Sept. l7, 1969 SEN A TE Dallas Townand Good eve,iing everybody. A Gulf of To,aki,r resolution in reverse. That's what its backers call the ,-esolutio,r that was approved i,r the Se,rate this after,aoo" - as an ame,adment to the twenty-Billion-dollar military procurement bill. It would limit a,ry US defe,ase of Tllaila,ad a"d Laos to s """ lies a,ad eq" i/Hn e,a t - "o troops. R •Pub lica11 Join, Sllerma,a Cooper of Kentucky, aolao introduced tlee • • - • a•e,a,1,,.ent, arg•es tlae la111••1,e is so broad tlaat it leas Ille •••• legal aullaority as a declaraUon of war. But llae D•f•••• De1>11rlme•t co,ate,aded it did not cons tit,i te a I egal II• itatlo,e 011 US forces, le e,ac e did 110 t figll t it. Wlla lever llae a,,. e11dm e,a t is or is,.' t, it was approved by tl1e Se,aa le. eighty-six to 11011,l,ag. PENTAGON From the Pentagon - a promise today of lower draft calls soon to some. Tlris during a discussion of t,lans - for the latest U.S. troop withdrawal from Vietnam. Defera•e Secretary Melvin Laird observing that S011tll Viet11a,,.ese troop• - •ill tlaereby assume a greater share of tlae •ar effort. A develop,,.ent tllat "KJill have a very significa,it effect" - said Laird - "on draft calls for Ilse montlrs alread." Wlrile lie did,i't exactly spell it out - an apparent pledge tllat tlley will be lo•eri D. M. Z. FOLLOW PENTAGON But the toar goes on. Gror,nd action including today ironically - an attack on a Marine i,nit tlaat will soo,a be l,eading State-side. TIie Viet Cong overrunn4ng a Leatller,eeck oMtpost - Just below Ille D.M.Z. Kill i,eg Ji/tee" a11d wo,ur.ding twe11ty-three - ,,. tlae heaviest figltting ,,. tltat areu WHITE HOUSE Tire White Hou e - surf>rise announcement toda y. President Nixon telling of f>lans to ask Congress - for a ten per cent i,acrease in Social Security benefits - effective At,ril First. This in place of a seven per cent boost - la• laad earlier said lie would ask. TIie Preside,at explai,ahag Iii• claa,cge of laeart - by noting a steady price rise over Ille t,ast five years. Addi,cg: "Tllo•• wllo 1uffered tl,e most - are tit• older cUl1e11s livi11g on fixed i11comes." (SUGGESTED LEAD-IN TO THOMAS SLUGGED "WASTELAND") Wit la Lowe l l Th om as s t il I t e mp or a r il y inc om mu ,a ic ado - time again for anotlier special report Ire left us. Topic for tonight - well, you might call it - a transpla,at operation. Lo,oell ... L. T. TAPE INSERT - unedited WASTELAND Hello E er y bod y : One of the most thought-pro v oking sigh , ts for an y trans-continental traveller _ the vast stretches of wast e land in the great American Southwest on down into Mexico. Millions and millions of acres i11habited solel y by jack rabbits, prairie dogs, coyotes, rattlers and so on. Its vegetation - largely sage brusl,, salt busl,, mesquite. Witllout irrigation - it's unable to sut,t,ort cattle, sheep or, for that matter, a,ay livestock at all Al,, but it does,s't have to be that way. Or at least so says Paul Martin - professor of Geochronology •t the U,aiverslty of Ari.cona. The solutio,s lie gives us - to restock tllat land with wild beaats from Africa and other regior,s but mainly giraffes a,sd ela,sds and perllaps camels again. B-rowsers - as opposed to grazers - browsers who tllrive on brush _ finding it just as nutritious as alfalfa. ,,. a worl starving for protein - tl,is would be a t,ote,stial source of enormous stocks of lrigh quality meats. WASTELAND - 2 The question it immediate/ ,•aises t - well what about the balance of lite nature there? Observers recall that rabbits L ere introdu ed to Australia not so long ago - and quickly o er ran that co11tin nt - the ame with red deer in New 7 • I Zeala,id. However, Professor Martin tells us that it couldn't happen here; noting that the balance in North America - is now and has been in an 11pset state for some Ten Thousand yea-rs and the chief culprit - the one who did it .. Man. And he adds that, indeed, giraffes, elands and camels a-re now "more nati e" to the kind of land