Kennedy plot theory
arouses new interest
WASHINGTON <UPI>— A spreading spiracy, foreign or domestic,” but hedid
stam of suspicion that John F. Kennedy . not dismiss the possibility,
might have been the victim of a plot “So far, I have seen no evidence that
involving Ihe Centra) Intelligence would dispute the conclusions to which
Agency has aroused President Ford's we came,” he said,
curiosity and stirred new excitement But "if the facts seem to justify it,”
among advocates of the conspiracy i Ford said, the Rockefeller commission
theory. the special House and Senate
Tf I were a betting man,” says trial
lawyer Bernard J. Fensterwald, “I’dbet
the full story will be known within a
\ear."
"A year? I’m surprised at Fen
sterwaid," said Dr Richard Popkin, a
philosophy professor at.,Washington
I'mversity in St. Louis. “I'd make it six
months.”
Both men have noticed in recent
months a growing web of unrelated
disclosures, events and., allegations
which they believe will provoke the first
serious re-examination of the Warren
Commission’s conclusion that Lee
Harvey Oswald acted alone as Ken
nedy’s assassin in Dallas.
President Ford, who was a com
mission member, also apparently
noticed the resurgence of interest in the
circumstances of Kennedy’s death,
particularly when the CIA was men
tioned. ‘
Some time in March, the White House
said. Ford looked up the precise
language of the Warren Commission's
findings which he had helped write. So,
when he got a surprise question about
the matter April 3 at his San Diego,
Calif., news conference, Ford was
prepared. He defended the commission’s
•very carefully drafted” statement that
"we had found no evidence of a con-
S. Viet airbase shelled
SAIGON (UPl)—Communist artillery thundered closer to
Saigon than ever before last night, bombarding a former
American airbase where earlier in the day saboteurs blew up
South Vietnam’s biggest ammunition depot.
The attack with 130 mm artillery, the biggest and most
accurate guns in the North Vietnamese army, came hours
after saboteurs crept inside the American-built Bien Hoa
airbase 14 miles northeast of Saigon and touched off ex
plosions that*shook the capital itself.
Military sources said the 20-round artillery attack caused
light damage to one taxiway at the huge airbase, which houses
the headquarters for the South Vietnamese military com-
mand. It was the first time in the war that the long-range
130 mm guns had been employed in the provinces around
Saigon.
The Soviet,made field pieces are considered accurate to
u ithin five yards at a maximum range of 17 miles and are the
most feared weapons in the North Vietnamese arsenal.
There was no immediate word on casualties or overall
damage at the Bien Hoa bomb depot, which is the largest air
force ammunition dump in South Vietnam.
The massive explosions—four major ones shook Saigon
early today—indicated losses were high.
11 was the second major ammunition loss for the South
Vietnamese armed forces in just over 24 hours.
South Vietnamese forces yesterday took more territory
around Xuan Loc, 38 miles northeast of Saigon in the sixth day
of a battle which may decide thefate of the capital itself.
Field officers said South Vietnamese forces had enlarged
their defense perimeter around Xuan Loc. But North Viet-
Israeli forces go on alert
Hy I'MTKI) PRESS INTERNATIONAL 10,000 Israeli war dead since 1948. Flags Kfir—“Young Lion”—resembles the
-Israel y esterday put its forces on alert dipped to half staff, cafes and movie French. Mirage and is powered by the
aginst possible Arab guerrilla attacks theaters shut down and solemn US. General Electric J 79 jet engine,
during the nations Memorial and assemblies and prayers were held In other Mideast developments -
Independence Day holidays. throughout the nation.
In neighboring Lebanon an uneasy Celebration of Independence Day . n Washin gton, President Ford met
(race enabled warring Palestinian begins tonight and continues tomorrow. with U.S. ambassadors to Israel, Egypt,
guerrillas and rightwing Lebanese In Lebanon’s worst civil strife in two Syna and Jordan in the continuing
commandos to bury their dead after years, the government moved in troops reassessment of American Middle East
fighting on Sunday and during the night and armor to tie Beirut suburb of Ein P olic - v foll °wing the collapse of
that claimed betweeif22 and 45 lives. Rummaneh, stronghold of" the Kissinger’s shuttle diplomacy.
Israeli officials unveiled the country’s Phaiangist Party, where the fighting —The Israeli Parliament met in
i’.mirtnn f ’fn ' y P rodaced warplane, a began Sunday. special session to discuss Alien’s trip,
supersonic fighter-bomber, as the nation The Phalangists, who have an armed but the opposition could not get enough
prepared to honor its war dead. militia of 5,000, are opposed to the’ votes for a motion to open debate
COUn - [ >alestinian guerrilla presence in Opposition leaders argue that the timing
?l r l ? signalled the beginning Lebanon. , of the visit was wrong because of the
of memorial services for more than The Israeli plane, called the U.S. policy reassessment.
