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THE HAS SEEN NEWS SUMMARY March 20, 1973 (Monday nets, wires. Mags in separate compilation.) The major stories of the day: - SVN has threatened to officially ignore cease-fire and counter- attack NVA shelling on town near An Loc. JMC/ICCS have taken no action. Story led ABC/NBC. Both nets also noted US again complained about infiltration (CBS briefly noted SVN threat but no mention of US comments.) ABC followed w/Koppel saying NVA infiltration had tapered off, almost to nothing, even before RN's "thinly veiled warning. 11 POWs returning to US on film on all nets w/Flynn on NBC film saying "God Bless America, God Bless RN" and telling of his sincere gratitude for serving under a Pres. like RN. He also thanked HAK and all who helped Thompson -- longest-held POW in US history -- civilian Manhard, Kushner and the "reborn" Ridgeway were featured on other nets. - Economy was a key factor in day's news once again, led CBS w/ report on dollar's unexpected strength as official markets opened for 1st time in almost 3 weeks NBC took a look on how VW prices are being forced upward and ABC examined the fear of revaluation in Japanese industry towns. - All nets noted -- #2 on CBS -- prime rate hiked to 6 3/4 from 6 1/4 w/ABC/CBS telling of Admin "displeasure" which led Burns to summon the banks which so acted to explain moves in DC Thurs CBS also w/film from cattlemen convention where Anne Armstrong sought to explain Admin advice to housewives on selective buying. But several of ranchers interpreted her remarksas pro-boycott and they weren't pleased. - Sevareid said Admin plans to tighten up on insanity pleas in criminal cases aren't public yet and lawyers are waiting to see how sweeping they'll be. But that didn't stop Eric from seeing little value in the rumored proposals while he also took a swipe at RN's call for less discretion for judges on pusher cases -- takes us back a long ways, he contended NBC/CBS outlined SEC memo which tells of hilevel Admin-ITT contacts re: the antitrust case. Likely to bring more headlines, said Chancellor and Duke found "serious new questions" while Herman of CBS said it's still to be determined what was done illegally or improperly.