May 7, 1962
The United States yesterday exploded the nuclear warhead of a Polaris missile fired by a submarine in the Pacific. It was the fifth test in the current series and the first time this country had set off an atomic warhead carried by a long-range missile. Its force was not disclosed, but a regular Polaris is said to have the explosive power of 500,000 tons of TNT. (1:8)
Americans at the NATO talks in Athens said France, which has been at odds with Washington on nuclear policy, would share fully in a new system of Allied consultations on the uses of American atomic forces in Europe. French acceptance of United States proposals for sharing nuclear information was called one of the meeting's major results. (1;7; Communique, 12)
At the NATO parley, it was disclosed that American World War II Victory ships loaded with tanks and other arms had been stationed off Southeast Asia, where they could give support to any United States action in South Vietnam. (1:6-7)
In Laos, royal troops were reported quitting the provincial capital of Nam Tha after major attacks by pro-Communist units. (1:5)
May 8, 1962
The United States said yesterday that it would ask the International Control Commission for Laos to investigate the pro-Communist assault on Nam Tha as a truce violation. Royal Laotian troops pulled out of the besieged provincial capital Sunday. Washington charged the attackers had broken the truce because the city was not in their hands when the ceasefire began a year ago. American officials doubted reports that Chinese Communist troops had taken part in the fighting. (1:8)
France set off an under ground nuclear device last week in the Sahara. This was announced yesterday in Paris after Washington sources had disclosed that American detection equipment apparently had monitored the blast. (1:6-7)
Secretary of Agriculture Freeman said there was "no evidence" that his department's officials had given special favors to the indicted Texas financial manipulator, Billie Sol Estes. Furthermore, Mr. Freeman said, there was no pressure from anyone to drop or soft-pedal an investigation. Meanwhile, House Republicans sought greater speed in Congressional inquiries into Mr. Estes and the Agriculture Department. (1:2-3)
The Army plans to ask Congress to lower the six-month active duty training of reservists to four months or nineteen weeks. This may ease criticism of planned cuts in Reserve and National Guard forces. (1:5)
Kennedy talks to Civil Air Patrol cadets. (3)
May 9, 1962
In line with West German views, the Western Allies were reported yesterday to have shifted their tactics on a Berlin agreement. The new position is reported to be that Washington's "package" plan should not be offered to the Russians now. Also, the proposal for a thirteen-nation control board on Berlin access routes was said to have been scrapped in favor of control by the four occupying powers, with some still-undefined role for East and West Germany. (1:1)
A proposal to bar tariff concessions to the Common Market unless the bloc lifted nontariff restrictions on American farm products loomed as a threat to President Kennedy's trade bill. (1:2)
A report that United States Government surplus food was sold on Taiwan's black market after distribution for families there has led the National Council of Churches to decide to quit the program. Protestant and Catholic churches were allegedly implicated in the black market operation. (1:5)
Yesterday, an airplane dropped the sixth atomic device, a medium-sized weapon. (7:1)
The Government said that very high altitude nuclear tests, like the one scheduled shortly over the Pacific, can black out communications more than 1,000 miles away. (6:1)
British Prime Minister Macmillan defended the test as a way of learning the effect of such blasts on Western radar and radio. (7:1)
The Justice Department asked the courts to outlaw racial segregation in hospitals built with Federal aid. Federal law now permits aid to segregated hospitals. (1:6-7)
President Kennedy addressed the auto workers' convention in Atlantic City and urged labor to use restraint and responsibility in its bargaining demands to avoid inflationary pressure. He made it clear that he expected labor, as well as management, to consider the public interest, but he said his Administration did not plan to intervene in every labor dispute. (1:8; Text 28)
Kennedy again asks Soviet cooperation on space. (11)
Kennedy requests tax-cutting power. (29)
May 10, 1962
More in sorrow than in anger, President Kennedy chided the West Germans yesterday for publicly criticizing the Allied negotiating position on Berlin. The President said at his news conference that the United States had done more than any other nation to guarantee the freedom of West Berliners and that it had the right at least to explore the chances for a settlement. He pledged that nothing would ever be proposed to the Soviet Union without the approval of Bonn. But he promised that exploratory talks with Moscow would continue, regardless of estimates in Bonn or Washington of the likelihood of progress. (1:8; Text, 20)
Sources in London said that Washingtonís suggestion that a thirteen-nation authority supervise Allied access to West Berlin had already been made to the Soviet Union. The West Germans are said to be firmly opposed to the plan, but diplomats in Britain believe that its withdrawal might be embarrassing to the West's position. (19:1)
It became known that Chancellor Adenauer had expressed opposition to Britain's becoming a full member of the European Common Market. (1:7)
