Busy news day for January 12, 1979.
Starting with – Negotiators reaching an agreement calling for an 8 percent wage increase that will serve as a contract pattern for Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers locals and apparently avert strikes throughout the oil industry. The OCAW agreement with Gulf Oil Corp., reached late Thursday after a vote by the union’s national oil policy bargaining committee, was the first major contract negotiated under President Carter’s request to hold salary increases to 7 percent. Union spokesmen said they did not know if the agreement met Carter’s guidelines, however, a Gulf spokesman said the wage increase amounted to 8 percent.
Overseas: BANGKOK, Thailand – The 100,000-man Vietnamese juggernaut that conquered Cambodia in 19 days today completed its 350-mile drive to the Thai border, where armed Thai soldiers were posted to make sure the invasion stopped there. leng Sary, the No. 2 man from the deposed government, today passed through Hong Kong, and arrived in China, the only of the Khmer Rouge regime that was obliterated in one of history’s most decisive military operations. The 48-year-old official, one of the top leaders of the fallen Pol Pot government, arrived in Peking by commercial Chinese aircraft from Canton after taking a secrecy shrouded trip by car and train from Hong Kong earlier in the day. At the United Nations, China formally accused the Soviet Union of instigating Vietnam’s invasion of the land now known as Kampuchea, and the country’s onetime ruler, Prince type conquest Norodom of as Hitlerite “a Sihanouk, formidable blitzkreig.” condemned Rommel- the Heavy fighting and dead Chinese were reported in northwestern country Cambodia observers will near be the in predicted the Thai all hands border, of of the but the Vietnamese and their Cambodian allies before the end of the week.
At the UN: China and the Soviet Union engaged in a diplomatic floor fight at the U.N. Security Council for Cambodia’s U.N. seat while Prince Norodom Sihanouk condemned the Vietnamese takeover of “my poor little country.” Sihanouk, the chubby former Cambodian leader who was held under house arrest for 3 years by deposed Khmer Rouge ruler Pol Pot. decried the “Rommel type Hitlerite blitzkrieg” of “my poor little country.” He later told reporters may stay in the United States for a few months. The debate over which Cambodian government – one backed by Moscow, the other by Peking should be recognized was spiked with political rhetoric and ,even Chinese proverbs.
Closer to home: In California, actor Lee Marvin is being sued by Michele Triola Marvin, a former singer he lived with for six years. She has asked for more than $1 million, accusing the actor of breach of contract because she gave up her career for him. She legally assumed his last name without benefit of marriage. Testimony in that suit was scheduled later on that day in Los Angeles.
And finally – John Wayne, the battling giant of Hollywood films for half a century, has fought off cancer and an ailing heart. His new adversary is his gall bladder. The 71-year-old veteran of Westerns and war movies – known to his fans as “The Duke” – checked into UCLA Medical Center on Wednesday for gall bladder surgery, spokesman for company said. “Wayne reportedly has had a gall bladder problem for some time. A hospital spokeswoman described the Academy Award-winning actor’s condition as good Thursday following preliminary tests. “Everything is go now,” said Tom Kane, a spokesman for Batjac Productions, Wayne’s film company. ” “He’s strong going ahead with it”.
And that’s a sample of what went on, this January 12, 1979 as reported on The CBS World News Roundup.