Senators agree to consider Vietnam aid
WASHINGTON ' (UPI) —President Ford ap
parently won agreement from key senators
yesterday for speedy consideration of his
emergency requests for military aid to South
Vietnam and contingency powers to help in any
evacuation
Sen. Clifford Case, ranking Republican on the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee which met
with Ford for 90 minutes at the White House, told
reporters the panel was working to give President
Ford “a degree cff-discretion” in providing limited 1
military aid to Saigon.
Earlier in the afternoon, Senate Democratic
leader Mike Mansfield told the Senate
Democratic caucus that South Vietnam could not
expect anymore U.S. aid if it insisted on con
tinuing the fighting rather than seeking to
negotiate with the Communists.
Asked if the committee was ruling out President
Ford's request for $722 million in military
assistance, Case said: “I would not rule it out if
you don't use that high a figure. I think we would
allow a degree of discretion for the President.
“There is not a disposition to be stiff-backed on
f 2QZ PA'
Collegian
ihe
daily
committees investigating CIA domestic
activities might investigate.
Fensterwald, a dapper little Ten
nessean whose clients have included
Watergate burglar James W. McCord
Jr. and James Earl Ray, said he
believes something big is about to break
in the Kennedy case,
“I have the same feeling I did about
Watergate, the feeling the game was
up,” when McCord broke his silence with
a letter to U.S. District Judge John J.
Sirica charging high-level j political
pressures to cover up the scandal.
“There’s just too much evidence
around that the Warren report is not
correct, that the CIA and the FBI both
know a huge amount they didn’t tell the
Warren Commission,” Fensterwald
said.
But neither the Rockefeller com
mission nor Congress seems to share his
sense of urgency.
The executive director of the
Rockefeller commission, David Belin,
is a former Warren Commission counsel
and staunch defender of the single
assassin argument. A spokesman said:
“No evidence has been submitted to
indicate any CIA involvement.”
The Senate committee staff has
acknowledged it will study the question,
but only as a peripheral CIA issue.
the part of the Congress or over-insistence on the
part of the President.”
Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and
Defense Secretary James R. Schlesinger will
testify to congressional committees today, Sen
Frank Church, D-Idaho, said after the meeting.
Church said the White House meeting with
committee members was “very serious” and that
its purpose was “to discuss^ ways' and means to
expedite the President's request.”
■Meanwhile, Mansfield announced after a
meeting of Senate Democrats that floor sessions
would, be cut as short as possible to enable the
appropriate committees to hold prompt and
comprehensive hearings on Ford’s requests.
Mansfield cautioned the caucus that U.S.
participation in Indochina hostilities could not be
resumed without express congressional consent.
In a particularly blunt statement, Mansfield
said, “The sooner everyone in this government, in
every, branch and service, recognizes 'their
constitutional responsibility, the better for all
concerned.
“To find any pretext to the contrary is to raise
Fensterwald believes the trigger for
what Popkin called the “amazingly
rapid buildup” of interest in the Kennedy
case—the equivalent of a McCord let
ter—was disclosure of CIA involvement
in assassination plots' against several
foreign heads of state, including Cuba’s
Fidel Castro.
Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez, D-Tex., who
has called for a new inquiry, says his
suspicions were aroused by Watergate
revelations of CIA activities and the Bay
of Pigs.
The Executive Director of the
presidential- commission investigating
the CIA said yesterday so far there has
been no evidence to support allegations
it was involved in the 1963 assassination
of President JohnF. Kennedy.
Belin talked to reporters following the
13th closed meeting cf the Commission
headed by Vice President Nelson A.
Rockefeller.-
“Thus far \ye have not found any
'credible evidence that the CIA was in
volved as a party in the assassination”
he said in answer to questions. He said
any other queries would to wait
until the commission finishes its work
June 15 and makes its report?
will not comment on what will or
will not be discussed,” Belin said.
He said that Secretary of State Henry
A. Kissinger had been tentatively
scheduled to appear before the com
mission yesterday but than it would ifot
have been appropriate with the absence
of Rockefeller, who left for Taipei over
the weekend to represent President Ford
at the Wednesday funeral of Chiang Kai
shek.
namese forces still had the devastated city surrounded and
were still hitting the defenders with mortar and artillery fire.
•Xuan Loc is important as a kev noint on one invasion route
to the nation’s capital and its defense a morale boost to a na
tion hungry for a victory.
The Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese already control 19
of South Vietnam’s 44 provinces and two-thirds of its land
area.
