December 2, 1960: Republican Party Official Goes to Chicago, Vietnam Said to be 'Source of Trouble'

Sen Thruston B. Morton of Kentucky, national Republican chairman said today that he would pursue all legal means to "an honest count." In Chicago, Morton said, "I don't think that Sen. Kennedy or Sen. [Henry] Jackson [national Democratic chairman] were aware in advance of the disclosures of fraud now being made. I don't think they would have condoned it." He criticized county officials who refused to endorse corrected vote count figures turned up in a recheck of voting machines.

The Chicago Daily Tribune prepared this story for tomorrow's edition: "Broken and missing seals on a large proportion of boxes containing ballots of the Nov. 8 election provoked protests yesterday from republicans financing the 'discovery' recount of returns. Reporters for the Tribune saw that seals were broken or missing on 13 of 47 corrugated cardboard boxes containing ballots. On Thursday they spotted similar defects on 14 of 21 boxes.

"In addition, reporters noted that in the case of four boxes the precinct judges hadn't written their names across the paper seal and the box as required.

'This represents either fraud or gross irregularities, we don't know which, said Ralph Berkowitz, an attorney for the G.O.P. in the recount. 'The law provides for a seal to keep the boxes safe from tampering.'"

"Six years after the end of the war in Indochina which created the independent states of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia this strategically vital area continues to shake under the impact of a Communist aggression that percipitates increasing internal strife," according to an editorial in today's New York Times. "As the three states are no under protection of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, the continued turmoil confronts this organization, and especially the United States as a key member of it, with dangers and problems matching those in Latin America and Africa.

"The immediate focal point of conflict is Laos, where Communist guerrillas, aided and abetted by Communist China and Communist-held North Vietnam, have waged intermittent war throughout the six years. But the real source of trouble is North Vietnam, which is a transit base for Communist penetration into Laos, South Vietnam and Cambodia.

"All three countries have thus far been able to ward off a Communist take-over. But the continued strife and the unmatched Communist aggressiveness are producing a war weariness which finds varying expression in the three states and which Western aid cannot quite allay. The most successful resistance has been offered by President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam, but continued Communist raids have created a climate that sparked a Right-Wing military revolt against him, though he managed to suppress it."

Newspapers published today reports that President-elect Kennedy has selected Connecticut Governor Abraham Ribicoff as his nominee for Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, the incoming president's first Cabinet pick.

From Leopoldville it was reported that The Congo has severed ties with the United Arab Republic after allegations that Egyptian diplomats may have helped deposed Premier Patrice Lumumba escape custody.

It was also reported today that the First National Bank of Boston had opened an underground bomb shelter in Pepperell, Mass., to store its records. The shelter was built to withstand the blast of a 20-megaton bomb exploding more than three miles from the site.

Members of a pacifist group, the Committee for Non-Violent Action, began a 6,500-mile march in San Francisco that is to take them to Moscow. They are protesting the growing stockpile of nuclear weapons.