1973 - Political Events

Political Events

A cease-fire in Vietnam January 28 ends direct involvement of U.S. ground troops in Indochinese hostilities. Former president Lyndon B. Johnson has died of heart disease on his Texas ranch January 23 at age 64, the draft of men for military service begun in 1940 has ended January 27 (although men must still register at Selective Service offices when they turn 18), the army will be an all-volunteer organization into the 21st century, the last U.S. troops leave South Vietnam March 29, but America's combat death toll in southeast Asia has reached 45,958; U.S. bombing of Cambodia continues as prisoners of war are repatriated, and President Nixon vetoes a Senate measure that would halt the bombing (see 1975).

Last year's Watergate break-in creates a national scandal in America. President Nixon names Plainfield, N.J.-born Harvard law professor Archibald Cox, 60, special Watergate prosecutor and tries to have CIA director Richard Helms prevent an FBI investigation into the Watergate break-in; when Helms refuses, Nixon forces him out February 2 and appoints him ambassador to Iran (Helms will plead guilty in 1977 to having lied to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during his confirmation hearings when he denied that the CIA tried to overthrow Chile's Allende government in 1973; his 2-year sentence will be suspended and friends will pay his $2,000 fine). Nixon replaces Helms with New York-born former Atomic Energy Commission head James R. Schlesinger, now 43.

The Heritage Foundation founded at Washington, D.C., February 16 is a right-wing "think tank" dedicated to moving national policy in directions favored by backers such as Colorado beer baron Joseph Coors, now 56, who has provided cofounder Paul M. Weyrich with $250,000 plus $300,000 for a building. A convert from Roman Catholicism to the Melkite Greek Church (Uniate Church in Communion with Rome), Racine, Wis.-born religious zealot Weyrich, 31, has been host of a Colorado television show from the U.S. Senate, voicing opposition to reproductive rights, big government, gun control, gay rights, and such. Chicago-born congressional aide Edwin J. (John) Feulner Jr., also 31, works for Rep. Philip M. (Miller) Crane, 42 (R. Ill.) and has helped Weyrich obtain support also from Pittsburgh banking heir Richard Mellon Scaife, now 41. Weyrich will head the foundation only briefly, but it will grow to have an annual budget of about $30 million, with some 180 employees promoting an agenda that opposes government interference in private enterprise while demonizing gays, hippies, liberals, and marijuana, and inundating political leaders with studies purporting to demonstrate the evils of what the foundation disparages. Weyrich will start political action committees (PACs) that can give legislators campaign contributions to promote like-minded views (see 1974).

Martha Mitchell tells reporters April 16 that President Nixon's claim that he did not meet with her husband, Attorney General Mitchell, to discuss the Watergate break-in was a "god-blessed lie." Former CIA employee James W. McCord Jr., 48, implicates Republican Party officials and pleads guilty with four other defendants before Justice John W. Sirica, 70. Nixon announces "major developments" in the case April 17, his aides H. R. Haldeman, 46, and John Ehrlichman, 48, resign under pressure, and a Senate investigating committee chaired by Sen. Samuel J. Ervin Jr., 76 (D. N.C.), opens hearings on the case.

Marine Corps Gen. Alexander A. Vandegrift (ret.) dies at Bethesda, Md., May 8 at age 86; former congresswoman-suffragist-pacifist Jeanette Rankin at Carmel, Calif., May 18 at age 92.

Katharine Graham's Washington Post wins a Pulitzer Prize for public service May 7 in recognition of its Watergate stories, and the Senate Watergate Committee begins televised hearings May 17. Former White House counsel John W. Dean provides evidence June 27 that Nixon has an "enemies list" with hundred of names that will prove to include the New York Times, the Washington Post, Boston-born Post writer Mary McGrory, 54, Los Angeles Times national editor Ed Guthman, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a Wall Street Journal correspondent, CBS reporter Daniel Shorr, Nixon's heart specialist Michael Debakey, IBM chairman Thomas J. Watson Jr., conductor-composer Leonard Bernstein, Broadway star Carol Channing, film stars Jane Fonda, Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, football player Joe Namath, Gov. George Wallace, Kennedy in-law Sargent Shriver, Rep. Allard K. Lowenstein (D. N.Y.), Sen. Charles M. (McCurdy) Mathias, 50 (D. Md.), and Sen. Richard S. (Schulz) Schweiker, 47 (R. Pa).

