June 14, 1978 – CBS World News Roundup – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
June 14, 1978 – A day full of foreign relations and Cold War tit-for-tat.
Beginning with Cold War allegations of Soviet/Cuban/East German meddling in the affairs of Zaire (former Congo). President Carter laid blame at the Castro government, who vehemently denied the charges, and even prompted some members of Congress to doubt Carter’s claims. However, CIA reports indicated that they had proof of Cuban meddling by way of captured Rebel troops who told interrogators of being trained extensively by Soviet, Cuban and East German advisers, and that there were Cuban troops roaming between Angola and Zaire. And the War of Words continues.
Meanwhile, in another Cold War move, normalization of relations with Red China were put on the fast-track between the White House and Beijing. At the center were conditions being stipulated by President Carter; aid and trade with Taiwan must continue, when the U.S. Embassy closes down in Taipei, a U.S. Trade Office be opened up. And finally, that the Chinese make it clear in some way that they will not use force to occupy Taiwan. Those three conditions needed to be negotiated between the two countries before they can proceed. If they proved acceptable to Beijing, the U.S. would then abrogate its Mutual Defense Treaty with Nationalist China and withdraw all its troops from Taiwan, where there about 1,000 still stationed there. The U.S. said there was no timetable for acceptance of these conditions, but if the process of normalization was to be accelerated, a deal may be struck by 1979. This was intended to be a strong signal to Moscow that the U.S. was intending to finally play its so-called “China Card”.
And the Middle-East popped into the equation with questions from Washington about the future status of the occupied West Bank region and the Gaza Strip remained officially unanswered by Israel. The matter wound up causing a three-way split in the Israeli cabinet. Not helping matters was a headline in an Egyptian newspaper claiming the chances for an Israeli/Egyptian settlement would be better if Ezer Weizman was Prime Minister (as opposed to current Prime Minister Menachem Begin).
All that; the Cold War and much-much more for this June 14,1978 from The CBS World News Roundup.
And while you’re here . . .you know we don’t run ads – stopped running them more than a few years ago. The ads were noisy and pretty awful and they were a huge distraction, having to wade through a lot of useless barking in order to get to the good stuff. But we still have to pay the bills, and there’s a ton of them and they don’t like to wait. And so we ask you consider becoming a subscriber and support all the stuff we do every day by kicking in what amounts to being an Americano Grande every month to be part of the solution and not the problem. In todays bizarre economy it ain’t much – but it means a ton to Past Daily. All you have to do (and we make this as simple and pain-free as possible) is head over to Patreon (that red box just below that says “Become A Patron” that you click on) and check us out. You can do 7 days free just to kick the tires and take a test drive. And if you like us, hit the subscribe button and become part of our rather haywire little family. Not bad, considering we just want you to like us.
