The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour

INTRO

JIM LEHRER: Good evening. Two old friends of President Reagan made the big news of this day. One, William Clark, will succeed James Watt in the Cabinet, and the other, Paul Laxalt, used an old sports term to say President Reagan is ver so close to saying yes. Yes, four more years as President would be just fine.

Sen. PAUL LAXALT, (R) Nevada: In football terms, this candidacy is on the six-inch line.

LEHRER: Those are our lead stories tonight. Our major story is more personal. It's about young Americans, teenagers, with much of their lives still to live, who end them through suicide. Robin?

ROBERT MacNEIL: And overseas a proposal to tie Israel's economy directly to the U.S. dollar blows up on the new government of Yitzhak Shamir. We examine why. And with the Kissinger Commission about to go to Nicaragua, we look at the attempt by anti-Sandinista rebels to paralyze the Nicaraguan economy. Clark at Interior

LEHRER: President Reagan announced tonight the search for a successor to Interior Secretary James Watt is over. The search ended right at the White House with the selection of William Clark, the national security adviser. Mr. Clark, shown here on the cover of The New York Times Magazine, is a former California judge and long-time personal and political friend of Mr. Reagan's. He is known to share the conservative views of Mr. Watt, who resigned Sunday following an uproar over comments he made about a government commission. The selection came as a surprise. Clark's name had not even been mentioned in the speculation about a successor to Watt. The President made the announcement late this afternoon, when he appeared before a group of evangelical Christian women at the Old Executive Office Building.

Pres. RONALD REAGAN: After examining the records of more than two dozen fine potential nominees for the position of secretary of the interior, I have decided to turn once again to someone who has been a troubleshooter and a result-oriented professional. So it is with a good deal of pleasure that I tell you that I have asked my assistant for natuonal security affairs, Judge Bill Clark, to be my nominee for this Cabinet position. He is a God-fearing Westerner, fourth-generation rancher, and a person I trust, and I think he will be a great secretary of the interior.

LEHRER: President Reagan also moved to the six-inch line in deciding whether to run for re-election. That, at least, was the football analogy used today by Nevada Senator Paul Laxalt, Mr. Reagan's friend and 1984 campaign chairman. The Senator said, after a White House meeting with Mr. Reagan this afternoon, that Monday was now the big day, the day a new organization called Reagan/Bush '84 will come into being with a full authorization and blessing of Mr. Reagan.

Sen. LAXALT: I feel that he wants to delay his formal announcement until probably after the Congress is in recess. I went in for a limited purpose today. It was a short meeting. It was precisely to have him directly authorize me to form his re-election committee on Monday, and that's precisely what we're doing.

REPORTER: Did he direct you formally to do it?

Sen. LAXALT: No, we didn't do it in those formal terms.I simply went in and said, "The time has come that we've discussed about for a long time. On Monday, I'd like authorization in writing on the front end to go ahead and form a committee for your re-election."

REPORTER: So he will sign the statement?

Sen. LAXALT: He will Monday sign a letter authorizing me to go ahead and form a re-election committee. This committee, when formed Monday, will be Reagan/Bush. This is a package from the front end on. So we're running a package ticket here. I think probably, from almost the beginning it's been apparent to him as well as to all of us that this job that he's assumed cannot be effectively done in four years. And I think probably all along that he's felt that this has been the case, and I think within the last few days, when he knew that this date was approaching, and I indicated several weeks ago in October we're going to have to have a meeting and settle on something around October 17th. For fundraising purposes he's probably focused on it very actively the last few days.

LEHRER: Senator Laxalt went on to tell reporters that when the official papers are filed on Monday, the President will have a little wiggling room by way of a disclaimer in case he decides to change his mind. Robin?

MacNEIL: Politics got mixed up with economics today. President Reagan and his top aides began reviewing outlines for the 1985 federal budget. That is the budget Congress will be debating during the presidential election next year, highlighting issues like the size of the federal deficits and what to do about them. For weeks it's been apparent that the administration spoke with two voices. The chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Martin Feldstein, has been saying taxes should be raised to lower the deficit. Treasury Secretary Donald Regan has been saying the opposite. On this program last week Secretary Regan took this disagreement in his stride.

DONALD REGAN, Treasury Secretary: s/ome reasonable men can differ, and I believe this President likes to hear different points of view and accept that point of view that he thinks is best suited for his way of thinking also.

MacNEIL: Today it appears that isn't all right with the White House. The Los Angeles Times first reported that Mr. Feldstein's speeches are being censored by White House aides. Presidential spokesman Larry Speakes said that President Reagan welcomes diversity of views, but would like them argued before him in private and not argued in the public forum.And, he said, "If the man disagrees sufficiently, any person in the administration at all, certainly they are free to choose what they would like to do." Speakes added that a new review system for Cabinet level speeches went into effect in September, and both Mr. Feldstein's and Secretary Regan's speeches are included. Asked if Feldstein says something different from the President, who is right? Speakes responded, "Feldstein would be wrong and the President would be right." Jim?

