United Auto Workers President Walter Ruther was killed last night when his chartered jet plane crashed in northern Michigan.
The crash occurred while the plane was trying to land in a heavy fog at Pelston, Michigan.
Ruther's wife and four other persons aboard the plane also died.
Ruther, who was 62 years old, was going to visit the Union's Walter Ruther Family Education Center, 25 miles from Pelston.
All that was left of the plane after it crashed and burned was a tail section and a piece of fuselage.
Among many tributes paid to Ruther was one from President Nixon.
The President described Ruther's death as a deep loss not only for organized labor,
but also for the cause of collective bargaining and the entire American process.
This is the Frank McGee Sunday Report, May 10, 1970.
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Because of the continued fighting in Indochina and related developments in the United States and elsewhere,
the remainder of the Frank McGee Report this evening will be devoted to that subject.
Allied headquarters in Saigon claim today that American and South Vietnamese forces have killed
more than 4,300 of the enemy in the fighting in Cambodia.
In addition, headquarters claim that enemy losses in supplies have been so high
that the communists could not at this time launch a major offensive in the southern part of Vietnam.
The Allied flotilla driving up the Mekong River into Cambodia
reportedly has reached the important ferry crossing of Ninh Luong.
The town fell into Allied hands.
NBC News correspondent Lou Davis reports on the riverine operation by satellite.
The Navy massed its ships on the Mekong River about five miles south of the border.
They said they were going deep into Cambodia to bring out an estimated 4,000 refugees
with the consent of the Cambodian government.
This is the first time the Vietnamese Navy has gone into Cambodia, and the U.S. Navy took part too.
There were six American ships and 17 American boats also going in the drive up the Mekong.
Earlier in the day, the shoreline had been cleared of the enemy by air strikes and Vietnamese Marines
who went into Cambodia at dawn.
Small villages dotted the shoreline, but for the entire 30 miles there was no evidence of any people,
and Navy air power was everywhere.
Forward attachments of helicopters were pounding a safety shield from the air.
The first days thrust into Cambodia went only as far as the ferry crossing at Ninh Leong,
about 30 miles from the border.
A Italian and Vietnamese Marines had landed at the Ninh Leong ferry crossing earlier.
Before it had been controlled by the Viet Cong, but now the refugees were waiting to be taken back to Vietnam.
As part of the task force waiting at the border, there was a hospital ship and two medical teams,
including four doctors and a dentist.
The Vietnamese government estimates that they'll bring back 4,000 refugees from here and then later from Phnom Penh.
The plans are that the entire task force will steam up the Mekong River as soon as arrangements are completed by the two governments.
The villagers said that the North Vietnamese Army was nearby, that they had been threatened, that they had been told not to leave.
They said they were afraid of not only the North Vietnamese Army, but also the Cambodians.
They didn't want to leave here. Many had lived here all their lives, but they were victims of the war,
and they came down to the shoreline carrying all they could.
The official reason for this mission was, of course, the humanitarian one, the rescue of these refugees.
But of course there is a military one too. The Mekong River is strategically important for Phnom Penh.
Before this, the Viet Cong were in control of the river. Now the American and the Vietnamese Navy is.
This is Lou Davis, NBC News in Cambodia on the Mekong River.
Admiral Thomas Maurer, Chief of Naval Operations and soon to become Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is in our Washington studio.
And with him is NBC News Pentagon correspondent Robert Gorowski.
Admiral, I'd like to ask you, in view of the report we just had from correspondent Davis,
what is the extent of U.S. naval involvement in the Mekong River operation?
Well, the U.S. Navy is primarily engaged in support in providing the command center.
And generally, as you noted also, that there were some Navy helicopters involved in this.
But I would say in general terms, it's primary support.
Admiral, are U.S. forces going beyond the 30 kilometers or 21 mile range that President Nixon indicated U.S. forces would not penetrate into Cambodia?
Our forces are going to the distance that the President has specified for them.
Is this still a humanitarian mission basically?
I think it's definitely a humanitarian mission.
I know that President Tiu is concerned about the South Vietnamese citizens in the area.
But of course you must realize that this river is also an international waterway.
Nong Phan depends upon this river for oil, for instance.
