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The Yuma Daily Sun from Yuma, Arizona • Page 4

Location:
Yuma, Arizona
Issue Date:
Page:
4
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

JOHN LOFTON Nixon-McDonald's: Hamburger Helper? UP TO NOW, I did not think Richard Nixon would be impeached. But then, up to now, I did not know about "The McDonald's Cheeseburger Case." I ran across this bombshell on page 80 of "The Offenses of Richard M. Nixon: A Guide for the People of the United States of America." A brief for impeachment bankrolled by ex-McGovern fat cat Stewart Mott, the book was put together by four lawyers one of whom is William Dobrovir, the Ralph Nader attorney who played a subpoenaed presidential tape at a Washington cocktail party. The book contains a wide variety of serious allegations against Mr. Nixon but none has the potential for toppling our chief executive like the charge of ham- bujger-helping at the highest level.

Listed under the heading, "Crimes Committed in Financing President Nixtn's Reelection," the facts of the case are as follows: On November 14, 1971, McDonald's, the large and well-known chain of drive-in restaurants, raised its price for the Quarter Pounder Cheeseburger leave capped from 59 cents to 65 cents without notification to or authorization from the U.S. Price Commission. MAY 31, 1972, the commission ordered McDonald's to reduce the price of its Quarter Pounder Cheeseburger. On SUN Published dotty Excepr Saturdays at I I A 2055 Arizona Avenue Yuma, Arizona Jones Osborn Editor and Publisher Donald N. Soldwedel Publisher Gen.

Manager Member of The Associated Press The AP is entitled exclusively to the use for republication of nil the local news printed in this newspaper, as well as all AP news dipa'tches. Member, Audit Bureau of Circulation Entered at the Post Office at Yuma, Arizona, as Second Class Monthly, Yuma Gty Fringe Rural Route Carrier By Moil All Areas $2.50 Grculation Department Phone 783-3333 Weekdays 8 A.M. 6:30 P.M. Saturday 8 A.M. 5 P.M.

Sunday 8 A.M. 10:30 A.M. Mar. 27, 1974 Swedish Thaw For some while there have been indications that the official wall of ice between the United States and Swedish governments was thawing out. Now we are told that there will be an exchange of ambassadors for the first time in almost two years.

That is a most heartening development, especially in light of Washington's recent difficulties with other European allies. There has not been a U.S. ambassador in Stockholm since Jerome Holland left in 1972 following public demonstrations in protest against the Vietnamese Holland did not return, and the fat really went into the fire when Swedish Premier Olof Palme roundly condemned the U.S. bombing of Hanoi before Christmas that year. Washington not only left the Stockholm post vacant, but also declined to welcome a new Swedish ambassador to our country.

The bitterness has persisted much longer than anyone would have expected at the time. Finally last fall Henry A. Kissinger said, at hearings prior to his confirmation as secretary of state, that he intended to -review the administration's Swedish. policy. Even after that review was completed, however, there was long further delay.

At last it appears that the matter is being satisfactorily resolved. Soon normal diplomatic relations between Sweden and the United States will resume. That will be a happy outcome of a mutally unprofitable impasse. Alburn Bureau Air Bag Delay The idea that all cars should be equipped with a device to safeguard occupants in crashes has had hard going. The latest evidence of this is found in the government's agreement to give manufacturers another year before they must install "passive restraints" that is, restraints that will protect drivers and passengers without any action on their part.

The only such restraints so far developed with meet government safety standards are air bags which automatically inflate in a crash situation. Thus the new regulation in effect calls for routine equipment of cars with air bags starting with the 1977 model year. Some cars already carry this device. Air bngs are offered as optional equipment in three of the General Motors lines, for example, and several thousand such restraints already have been road-tested. Early misgivings have not been borne out by experience thus far, according to the FHSA; it tells us that tests have shown the bags to be almost reliable.

In spite of this, the effect of the ruling is that air bags will not be standard equipment until new models start coming off the assembly b'nes in September 1976. That is more than two years hence. Meanwhile, drivers of new cars will have to get along with the interlock harness system. It is a system so many drivers find irritating that an estimated have disconnected it. This instead of an air bag system which would require nothing of the driver and would function automatically in an emergency.

-AIburn Bureau September 8, 1972, the Price reversed its decision and granted McDonald's a final price increase to 63 cents for the Quarter Pounder Cheeseburger. Up to now, nothing, right? But then the four legal beagles nail Nixon cold revealing, and I quote, that according to General Accounting Office records: "Between May 31, 1972, and September 8,1972, the Chairman of the Board these words are underlined of McDonald's Corporation, Ray A. Kroc, contributed over $200,000 to the campaign to reeled Pi-esident Nixon. Mr. Kroc's final total la.ter went up to $255,000." Now, to those few die-hard, knee-jerk Nixon supporters who don't immediately see the high crime, the bribe, the misdemeanor or treason committed here, I wish I could offer you some encouragement.