Hearings on the Watergate break-in by the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities take a dramatic turn July 16 when the committee's Camden, N.J.-born chief counsel Samuel Dash, 48, questions President Nixon's deputy assistant Alexander Butterfield, 47, about a rumored secret Oval Office audio-taping system. "I was hoping you fellows wouldn't ask me that," Butterfield says. Asked who knew about the system, Butterfield finally replies, "The president." Nixon lawyers go to court in an effort to keep the contents of the audio tapes from being revealed, prosecutor Archibald Cox insists on obtaining the tapes, Nixon goes on television with a pile of looseleaf notebooks that by his account contain transcripts of the tapes with expletives deleted, but the House Judiciary Committee joins with Cox in demanding the tapes themselves.

President Nixon fires CIA director James R. Schlesinger, whose condescending style has offended him; he replaces him September 4 with St. Paul, Minn.-born CIA operative William E. Colby, 53, who will head the agency until early 1976.

Vice President Agnew resigns under pressure October 10, pleading no contest to charges of income tax evasion in connection with money received during his tenure as governor of Maryland. President Nixon names House minority leader Gerald R. Ford vice president to succeed Agnew under terms of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment ratified early in 1967; now 60, Ford takes office December 3 (see 1974).

Special Watergate prosecutor Cox is discharged the night of October 20 in what will be called the "Saturday night massacre" when he insists that the president turn over tape recordings of conversations with his aides relevant to the Watergate break-in. Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson, 53, has succeeded John Mitchell in that post and resigns in protest, President Nixon names Leon Jaworski, 68, to succeed Cox as Watergate prosecutor. The White House releases tapes of the president's conversations in response to a subpoena, but some of the key tapes contain gaps and the White House claims that some missing tapes do not exist. Nixon's secretary Rose Mary Woods, 56, testifies November 26 that she had through a "terrible mistake" pressed the wrong button on her tape recorder October 1, 1972, and caused an 18-minute gap in a conversation between Nixon and his aide H. R. Haldeman 3 days after the break-in. Republican support for the president wanes in light of the revelations made about his efforts to cover up his role in the Watergate break-in (see 1974).

A congressional War Powers Resolution passed over President Nixon's veto November 7 limits a president's authority to commit troops in a foreign conflict without congressional approval, affirming Article I, Section 8, Paragraph 11 of the Constitution. Nixon has said the resolution would impose unconstitutional and dangerous restrictions on presidential power and "seriously undermine this nation's ability to act decisively and convincingly in times of international crisis." Future presidents will ignore the resolution.

Irish terrorist bombs kill 28 at Dublin and five at Monaghan May 17, leaving more than 100 injured, some of them seriously (see 1972). A Protestant loyalist group has committed the atrocity, and further violence ensues (see 1976).

Spain's dictator Francisco Franco, now 80, names Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, 70, premier but remains chief of state. Terrorists of the 14-year-old Basque liberation group ETA assassinate Premier Carrero Blanco with a bombing attack in December and Franco appoints Madrid's mayor Carlos Arias Navarro, 65, in his stead (see 1975).

Former Soviet field marshal Ivan Stepanovich Konev dies at Moscow May 21 at age 75; former German general Erich von Manheim at his Bavarian home June 11 at age 85; former French foreign minister Georges-Etienne Bonnet at Paris June 18 at age 83; former U.S. Communist Party general secretary Earl Browder at Princeton, N.J., June 27 at age 82; East German head of state Walter Ulbricht at East Berlin August 1 at age 80; former Soviet field marshal Simon M. Budenny at Moscow October 27 at age 67.

Sweden's Gustav VI Adolf dies at Hälsingborg September 15 at age 90 after a 23-year reign. The last Swedish king to hold real power (constitutional reforms were adopted 2 years ago), he is succeeded by his 23-year-old grandson, who will reign as Karl XVI Gustav, not of the Swedes, Goths, and Wends but simply as king of Sweden.

