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Thieu Closes 5 Newspapers

Thieu Closes 5 Newspapers image
Parent Issue
Day
14
Month
February
Year
1975
Copyright
Creative Commons (Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-alike)
OCR Text

Thieu Closes 5 Newspapers

It looks like South Vietnam's President Thieu has given up any hope of getting his requested military aid from the U.S. Congress and so has gone back to acting his natural self.

In the face of mounting opposition from all sectors Thieu arrested 18 reporters and closed down 5 newspapers recently. While more than 20 opposition deputies and Senators staged a hunger strike in front of the National Assembly burning photos of the president and chanting "Grab Thieu's head and pull him down," and "Down with the heroin seller Nguyen Van Thieu," the president went on TV and told South Vietnam that the war would go on.

Meanwhile, 82 members of the U.S. Congress from both parties have asked Ford to stop all aid to South Vietnam and Cambodia. The legislators, 74 democrats and eight Republicans, belong.to Members of Congress for Peace Through Law. They sent Ford a letter saying, "While continuing high levies of American assistance may perhaps prolong the life of the incumbent South Vietnamese and Cambodian governments, we can see no humanitarian or national interest that justifies the cost of this assistance to our country." Michigan Congressmen who signed the letter were all Democrats: Robert Carr, John Conyers Jr., Charles Diggs, William D. Ford, Donald Riegle Jr., and Senator Philip A. Hart.

News from Cambodia is that families of American diplomats have been put on alert and most evacuated from the capital of Phnom Penh. The city has been besieged for weeks and is short of food, fuel, medical supplies and ammunition. Guerilla liberation forces have mined the Mekong River and have been sinking two vessels a day for over a week during the siege.