March 2, 1969 – NET – World Press Review – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
March 2, 1969 – Not that America had more than it’s fair share of issues and problems to deal with, seems the entire world was either in a state of demonstration or verging n the edge of something cataclysmic.
In this episode of the NET (Pre-PBS) program World Press Review, Correspondents from all over the world were brought in and discussed the pressing issues of the day. And this day, like so many others from 1968-1969 were about protests and social upheaval.
From Turkey came word that street demonstrations in reaction to the American presence of the Aircraft carrier Forrestal were getting increasingly more violent as the days went on. From Pakistan came word that Ayub Khan, Field Marshall of the Pakistani Army and who had been keeping things under control for at least the past decade announced his resignation. Khan, who had been compared to a combination of King Lear and President Johnson in the British press. Criticized that during his ten years as leader of the country, he failed to bring about any real democracy, but were concerned that his resignation would spell a return to the chaos and violence that was prevalent a decade earlier. Speculation was that his successor would be Ali Bhutto and the possibilities of a warming to Communist China as a result.
From Britain came word that tensions were once again on the rise between that country and France, over DeGaulle’s attitude toward Britain and the Common Market. In Rumania, word was concern from Moscow over that country’s attitude towards the other Warsaw Pact countries, leading Russia to wonder if it didn’t have another Czechoslovakia on its hands. The news from Moscow was reaction to Dobrynin’s visit with President Nixon and two visiting Warsaw Pact Generals in Rumania during the previous week.
And that’s just a small sample of the events that went on in the rest of the world for March 2, 1969 as presented by The World Press Review.
