A big day for conflicts, this 24th of June in 1980. The subject on everyone's minds (at least as far as the White House was concerned) was the Soviet Occupation of Afghanistan. Jimmy Carter, fresh from the summit in Venice, paid a state visit to Yugoslavia, sampled some local dance steps and tried a few dance steps of his own with reference to bringing the quagmire in Kabul to a reasonable close. He suggested setting up an independent government and allowing the Soviets to leave quietly. Unlike the Hokey-Pokey, he put his right foot in and Brezhnev took it right back out by dismissing the overture as not exactly the kind of U.S. cooperation he had in mind. Even the Yugoslavs were hesitant to join in with Carters peace feelers, mumbling something abstract while dinner toasts were underway. Ivan will be Ivan, it seemed.
Speaking of conflicts, Vietnam was heating up again, or still, if you take the previous year's Chinese contretemps into consideration. This time the fighting was going on between Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam all on the border. Fire fights aplenty, but at least Pol Pot was out of the picture and China was sitting this dance out.
Domestically there was good news on Inflation but speculation the Recession hit faster and was going deeper than before. Nothing like double messages to keep necks strained and heads cocked to the side.
All in all, a reasonably quiet day at home as reported by the venerable Douglas Edwards on The World Tonight from June 24, 1980.
