October 24, 1979 – CBS World News Roundup – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
October 24, 1979 – President Jimmy Carter was making the rounds in what was looking like a test run on the campaign trail towards re-election in 1980. Speaking at a Dinner in Washington the night before in support of Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale, Carter made vague and unnamed references to his potential opponent Ted Kennedy and dropped more than a few hints that he would make it official in the coming weeks. 1980 was just around the corner.
Another Soviet defected to the U.S. – this time it was journalist Stanislav Levchenko, who was operating out of the Tokyo offices of New Times, a Russian magazine. He appeared at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo and asked for asylum in the U.S. Before the day ended he was on a plane bound for Los Angeles. U.S. officials would only give confirmation that Levchenko had defected but would not give his reason or about where he was ultimately going in the U.S. He reportedly left his wife and child in Tokyo. Levechenko was the fourth defector in six months to ask for asylum via the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.
And an accelerated move was underway to help the starving people of Cambodia this day. Senior American officials in Bangkok described an offer to send food in by truck to Cambodia was met with hopeful signs. Radio Phnom Penh announced Cambodian officials were studying access routes with two international relief organizations designated to deliver desperately needed supplies of rice and Medicine. The statement came less than 24 hours after the visit to the Capitol by three American Senators. The group proposed that trucks carrying food supplies begin rolling across the Thai border to Cambodia as soon as possible. The Senators were told that up to 2 1/4 million Cambodians were facing starvation unless something was done.
And that’s a small slice of what went on, this October 24, 1978 as reported by the CBS World News Roundup.
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