Israeli F-4 fighter jets shoot down 13 Soviet-built Syrian MiG-21 fighter jets in January and shoot down a civilian Libyan Arab Airlines Boeing 727 over Sinai February 21, killing 108 of the 113 aboard (authorities say the Libyan pilot strayed off course and ignored orders to land).

The Yom Kippur War that begins in the Middle East October 6 on the Jewish Holy Day of Atonement is the fourth and fiercest Arab-Israeli war since 1948. Both sides accuse the enemy of having begun the new fighting that erupts along the 103-mile-long Suez Canal and on the Golan Heights; UN observers report that Egyptian forces crossed the canal at five points and that Syrian forces attacked at two points on the Golan Heights. Israeli troops push the Syrians back to the 1967 cease-fire line by October 10 despite the arrival of Iraqi troops to support the Syrians, the Israelis push to within 18 miles of Damascus October 12, and Jordan's best troops arrive October 13 to help defend Damascus. Egyptian troops meanwhile force the Israelis to give up the Bar Lev defense line on the East Bank of the Suez Canal, Egyptian SAM-6 missiles stymie Israel's air attacks, and Soviet planes airlift equipment to help Arab forces on both fronts. Israeli tanks rout an invading Egyptian army October 14, destroying about 250 enemy tanks while losing only 25. Moscow announces October 15 that it will "assist in every way" the Arab effort to regain the territory taken by Israel in 1967.

Washington announces that it has begun supplying military equipment to Israel to counter the Soviet airlift of arms to the Arabs; Gen. Ariel Sharon has resigned from the Israeli Army in July and been instrumental in forming the right-wing Likkud Party in September, but he is recalled and spearheads a counterattack across the Suez Canal to attack Egyptian tanks, missile sites, and artillery on the West Bank. Heavy tank battles begin in the Sinai October 17, Moscow tries to persuade Egypt and Syria to resolve the Middle East conflict through diplomacy, and four Arab foreign ministers meet with President Nixon at Washington to urge U.S. mediation of the Arab-Israeli dispute. Libya's Muammar al-Qadaffi opposes any settlement, but Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin meets at Cairo with President Sadat, and the new U.S. secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger (who has replaced William P. Rogers) confers at Moscow October 20 with Soviet Party Leader Leonid A. Brezhnev, saying, "The Arabs can get guns from the Russians, but they can get their territory back only from us." A resolution sponsored jointly by the United States and the USSR calling for a cease-fire in place receives a 14-0 vote of approval in the UN Security Council early in the morning of October 22, heavy fighting resumes 12 hours after the cease-fire takes effect, Israel and Egypt agree to a new cease-fire October 24, the National Security Council puts U.S. forces on "precautionary alert" October 25 while President Nixon agonizes alone in the Oval Office about the Watergate affair. U.S. intelligence has learned that Moscow has placed nuclear missiles in the Egyptian desert and surveillance has picked up radiation from plutonium carried on Soviet ships from the Black Sea into the Mediterranean, Secretary Kissinger asserts that "ambiguous" signs from Moscow have suggested possible Soviet intervention in the Middle East, Nixon gets on the phone to Moscow and agrees with party leader Brezhnev to a mutual pullback, the crisis passes, the cease-fire holds, but Israel has lost 4,100 men killed or wounded in 18 days of fighting, Egypt has lost 7,500, Syria, 7,300. Former premier David Ben-Gurion dies at Tel Aviv December 1 at age 87.

Afghanistan becomes a republic following a virtually bloodless July 17 coup at Kabul that deposes Mohammed Zahir Shah after a 40-year reign as the major powers vie for influence in the region (see 1964). Drought and famine have brought unrest in the country, rural landlords dominate the parliament, Pashto tribes along the Pakistan border have been pressing for autonomy, and the government has been unable to cope with the economic problems of a nation plagued by poverty, illiteracy, and ancient tribal and religious customs. Now 58, the king has been vacationing on the island of Ischia near Naples and formally abdicates August 24 at the Afghan embassy in Rome; his brother-in-law (and cousin) Mohammad Daud Khan has led the coup with 1,000 Soviet-trained troops and proclaims Afghanistan a republic with himself as president and prime minister. A former prime minister, the new president abolishes all royal titles including his own (see 1978).