The Soviet delegate at the Geneva disarmament talks said that his country would never sign a treaty to ban nuclear testing unless France signed it. He noted that France had been conducting tests and had refused to take part in the conference. (8:4-5)
President Kennedy condemned the Communists for violating the cease-fire in Laos by seizing the provincial capital of Nam Tha last Sunday. At the same time, he implicitly criticized the Royal Laotian Government for delaying negotiations for a neutral regime of national union. (1:6)
The Administration and forces supporting its literacy bill to protect Negro voters suffered a humiliating defeat in the Senate. A motion to cut off debate on the bill was beaten, 53 to 43, well short of the simple majority that backers had confidently expected. The Democrats were evenly divided, 30 to 30. The Republican vote was preponderantly against 23 to 13. The failure indicated that the bill is dead. (1:1)
President Kennedy said that a rejection of his proposal for withholding taxes on dividends and interest would be a victory only for tax-evaders. In a strongly worded statement, he accused savings and loan associations of "misinforming many millions of people" in a drive against the plan. (1:2-3)
The President said at his news conference that the Federal Government could not settle every labor dispute. In replies to four questions, he toned down the picture of the Government as a price-wage fixer that emerged from his victory over the steel industry last month. (1:4)
In another echo of that controversy, Mr. Kennedy denied he had made a sharply critical remark about "all" business men. He said that he had had unkind thoughts about some leaders of Big Steel but added "That is all past." (1:3-4)
In the political arena, the President said that Vice President Johnson would be on the Democratic ticket again in 1964 "if he chooses to run." (22:4)
The Department of Agriculture levied penalties totaling $554,162.71 against Billie Sol Estes for violating Federal cotton planting allotments in 1961. (1:5)
In a few days the Texas financier will face a civil antitrust suit by the state's Attorney General. (26:4-7)
Vice Admiral Edmund Burrough, retired, died. (37)
May 11, 1962
On the eve of renewed negotiations on Britain's entry into the European Common Market, sources in London said the Government was interested only in full membership, not associate status. British officials, uneasily aware of a growing opposition to Britain's entry by West Germany and France, believed both countries might prefer associate status for Britain. (pg. 1:1)
The Premier of Norway, who was visiting Washington, expressed hope that the Common Market would admit his country and Denmark, as well as Britain, and also make special arrangements to help protect Norway's agriculture. (12:3)
A disillusioned Philadelphia family changed its mind about emigrating to the Soviet Union and flew back to the United States. An American Embassy official in London said that David Paul Johnson, his wife and two children had been disheartened by the poor living conditions they saw during a week in Leningrad and Moscow. Mr. Johnson called the trip a "tragic mistake." (6:3-6)
The Soviet Government dropped its efforts to have the Geneva disarmament conference recess for two months and reconvene in New York. The Soviet delegate announced that his Government was ready to continue the negotiations without interruption. (4:2-5)
In his first Washington news conference since he left the White House, Dwight D. Eisenhower gave a mixed review on the progress of his Democratic successor. The former President accused the Kennedy Administration of striving for a dangerous concentration of power over Congress and the country and he criticized major parts of the President's domestic program. But on foreign affairs, he applauded a "growing firmness" with which Mr. Kennedy was "handling all our troubles with the Soviets." (1:8)
In an effort to smooth another difference with Congress, the Administration suggested modifications in its tax bill. The changes would cut the paperwork in withholding on dividends and interest, sweeten the proposed incentive for business expansion and soften the impact of other parts of the bill. (1:7)
A fight for revision of the Administration's foreign-trade bill was won by farm lobbyists in the House Ways and Means Committee. The change would provide a lever for removal of restrictions on imports of American farm products by the Common Market. (1:4)
The Administration's farm bill, which would impose strict controls to curb production, was finally approved in another House committee by a one-vote margin. (1:5)
Kennedy sees aides on Laos outbreak. (pg. 3)
Kennedy's space program passes House test. (pg. 10)
Agencies appeal to Kennedy to spur refugee aid. (pg. 14)
Kennedy orders a new textiles study. (pg. 41.)
May 12, 1962
South Vietnam was praised by the Kennedy Administration. After a two day visit to the embattled country, Secretary of Defense McNamara said he had found "nothing but progress and hope for the future." He also said United States aid had reached a peak and would start to level off. (1:7)
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 8 to 7 to cut the Administration's request for military and economic aid to India by more than $200,000,000 for the next-fiscal year. The unexpected move was described as reflecting Senate displeasure at India's seizure of Goa, her refusal to negotiate a settlement of her dispute with Pakistan and her attitude toward the West.
Assistant Secretary of Labor Jerry R. Holleman, the highest Administration official to be linked with Billie Sol Estes, resigned his post. Mr. Holleman, a Texan like Mr. Estes, said that he had accepted a $1,000 gift from the financier for "living expenses."