And therefore, as was indicated in the program earlier, this permits opening of the river for peaceful commerce.
Admiral, there is a question though that previous our involvement in Vietnam has been an area controlled by the V.C. and North Vietnamese completely.
We've not been fighting in that portion of the Cambodian War involving the Cambodian forces.
We seem to be linking up with them now at this point.
Well, we have linked up with them within the limits.
As you know, Highway 1 runs from Nong Phan to Saigon.
And so associated with this river operation is a land operation whose aim is to open up this highway.
But nevertheless, our forces are remaining within the limits.
You don't feel this is any kind of a movement toward a wider war?
Not in any sense.
Admiral, President Nixon said American forces were being sent into Cambodia to attack what he called the key control center for the entire communist military operation in Vietnam.
There's been no report that that center has been captured, yet the President says all of our troops will be withdrawn by June 30th.
Have we changed our objective for going into Cambodia?
Well, I don't think that the President made exactly that statement.
Yes, sir, he did. I lifted it directly from his speech he made on television that night. It's a direct quote.
As I recall, he was talking of the fish hook area at that time.
Yes, sir.
Among other things, we had as an objective of disrupting the command and control apparatus, which as you know is quite extensive and moves around all the time.
But primarily, we wanted to capture the supplies, capture the ammunition, disrupt these headquarters so that it would be any supply center,
so that it would be most difficult to reconstitute them in light of the fact that the rains are coming and the feed-in from the ocean, that is through CNNUK bill, has stopped.
And therefore, I think that one can say that the objectives that were set down for this operation have been achieved or being achieved.
As a matter of fact, I have some statistics here. We have already captured some 1,776 tons of food, which are sufficient for 6,000 troops for a year.
We have captured 48 tons of weapons, including over 7,000 rifles of various types and 831 tons of ammunition.
And incidentally, this 831 tons of ammunition is more than we have captured inside South Vietnam during the last 12 months.
So you would consider the operation a success then, whether the headquarters per se was captured or not?
Yes, definitely it was a success because as I said before, this headquarters is a mobile organization, moves around in many places.
Although I feel that the North Vietnamese had certainly strategic surprise, they did naturally have tactical warning when the forces moved in.
And consequently, they were able to move these various components of the command and control system out of the way.
Nevertheless, the fact remains that the basic areas that they have been using now for about five years have been captured, are now subject to very careful search.
This will take some time in the next, in the days in the future.
And I think and I'm confident that as this search continues, that you will see other caches discovered and also the supplies will be either destroyed or brought back into South Vietnam.
As a matter of fact, in addition to what has been advertised as the city, about two days ago, somewhat north of that, we found 267 tons of ammunition.
And I believe this is just the beginning because we are going to very carefully search this entire area.
Thank you very much sir and thank you Bob Gorowski.
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The Frank McGee Sunday Report continues after this message.
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In Tokyo, at this moment, our two NBC News correspondents recently returned from the battle area.
One is Kenley Jones, who accompanied American forces into the Fishook area, and the other is Richard Hott, who recently returned from Cambodia.
And we'll talk to them by satellite. And Dick Hott, if I may tone to you first,
most of the reports coming back here picture the Cambodian soldiers as being, at best, less than aggressive.
You've seen them in combat. What is your assessment?
Frank, they're not very aggressive at all, and they have never been trained to be aggressive.
The Cambodian Army has been trained out of old colonial manuals, the kind of booby you used to see where the tribesmen came down out of the hills
and the government unlimbered the artillery and chased them back up there again.
And that's the way they've been trying to fight the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong.
But that doesn't mean they won't fight and they can't be trained to fight.
When I've seen them in combat, I've seen them cool under fire, they know their weapons, they handle them well.
And when they're well led and have proper tactical training and indoctrination, I think they may eventually be able to give a good account of themselves.
Now, Kenley Jones, some American students seem to feel that more and more United States troops in the war are beginning to share their views,
and some students seem to feel that some sort of military rebellion might occur.
What chance, if any, do you see of this happening?
Frank, I really don't see any chance of a wide-scale military rebellion developing in the United States Armed Forces.
What has happened is this. A couple of nights ago I stood on a fire base about three miles inside Cambodia,
and the lieutenant colonel said to me, he watched a firefight going on about 100 yards away,
and he said, if we had done this five years ago, we would not be here tonight.
