Good evening from ABC News headquarters in New York. I'm Frank Reynolds. Howard K. Smith
is on vacation. These are tonight's headlines. The unemployment rate in November rises to
5.8 percent, the highest level in more than seven years. President Nixon announces new
measures to help the economy and calls on industry and labor to help curb inflation.
For the first time at the trial of Lieutenant William Kelly, a witness says he saw Kelly
kill at Meli. And the Irish government, reporting that an armed conspiracy exists, assumes emergency
powers, including the establishment of internment camps. Reports tonight from Jules Bergman
on the future of the supersonic transport in the United States, Roger Peterson on possibly
the most damaging testimony yet against Lieutenant Kelly, Scott Osborne on today's developments
in the cross-abduction story, Ted Koppel on Pope Paul's momentous visit to Hong Kong,
George Watson on our ambassador to the court of St. James and squirrels, and tonight's
comments and personal thoughts on leaving. Unemployment in this country is now 5.8 percent,
the highest level since May of 1963. Translated into terms of jobs and people, that means
4.6 million Americans are out of work. 350,000 people were added to the unemployment rolls
last month alone. The White House puts part of the blame on last month's General Motors
strike, although GM strikers were not counted. Those put out of work in the supplier industries
were counted in the unemployed. Without that walkout, the administration claims the unemployment
figure would have been somewhere between 5.3 and 5.5 percent. Earlier this week, President
Nixon issued an inflation alert that sharply criticized both industry and labor. Tonight
he flies to New York for a major speech before the National Association of Manufacturers.
That story from ABC White House correspondent, Tom Jarrell.
The President tells business leaders with the National Association of Manufacturers
tonight that this is the critical moment for business and labor to make a special effort
to exercise restraint in price wage decisions. He says it's time for business to take a hard
look at its pricing policies. The oil industry is singled out as an example of how presidential
action can be taken if prices jump too quickly. The President will announce a relaxation on
federal restrictions on the production and importing of oil, steps which are intended
to increase the supply of oil and drive prices back down. While urging businessmen to exercise
restraint, the President also assures them the Federal Reserve Board will continue to
expand the supply of money and credit to pep up a sluggish economy. The President admits
his economic game plan has not worked as quickly as he hoped. He admits the price for combating
inflation is high unemployment, but he says the worst of inflation is over and optimistically
he predicts the American system can now deliver full employment and a stable dollar at the
same time. Tom Jarrell, ABC News at the White House.
On the West Coast, the President's speech will get very close attention indeed. The
problem of unemployment there will be aggravated by that Senate vote yesterday against spending
more money on the SST. More on that story from ABC's Bill Wordam.
Yesterday's vote not only cast a twilight over the future of Boeing in Seattle, it also
crushed the hopes of thousands of unemployed aerospace engineers all over the country.
The SST project, now merely an expensive mock-up, would have called on the skills of more than
a hundred thousand aerospace workers. Now if the project dies, more people will be laid
off, thousands in Seattle and in Southern California. The aerospace employment picture
is now so bleak that many technicians are turning their backs on a lifetime of experience
to start new careers. Jarrell, an electronics engineer, is driving a cab in Los Angeles
until he becomes a deputy sheriff. But his first love, aerospace, still fascinates him.
It has its rewards, it has its challenge and I was, and I can say I still am interested
in the field, but you never know when you're going to get laid off. Like I had a good friend
who he must be 60 years old. He was close to retirement at the company 20 some years
and he was laid off. It wasn't as if he was totally out of it and yet, you know, in the
twilight years I can understand how he could be bitter and yet even he didn't seem to be
bitter. So it's just a way of life with aerospace and defense industry and we all more or less
accepted as that. You make hay while the sun shines and then you, you know, update your
resume and go to new fields, new horizons and find something else.
Riding a cab is one way to keep food on the table and to pay some of the bills, but it's
not the answer for highly skilled men such as Dave Adams. Adams was laid off after he
helped design the 747 and he pinned his hopes on the SST.
President Nixon has to do something within the next few months to get things going again.
I think he has to start immediately with the SST program. If America doesn't get going
on the SST, she can, she's really saying to the world that she's a second-class power.
Like Jerry Turrell and Dave Adams, many of these men are taking other jobs. Some technicians
and engineers are looking for work elsewhere. A slow steady stream of talented men leaving
California, some of them aboard the very aircraft they helped to design.
