March 25, 1971

NJ Gov Cahill says ha will offer bill to create 5-man state sports auth to oversee financing and construction of sports complex in Hackensack River meadowlands of E Rutherford, news conf; estimates project would cost from $100-million to $200-million; say law creating auth would repeal requirement for local referendums; legis would be sponsored by Sen F S Dickinson Jr; Cahill outlines other provisions and plans for complex

NYC Health Services Admr Chase urges tighter NYS controls to hold down spiraling med costs; cost-control law has been in effect since Jan 1 and Blue Cross repts hosp costs in 17-county downstate area will rise only 12% this yr; Chase contends that unnecessary hospitalization still exists and that reimbursement rates should be linked to length of stay in hosp

Pres Nixon says Sen rejection of funds for SST is 'severe blow' for indus; decision seen resulting in layoff of 14,000 employed on project

well-placed Pentagon sources say Nguyen Van Thieu decided to curtail Laotian operation despite suggestions from some senior Amer mil men that he send in replacements and try to stay on for a few more wks; rept Nguyen Van Thieu, with unseasonably bad weather in Laos and at Khesanh, decided against running risk of seeing some of his units trapped and battered with insufficient air support; says Nguyen Van Thieu feels his forces have accomplished a good deal; hint commando-style raids may be staged by small S Vietnamese units against Ho Chi Minh Trail before onset of monsoon rains in early May; Defense Dept spokesman says he cannot 'absolutely preclude' new S Vietnamese raids in Laos in near future; Laird concedes Laotian operation was cut short because of 'tremendously vicious and violent reaction' by N Vietnamese and because S Vietnamese feel they have carried out primary objective of operation; he and dept spokesman stress that when he was briefed by S Vietnamese in Jan, operation was described as lasting from 5 to 8 wks; spokesman says that if S Vietnamese wanted to stay longer than 8 wks, they would have had to ask US to extend its air support; several Adm planners privately are in gen agreement that operation accomplished some of its objectives but fell short of expectations; other opinions of Amer officials noted

UAR reptdly receives new Soviet weapons and mil equipment as leadership intensifies preparations for war; weapons and equipment reptdly include antiaircraft missiles, vehicles, guns and crates containing unidentified equipment; despite emphasis on pol solution, rhetoric indicates that this is illusory hope and that mil action will be required; mil build-up is intended to deter Israel from leapfrogging canal front zone and conducting air raids deep inside UAR; any new ground fighting seen initially ltd to canal area conducted as intensified war of attrition; fighting seen before summer; recent actions by UAR leadership including Sadat's confs with top mil officers, Arab Socialist Union sec gen A M Abdul-Nur's s in which he declared that all pol efforts have been exhausted and that only way now is for mil solution, granting of authorization to local comdrs to open fire at their own initiative and scheduled confs between Riad and UAR Ambs to Western Eur countries, US Amb Ghorbal and UN Amb Zayyat discussed; simulated air raid alerts and other preparations for fighting underway in UAR noted; UN truce observers have confirmed that Israeli Phantoms intruded into UAR's air space