The Administration, through the Defense Department, declared that a nation-wide fall-out shelter program would save about 40,000,000 Americans in the heaviest foreseeable nuclear attack. The Administration's $695,000,000 shelter program for the fiscal year 1963 has a doubtful future in Congress. (1:2)
May 13, 1962
After two emergency conferences in Washington yesterday, President Kennedy ordered United States naval, air and land forces to move toward the Indochinese peninsula in an attempt to save Laos from total Communist control. The forces include a carrier task force of the Seventh Fleet and a battle group of about 1,800 marines. The move was described as not just a traditional "show of force" but an effort to be prepared for more direct military action. Administration leaders were said to be reluctant to send American troops into Laos but did not deny the possibility of such a move. (pg. 1:8)
The Administration's trade expansion bill has been revised to create the office of "special representative" for trade negotiations with other countries. The amendment by a House committee is designed to meet complaints about the absence of any fixed authority or responsibility, other than of the President himself, in tariff bargaining. (1:2)
The nation's second manned orbital flight is tentatively scheduled for next Saturday. When the astronaut, M. Scott Carpenter goes into orbit, he will carry along a multi-colored balloon, a packet of luminous confetti and a flask of distilled water. The scientific "apparatus" is designed to gather experimental evidence on the path that men should follow to reach the moon. (60:1-6)
Kennedy hailed in Milwaukee on way to rally. (pg. 1)
May 14, 1962
Washington received word yesterday that the Soviet Union still favored a neutral coalition government in battle-torn Laos. Although President Kennedy and his advisers continued to hope for a peaceful settlement, they were awaiting more concrete evidence of Moscow's cooperation. Meanwhile American naval, air and land forces continued maneuvering in areas around the Indochina peninsula. Word from Laos indicated that pro-Communist forces had temporarily halted their offensive in the north. (pg. 1:8)
In Moscow, United States Ambassador Thompson conferred with Premier Khrushchev. The American was believed to have expressed concern over the Laotian crisis and to have urged Soviet action to check the spread of the conflict. (1:6-7)
The United States came under fire for its world trade policy from the Australian Minister of Trade. In a statement issued in Canberra, John McEwen asked Washington to consider seriously whether its policies on commodities of interest to Australia measured up to its precepts about freeing world trade. (2:4)
Rush shipments of corn and beans have been ordered into Brazil's northeast section to combat famine and food price speculation. The order came from the United States' Food for Peace officials. The initial shipment of surplus beans is not expected for a month, but an agency official has ordered the release of 8,000 tons of corn stored in two main cities in the depressed region. (1:7)
After an impressive performance in Athens at the Atlantic Pact Foreign Ministers meeting, Defense Secretary McNamara returned to Washington to face domestic troubles. Among the items bothering the political opposition are the Pentagon's plan to reorganize and reduce the size of the Army National Guard and the controversial RS-70 reconnaissance bomber program. (1:5)
May 15, 1962
As pro-Communist rebels made new attacks in Laos yesterday, Prince Souvanna Phouma, head of the neutralists there, said in Paris that he would return to try to form a coalition with pro-Communist and Rightwing leaders. Washington, which was trying to get the three factions to resume talks on such a regime, also sought to persuade Moscow to restrain the Pathet Lao from further action. (pg. 1:8)
India's long dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir will be taken up again by the United Nations Security Council Thursday. India's delegate objected angrily to alleged American pressure for a settlement. He warned the United States that India, like China, could be lost by "sheer folly." (6:3)
In the Philippines, President Macapagal said he was postponing his goodwill visit to the United States because Congress had defeated the Philippines war claims bill. (1:8)
United States Ambassador Dowling conferred for nearly two hours with Chancellor Adenauer in an effort to close the rift between Washington and the West German leader. Both sides later said the meeting had gone well, but the statements were viewed as diplomatic necessities. (1:6-7)
A second attempt to close Senate debate on the Administration's bill to protect Negro voting rights against unfair literacy tests failed as badly as the first. Not one Senator changed his mind between the two votes. But the bill will not be formally interred until today at the earliest, because a small band of liberals blocked Senator Mansfield's move to turn to other business. (1:1)
An official of Blue Cross and Blue Shield admitted that the two tax-exempt insurance groups had financed a Texas trip in which Republican Senator Tower spoke twice against President Kennedy's old-age medical care plan. But the official denied that tax-exempt funds had thus been used for lobbying. (20:2)
The Supreme Court upheld the criminal convictions of two prominent labor union figures David D. Beck, former Teamsters Union president, and Maurice A. Hutcheson, president of the Carpenters Union. (1:2)
President Kennedy's chief economic adviser predicted a "sustained advance" into 1963. But, in speech he shied away from earlier forecasts of a $570,000,000,000 gross national product this year. (50:1)
World Court opens hearings on U.N. financing. (pg. 8)
