These are the top stories for May 7, 1968.
In the national news
U.S. Troops Join Battle as Saigon Fight Rages: Thrusts Seen as Bargaining Aid by George Esper
"American tanks and armored personnel carriers joined the new battle of Saigon today, cutting off a Viet Cong attack from the southwest in the third day of hard fighting on the city's fringes." (Associated Press)
Democratic Race Outcome Awaited by Walter R. Mears
"Indiana votes today in a Democratic presidential primary in which the images and personalities of the three contenders overrode the issues. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, who drew the biggest crowds and topped the voter opinion polls, was confident but publicly silent on the likely outcome. Sen. Eugene J. McCarthy said he was stronger than the pollsters reported, and indicated he would claim success if he received more than 20 per cent of the vote."
Draft Criticism
"'Many politicians running for office attack and criticize the Selective Service System because they want to get into the news,' (Gen. Lewis B.) Hershey told a news conference Friday." (Associated Press)
State Vote At A Glance
"Indiana has no party registration figures, but about 2.6 million persons were eligible to vote in the last general election. Party chairmen expect as many as 750,000 Democratic ballots to be cast and about 400,000 in the uncontested Republican primary." (Associated Press)
Mrs. Wallace Loses Fight with Cancer
Family Present as End Comes
"Gov. Lurleen R. Wallace, 41, whose compassion for the afflicted symbolized her brief career as a public official, died in her sleep today after a two-year battle against cancer." She was the wife of George Wallace, and Alabama's Governor. (Associated Press)
Indiana Offers First Tests For RFK, HHH
"Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and President Hubert H. Humphrey face their first 1968 primary tests today in two of five elections around the nation. The primaries are in Indiana, Ohio, Alabama, Florida and the District of Columbia." (Associated Press)
Montgomery is Destination of Poor People's March by Don McKee
"The Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, canceling trips to California and Wisconsin, has vowed to march with a growing poor people's army into Alabama today. 'We're going on now to Montgomery.' he told a church rally that lasted until after midnight Monday. The meeting broke up before the news of the death of Gov. Lurleen Wallace." (Associated Press)
Vietnam, Not Paris, The Key by Joseph Alsop
"The North Vietnamese proposal of negotiations in Paris rather makes fools of all the people who angrily urged President Johnson to accept either Warsaw or Phtom Penh - alas, including Sen. Robert F. Kennedy."
Columnists Charge Wealth of Kennedys Pose A Threat To The Primary System by Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson
"The students who are out campaigning for Bobby Kennedy and Gene McCarthy are too young to know about it, but around the turn of the century the scandal of convention-picked state and federal candidates led to the system of state primaries... In 1960, however, the Kennedy family conceived the idea that they could buy primaries."
Predictions of Soviet Collapse Disappearing by Henry Shapiro
"Gone with the snows of yesteryear are the 1967 predictions of the imminent collapse of the Soviet collective leadership." (United Press International)
Vietnam Settlement Likely to Take Year to 18 Months by Bert W. Okuley
"In London, diplomats with negotiating table experience with the Communists are predicting that it will take from a year to 18 months to arrange a Vietnam War settlement with North Vietnam - if the United States can get the talks past the preliminary stage. Setting up the conference agenda alone will take several weeks and possibly several months." (United Press International)
McClellan Sees Plans for Riot in Washington by William Moran
"Sen. John L. McClellan says he'll expose plans by parties as yet unnamed to turn the Poor People's Campaign in Washington into a riot." (Associated Press)
Pulitzer Prize Won by Disputed Novel
"The 1968 Pulitzer Prize for fiction has been awarded to William Styron's controversial novel, 'The Confessions of Nat Turner,' which was based on an 1831 Negro slave revolt." (Associated Press)
Harriman Says U.S. Can't Quit Vietnam
"W. Averell Harriman, who leaves for Paris this week to negotiate with the North Vietnamese, said Monday night the United States cannot run out on the South Vietnamese." (Associated Press)
Alleged Deserters on Moscow TV Show
"A Japanese pacifist organization said today that six Americans to appeared on Soviet television last week to denounce U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war had deserted Army and Navy units during the past two years." (Associated Press)