The struggle for Xuan Loc is also vital to the defense of Bier
Hoa itself. Should Xuan Loc fall, Bien Hoa could be next on the
Communist target list in any preparations for an assault on
Saigon. "1
In neighboring Cambodia, Khmer Rouge rebels smashed
through Phnom Penh’s defenses yesterday and all but sealed
the city.’s fate as the first capital to fall to the Communists in
the Indochina war.
Government defenses deteriorated rapidly on Cambodia’s
Buddhist New Year’s Day and Phnom Penh’s fall—and with it
the fall of Cambodia itself—appeared imminent, perhaps only
hours away.
In a broadcast monitored in Saigon, Phnom Penh Radio said
last night Communist-led insurgents pierced the city’s north
ern defenses and battled ijo within “several hundred” yards
of the French Embassy in the heart of Phnom Penh.
But early today the radio began broadcasting at its usual
time with no indication of a major change in the situation. The
radio asked the people to remain calm and assured residents
of the refugee-swollen city there would be continued supplies
of rice and food. The radio gave no report on overnight
military activity
once again the specter of Watergate—the specter
of gross illegal behavior on the part of officials of
the U.S. sworn to uphold the Constitution and the
law.”
“It would seem-to me,” Mansfield told the
Senate Democratic Caucus, “that a prerequisite
of any kind of aid program, if it is to have a con
structive impact in this critical situation, would
be,a good faith effort by the Saigon government to
open urgent negotiations seeking to establish a
tripartite National Council of National Recon
ciliation under Article 12 of the Paris peace ac
cords of 1973.”
The peace accords, which ended direct U.S.
involvement in the Vietnamese War, called on
South Vietnam and the Viet Cong to create such a
national council to negotiate Vietnam’s political
future. Early negotiations under that provision
failed.
Mansfield did not mention Thieu by name, but
he clearly was referring to the South Vietnamese
president when he said:
“At this point, there is no room for adamancy on
the part of any individual in the Saigon govern-
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT GOVERNMENT Parliamentarian-elect Ken Eckard (seated), USG Vice President Leo
Lachcik (standing left) and Frank iMuraca, chairman of Pennsylvania Student Lobby (standing middle) listen as Joe Seufer,
USG President asks students and their parents to write to Pennsylvania legislators to protest the proposed tuition hike.
Fight against tuition hike
to begin on Wednesday
•; He said a PSL study indicated that
CPSBUoo students will not be able to return to
school and countless more unable to
Students complain about higher tuition enroll because of the proposed budget
but now they may be able to do cuts.
something about it. PHEAA loans have riot increased so
By GAIL SNYDER
Collegian Staff Writer
Undergraduate Student Government more people will be applying to get less
President Joe Seufer announced last dollars, he said. ,
night that START-UP (Students Against Muraca said if students unite thrdugh
Higher Tuition at University Park) will writing letters of protest to their
begin Wednesday. j legislators they can have a tremendous
An emergency meeting of all student impact. He said a letter could mean
organizations will take place 7:30 tonight millions of dollars from Harrisburg!
in the HUB Assembly Room, to pick up The University of Pittsburgh, which is
support for the project. threatened by a $250 tuition increase,
Frank Muraca, Pennsylvania Student held a START-UP day that had a
Lobby (PSD chairman, said a $l5O tremendous impact on Pittsburgh
tuition increase would create financial legislators, according to Muraca.
problems for Some students. • “Were going to need 30,000 letters
Defence perimeter pierced
Phnom Penh infiltrated
PHNOM PENH (UPI) Khmer
Rouge rebels smashed through Phnom
Penh's defenses yesterday and all but
sealed the city’s fate as the first capital
to fall to the Communists in the In
dochina war. '■ - a- ,
Government defenses deteriorated
rapidly on Cambodia’s Buddhist New
Year’s Day and Phnom Penh’s fall—and
with it the fall of Cambodia it
self—appeared imminent, perhaps only
hours away.
In a broadcast monitored in Saigon,
Phnom Penh Radio said last night Com
munist-led insurgents pierced the city’s
northern defenses and battled to within
“several hundred” yards of the French
Embassy in the heart of Phnom Penh.
A government armored squadron
headquarters was stationed just north of
the French embassy, but] the radio report
did not indicate whether the camp itself
was attacked. j
Rebel forces pushed into deserted
Pochentong village, between Phnom
Penh and Pochentong Airport which has
been the city's 1 one supply link to the out
side world for more than two months.