U.S. loses in U.N. on Rhodesia plan. (pg. 15)
May 16, 1962
President Kennedy reinforced his diplomatic efforts to maintain the independence of Laos yesterday by ordering 4,000 more American troops to be stationed in neighboring Thailand. The President said he was motivated by the recent assaults against Royal Laotian troops by Communist forces, who had advanced toward the Thai border. On the diplomatic level, Secretary of State Rusk conferred with the Soviet Ambassador in Washington and both were said to have stressed the need to maintain a cease-fire and to set up the neutral Laotian coalition Government agreed to by Mr. Kennedy and Premier Khrushchev in Vienna last June. (pg. 1:8; pg. 12)
Soviet intentions in Southeast Asia remain the key element in the confused diplomatic activity on Laos, and Washington believes that Moscow shares its desire for a peaceful political settlement. United States officials said that Moscow had taken a remarkably moderate position. (1:6-7)
They viewed a warning by Pravda that Washington was taking "dangerous" military steps as relatively mild and reluctant. (13:3)
Easing of East-West tension in Berlin was reflected in an East German announcement. For the first time since the Communist regime built the Berlin wall last August it released soldiers from active duty. (11:2-5)
Differences over an approach to negotiations on Berlin continued to plague the Allies. President Kennedy sent Chancellor Adenauer a personal letter to try to smooth over the sharp public statements that both leaders have made recently. (1:7)
The West German leader, for his part, said in effect that an alliance should not be a muzzle. (10:4-6)
President de Gaulle issued a clear challenge to United States predominance in the defense of Western Europe and reasserted France's aspirations to her own defense based on a modern atomic force. He told several hundred correspondents in the Elysee Palace that Western Europe's position in the last thirteen years had changed profoundly. (1:5; pg. 8)
Dr. James T. Ralph, former Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, was dismissed for accepting favors from Billie Sol Estes. Dr. Ralph was training to become agricultural attach’ to the Philippines. (1:1)
Secretary of Defense McNamara told a Senate Appropriations panel that, in view of widespread opposition, he would defer the planned elimination of a substantial number of National Guard and Reserve units. (19:2)
Kennedy bars prediction on farm bill. (pg. 24)
May 17, 1962
Diplomatic and military developments caused Washington to be more optimistic yesterday about the Laotian situation. Hopes for a political settlement rose when the leader of the pro-Communist Laotians agreed to negotiate with the neutralist and Rightist leaders next week in a new effort to form a coalition government. The military front in Laos remained quiet, and units of the Royal Laotian Army began to regroup in unoccupied areas. (pg. 1:8)
Nevertheless, the build-up of a United States force in neighboring Thailand was under way with the arrival of the first units of 4,000 more American troops. They debarked in Bangkok as the SEATO Council met in emergency session there to consider "further possible moves." (1:6-7)
The United States force includes some of the Army's best-trained guerrilla fighters, members of an outfit that had an outstanding record in the Korean War. (17:1)
In an effort to assuage a rift with the Philippines, a member of SEATO, a House of Representatives committee approved a new bill to authorize payment of $73,000,000 of World War II damage claims by that country. (1:7)
Premier Khrushchev, on a tour of Bulgaria, said that the policies of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia were "almost identical on the question of peace." He indicated a warming of Moscow-Belgrade relations in a speech at the Black Sea resort of Varna. (1:5)
Congress heard a new plea by Gen. Curtis E. LeMay to speed the development of the RS-70 bomber program. The Air Chief of Staff, backed by other Air Force generals, asked an appropriation of $491,000,000, nearly three times what President Kennedy had requested, for the program. (1:5-6)
Senate investigators broadened their inquiry on Billie Sol Estes and his financial dealings. Mr. Estes has been subpoenaed and more investigators were sent to Texas and some to New York to study records relating to the West Texas entrepreneur. The far-reaching inquiry has resulted in the dismissal or resignation of two high Administration officials and two lesser officials. (1:1)
The Justice Department filed a suit in Macon, Ga., requesting that county officials be restrained from using segregated voting machines and from counting white and Negro votes separately. (1:2-3)
May 18, 1962
President Kennedy said yesterday that United States military and diplomatic moves in Southeast Asia were designed to bring about a peaceful, political settlement and to lessen the chances of war there. He said at his news conference that the maintenance of peace along the present lines in Laos "is essential." The President emphasized that the object of Washington's policy was to obtain a resumption of negotiations between the three Laotian factions for the creation of a neutralist coalition government. Such negotiations, he said, are expected to resume "shortly." (pg. 1:1; pg. 10)
United States troops, who were arriving in Thailand as a result of the recent pro-Communist advances in neighboring Laos, pitched camp near the Laotian border. Gen. Paul D. Harkins, commander of all American forces in Southeast Asia, said that the troops were under strict orders not to enter Laos. He said that the Americans were in Thailand in a purely defensive role and that "whether we see action depends on the people on the other side." (1:2-3)
