Gorbachev - Free-for-all at The Politburo.
July 1, 1988 – A Scandal At The Pentagon – The Missile Count Is On – No Holds Barred At The Politburo
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July 1, 1988 -Reasonably calm, as news days go. The scandal at the Pentagon was uncovering more wrinkles. Another piece of the puzzle was exposed earlier when FBI wiretaps on consultants revealed Defense Consultant Mark Saunders receiving inside information on Navy contracts from a Pentagon Official. It provided the most detailed look yet on the investigation of the Pentagon Bribery scandal. In all, Saunders was alleged to have received information on Pentagon contracts worth some $500 million. In one case, Saunders was alleged to have received sealed bids from ten companies competing for the same contract by a Navy official named George Stone. The documents stated that the FBI “believed that Saunders was paying Stone for the information”. Stone was one of five Defense Department officials whose offices were searched by the FBI two weeks earlier. He had since been transferred to other duties.
Meanwhile, The Medium-range Nuclear Missile count was on. It was the start of a 60 day period for the U.S. and the Soviet Union to count each others medium range missiles. a C-141 Air-transport jet left Frankfurt earlier in the day, carrying the first U.S. inspectors headed for The Soviet Union to begin the count and inspection of medium-range missiles. It was going to give the U.S. and USSR the closest look ever at their most secret bases.
And on its fourth day of the important Soviet Communist Party Conference in Moscow, a personal plea for Political rehabilitation. Former Politburo member Boris Yeltsin was allowed to speak. Yeltsin had been forced out by the more conservative members of the Politburo because he “too enthusiastically supported the reforms pushed by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Yeltsin suggested terms of office for party members; a way of avoiding having a first Secretary like Brezhnev, who literally grew senile and died in office. Yeltsin’s reform measures were enthusiastically supported by the audience. Behind him, where the Politburo sat, no support was visible at all.
And that’s just a little of what happened, this first day of July in 1988 as presented by The CBS World News Roundup.