Pakistan adopts a new constitution that makes the office of president largely ceremonial (see 1971). President Bhutto becomes prime minister, retains also the cabinet offices of foreign affairs, defense, and interior, maintains martial law, and begins a process of Islamization (see 1974).

Former Turkish president Ismet Inönü dies at Ankara December 25 at age 89. He was replaced as leader of the Reliance Party (Güven Partisi) last year by leftist Bülent Ecevit.

Former Japanese prime minister Tanzan Ishibashi dies at his native Tokyo April 25 at age 88.

South Korean Central Intelligence Agency operatives abduct opposition leader Kim Dae Jung from a Tokyo hotel in August and try to drown him in what critics call another government-sponsored assassination attempt (see 1971). Now 47, Kim is released 1 week later after strong diplomatic pressure from Tokyo and Washington; he is placed under house arrest (see 1976).

Thailand has a revolution in October that overthrows the direct military rule imposed 2 years ago. Students and intellectuals demand a new constitution and hold huge public demonstrations at Bangkok. Police try to break up the crowds, violence escalates, and the authorities finally ask King Bhumibol Adulyadej to intervene, giving the monarchy its first direct role in the nation's politics since 1932. The students agree to disperse, Prime Minister Thanom Kittikachorn, 62, and his military commander flee the country October 14, and a former rector of Thammasat University is chosen as interim prime minister to supervise the drafting of a new constitution that will be promulgated next year (but see 1976).

Rwanda has a bloodless coup July 5: Gen. Juvénal Habyarimana, 36, leads a group of disgruntled officers in the overthrow of President Grégoire Kayibanda and will rule almost single-handedly for more than 20 years (see 1994).

Argentina has a rash of assassinations and kidnappings early in the year; Perónist Hector J. Campora wins election to the presidency in March, he takes office May 25, and former dictator Juan Perón, now 77, returns June 20 after nearly 18 years in exile (see 1974).

The Bahamas gain full independence within the Commonwealth July 10 after 256 years as a British crown colony. Prime Minister Lynden (Oscar) Pindling, 43, has held office since 1969 and will be reelected three times despite allegations of his involvement with Colombian drug lords in narcotics trafficking.

Former Canadian prime minister Louis Saint Laurent dies at Quebec July 25 at age 91.

Former Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar dies of a heart attack in exile at Marbella, Spain, August 6 at age 72.

The crown colony of British Honduras is renamed Belize amidst demands for independence (see 1862). The last British colony on the American mainland, its name is said by some to derive from the Spanish mispronunciation of Wallace (Scottish buccaneer Peter Wallace may have started a settlement at the mouth of the Belize River in the late 1630s) and by others to have evolved from the Mayan word belix ("muddy water") or belikin ("land facing the sea") (see independence, 1981).

Uruguay's military seizes the reins of government as the 11-year-old leftist Tupamaro guerrilla group foments resistance to President Juan Maria Bordaberry, whose country has been beset by inflation, assassinations, kidnappings, and often-violent strikes. Bordaberry will be deposed in 1976 after a gradual relinquishment of executive authority and democratic government will remain suspended until 1985 (see 1976).

Chile has a wave of strikes that shut down shops and transportation in nine provinces, a violent coup September 11 overthrows the nation's democratically elected Marxist president Salvador Allende Gossens, who reportedly takes his own life during the attack on his presidential palace, La Moneda, at Santíago. His wife insists that he has been murdered. "We often heard the [U.S.] State Department did not want Allende in power," she says. "Financial interests always predominate." National security adviser Henry A. Kissinger has told President Nixon that a successful socialist regime in Chile would serve as a model for other Latin countries, and on Nixon's orders the CIA has, in fact, poured upwards of $7 million into a failed effort to remove Allende. A military junta names Gen. Augusto Pinochet Ugarte president; now 58, he breaks off relations with Cuba, vows to "exterminate Marxism" from Chile, and begins a repressive 16-year rule, imprisoning 40,000 political opponents by year's end and having about 3,000 executed.