– CBS Radio – The World This Week – October 12, 1975 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
A week that would come to be more the rule than the exception – a world in conflict. From the Sinai to Beirut to Madrid – violence seemingly everywhere and people who had nothing to do with it, trapped in the middle.
News from Israel was a contingent of 200 civilian American Technicians were scheduled to arrive in the Sinai, which had just been approved by Congress to fulfill an accord between Israel and Egypt. Henry Kissinger was doing a hard sales pitch and had managed to convince those on Capitol Hill that it was a good idea. Although skepticism was rife that the mere mention of the word “technicians” or “Advisers” sparked memories of how we first got involved in Vietnam. It was an unsettling vision, but one which was quickly dispelled by the State Department that there would be no sudden surprises.
And in Beirut, another breach in the ceasefire between the growing number of Christian and Muslim factions where fighting had been going on for several weeks. Lebanon, it would appear, has one more time stepped back from the brink. But how long that would last was anyone’s guess. More and more Lebanon was looking to outsiders for help – both Syria and the PLO were being consulted. And more and more Beirut was becoming a bombed out shell.
The city of Oporto in Portugal was scene of intense rioting which left some 60 wounded and hundreds arrested in what was described as fighting between several left-wing factions. A communiqué was issued saying the trouble had actually been triggered by right-wing extremists who had infiltrated the left-wing groups with the sole purpose of stirring up trouble and to help bring down the 6th provisional Portuguese government to clear the way for what was called “a quick and easy Fascist regime”.
And Spain’s Francisco Franco appointed a new and more hardline Paramilitary Chief of National Police as an answer to increasing demands that he crack down harder on terrorists. Rightist elements in Spain had been insisting that measures even stricter than those which had caused sharp foreign criticism, be undertaken to respond to a series of attacks which have led to some 9 policemen dead in a little more than two weeks.
All that, and the situation in Beirut continuing to be a concern, are just a sample of what happened this week, ending October 12, 1975 as reported by CBS Radio’s The World This Week.
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