November 17, 1972

State Dept announces on Nov 16 that US and several of its Eur allies have invited USSR and some of its Warsaw Pact partners to begin exploratory talks Jan 31 on reducing mil forces in Central Eur; authoritative Adm and diplomatic sources say inv is largely formality since USSR and US have privately agreed already on date for start of talks; regular conf on reduction of forces expected to be held in Sept or Oct, assuming preliminary talks prove satisfactory; exploratory talks are due to start in Helsinki on a Eur security conf; US to be represented by Amb Peterson and G S Vest; relative NATO and Warsaw Pact forces strength and difficulty of reaching accord on reductions discussed

2 young blacks are killed and 1 wounded on Nov 16 at Southern Univ, Baton Rouge, in day of violence; Gov E Edwards closes campus and orders students to go home; students set 2 bldgs on fire and explode bomb at a 3d; Gov Edwards declares state of emergency; Sheriff A Amiss orders that no guns or ammunition be sold in Baton Rouge vicinity after receiving repts that students had banded together to try to kill Gov Edwards; violence erupts after weeks of student protest on main campus in Baton Rouge and at branch in New Orleans, where students seized bldgs, marched and boycotted classes to support demands for better living conditions and food, broader programs of black studies and resignations of univ pres Netterville and vp E W Bashful; disturbance begins after several hundred students seize main adm bldg and take over pres' office; sheriff's deputies and state policemen, warned in advance of planned seige, advance on bldg and order students to leave, which they refuse to do; tear gas is fired into crowd, which disperses, leaving 2 bodies behind; 1 of dead men is identified as Southern Univ student D A Smith, 20; other dead man and wounded man are not identified; preliminary autopsy shows deaths to be caused by buckshot, although Sheriff Amiss and state police comdr R Ratcliff say that no shots were fired by their men during confrontation; wounded man was hit in arm by tear gas canister; Gov Edwards says that he considers police blameless because 1st act of violence came from students, and will not blame police even if it should develop that police did shoot them; illus

NYS Gov Rockefeller on Nov 16 asserts that idea of bipartisan fusion candidate for Mayor of NYC in '73 is a live one, int; says he feels that such a candidate should be committed to only 1 term in office to do job 'that would be less than fully popular'; contends that NYC's 5 county chairmen's statement that they are ready to int Dems and Repubs is 'quite significant'

Pepsico Inc chmn D M Kendall announces on Nov 16 that in '73 Pepsi-Cola will become 1st Amer consumer product mfrd and sold in Soviet Union; says that reciprocal agreement has been reached with Soviet Min of Trade in which Pepsico subsidiary Monsieur Henri Wines Ltd will exclusively distribute Soviet wine and liquor in US and Pepsico will install bottling plant in Soviet Union and ship Pepsi-Cola concentrate to Soviet trade organization; ad campaign planned; Kendall says serious negotiations began Dec, '71, when he met Soviet Premier Kosygin in Moscow; agreement stipulates level of Soviet beverage sales in US will determine how much Pepsi-Cola can be sold in Soviet Union; illus of Kendall, former Soviet Premier Khrushchev, then Vice Pres Nixon, and current Soviet Communist party chief Brezhnev sipping Pepsi at Moscow trade fair in '59; Kendall asserts agreement is culmination of work begun that day

Melanie R. was buried in a green Long Island cemetery yesterday, 7,500 miles from the primitive, dusty city where she died 12 days ago at the end of an unaccomplished search for “nirvana,” as she once put it.