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Saturday, October 14, 2006

October 14, 1960: Cuba Nationalizes US Firms, Business Urged to Offer Retiree Health Care, Nixon to Meet Lodge on Negro Pledge, Female Frigidity on TV

Cuba today nationalized 20 American-owned businesses. Also affected were Cuban banks and all large industrial and transportation companies. In all the government took over some 100 businesses.

Meanwhile, at the United Nations, the United States charged Cuba with deliberately sabotaging relations with the US. The US also accused Cuba of suppressing civil liberties, confiscating property and interfering in Latin American affairs.

Employers should provide post-retirement health care to their employees, the United States Chamber of Commerce said today. The recommendation was an attempt to stave of a government-financed health insurance system for the aged. "Successful private plans will provide the chamber with the evidence it needs to combat the compulsory approach," the chamber said, adding that it had helped defeat a government health plan for the aged this year.

Leaders of the world's free nations should get together in regional meetings to plot strategy against communism, Vice President Richard Nixon said today.

In Laos, Prince Souvanna Phouma said US attempts to solve the crisis in his country had failed. The prince is attempting to pursue a neutralist policy, against the wishes of the United States. The prince has said that if the U.S. does not change its stance he might seek assistance from the Soviet Union.

Nixon today won the endorsement of the Richmond News Leader, which wrote that he was "superior to Mr. Kennedy on every count in his expressed views on particular issues, in his general attitudes toward government, in his choice of advisers, in the experience and maturity he could bring to the job."

Sen. John F. Kennedy was accused today of "cribbing" during his debate yesterday with Vice President Nixon. Meade Alcorn and Leonard Hall, two former Republican National Chairmen, made the charge. Alcorn said Kennedy's behavior was a "dramatic example of Kennedy's immaturity." Kennedy denied using notes.

Vice President Nixon has summoned his running mate, Henry Cabot Lodge, to a meeting in Hartford on October 16, presumably to discuss Lodge's pledge to include a Negro in a Nixon Cabinet. Lodge withdrew his pledge one day after making it.

The Atomic Energy Commission has developed and tested a device for detecting nuclear explosions in space, up to about 33,000 miles.

The Soviet Union is working on an anti-missile defense system, Pentagon officials said today. The official would not say if the Soviet System is more advanced than U.S. plans for its own Nike Zeus anti-missile missile.

Associated Nucleonics, Inc., of Garden City, NY, will market a blast and fallout shelter capable of housing and feeding up to nine people for two weeks. The shelter, a steel cylinder eight feet by sixteen feet, burried five feet underground with a concrete foundation, is designed to withstand a 10-megaton blast a mile away.

This afternoon, the N.B.C. Television Network will air "The Cold Woman; A Study of Sexual Frigidity." A newspaper advertisement calls the show "a frank account of a problem affecting millions of American women today. Kim Hunter and Jack Klugman portray a married couple deeply troubled by the most personal of emotional problems, in a dramatization based on case histories, professional reports, and taped interviews. ... Today, despite the American woman's privileged status -- her club memberships, college degrees and kitchen full of conveniences -- a great number of her kind is in distress. The complexities of her new situation, in many cases, have only added to her anxieties. And she may reach a point where she becomes a problem for society -- perhaps in a divorce court, a magistrate's office or an alcoholic ward."

The National Automobile Show made final preparations for its opening in Detroit tomorrow. It is the first time the show is being held outside New York City. The theme is Wheels of Freedom. "When we talk about wheels of freedom we are not using words lightly, L.L. Colbert, president of the Automobile Manufacturers Association said today. "In these troubled days when freedom is being assaulted by ruthless, unprincipled and powerful leaders abroad we are proud that the automobile industry will make a substantial contribution to the strength of America."

One of the cars to be on display is the redesigned Thunderbird for 1961. "While it still is a four passenger vehicle it has taken on a jaunty continental flair that sets it apart from others of the sports type family cars," the New York Times would report tomorrow from Detroit. "A long sloping hood sweeps out beyond the front wheels and drops to a section like a nose cone that makes for a ground-hugging appearance"