March 30, 1973

Treas Sec Shultz says on Mar 29 that Pres Nixon, in move to check rising food prices, is sending to Cong a request for authority to reduce or suspend tariffs and import quotas on commodities whose prices have been going up rapidly; in related action, Distributive Workers of Amer Dist Council 65 pres D Livingston asks Cong for a subsidy plan whereby Govt would pay difference between prices people can afford and prices charged by various sections of food indus; estimates that plan would cost about $4-billion a yr; graph shows rise in food prices and all commodities during '72

Pres Nixon delivers radio-TV speech proclaiming disengagement of US ground forces in Vietnam

Tens of thousands of N Vietnamese watch, smile and wave, Mar 29, as last of 67 Amer POWs fly out of Hanoi; do not shout insults; for the first time Hanoi admits a large group of Western correspondents--28 in all--to cover the POWs release and do some sightseeing; Hanoi gives impression of being completely at peace; illus of Lt Comdr A H Agnew, last POW to be released

SEC on March 29 unveils 'white paper' to restructure securities mkts with aim of establishing central mkt system that would encompass network of brokers and dealers in offices and on exch floors, linked together by electronic communication; says primary objective of central system is development of strong competition among participants; pledges to take every reasonable step to insure new central mkt system will provide welcome environment for small investor; major comm proposals include: regulation to maintain integrity of communications system; regulation of competing mkt makers within system; regulation to insure that system will maintain best auction mkts; new 'auction trading rule' that would provide price priority protection for all public orders throughout system and 'public preference rule'; heart of new central mkt system would be comprehensive communications linkage between mkt centers consisting of composite transaction reptg system and composite quotation system displaying bids and offers of all qualified mkt makers in listed securities; plan would require adoption by all exchs of nonmember access rule permitting discounts to be negotiated up to substantially higher level than 40% of comm rate now in effect

Last Amer troops leave S Vietnam, Mar 29, after a decade of Amer mil intervention; remaining after final plane leaves Tan Son Nhut air base are about 800 Amers on the truce observation force who will leave Mar 30 or 31; US involvement, however, seen far from ended; Gen F C Weyand presides over furling of colors of US Mil Assistance Command; in speech to command says 'You can hold your heads up high for having been a part of this selfless effort'; in second speech, delivered in Vietnamese, says that US mission has been accomplished, that he departs with pride in what US has achieved and in what the achievement represents; 7,200 Amer civilians employed by US Defense Dept are in S Vietnam; majority of them are already at work with Saigon armed forces trying to fill the gap in special skills the Vietnamization program has been unable to provide; Saigon officer repts more than 100 mil incidents in last 24 hrs despite cease-fire; US officer, Col E Himma says 'there's going to be a full-blown war starting up after we leave; the fighting has never stopped anyway'; there are congratulatory messages from Washington and Pacific Hq and a note of regret from Adm T H Moorer that the war had not enjoyed 'the full measure of support it deserved'; US experience in the war revd; comment on mil course of war, mil tactics and casualties; illus of departing Amers