And this is the view of many of the military commanders, battalion commanders, colonels, lieutenant colonels, and of course generals,
is that these sanctuaries should have been attacked years ago, and it might have helped to shorten the war.
But at the same time, these privates and corporals, sergeants, even some young officers, are saying,
if this should have been done five years ago, why wasn't it?
And why now am I chosen to go in there, possibly lose my life for a war that there's no use fighting anymore?
It seems to have been determined we are going to withdraw, so why should I risk my life?
I don't think there's going to be any wide-scale mutiny, but at the same time,
I think it is becoming increasingly difficult to control troops in battle,
and they are not fighting with the same motivation that they might have in other wars.
I see. Well, Dick Hunt, many Cambodians simply hate the Vietnamese who live in their country.
How do these Cambodians feel about Vietnamese soldiers now coming into their country?
Frank, you're quite right. It's unpleasant to say that Cambodians dislike the Vietnamese.
They don't like them whether they come from the North or the South, or whether they're communist or anti-communist.
The government is playing upon this in its political campaign against Prince Seehanuk.
They are portraying him as an ambitious despot trying to return to power at the head of a foreign army,
a Vietnamese army. Now, this puts them in an embarrassing position when they themselves are receiving help from a foreign army,
also a Vietnamese army. So the government is saying as little as possible to its domestic population
about the presence of foreign troops, especially Vietnamese troops.
It took 72 hours before the public in Nam Phan knew that Americans and South Vietnamese had crossed the border.
The government is playing it down, and that's probably why, I suspect, this drive up the Mekong River
is being portrayed as a humanitarian drive, though it obviously has military benefits to the Cambodian government.
I'd like to get one more question in, Dick Henley, if we have time.
President Nixon says he expects the Vietnamese to withdraw from Cambodia at approximately the same time we do.
Can they or will they try to fight on the Vietnamese after we've withdrawn from Cambodia?
Well, Frank, I think what the President said was he would end logistical and air support in the Cambodian operation
when American troops withdraw from Cambodia.
Yeah, he went on to say that he did expect them to withdraw at approximately the same time.
Those are his exact words, Kenley.
I see. Well, perhaps that will come about, but I think President Hu has refused to be pinned down to a timetable on this.
He has long said that a communist insurgency in Southeast Asia is a border problem.
I think he will try to get some sort of agreement, perhaps not formal, but at least de facto,
to stay inside the Parrot's Beak, at least, and I think he can sustain a drive there.
He has fighter planes in Saigon. He has a couple of helicopter squadrons in the Delta.
The South Vietnamese have their own supply system, and up Highway 1, they could maintain the support to keep soldiers in there for some time.
Whether or not he will bow to Washington pressure or not is another thing,
but I don't think he will be wanting to come out as soon as the Americans do.
I see. Thank you very much, both of you.
One of President Nixon's close military advisers has been Sir Robert Thompson,
who led British troops against communist guerrillas in Malaya in the 1950s.
In an interview in England with Ray Sherrer, Thompson endorsed the American intervention in Cambodia.
Is this a big military gamble Mr. Nixon has made, or a relatively small one?
No, I think from a strictly military point of view, it was no real gamble at all.
I don't think there were great military risks involved in it.
But the President has paid a great price in this unity at home.
Is the military gain going to be worth that price?
Well, this of course I am not in a position to judge,
but I do think that what we are seeing played out now is the whole of position of the United States in the world and the role it is going to play.
Quite frankly, I don't think the American public has ever understood this war.
For one thing, it has always been a war for Indochina, not just for South Vietnam.
It is the second Indochina war.
And we have seen the war being carried on in Laos for years and diversions in Laos when things are not going well for them in South Vietnam.
Cambodia has been occupied by them, partly occupied by them, for five years or more.
It has always been an Indochina war.
And I think the people of the United States, partly because this has become such an emotional and controversial issue,
have just not been prepared to see and accept the facts of the situation out there.
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With Robert Gorsowski in Washington now is William Corson, former Lieutenant Colonel in the Marines who served in Vietnam.
But since leaving the Marine Corps, Colonel Corson has written unfavorably about American strategy in the war in Indochina.
