May 29, 1978 – CBS World News Roundup – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
May 29, 1978 – Atlantic City was looking like the promised land this week, even though it was business-as-usual in the world of news and earth-jarring events.
Starting with news on the upcoming NATO summit conference. The Foreign Ministers of the Big-Four Western powers were meeting later on this day in Washington, ahead of the big meeting in Europe. High on the list was the situation in Angola and the presence of Soviet and Cuban troops taking part in the Civil War there. Talk of an international response to the ongoing military operations by the Soviet Union and what was considered a violation of the spirit of Detente on the part of The Kremlin. It was expected that the problems and accusations were surely going to spill over to the Summit meeting.
In other news – the cost of mailing a letter just went up another 2 cents, bringing the cost of mailing a First Class letter to 15 cents. From this day on, mailing at the old rate resulted in either the sender or the receiver getting nailed with the cost difference.
Diplomatic sources in Tehran said the U.S. was getting ready to sell nuclear reactors to Iran. This after clearing the hurdles in a negotiated nuclear non-proliferation accord. When it was completed it would clear the way for a hefty amount of nuclear power sales to The Shah’s government. Iran was expected to buy as many as eight nuclear reactors after the agreement is signed. Talks on this subject had gone on for some 2 years, in part because the U.S. had insisted on rigid safeguards against possible production of nuclear weapons.
Tensions were mounting between China and Vietnam over Vietnam’s treatment of ethnic Chinese, thousands of whom had fled in recent weeks. A Chinese Naval convoy was gathering on the island of Hainan, just 200 miles from the Vietnamese coast. It was viewed as preparations for a mass evacuation of Chinese nationals from Vietnam. More to be revealed.
And Atlantic City was busy celebrating its first week as the East Coast Gambling mecca. Results were still being tallied, but the initial response was more than encouraging, with people lined up as much as 3-deep for the honor of losing (or winning) vast amounts of money. Casino owners were elated with the crowds and the money flow and city officials were looking wistfully at the once-dead city and announcing in gleeful unison that Atlantic City had risen from the dead and gambling was now legal somewhere other than Las Vegas.
And that’s just a slice of what went on, this May 29th in 1978 as presented by The CBS World News Roundup.