May 6, 1975

WASHINGTON, May 5 — Tanned and seemingly fit, Representative Wilbur D. Mills returned to Congress today, preaching the evils of alcohol as zealously as he once guided tax legislation through” the House.

NY Times survey on Cong appraisal of domestic and foreign reaction to fall of Saigon and Phnom Penh govts notes Cong liberals and moderates are backing away from earlier intention of challening Adm with attempts to make record cuts in defense spending and to reduce overseas forces; notes some of 30 liberal members of staffs of Sen and HR meeting on May 2 said it was implicitly agreed to seek cut of about 7% in Pentagon's $104.7-billion budget (M)

Some officials from US Embassy and consulate in Saigon, in Philippines after airlift from Saigon, express bitterness over way Amb Graham Martin handled evacuation plans, which resulted in what they recall as feuding and deception between sections of US Mission and every-man-for-himself attitude; contend that bad planning resulted in many key Vietnamese officials who had long worked for US being left behind to face reprisals from Communists while selection of those to be evacuated was often arbitrary; hold that Martin's delay in evacuating Amers and S Vietnamese from Saigon, apparently aimed at avoiding throwing city into chaos, was responsible for failure to rescue many endangered Vietnamese; attempts by AID, US Information Service, Defense Attache's Office and CIA to draw up privately their own evacuation plans when official evacuation plans were not promptly implemented revd; illus (L)

State Sec H A Kissinger tells reporters after testifying before Rockefeller CIA Comm that he and Natl Security Council (NSC) had no involvement in any domestic operations of CIA and that he never 'transmitted' to CIA any feeling of concern about domestic security on part of Pres Nixon; statement raises question of whether CIA's operations were outside chain of command suggested by Natl Security Act of '47; CIA Dir William E Colby said in Jan that CIA conducted domestic intelligence gathering from '70 until '73 as outgrowth of Pres concern over radical activities; this concern was expressed in so-called Huston plan; NSC and 40 Com are normal conduits for commands to CIA; Vice Pres Rockefeller says there are other channels of command between White House and CIA and that these channels could have included Pres Nixon himself; Kissinger disavows any knowledge of alleged assassinatins by CIA (M)

The police investigating the holdup and abduction story of a 9‐year‐old Russian girl at the Soviet diplomatic residence in Riverdale said they were unable to find corroboration of her account. Page 35.