Britain announced that she would send fighter planes to Thailand if the Thai Government requested them. (2:1)
President Kennedy was also concerned about the defense of Europe. He reaffirmed that the United States would continue to bear its responsibility for it but warned that every European ally must do its share. (2:2-3)
President Kennedy warned that failure of his foreign trade expansion program "could well undo all the great achievements of this nation in the post-war period." In a speech before a national conference on United States trade policy, Mr. Kennedy said that an expanding exchange of goods and services with Europe's Common Market was imperative for strengthening the Atlantic alliance, increasing American living standards, controlling inflation and protecting the nation's currency. (1:8; pg. 14)
At his news conference, the President asserted that defeat of his farm bill would cost the taxpayers $4,000,000,000 in the next four years. He said that without tighter controls on grain production, surpluses would mount and the cost of buying and storing them would mushroom. (1:5)
The President found a big increase in home building more prophetic of the economy than recent sinking spells in the stock market. He said he expected "a record year in profits, wages, productivity." (10:3-5)
As for the Billie Sol Estes case, Mr. Kennedy disclosed that about seventy-five agents of the F.B.I. were studying the tangled activities of the West Texas entrepreneur. At his news conference, which came soon after Senate investigators voted a full-scale inquiry into Mr. Estes' political and financial dealings, the President pledged that any Federal employee found involved in wrongdoing would be disciplined appropriately. (1:4)
The Administration is supporting a proposal to end the five-man rule over the atomic energy program and establish a single administrator. Behind the move is a growing belief that the five-man commission, first set up in 1946, is proving to be cumbersome and outmoded. (8:4)
Kennedy sees much left undone in rights area. (pg. 17)
May 19, 1962
Premier Khrushchev warned yesterday that the dispatch of United States troops into Thailand was like the Korean intervention: entry was easy, but it took three years to get out. Though he displayed a relaxed and good-humored manner the Soviet leader predicted that the American forces eventually would be involved in fighting. Earlier, the touring Premier told Bulgarian farmers that President Kennedy had been imprudent in committing United States troops to help South Vietnam combat Communist guerrillas and he forecast their expulsion. (pg. 1:8)
Washington detected more sound than fury in Mr. Khrushchev's remarks. Officials regarded the over-all Communist reaction to United States moves as rather mild. (2:5)
The Japanese Foreign Ministry said the deployment of Japan-based American units to Southeast Asia without prior notice had politically embarrassed the Government. (1:7)
Although pro-Communist Laotian rebels were not exploiting their military gains, the United States commander in Southeast Asia termed the situation dangerous. (2:1)
A Federal grand jury indicted James R. Hoffa, head of the Teamsters Union, for allegedly accepting illegal payments of more than $1,000,000 from a Detroit trucking company which was named as co-defendant. (15:2)
Secretary of Labor Goldberg called railroad union and management officials to a meeting next Wednesday in an effort to settle their wage contract dispute. (1:1-2)
The new head of the Chamber of Commerce said after a White House visit that President Kennedy's attempt to lighten the tax burden on business was bound to ease tension caused by his steel price action. (1:2-3)
The President came to New York to spearhead a drive for public support of his old-age medical care program. His major appearance will be a speech to a rally of at least 20,000 persons in Madison Square Garden Sunday afternoon. Mr. Kennedy will also lend his weight to a Democratic fund-raising effort to wipe out the party's deficit and provide money for the Congressional elections. (1:2-3)
May 20, 1962
On the eve of Premier Khrushchevís departure from Bulgaria, he said at a rally of 100,000 people in Sofia yesterday that he did not want to "compete" with President Kennedy on who would first press the button of nuclear war. The Soviet leader said Mr. Kennedy was "unreasonable" in suggesting that the United States could find it necessary to use its nuclear arsenal against a threatening enemy. He asked the applauding crowd: "Is it reasonable to threaten someone as strong as he himself?" (pg. 1:1)
In support of a plan to reorganize and cut the size of the Army National Guard and Reserves, the Pentagon charged that weapons and equipment of some reserve units would be "ineffective on a modern battlefield." A lengthy "fact sheet" issued by the Pentagon also implied that National Guard and reserve units are not now capable of responding swiftly enough to meet "the needs of the Army in a rapid mobilization." (1:5)
Senator Harry F. Byrd issued a vigorous denunciation of the main features of the Administration's tax-revision bill. The Virginia Democrat's move increased doubts about favorable action by the Senate Finance Committee, which he heads. (1:7)
The Justice Department has warned Billie Sol Estes not to leave the country. (1:4)
President Kennedy addressed about 10,000 persons at the dedication of a union-sponsored housing project in Manhattan. He urged labor unions to play a partner's rule with government and private groups in undertaking "the unfinished business of our society." "The progress of this Country," he said, "will depend in a great measure on the sense of public responsibility of organized labor." (1:8; pg. 62.)