Here to maybe see news, Los Angeles.
In a statement issued this morning, the White House officially lamented the Senate's vote
against the SST and the President vowed to keep up the fight to have part of the money
restored when the bill goes into conference. There's a good chance that his efforts will
succeed, as ABC's Jules Bergman now reports.
The odds are that the supersonic transport is not dead but will fly more slowly with
the program stretched out. The Senate House Conference Committee is likely to compromise,
cutting the original 290 million appropriation back to perhaps 100 million. This will set
the 1978 operational date for the American SST back to 1980 and put some people out of
work but not end the program. Strong pressure is being brought to bear today by the White
House, organized labor, and the airlines in the hope of getting Congress to approve such
a compromise.
The SST forces charge that the airplane became a scapegoat, not for itself but for all that
is wrong in our society. It became a whipping boy for the anti-technology movement that
has grown out of the charges of a military industrial complex. And for the first time,
U.S. airlines are alarmed. They'd optioned 38 Concords, the British-French SST, to protect
themselves against foreign airline competition. Though the Concord has been enormously successful
technically, its economics are still dubious. It can make money but not much since it carries
only 115 passengers. But today, the major airlines say they'll have to buy the Concord
in quantity even though they have not really wanted to and had hoped at best to buy a few
until the American SST was ready. SST program director William McGruder today accused the
Senate opponents of irresponsibility.
I think that Senator Muskie and Senator Proxmire have been very ill-advised to tell their colleagues
that an SST is at odds with the priorities. I believe they're playing politics. Now, I'm
not an expert at that game, but I have the feeling that there are enough responsible
people in the Congress, Senate and the House together, that will reverse this decision,
see the wisdom of investments in the future.
The congressional decision isn't likely until a week after next. This is Jules Bergman,
ABC News, reporting.
In Washington today, Senator Gaylord Nelson said he will introduce legislation that would
bar the British-French Concord and the Soviet SST from landing in the United States if they
do not pass strict environmental regulations.
Yardley was made for the morning.
But the night was made for Yardley.
Yardley was made for the morning.
But the night was made for Yardley.
Yardley was made for the morning.
But the night was made for Yardley.
Yardley of London aftershaves and colognes. You'll like yourself in the morning.
I still like it at night.
No matter how strong a man is, a closed cough can still put him out of control.
That's why we created Vick's Formula 44 Extra Strengths Cough Mixture.
It relieves your cough with a cough suppressant as effective as codeine, but not narcotic.
Vick's Formula 44. It gives you the strength you need to help keep your cough under control.
Vick's Formula 44. It gives you the strength you need to help keep your cough under control.
The MI-Live trial of Lieutenant William Kelly has been underway for three weeks now.
Until today, not a single prosecution witness had testified that Kelly was actually seen murdering civilians.
But all that changed today, as ABC's Roger Peterson reports from Fort Benning, Georgia.
It finally happened today. After ten days of testimony and 30 witnesses, the 31st witness said he actually saw
Lieutenant William Kelly kill unarmed civilians at MI-Live.
Dennis Conte, a Providence, Rhode Island truck driver, said he was with Kelly at MI-Live.
Conte said 30 to 40 people from the village were rounded up and Kelly told Conte and Paul Meadlow to take care of them.
Conte said he and Meadlow guarded them.
Prosecutor Aubrey Daniels' questions then unfolded a grisly story.
Daniel asked, did you see Kelly again?
Conte, yes. He came back and said, I thought I told you to take care of these people.
I told him we're watching them. Kelly said, no, I meant kill them.
Daniel, what happened next?
Conte, Kelly told me to get on line with him and Meadlow and we'd fire into them.
I was carrying a grenade launcher so I stood behind them and said I'd keep an eye on a tree line.
Then they got on line and fired.
Who did? Kelly and Meadlow. Where did they fire? Directly into the people.
For how long? Maybe a minute, two minutes.
Meadlow fired a little, then he broke down, stuck his rifle in my hand and said, here, you do it.
I said, no, if they're going to be killed, I'm not doing it. Let Lieutenant Kelly do it.
What happened next?
A few kids got up and tried to run. Kelly fired and killed them one by one.
Conte said he walked away and later saw Kelly and Sergeant David Mitchell firing at people in a ditch.