To those who think that at best, "The McDonald's Cheeseburger Case" appears to be an open and shut matter, I wish it were true. But Dobrovir and his fellow lawyers appear to have an airtight case. They explain it all later in their book in a section titled, "President Nixon's Criminal "IT IS A BASIC principle of criminal law thnt'one individual can be guilty of a specific criminal act committed by someone else if certain conditions exist. Such conditions include: "1) if he was part of in particular the head of a group or organization whose member committed the act; 2) if the act was in pursuit of an aim or purpose of the organization; 3) if he benefitted or was expected to benefit from the corhmis- sion of the act, or 4) if he established the general purposes and aims the criminal act was intended to promote. These are familiar principles of conspiracy and aiding or abetting or complicity.

They apply squarely to the charges against Richard M. Nixon." But, you're probably asking, don't these conditions have to be proved? And you're right. But do you think anyone with the initiative to dig ui the "McDonald Cheeseburger Case" will have trouble making one of the four conditions stick? Of course not. ft BESIDES, DOBROVIR and his colleagues already have what they consider to be corroborating evidence. In mid- January, when the President was in San Clemente, there were news reports that he and Bebe Rebozo were out driving and stopped to get something to eat.

And do you remember where it was they stopped? McDonald's! In addition, there have been rumors on Capitol Hill that the President proposed a lower minimum wage for young people specifically to benefit McDonald's which employs a lot of teenagers. Add to these things the fact that the price of a Quarter Pounder Cheeseburger has now soared to 70 cents, and the case. is, as I said, airtight. Once the House Judiciary Committee gets hold of the White House tapes covering May 31, 1972 through September 8, 1972, it's affl over. The controversy involv- ing John Dean and the million dollars in hush money will pale into insignificance when Committee Chairman Rep.

Peter Rodino flips on the recorder, and the President says to Ray Kroc: "Raising the price of the Quarter Pounder Cheeseburger would be no Editor, The Sun: Many, many hun- dreds of years ago, as it was prophesied, a male child of the Jewish race was born. lx and behold, he became the savior of the world. Today at the beginning of the end of the 20th century, a man of Jewish heritage has accomplished something that no man in history has ever done. He has brought 'two peoples, the Jewish and Egyptians, together on the same common ground of peace, harmony and understanding. All down through the ages since Moses led the children of Israel out of the Egyptian bondage, they have not been at peace with each other until now.

This man is none other than our secretary of state, Henry Kissinger. What a man, man of the hour, man of the year. MRS. MEREDITH STEVENS 3601 4th Ave. Junk Yards Editor, The Sun: I think Yuma is going to the dogs not just because of loose dogs either.

We now will have.gnr- bage all over the streets like we never had a through alley for pickups. More people seems to be taking less pride in their homes and yards. Drive down the streets and look at the junk yards at private homes. Old cars, car parts, gasoline cans, boats, old furniture and trash blowing everywhere. Where did the motto "Keep Yuma Beautiful" get buried? A city or town can only be as-good as its citizens.

Let's wake up and clean the town up before it becomes a slum. Or don't we have any civic pride? H.M.JOHNSON 940 S. JOth Ave. CLAYTON Too Much Protection Could Actually Destroy Europe THERE'S MUCH to be said for reducing U.S. forces in Europe it should have, been done years ago, as former President Eisenhower long ago suggested but 'the worst possible way of doing it would be out of spite or fitful exasperation with our old allies.

From the beginning of his first term in the White House, Mr. Nixon has opposed bipartisan efforts, led by Sen. Mike Mansfield, and Sen. George Aiken, to bring home some of the American troops assigned to NATO, but then in anger the President suddenly threatened the Euorpeans with just that fate. Since this outburst in a speech at Chicago, Mr.

Nixon has sought to soften it, but he has also followed up by canceling plans for a trip abroad next month to meet with European heads of government, and by warning that if the policies of "our friends" in the "political and economic appear hostile to us" it's going to be hard to keep U.S. troops in Europe, ir THIS SEEMS to suggest that our forces are being kept abroad merely to please our NATO partners, although the Administration has repeatedly argued they are needed there to protect American security. Only a few days ago, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger told the Senate Finance Committee, "We don't have troops in Europe in order to do a favor for the Europeans." Sen. Clifford Case, put it this way: "We are defending Western Euope not because we are defending democracy JACK ANDERSON Octane Ratings Costly In Money, Air Pollution GAS RIP-OFF: At present, a car owner is often told by his auto manual to use 94 octane gasoline regular. But octane ratingsystems vary.

The same regular gas is posted as 90 on the gasoline pump. The unwitting buyer, therefore, buys premium. The consumer-oriented Public Interest Campaign complained to federal energy czar William Simon, shying the inconsistency costs drivers SI billion a year, wastes one million gallons of gasoline a day and adds 405,000 extra pounds of lead to the daily auto pollution. (Lead is blamed for disease and death in ghetto children, who breathe it or get it in their mouths from playing in street dirt.) Simon, however, wrote a polite private letter to the Public Interest Campaign president, Lou Lombardo, declining to intervene. But a few days ago, Simon's own Consumer Energy Advisory Committee voted unanimously in favor of octane posting changes.

