October 1972 - October 26, 1972 (Thursday)

October 26, 1972 (Thursday)

• "We believe that peace is at hand", American presidential advisor Henry Kissinger announced to the world. Eleven days before the U.S. presidential election, said that the United States and North Vietnam had come to a basic agreement on ending the long running Vietnam War. Privately, President Nixon was outraged at his advisor's unauthorized statement, which Nixon saw as an attempt to take exclusive credit as a peacemaker. Kissinger, on the other hand, noted that North Vietnam had published the text of the agreement and a response was necessary. As it turned out, peace was not quite at hand and a final agreement was not signed until early 1973.
• General Mathieu Kérékou staged a coup in Dahomey, overthrowing the Presidential Council that had governed the West African nation since 1970. Kérékou changed the nation's name to the People's Republic of Benin as part of a movement toward Marxism-Leninism, but later guided the nation toward democracy.
• Died: Igor Sikorsky, 83, aviation pioneer who developed the helicopter.