Daniel, what did the people do?
They were trying to get up. Most were screaming. A lot were shot up pretty bad.
I remember one woman tried to get up and I saw Kelly fire. He blew the side of her head off.
In all, Conte estimates 300 people were killed at Mealy.
The defense pummeled Conte with questions about looking for someone to rape at Mealy.
Conte denied it and three hours across examination uncovered few contradictions in his story about Kelly.
Roger Peterson, ABC News, Fort Benning, Georgia.
I'll be back with more news in a moment.
Marion, we're married a month now. There's something I'd like to discuss. This.
My toothpaste, George.
My toothpaste, George McLean's, Marion.
Oh, hi. I've always used McLean's.
Yes, I know, but McLean's makes teeth irresistibly whiter.
Don't you want me to look nice?
Nice, okay, but irresistible? To whom? You're a happily married woman now, Marion. Your teeth don't have to be that white.
Oh, George, you're so possessive.
Oh.
Johnny Bench is one of the young stars, strictly up to date.
You wouldn't expect him to use an old-fashioned liquid hair tonic.
And you're right. He goes for new blue venture.
It's the new fashion liquid, a lot more subtle, really natural.
With venture, you look like you don't need a hairdressing.
Instead of like you just used one.
Venture is so natural, you look like you don't need a hairdressing.
Instead of like you just used one. New blue venture.
Ireland reports it has discovered a secret armed conspiracy to kidnap and perhaps murder Irish government ministers and other prominent citizens.
No details of the plot were disclosed, but Irish Premier Jack Lynch called it a grave situation.
He said detention camps are being prepared and that a law providing for internment without trial has been invoked.
British diplomat James Cross is preparing to return home to England after two months as a hostage of Quebec terrorists.
Despite his ordeal, Cross appeared in good health and high spirits when he was released early this morning.
A report now from ABC's Scott Osborne in Montreal.
James Jasper Cross on his first day as a free man is preparing now to fly back to London, there to be reunited with his wife Barbara whom he has not seen since his kidnapping October 5th.
British trade officials say he will leave tomorrow aboard Prime Minister Trudeau's private jet.
Today, Cross spent a few moments with friends at his office.
Cross spent most of today enjoying good food and vitamins at a Montreal hospital.
Last night he made his first public statement in company with Justice Minister Jerome Choquet.
I take this opportunity of thanking all those people, the rest of those people, who have been so kind to my wife and the other one.
And all those people who have spent so much time searching for me in the camp,
all of them, all everybody who has contributed to my release.
Times have passed eight weeks and I have almost given up hope, but it's for a dialect.
I think I should come back into the world again.
It was at this three-apartment building in north Montreal where Cross spent nearly two months in sunless captivity.
He said it's almost like being out of hell. Perhaps purgatory would be a better expression.
Scott Osborne, ABC News, Montreal.
I'll be back with more news in a moment.
Gnosis. What can cough drops do for them?
Well, we made a different kind of cough drop. New Victors.
It's the only cough drop with thousands of pockets of cooling menthol eucalyptus vapors.
So Victors not only soothes your scratchy throat, but helps your stuffy nose feel cooler and clearer.
Victors, the cough drop for your throat that goes to your nose. Any nose.
Well dear, I got Roger's Christmas present. A new fastback.
A new fastback?
They're kind of sporty. A racy green color.
You spoiled that kid rotten.
No, but this one's a beauty. It's got dual heads, speed slots, and a wide track trimmer.
He's only 16, Henry. He'll kill himself.
Close shaves maybe, but he won't kill himself.
The sunbeam fastback is a good idea.
The sunbeam fastback shaver for 1971. Park one under his tree this Christmas.
Behind these doors is the greatest advancement in color TV since the brake tubes.
The new one-touch color system from General Electric.
A system that automatically synchronizes critical color controls so you always get a more perfect color picture.
I'll show you how the one-touch system works on this new 25-inch color console.
First, we intentionally mess up the picture. Green and fuzzy.
Then one touch of this button.
The gene color system takes over and the picture is just as perfect again.
And it stays this perfect day in, day out.
Flush tones don't vary regardless of most camera changes.
Or most channel changes.
Let me demonstrate that again.
There, a more perfect color picture automatically.
The new one-touch color system.
A touch of genius only from General Electric.