Moved by the vote, Simon's aides are now reviewing the question and promised that "We won't let the issue go down the crack." THE TERRORIST WING of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) has been equipped, presumably by Arab guerrillas, with Russian shoulder-fired missiles for shooting down British helicopters. In addition, the Arabs are believed to have helped the IRA pepper London with bombs. These two unhappy disclosures are made in a secret U.S. intelligence report obtained by Rep. John Murphy, and turned over to chairman Harley Staggers, of the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce committee.

The British helicopters in Northern Ireland, besides their advantages over ground vehicles for surveillance, have been used to transport troops rapidly from one trouble spot to the next. IRA gunfire, so far, has not been effective against them. The Strella SA-7 missiles, however, have a range of almost three miles and can be aimed and fired in seconds. They "home" on the heat from jet motors or can be fired like ordinary weapons at. prop- driven planes, helicopters or objects.

"Arab terrorists (are) loose in Europe and England" and are armed with the 30- pound rockets, said the intelligence report, developed by the CIA, and summarized and circulated to the FBI, Secret Service, Federal Aviation Administration and other sensitive agencies. The missiles, said the report, were "originally smuggled into Belgium in Libyan diplomatic it "LIBYA HAS publicly stated its support of the IRA as a revolutionary movement," the report went on. "British intelligence (has) stated there is 'firm evidence' that Arab terrorists are working with the Irish Republican Army and are part of the bombing campaign which has plagued. Ixmdon in recent months. the small society "British officials have also received intelligence reports that the Russian-built SA-7 missils are in the hands of the IRA in Northern Ireland," the document warned.

"Sources indicate they are for use against British helicopters along the border between Ireland and those counties under UK (British) control." The secret advisory said the British Army is "on alert especially during the day when the danger is greatest as the terrorists would probably have to rely on visual sighting." At night, jet aircraft would also be vulnerable because the missiles seek out the heat from their jet blasts, said the report. There is danger even if the missiles do not hit their target. They then zoom to seek out other jet planes, school chimneys or, indeed, any heat source. At Heathrow airport in London, as we reported on Feb. 10, the British Army was put on alert for Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's visit because intelligence reports had indicated Arab fanatics planned to shoot a Strella up his plane's jetpipe.

by Brickman there but because we are defending ourselves." If that is the case, which is questionable, impulsively pulling back our troops would be cutting off our nose to spite our face. There is, however, and has been for years, a good case for reducing the disproportionate U.S. contribution to NATO, not as a punitive or unfriendly act but simply in recognition of conditions having radically changed since NATO was organized 25 years ago, at a time whon postwar Europe was still prostrate both economically and militarily. Europe today has the manpower, the resources and the nuclear technology to be a superpower in its own right. All it lacks is the will to unify for its own protection.

But why should it make the effort as long as the United States is willing to go on indefinitely bearing most of the burden of defending the continent? THE U.S. CONTRIBUTION to NATO consists of 315,000 military personnel, along with 250,000 dependents. The U.S. cost (direct and indirect) for the defense of Europe is estimated at $17 billion a year, although nobody knows what it really is. The total U.S.

defense budget is now more than $85 billion annually, as against $28 billion for the combined defense expenditures of our 14 NATO partners. Sen. Stuart Symington, who has been acting chairman of the Armed Services Committee, says, "No economy, not even the economy of the United States, can continue to police the world and baby-sit the world indefinitely." Many critics are convinced that NATO, in any case, has become an anachronism. Certainly the original concept seems obsolete. In 1949 the idea was a NATO force that would resist Russian agression by conventional military means, backed up by the threat of America's strategic bombing of the Russian heartland.

The development of small atomic weapons has changed all that. Today, the real power of NATO rests on the arsenal of 7,000 tactical nuclear weapons provided by the United States. But the Russians now have similar weapons. They, too, have atomic artillery. QUESTION: In the event of Communist aggression, would our NATO partners want or even allow Europe to become a tactical nuclear battlefield, a situation that could destroy Europe, while possibly leaving Russia and the United States intact if they held back from launching strategic nuclear missiles against the other's homelands? How much better, or less worse, for the Europeans if, in a confrontation between Moscow and the West, the superpowers destroyed each other without first wiping Europe off the map through tactical nuclear battles? Alain Enthoven, former assistant secretary of defense, recently told Congress that Pentagon studies showed that 2 million to 20 million Europeans would be killed in a tactical nuclear war.

If cities were involved, he said, casualities could reach 100 million. His verdict was: "Tactical nuclear weapons cannot defend Europe; they can only destroy it." Even more disturbing is Sen. Symington's revelation that he had been informed by another former Pentagon official that the military has been unable to develop a doctrine for using the nuclear weapons on European battlefields..

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About The Yuma Daily Sun Archive

Pages Available:
36,337
Years Available:
1953-1975