we are talking about than even the animals who have always seemed to live there Solong . . . . . (SUGGESTED FOLLOW TO THOMAS TAPE SLUGGED "WASTELAND") Thank you, Lowell. Back to the news .. . DRUGS "Marijuana - fact and fable" - th.e tot,ic for today at that continuing Senate hearing on drug abus•. W'th. D ., i . r. Stanley Yolles - director of the National Institute of Mental Health - attempting lo set the record straight. Asserting on tlae basis of documented evidence: One - th.at marijuaraa is "gerterally a mild drug." Two - it rarely leads to crime, in artd of itself. Three - it is not art af)ltrodisiac, as commonly believed. A,ed /our - o,ely Jive per cent of cltronic users of marijuana go on to stronger drugs sucll as herion. The reverse side tllouglr - the doctor 1 11 advising tllat marijua,aa is jar from harmless. Observi,ag lltat it can cause "insta,aces of acute pa,ric, depression and otl,er psychotic stales. Adding tl,at, indeed, it actually lalufover "certain kinds of indioiduals" - robbing them of tlaeir lauman drive. CAIRO From Cairo b wa of Be i rut - comes the story today of bi.zarre Plot. According to right-w i ng obser v ers - a ci v ilian plot against the military regime of Egypt's President Nasser. This said to be - a Soviet-iaspired "conspiracy." The plan reportedly calling for a coup later this n,onth - wlae,s Nasser would supposedly be in Russia for medical treatme,st. O,sly trouble - we are told - the plotters were fou,sd out. Nasser ordering an immediate purge of top civila,s administrators - so tltey say. TIie list supposedly headed by pro-Soviet ex-Egyptian Premier Ali Sabry - who is ,sow reportedly under laouse arrest in Cairo. All tlais - true or not - a sig,s apfltrently of growing ,,,. rest in Egypt. In any case, the premier of Jordan said today tlaat Nasser is sick - under continued medical treatment - and was too ill to see him when he was in Cairo earlier this week. The authoritati e Cairo newspaper Al Ahran says Nasser laas cancelled all engagemenUand has been ordered to take a complete rest b y his doctors. CASTEL GANDOLFO At the summer Vatican - Castel Gandolfo - Pope Paul lashed out toda at Yebellious priests. Asserting that some llave gone too far - in forsaking their clerical dress - in cl,a,aging their aoays of thinking and living. Also, "too muc1," free discussion of priestly celibacy - said lie. Addi,ag tlrat Illes, "symptoms" - as lie called tl1em - "seem to foreslladow grave calamities fo-r the church itself." But 11,e Pope declared his co,afidence i,1 t1,e future of tl1e cllurcll - lie doe• ,. o t s u b s c r i b e to t II e v i e ., s of t Ir o s e w Ir o I Ii in k it 's in d a,a g e r of comi,ag pa-rt. BUDAPEST At Budape t, Hungary - a meeting of the International Birth Control ongress. Hearing a report from Dr. Franz No v ak of Yugosla ia - on the first feeble attempts at birth control in teeming Red China. Peking's ulimate goal - said he - a limit of two children per family. Howe er, the drive ha u ln little effect in China's vast rural areas - we are told; and this because Ille Chinese (>easant has an im(>ortant economic reason for havi,ag a great number of children." Dr . Novak exfJlai,aing that now, as ever, Chinese sons are still "obliged to sup(>ort their elderly pare,ats." Warren, that seems to illustrate the old saying - the more things change, the more they rema ; n the same - eve,a in China . STANFORD F o u n d : The s e c re t of eternal you th - for bu gs , anyway. 1 Profess or Wil I iam Johns on of Stan/ ord University - announcing today the det elof,ment of a so-called "juvenile hormone . " One that works on certain moths - saicl he ; but it won't work for humans - and maybe just as well. Reason: TIie Johnson "juvenile hormone" - develof>ed sr,ecifically for /)est control. A job it does very well - by keeping the treated bugs in a state of permanent adolescence. They never grow up . A state that sometimes seems to be well populated with ltumans as well as bugs. Good nigltt.