Well, Colonel, you've expressed most of your points of view on the war in Vietnam in your book called The Betrayal.
And one of the key points you make is that the search and destroy operations were not to our benefit, really.
They were counterproductive, as the term goes.
Do you feel that the Cambodian operation is a search and destroy mission?
Oh, I think it fits that definition, Bob.
Very much the same kind of thing we've been doing in the past.
Right. The same kind of criteria for success will be applied to it.
Will moving into Cambodia affect the war in any significant way?
Well, I think it already has.
The movement into Cambodia is a culmination of a tragic of errors,
beginning with the bad advice that Sir Robert Thompson gave to the President last fall about the success of Vietnameseization.
The operation in Cambodia is a logical extension of the error that Thompson made in evaluating what was going on in terms of the success of Vietnameseization.
You don't think Vietnameseization is going to work?
No, it isn't working and it hasn't worked.
Why?
Well, it hasn't worked because the responsibility that was assigned beyond material equipment was never accepted by the Vietnamese.
Sir Robert Thompson went to Vietnam and he evaluated the situation on the ground, but he went with the simulated rank of a four-star general,
and I submit that four-star generals never find out anything that's unfavorable.
Nobody says no to a four-star general.
It's taken four to five to six months of people who understand to go out there, and they have gone out there, good friends of mine,
they've advised the President that this program doesn't work, isn't working.
Now that material finally sifted its way up to the President and he was caught in a box.
Vietnameseization is about to fail.
Now how do I keep this bet from failing because that's the basis of my withdrawal program?
Well, if Vietnameseization is not going to work, can we expect American troops to be in Indochina indefinitely?
If you buy the to-stay rationale, it will take five to seven years for U.S. forces at a level of quarter of a million men to be there,
just in the fact of providing the logistical support, the air support, and the artillery support.
The problem with training helicopter pilots is the kind that to bring them up to the level where they could continue to fight the war,
you're talking in a range of five to seven years.
I'm interested in your statement, though, that Vietnamization will not work.
Is it because the South Vietnamese are not capable of maintaining the initiative themselves, or what is it specifically?
Well, their goal is different than ours. Their goal is survival.
The arvin, or the army, the Republic of Vietnam is going to survive, come what may,
and the people that run the arvin are going to survive, come what may,
and they're not going to imperil the power base of their political future by engaging in military actions against the enemy.
Well, there are elections in 1971 in South Vietnam, as you know, Colonel Carson.
How do you think those elections will turn out?
Well, I think that the president, the sincerity of the president cannot be questioned.
I know too many people that work for him closely.
But he's much like a parent that's found that his kids have started to take drugs.
He doesn't know how to communicate.
I've been rapping on the campuses with kids for the last two years, and they really say,
let us have a debate.
And what distressed me with the president was, come in and advocate your cause.
You're a good lawyer. Say what you really believe.
Don't play commander in chief to me.
Put it out, here's one set of evidence, here's the other set of evidence, and what does this nation want to do?
Now, I believe that the young people are saying, we'll do the right thing, but damn it, you tell us all the facts.
And that the decision process is breaking down in this regard.
Well, thank you very much, Colonel Carson. Now back to Frank McGee in New York.
Lawrence O'Brien, the Democratic National Chairman, spoke last night at a Jefferson Jackson Day dinner in Milwaukee.
And he took the occasion to decry the expansion of the war into Cambodia.
The possible consequences of our offensive in Cambodia are grave and real.
By our own violation of the neutrality of Cambodia, together with our continued involvement in the struggle in Laos,
we have given North Vietnam a pretext for a more open and sustained military activity in both of these countries.
Will their response be to put pressure on Phnom Penh and on the capital of Laos, Vientiane?
In such event, will we send American troops to defend those beleaguered cities?
Or, or will we accept their fall?
Their fall is a consequence of our own military escalation.
Having developed the domino theory to explain our presence in Southeast Asia,
are we now, now through our own action, to put that theory into practice?
Frank McGee, NBC News. Until next Sunday, good evening.
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Later this evening, NBC News and a special program will examine the effects of this troubled and confusing period in American history.
The report called Our House Divided is scheduled for 10 p.m. Eastern Time.
Thank you.