Pope Paul is on his way back to Rome tonight, completing an eventful journey to the Far East.
On this last day of his tour, the pope again became the subject of political controversy when he visited Hong Kong, ABC's Ted Koppel reports.
From a political point of view, the pope could have avoided controversy and speculation if he had remained away from Hong Kong.
Instead, a three-hour stop over here was squeezed in, adding fuel to the rumors of a possible diplomatic thaw between the Vatican and Beijing.
It wasn't simply the fact that the pope came to Hong Kong.
More significant was his choice of Hong Kong over Taiwan.
The pope was reportedly interested in beginning a dialogue with mainland China.
Twenty years ago, there were more than three million Catholics in China.
No one knows what's happened to them since the communist takeover.
Between 30 and 40,000 Chinese Catholics packed the Hong Kong government stadium to watch Pope Paul celebrate the mass.
But the pope directed the message of his sermon beyond the crowd.
We have around us, he said, we almost feel it, all the Chinese people, wherever they may be.
Hong Kong's communists, who almost always act under direct instructions from China, chose to ignore the pope's visit completely.
But his low-key message will not go unnoticed in Beijing.
It may be several years before the seeds planted by Pope Paul today bear fruit,
but if nothing else, the pope has carried his pilgrimage as close to China as he could.
China's immediate reaction will probably be as damp and chilly as the weather was in Hong Kong today.
But the pope may very well have been counting on the fact that the diplomatic climate is as subject to change as the weather.
This is Ted Koppel, ABC News, Hong Kong.
The pope's last stop was at Colombo on the island of Ceylon, where he celebrated mass at the airport.
In his absence, the Vatican has been stirred by rumors that he is planning to abdicate in two years at the age of 75.
Officially, Vatican spokesmen refused to comment.
Unofficially, they say the reports are fantastic.
You're not at all like a man.
So why should you shave like a man, with blades of steel that can nick and cut?
This is the feminine way to shave, the Lady Sunbeam Shaver.
It has a special contour shape, a built-in light, and no blades of steel against your soft, pretty skin.
The Lady Sunbeam Shaver.
A beautiful gift idea, if you think girls should shave like girls.
Yardly was made for the Morning, but the night was made for Yardly.
London aftershaves and colognes. You like yourself in the morning.
I still like it at night.
In man's continuing battle to preserve his environment,
firemen in the Gulf of Mexico are pouring tons of seawater on that flaming shell oil platform in an effort to cool it down.
They're also moving in a big drilling rig with which they hope to get close enough to the fire to shut off the flow of oil.
And from Florida there is some good news. A shifting and rising wind helped by choppy seas is breaking up that big menacing oil slick and pushing it out to sea.
Officials now say there is no danger to northeast Florida beaches.
A man who will lead the battle to preserve the environment was sworn into office today by President Nixon.
William Ruckelshaus, former Assistant Attorney General, will now head the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency, and he pledged a tough fight.
You, Mr. President, have shown your commitment to doing something about the environment,
to ending this degradation that we have seen in recent years and starting back up the long road toward a better environment.
And unless you ladies and gentlemen think I am not committed to the future of this country and to the betterment of the environment,
you have only to look at these four children here and you can see that their future is important to me as it is to many, many families all over the country and indeed the world.
I am very honored, Mr. President, and I promise to do the best job that I possibly can.
A team of engineers in Maryland went that extra mile today to protect the environment.
This was their problem, to move a nuclear reactor cross-country without smashing everything to smithereens along the route because the load was a mammoth one.
Now there is solution, reported by ABC's Bill Downs.
There is a man-made behemoth creeping through the sleepy streets of Haberta Grace, Maryland today, the nation's most peripatetic nuclear reactor vessel,
a 700-ton steel bottle made in Memphis floated down the Mississippi and around Florida here to the mouth of the Susquehanna River.
Like the ancient Egyptians, the engineers spread sand on the town's waterfront street, then lay a relay of heavy ties to distribute the three-and-a-half-million-pound load,
a 28-foot tight squeeze through a 30-foot wide street.
Mr. Haight, you must feel a little bit like the guy that built the boat in the basement.
I feel like Columbus did when he first started out over the Atlantic.
How much did it cost?
I'd say from the factory to the beach bottom would go well over the two-million-dollar mark.
Just to move it?