Last night, the President appealed for the election of a Congress in sympathy with his Administration's goals. The alternative, he said, would be a continuation of the inertia that has prevailed in Washington since 1938. Mr. Kennedy was the featured speaker at a Madison Square Garden rally that was expected to net more than $1,000,000 for his party. (1:6-7)
May 21, 1962
An emergency "air bridge across the Mediterranean" was set up by French authorities yesterday to evacuate throngs of Europeans seeking to leave terror-ridden Algiers. (1:1)
Despite criticism at home and abroad, President de Gaulle again affirmed his opposition to an integrated, supranational Europe. (6:4)
The Soviet Union and Bulgaria issued a warning to the United States in a joint communiqu’ on the six-day visit of Premier Khrushchev to the Balkan country. The communiqu’ said it would be dangerous to allow Chancellor Adenauer to delay an agreement on Berlin and Germany. (1:2)
The United States is fearful of mass tribal warfare when the Belgian-administered trust territory of Ruanda-Urundi is granted independence set for July 1. Accordingly, Washington plans to propose that the United Nations set up protective machinery in the two new African states. (11:1)
With the bulk of President Kennedy's program still to be acted on, Congress at mid-point in its 1962 session is confronted by the biggest summer legislative jam in a decade. If major pieces of Mr. Kennedy's program are to be saved, the session may extend into the fall campaign season. (1:4)
The President chose Cyrus Roberts Vance, a 45-year-old former Navy officer, to be Secretary of the Army. Mr. Vance has been serving as general counsel to the Department of Defense. (1:5)
President Kennedy urged support of his program of medical care for the aged under Social Security at a giant rally. The rally at Madison Square Garden was carried nationally by the three major television networks to thirty-two other rallies across the nation. In taking the case for his medical care program to the people, the President said that their support was "essential if this or any other piece of progressive legislation is going to be passed." He expressed confidence that the bill would be passed this year, or "inevitably," next year. (1:8)
May 22, 1962
A possible need to keep U. S. forces in Thailand for a number of years was foreseen yesterday by high Washington officials. Although the recent pro-Communist action in near-by Laos was no longer viewed as the start of a thrust into Thailand, some officials felt that at least a nucleus of United States combat units should remain on the Asian mainland. (1:2-3)
In Hong Kong, angry Chinese villagers thrust children into the path of a truck convoy in an unsuccessful attempt to halt the British colony's forced repatriation in refugees to Communist China. Two children were hurt slightly. (3:1)
Nationalist China offered to accept all the refugees who wanted to go to Taiwan. (1:3)
President Kennedy asked 250 business men, labor officials and academic leaders to forget their preconceptions and talk about economic issues as they really are. But those who followed him to the platform moved mainly along familiar rhetorical paths. The President said he was glad that no resolutions were adopted, because "they would probably be so generally worded that they would give us very little guidance - and what we really need are more specifics." When they got into the specifics of economic policy, however, the labor and management men showed that they were profoundly split. (1:8)
Mr. Kennedy's request for broad powers to negotiate lower tariffs and to aid workers and industries hurt by increased imports won all-but-final approval from the House Ways and Means Committee. The bill was substantially what the President had requested. (1:8)
A Senate committee restored $200,000,000 it had sought to cut from this fiscal year's aid to India, but it showed its displeasure over India's "uncooperative attitude" toward Western policy by rejecting a $90,000,000 increase in new funds. (1:4)
President Kennedy praised Representative Charles A. Buckley, the Bronx Democratic chief, for "firm and consistent" support of Administration programs. The message took some of the steam out of the drive to oust Mr. Buckley, whose power Mayor Wagner has been trying to break until recently. (1:5)
May 23, 1962
West Germany gave the United States yesterday a counter-proposal to the American plan for a Berlin settlement. Bonn had rejected the heart of the plan, which called for East German and East Berlin membership in an international group to control access to Berlin. It was believed the new West German plan suggested leaving basic responsibility for access with the Big Four, while actual operation would be governed by neutrals voting unanimously. East Germany would have only "technical" duties. (1:5)
In Haiti, a diplomatic boycott of President Duvalier's anniversary celebration of his "re-election" was joined by the United States envoy. (12:4)
Hong Kong sources said the tiny, overcrowded British colony was not prepared to reverse its policy of returning refugees to Communist China merely on the basis of Nationalist China's offer to take them. Officials apparently feared the refugees would stay in Hong Kong. (3:1)
After trimming only $166,500,000 from President Kennedy's original foreign aid request, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved a $4,662,000,000 program of economic and military assistance. The bill included $600,000,000 for the Alliance for Progress in Latin America in the coming fiscal year. (1:1)
A Texas medical examiner indicated a belief that a Federal official who died of bullet wounds last year while investigating the Billie Sol Estes case had been murdered. A justice of the peace had called it suicide. But the results of a partial autopsy yesterday were said to show that the official had been shot in the back. (1:2)
The Government disclosed that it would soon begin to move about $50,000,000 worth of grain out of facilities controlled by Mr. Estes. (1:3)
