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Another busy day in the world, April 15, 1978.
Rhodesian guerrilla leaders told Secretary of State Cyrus R Vance Friday they were prepared to negotiate a settlement based on an Anglo-American peace plan officials reported. But a British spokesman said Vance found that “the gut issues” in the plan that would bring black majority rule to Rhodesia must be solved before any agreement is formalized. He spoke with reporters after Vance completed his second round of talks with Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe co-leaders of the Patriotic Front guerrillas. Key issues include the role of a UN peacekeeping force and a British resident commissioner during the transition from the former white minority rule “Serious negotiations are underway” was Vance’s only comment. British Foreign Minister David Owen who joined in the talks with Vance said the talks may be extended beyond today when they are scheduled to end “When we start to try and describe where we are and mood music — let’s just stick to it we are into detailed negotiations” he said High-level US officials said Nkomo and Mugabe were now willing to sit with representatives of the interim government formed in Rhodesia by Prime Minister Ian Smith and three moderate black leaders.
Meanwhile, Senate Democratic leaders failed to agree with a recalcitrant colleague Friday on a compromise that would satisfy both senators and the Panamanians on a controversial reservation to the Panama Canal treaty The impasse just four days before the showdown vote Tuesday on the treaty left few willing to predict how the vote will go “It’s still hanging by a thread” an aide to a pro-treaty Democrat said v The closed-door discussion centered on a replacement reservation drafted by Democratic leaders declaring that nothing in the treaties would be interpreted as giving the United States a right to intervene in the internal affairs of Panama Its authors hoped that Sen Dennis DeConcini D-Ariz would not consider the wording in conflict with his own reservation allowing US intervention to keep the Panama Canal open against any kind of internal threat But as the meeting in Majority Leader.
And Italian newspapers received an apparently authentic message from kidnapped former Premier Aldo Moro calling on authorities again to trade jailed terrorists for his freedom. The message also suggested that the United States and West Germany could be behind the government’s tough “no deal” stance. With a photo-copied message was a communique from the Red Brigades kidnappers ln which they ruled out any secret negotiations and declared, “Nothing must be hidden from the people.” The notes were found in Rome, Milan, Turin and Genoa after anonymous calls to newspapers and a news agency. The kidnappers used the same technique in releasing four other messages since the 61-year-old political leader was seized March 16 by gunmen who killed his five bodyguards.
And along with the developing story on Rhodesia, that’s just a small slice of what happened, this April 15th in 1978 as reported by The CBS World News Roundup.
