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- Part of White House Staff Member and Office Files (Nixon Administration), President's Office Files
Extracted text
OCR Page 1 of 49THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
WEEKEND NEWS REVIEW
APRIL 9, 1973
The major stories of the weekend:
-
The apparently deteriorating situation in Cambodia and
Admin concern over it which seemingly led to RN sending
Haig there on his 12th Indochina mission in 3 years
dominates Sun. papers and led both nets Sat and CBS Sun.
(NBC pre-empted by Wizard of Oz.
)
In lead story Sun.
nite Rather said HAK made effort aboard AF 1 in talk
w/press to convince US that C-F isn't coming apart and
that Haig's trip had been planned for 2 weeks, so there's
"no crisis. 11 HAK also said level of fighting generally is
w/in the pattern anticipated.
Prior to HAK remarks,
Star's Sherman said the "rushed Haig mission" came "amid
signs that RN is racing against time to prevent collapse
of the Paris agreement. 11
Utley said mission "urgently
underlined" US concern.
Mudd said the crisis in Cambodia
has deepened, as noose is tightened around Phnom Penh
CBS noted NVN said Lon Nol's gov't is in its "death pangs
Nets noted and papers prominently played NY Times quote of
the day by RZ who said US had no interest, plans nor desire
to reintroduce ground troops into Indochina. Valeriani felt
that wasn't ruled out altogether, however, and he noted past
Haig missions have preceded major US moves, often of a
military nature.
-
5 ships part of original 19-vessel convoy, broke thru a
Communist blockade on Mekong, and got to Phnom Penh
thru a cross-fire that was little affected by US air support.
1st US air loss over Cambodia, since CF as observation
plane was hit and pilot killed.
US has begun airlifting
supplies to troops defending Phnom Penh
On Face the
Nation, Thieu said if Communists are allowed to continue
attacks in Cambodia, the situation could get worse and cause
danger for SVN. But he said SVN could handle the threat if
Cambodia fell.
-
2 more choppers were fired on Monday w/no casualty reports
yet. As nets noted and prominent print coverage was given, 9,
including 3 US crew, were killed when ICCS chopper "had an
accident" -- apparently hit by a Soviet-built missile -- and
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