Gen. John D. Lavelle, former four-star general and U.S. Air Force commander in Southeast Asia, testifies before the House Armed Services Committee. He had been relieved of his post in March and later demoted after it was determined that he had repeatedly ordered unauthorized bombings of military targets in North […]
Continue ReadingSouth Vietnamese Soldiers Reach An Loc
Part of a relief column composed mainly of South Vietnamese 21st Division troops finally arrives in the outskirts of An Loc. The division had been trying to reach the besieged city since April 9, when it had been moved from its normal station in the Mekong Delta and ordered to […]
Continue ReadingFlash Flood Hits Rapid City
A flash flood in Rapid City, South Dakota, kills more than 200 people on this day in 1972. This flood demonstrated the danger of building homes and businesses in a floodplain region. The native Sioux called the river Minnelusa when European settlers overtook the Black Hills region in 1876 as […]
Continue ReadingFlash Flood Hits Rapid City
A flash flood in Rapid City, South Dakota, kills more than 200 people on this day in 1972. This flood demonstrated the danger of building homes and businesses in a floodplain region. The native Sioux called the river Minnelusa when European settlers overtook the Black Hills region in 1876 as […]
Continue ReadingMcGovern Continues To Campaign Against The War
Senator George McGovern (D-South Dakota) announces at a news conference that he would go “anywhere in the world” to negotiate an end to the war and a return of U.S. troops and POWs. McGovern, who had swept the Democratic Party spring primaries, was one of the earliest and most vocal […]
Continue ReadingSouth Vietnamese Forces Clear Kontum Of Communist Troops
South Vietnamese forces drive out all but a few of the communist troops remaining in Kontum. Over 200 North Vietnamese had been killed in six battles in and around the city. The city had come under attack in April when the North Vietnamese had launched their Nguyen Hue Offensive (later […]
Continue ReadingLaird Testifies Before Congress
Testifying before a joint Congressional Appropriations Committee, Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird says the increase in U.S. military activity in Vietnam could add up to $5 billion to the 1973 fiscal budget, doubling the annual cost of the war. This increased American activity was in response to the North Vietnamese […]
Continue ReadingAngela Davis Acquitted
Angela Yvonne Davis, a black militant, former philosophy professor at the University of California, and self-proclaimed communist, is acquitted on charges of conspiracy, murder, and kidnapping by an all-white jury in San Jose, California. In October 1970, Davis was arrested in New York City in connection with a shootout that […]
Continue ReadingTrains Collide In Bangladesh
The collision of two trains in Jessore, Bangladesh, kills 76 people on this day in 1972. This disaster resulted from one simple error by a train-station operator. An express train loaded far beyond capacity, as is common in Bangladesh, left the southern port city of Khulna heading north. It was […]
Continue ReadingUnited States And USSR Issue A Joint Communique
In a joint communique issued by the United States and the Soviet Union following the conclusion of summit talks with General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev during President Richard Nixon’s visit to Moscow (the first visit ever by an U.S. president), both countries set forth their standard positions on Vietnam. The United […]
Continue ReadingMark Donohue sets Record At Indy 500
On May 27, 1972, Mark Donohue wins the Indianapolis 500 with an average speed of 163.645 miles an hour, six miles an hour faster than the previous speed record. Mark Donohue, born and raised in Summit, New Jersey, caught the hot-rod bug as a teenager in the 1950s. “The hot-rod […]
Continue ReadingSALT Agreements Signed
Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev and U.S. President Richard Nixon, meeting in Moscow, sign the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) agreements. At the time, these agreements were the most far-reaching attempts to control nuclear weapons ever. Nixon and Brezhnev seemed unlikely candidates for the American and Soviet statesmen who would sign […]
Continue ReadingUnited States Widens Aerial Campaign
Heavy U.S. air attacks that began with an order by President Richard Nixon on May 8 are widened to include more industrial and non-military sites. In 190 strikes, the United States lost one plane but shot down four. The new strikes were part of the ongoing Operation Linebacker, an effort […]
Continue ReadingPresident Nixon In Moscow
On this day, President Richard Nixon arrives in Moscow for a summit with Soviet leaders. Although it was Nixon’s first visit to the Soviet Union as president, he had visited Moscow once before–as U.S. vice president. As Eisenhower’s vice president, Nixon made frequent official trips abroad, including a 1959 trip […]
Continue ReadingSouth Vietnamese Fight To Open Road To An Loc
Units of South Vietnam’s 9th and 21st Divisions, along with several South Vietnamese airborne battalions, open new stretches of road south of An Loc and come within two miles of the besieged city. In the Central Highlands, North Vietnamese troops, preceded by heavy shelling, tried to break through the lines […]
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