Senators heard a Federal finance officer testify that a copper company had made a windfall of more than $6,000,000, apparently through influence at high Government levels, by getting excused from stockpile commitments in 1956. (1:3)
Sponsors of the network of rallies Sunday for the President's medical care program admitted they "had a few flops" but said that total attendance was about 100,000. (28:1)
Some 2,000 cheering Democratic women rallied on the White House lawn to hear Mr. Kennedy warn that the party cannot afford to lose a single seat in Congress. (29:3)
Negro mother and 11 children reach Cape Cod. Page 22
May 24, 1962
In an effort to ease the impact of the mass movement of Chinese refugees to Hong Kong, the United States will admit several thousand of them by invoking emergency powers to waive the restrictive immigration laws. Preference will be given to refugees with technical skills and those with close family ties in the United States. (1:6-7)
President Kennedy disclosed that his Administration was seeking the key to Europe's economic growth as a possible guide to improve the growth rate in the United States. He told his news conference that Americans should not be satisfied "with the way we are operating our economy as long as we are not going at full blast" as European countries are. (1:1)
On the subject of his program of medical care for the aged, the President said that he did not plan to ask Congress in a year or two to extend coverage to doctors' bills. (19:4)
In line with recommendations by the President, the House Ways and Means Committee voted to repeal the 10 per cent Federal tax on rail and bus fares and to reduce the tax on air travel to 5 per cent. Passage by the House is expected early next month. (1:2-3)
May 25, 1962
M. Scott Carpenter, a 37-year-old Navy test pilot, became yesterday the second American to orbit the earth. His three-orbit trip ended, however with a global audience suffering almost an hourís anxiety about his safe return. And it was three hours from the time his space capsule landed until he was plucked from an orange life raft by a rescue helicopter. The overshot was caused by the high angle of the capsule at the time the retro, or braking rockets fired to slow its speed and bring it out of orbit. But after a feverish wait, he was sighted and later picked up. He dispatched the message: "I feel fine." (1:8)
President Kennedy hailed Commander Carpenter's courage and the skill of his rescuers. (14:8)
The French political Left was outraged and the Right was delighted by the unexpected sentence of life imprisonment for Raoul Salan, former chief of the Secret Army Organization. The Government felt that his escaping the death penalty could impair the morale of the security forces, which are subjected daily to Secret Army terrorism. President de Gaulle was said to have been angered by the sentence. (1:3)
The United States and the Soviet Union are expected to present to the Geneva disarmament conference today a joint declaration condemning war propaganda. (1:4)
United States proposals to settle the Dutch-Indonesian dispute over Netherlands New Guinea call for a rigidly supervised plebiscite, but only after Indonesians have taken over administration of the area. The suggestion is apparently partly responsible for the Netherlands' refusal to reopen negotiations with the Indonesians. (1:5)
The Senate gave President Kennedy a victory on the farm bill by voting the strictest controls in history on the production of wheat and feed grains. The voting, largely along party lines, reversed a committee's earlier action. Final Senate action on the measure is expected today after work is completed on its less controversial sections. The action will then shift to the House.
The first White House conference on conservation since the Administration of Theodore Roosevelt assembled to hear the Kennedy Administration's hopes and fears for America's natural resources. The theme of the meeting of 500 conservationists was that keeping the great outdoors great demands dedicated work and education. (30:3)
A foreign aid authorization of $4,668,500,000 which was $210,000,000 below the President's request, was approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee for the year beginning July 1. (1:2)
Kennedy lays cornerstone of Rayburn building. Page 21
May 26 1962
A newly buoyant atmosphere surrounded the ten-week-old Geneva disarmament conference yesterday. The goodwill was caused by the announcement of an agreement by the United States and the Soviet Union on the peripheral issue of a declaration condemning war propaganda. The six-point declaration, one of the first major agreements between the United States and Soviet co-chairmen of the talks, received the preliminary approval of the entire seventeen-nation conference. (1:1)
Premier Khrushchev, speaking on Moscow radio and television, said that the landing of American troops in Thailand "seriously hinders a settlement" in Laos. But he added that Moscow would continue to support establishment of a coalition government there. (2:1)
After a week of bitter debate, the Senate passed a farm bill that included many of the strict production controls and penalties requested by the Administration. The vote, 42 to 38, largely followed party lines. (1:5-6)
May 27, 1962
The French Government made former Gen. Edmond Jouhaud a virtual hostage yesterday by letting it be known that he would be spared from execution only if European-inspired terror ended in Algeria. Jouhaud had received a stay of execution when the Government accepted for consideration a defense motion for a new trial. The request was made because the same high military tribunal that meted out death to Jouhaud unexpectedly found extenuating circumstances for Raoul Salan, his superior in the terrorist Secret Army Organization, who was sentenced to life imprisonment. (1:8)
The Netherlands announced that she was ready to accept United States proposals as a basis for further negotiations with Indonesia on the future of Netherlands New Guinea. The proposals provide for a two-year period in which United Nations administrators would replace Dutch officials and in turn would be replaced by Indonesians, and also for a plebiscite. (1:4; Text, 14)