Just to move it, that's right, sir.
She's now speeding along the home stretch at about half a mile an hour.
Only one secondary pipe was seen to burst.
The big bottle should race over the final 40 miles to Peach Bottom, Pennsylvania nuclear plant before Christmas, maybe.
Bill Downs, ABC News, reporting.
Man has really come to terms with his environment around the American Embassy, the American Ambassador's home in London on the fringe of Regent's Park,
probably one of the prettiest garden spots in the world.
But today we have a report of a serious breach of that environment and of the security around the Ambassador's house.
Here is ABC's George Watson with the story.
Ambassador Annenberg lives here in isolated splendor, surrounded by an iron fence, protected by an electronic security system, and guarded by United States Marines.
But surrounding all of this is the pastoral beauty of Regent's Park and its hoard of hungry squirrels.
Last week, the squirrels allegedly attacked Ambassador Annenberg's focus bed.
He brought in hired guns, and I can sadly report five squirrels were slain.
The squirrels lost that battle, but they appear to have won the war.
British squirrel fanciers were outraged, and Mr. Annenberg hastily called off plans for another squirrel shoot.
Meanwhile, gardeners in Regent's Park insist their squirrels disdain flowers and are not to blame for damaging the Annenberg caucuses.
No damage whatsoever to a flower bed or anything regarding flowers because they only want food.
They're not interested in a nice flower or anything like that.
No, but wouldn't they eat the bulbs?
No.
Well, I'm very certain I've seen any squirrel eat a bulb.
Ambassador Annenberg might consider another point.
These persecuted creatures are none other than the notorious North American gray squirrel.
We gave them to England and got the starling in return.
This is George Watson, ABC News, London.
I'll be back in a moment with tonight's comment.
Sufferers of arthritis minor pain, get moving tomorrow without all that pain and its morning stiffness.
Get arthritis pain formula by the makers of Annesen.
Fifty percent more pain reliever than regular aspirin tablets, so you take it less often, and double buffering to be gentle on the stomach.
So tomorrow morning, get moving without all that pain and its stiffness.
For hours of relief, ask for arthritis pain formula, APF, arthritis pain formula.
Honey, the baby could catch your cold. Why don't you do something?
I took some aspirin.
Fine, but you need something to stop your cold from spreading.
She needs Dristan nasal mist.
Yes, Dristan nasal mist can help stop you from spreading your cold.
Dristan mist works directly in your nasal system.
It clears congestion that can make you sneeze, so helps sniffling and sneezing stay under control.
Dristan nasal mist can help stop you from spreading your cold.
This is my last program as anchorman for the ABC Evening News.
On Monday, Harry Reisner, whom I respect personally and professionally, takes over, and I wish him well.
The standard script on an occasion such as this calls for some breastfeeding about how wonderful it's all been
and how much is owed to all the wonderful people who have made it possible.
Well, I have too much respect for you to try to pass off such a large dose of hypocrisy all by itself.
The truth is it has been wonderful at times, and of course there are many people who have made it possible
and to whom I shall always be grateful.
But I'm not going to suggest that I'm completely happy about what has happened to me,
for it is also the truth that I don't like it one bit and see no reason to pretend that I do.
Like most prisoners, I was put here against my will, and like most prisoners, I would prefer to pick my own time to leave.
However, such matters are decided elsewhere, and I have no quarrel with the judgment that it is time for a change.
I have given this assignment my best and I'm sure my worst, so maybe we're even.
I suppose I ought to say I hope I have not offended anyone in the last two and a half years,
but that's not really the truth either, because there are a few people I did very much want to bother, and I hope I have.
Mistakes have been made here, and for each one I am sorry.
As inadequate as most of us in this trade know we are, we also know that you have the right to expect at least honesty on this side of the box,
and I leave now satisfied that I have given you that.
For what is important is not that this program has meant almost everything to me, but that it may have meant something to you,
I presume or dare to hope that it has.
So there are no regrets here. I've had some grand times and some great fights, and I look forward to more of the same.
One last privilege is mine. I can now be among the first to wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy and, pray God, a peaceful New Year.
This is Frank Reynolds. Thank you and good night.
This has been the ABC Evening News with Frank Reynolds and Howard K. Smith, Monday through Friday in color.
Do you find brushing clothes tiresome? Well, here's your answer.