UPI Cambodian newsmen said they
'swept behind government defenders on
the crumbling western defense line. \
Insurgents set refugee slums aHrq and
Ten cents per copy '
Tuesday, ApriMs,l974
Vol. 75, No. 150 10 pages University Park, Pennsylvania
Published by Students of The Pennsylvania State University
sent thousands of families fleeing toward;
what seemed certain to be only tem
porary safety closer to the center of
Phnom Penh, only to be turned back by
military police at the city limits. :
Recoilless rifle shells fired by rebels
less than 500 yards away hit the'Univer
sity"oF Phnom Penh faculty of letters
buildingAt the western edge of the inner
capital city, wounding two students.
A dissident Cambodian air force pilot,
identified as Lt. Khieu Yossavat, bombed
—but missed—the high commahd
headquarters in downtown Phnom Penh.
Unconfirmed reports said government
artillerymen turned their guns toward
the city and joined rebel forces in heavy
shelling barrages.
The government clamped a 24-hour
curfew on Phnom Penh and threatened
arrest of civilian? and court martial of
Spldiers if they were caught on the
streets. .
Radio Phnom Penh appealed for calm
and said U.S. aid would arrive soon by
parachute, in broadcasts interspersed
with music such as “Marching Through
Georgia” and “Old Folksat Home.”
American supply planes quit landing at
the airport with the U.S. pullout of Satur
day, but U.S. civilian-flown jets began
airdropping food, fuel and ammunition to
Earlier yesterday in Saigon, Thieu had
presented his “War Government of Union” and
vowed never to surrender.
"It would be well to remember that what is at
stake is not the reassertion of Saigon’s control
oyer thousands of square miles of territory which
its forces have abandoned,” Mansfield said.
"What is at stake is the prevention of a final
Gotterdammerung at Saigon. ”
At stake was Ford’s request for almost $1 billion
in aid for Vietnam and an administration plan to
use American troops to evacuate both Americans
and sympathetic Vietnamese from the Saigon
area, where the Communists’are encroaching.
Mansfield, chairman of the Far East sub
committee and a life-long expert on Asian affairs,
said Ford’s request 1 for aid “borders on the
irrational.”
Assistant Senate Democratic Leader Robert
Byrd meanwhile introduced a resolution that
would allow Ford W use American troops to
evacuate only American citizens from Vietnam.
A . few' hours before the Foreign Relations
5 COPIES
from Students and 60,000 letters from
parents,” Seufer said.
There will be tables in the HUB, and
during! dinner at the dining halls Wed
nesday, Thursday and Friday with
sample letters and lists of legislators by
districts.
“Even if you only know your town you
will be able to write. We must start up
now or pay later,” Muraca said.
In other action, the Senate re-elected
A 1 Leard pro tempore and appointed six
committee chairpersons. They were:
Rules: Bernie Campbell, Judiciary:
Gary Bizal, Appropriations: Stephen
Wickriser, Government Operations:
Judy Johnson, Student Affairs: Ken
Dandar and Trustees: Dale Ginsberg.
Phnom Penh’s defenders during the
weekend. The worsening situation Mon
day all but closetP the airport even to
Cambodian military planes.'
Acting president Sak Sutsakjmp,
pleading for calm, said, “I and milpary
and civilian leaders are actively con
tinuing to work without fear in order to
lead our republic toward achieving our
final goal.”
Only hours earlier, Sak Sutsakhan was
appointed to head a last-ditch "High
Committee of the Khmer Republic," to
lead the nation and to try to negotiate
with the insurgents. There was not even a
pause in the fighting.
Rebel forces also infiltrated Kauk
Khlieng village one mile to the north and
a string of refugee villages along the
northwest perimeter. Fleeing refugees
from Kauk Khlieng, once a placid rice
growing village, said the insurgents
killed 10 villagers and abducted one-third
of the population. How many persons
lived in Kauk Khlieng was not known.
Weather
Clearing and cool today. High 46. Clear
and cool tonight. Low 36. Mostly sunny
and mild tomorrow. High 57. -
Committee met with Ford, the White House made
public a letter which the President had sent
congressional leaders over the weekend to advise
them that the evacuation of Americans and
Cambodians from Phnom Penh was achieved
"without incident.” '
Ford’s better said the Cambodian rescue was
ordered and conducted under his constitutional
“power and authority as commander-in-chief of
U.S. armed forces.” .
But top administration- officials claim the
President doles have the same authority to order
U.S. military forces used if necessary for a
massive evacuation of South Vietnamese.
Philip C. Habib, assistant secretary of state for
Far Eastern affairs, told Congress meanwhile
that a plan would be ready in two days for
evacuating what one congressman estimated to
be as many as 400,000 persons whose lives would
be at stake in South Vietnam.
He told a closed session of a House Immigration
subcommittee that part of the planning problem
was in arranging for other nations to share in the
asylum plan for Vietnam evacuees.