President Kennedy is conducting an intensive hunt for a new Ambassador to the Soviet Union, to take the place of Llewellyn E. Thompson, Jr., who has been promised relief after five years in Moscow. Soviet affairs specialists, educators, diplomats and newspaper men have been invited to suggest possible candidates. (21:1-2)
In reply to the merged labor movement's call for a thirty-five-hour work week, the Kennedy Administration views it as a curb on economic growth, a threat to price stability and no solution to unemployment. (54:1)
May 28, 1962
The Communist launched a new offensive in northwest Laos yesterday nine miles from the border of Thailand. Pro-Communist rebel forces that were said to include North Vietnamese attacked in force against the Laotian Government's defense perimeter around Houei Sai, which Government troops had reoccupied after their rout three weeks ago. Helicopters piloted by Americans rushed extra troops from the town to the beleaguered outposts, but United States military advisers said the reinforcements had been unable to repel the assault. (pg. 1:8)
A report in Washington declared that the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, under which President Kennedy dispatched United States troops to Thailand, offered "no security to the nations of that area." The report, by a bipartisan study mission of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that "either the rule of unanimity should be abolished or the treaty itself terminated." (1:7)
Kennedy's drive helps Negro to Coast Guard career. (pg. 16)
May 29, 1962
Secretary of State Rusk and French Ambassador Alphand met privately for two hours yesterday in an effort to improve United States-French relations. Afterward, nothing was said officially except that the discussion had covered a wide field. Paris and Washington have been at odds over the future of Europe, negotiations with the Russians, NATO, the sharing of nuclear data and the relationships of the major allies to one another and to the United Nations. (1:1)
A House subcommittee opened hearings on the affairs of Billie Sol Estes and on charges that he had preferential treatment from officials. The panel disclosed that an Agriculture Department official had questioned the "heavy indebtedness" of the now indicted Texan in 1960, two years before the collapse of his business empire. And a partisan note was struck as two panel members argued whether the Eisenhower or Kennedy Administration had most aided Mr. Estes. (1:3)
A modified version of Mr. Kennedy's public works bill was squeezed through the Senate over almost solid G.O.P. opposition. The Republicans just missed killing a key part-authorization for the President to initiate $750,000,000 in public works spending if the economy begins to slip. (1:7)
Lieut. Comdr. M. Scott Carpenter and his family flew to Denver in President Kennedy's jet for celebrations in the astronaut's native state. (4:7)
Praising Commander Carpenter's courage, Premier Khrushchev acknowledged that the United States had made "notable successes" in space but challenged its claims to greatness in kitchen technology. (4:3)
In Geneva, the United States proposed that all nations agree to aid space ships or astronauts in distress and to return them after forced landings. (1:4)
May 30, 1962
Following a morning that began with continued heavy selling, the New York Stock Exchange rallied dramatically yesterday to wipe out 60 per cent of Monday's losses. Just before noon, buyers moved into the market in strength swamping the Exchange with orders that produced its second highest volume in history 14,750,000 shares. Price tickers ran until 8:07 P.M. four hours and thirty-seven minutes after trading ended. Factors in the recovery were: optimistic buying advice from three large brokerage houses, buying by institutions and news from Washington. (pg. 1:8)
President Kennedy met with Federal economic officials and decided that no special Government action was required at this time. After the meeting, Secretary of the Treasury Dillon reported a consensus that business conditions were "very sound" and that panic selling of stocks was not justified. But Secretary of Commerce Hodges indicated that he favored some action to spur economic activity. (1:6-7)
The Soviet Union reneged on a five-day-old agreement with the United States on a declaration condemning war propaganda. In spite of earlier emphasis that the agreement was fully approved by Moscow, the Soviet delegate to the Geneva disarmament talks proposed changes that Western delegates agreed could only void the declaration. (1:1)
President Kennedy asked Congress to approve a system of tax incentives to encourage the financing of Presidential campaigns by small and medium size donations. (1:5)
Yugoslav tells Kennedy fear on Common Market. (pg. 2)
President picks chief of air defense command. (pg. 2)
May 31, 1962
In Washington Secretary of State Rusk and Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin spent nearly two hours in a discussion of the issues of Berlin and Germany. The conference developed little more than expressions of a mutual desire to continue talking. (1:6-7)
Soviet-American relations at the Geneva disarmament conference were more hostile. The Soviet delegate was said to have made a "wide-ranging attack" on the Western approach to disarmament. The United States delegate declared that Moscow had neither the first nor the second strike nuclear capability to destroy the United States. (1:5)
A special bonus of 12 per cent for career diplomats who request retirement from the Foreign Service by tonight will bring 212 departures from the State Department by July 1. While the special inducement for voluntary retirement has deprived the department of some highly valued men, it is expected to provide an opportunity to advance younger men to important posts. (1:3)
Vote in Alabama held blow to Administration. (pg. 13)