LEHRER: In news from abroad, fighting in the Lebanese city of Tripoli between communists and Moslems ended today with the final death toll put at 75. One report said the bloody exchange of gun and rocket fire in the streets was stopped by Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat, who led a group of Palestine Liberation Organization troops into the city to separate the two groups. Also, in Beirut, there was some progress toward getting a national reconciliation conference off the ground. Representatives of six of the nine warring factions involved in last month's ceasefire met and agreed to an October 20th conference. Whether the others will join the effort remains to be seen.

In the Persian Gulf there was a reported escalation in the Iran-Iraq conflict, which has the potential for leading to the closing of important oil routes to the West and Japan. The Iraqis today claimed to have sunk two Iranian naval vessels in the Gulf. Iran, as we heard here last night, has threatened to close the Gulf to all shipping if Iraq goes too far in those attacks. White House spokesman Larry Speakes today repeated the U.S. warning that such action would be of grave interest and concern to the U.S. and its allies, which depend heavily on the oil that comes from the Gulf states. Robin? Israeli "Dollarization"

MacNEIL: Israel's new government, led by Prime Minister Shamir, found itself deep in crisis today only three days after taking office. A plan to stabilize the economy by pegging the currency to the U.S. dollar leaked out and caused a political storm even before the cabinet had considered it. As a result, the plan appears dead; Israel's economic crisis continues; and the finance minister has resigned. Here's a report by Don Lang of Viznews.

DON LANG, Viznews [voice-over]: Cabinet members began arriving shortly after dusk for yet another crisis meeting. The ministers in the shaky coalition of Yitzak Shamir had already been shaken by an unprecedented move earlier in the day: the treasury announced it was planning to link the Israeli shekel to the American dollar. Various factional leaders compared it to changing the national anthem or even the flag. Less than half an hour into the crisis meeting, there was yet another shock: Finance Minister Yoram Aridor announced his resignation. Speaking to reporters later, he said he could no longer do his job effectively. The country's economy has been in turmoil for some time, but attempts to improve the situation throuh devaluation and massive price rises are running into trouble. This meeting of trade union leaders in Jerusalem reflected the growing opposition. They represent those who will be hardest hit by the new cost-of-living rises. Tempers boiled over and speakers were shouted down by angry delegates. They ignored appeals from the chairman for order to be restored.This is Don Lang reporting.

MacNEIL: The "dollarization" plan, as it was called, followed other drastic steps taken by the new government two days ago to lead to those price rises. It devalued the shekel by 23% and cut government subsidies on many goods in half. Jim?

LEHRER: There are both economics and politics involved in what's happening in Israel, most particularly in what happened today in the resignation of Finance Minister Aridor. We've asked Dan Halperin, minister for economic affairs at the Israeli Embassy here in Washington, to try and help us understand it all. He in fact spoke to Aridor by phone today shortly after he resigned. And what did he tell you about his quitting?

DAN HALPERIN: Well, he came to the conclusion that there was no backing for his views and therefore he should resign, and he rendered his resignation.

LEHRER: How did this thing leak out ahead of time? Is that what caused the whole thing to collapse on him?

Mr. HALPERIN: Well, yes. This was the final straw, at least. What happened is that the minister of finance had a plan which he wanted to present in due course to the cabinet. Nobody knows now whether the cabinet would have approved it or not. Right now it seemed that the cabinet might not have approved it anyway, but when it leaked to the press, this of course created an immediate run on the banks, on the dollar, you know. People wanted to start hoarding dollars, and this added to the disquiet which already, I think, was felt in Israel and its economy, and for this reason, I think, he saw no other way but to resign.

LEHRER: In the most simple terms you can manage, explain to me what Aridor wanted to accomplish by his dollarization plan.

Mr. HALPERIN: Well, the Israeli economy is quite peculiar. It's different from many others -- many other economies because of its defense burden and so on. One of the aspects which makes it more difficult to manage is of course the high rate of inflation.

LEHRER: Which is at about 150%.

Mr. HALPERIN: Around 150%. Now, we have in Israel an indexation system, which means that most people get compensated for inflation. They get --

LEHRER: Just automatically.

Mr. HALPERIN: Almost automatically.

LEHRER: When prices go up or the inflation rate goes up, everybody gets an increase in pay?

Mr. HALPERIN: Yes. There is a lag in time, but it's not only in --

LEHRER: But generally that's what happens?

Mr. HALPERIN: Yes. It's not only in pay but in savings and so on. So, from the point of view of the individual, it's okay, at least for this period of time. But on the other side, it means that from the point of view of the government, the government has to conduct an economic policy with almost both hands tied behind because whatever measures are introduced, like additional taxation, whether they are all cuts in subsidies, which increase prices, the people are quite promptly compensated, and therefore the purchase power of the money in people's hands is not decreased. So the dollarization idea was, I think, something to avoid this indexation, to introduce a new measure which will introduce stability to the economy. It will introduce with it the rate of inflation that you have in the dollar country -- in the United States.

LEHRER: Which is considerably less than 150%.

Mr. HALPERIN: I would say so.

LEHRER: Would it have worked?

Mr. HALPERIN: Well, that's very hard to say. I mean, it's very -- in a way, very experimental and obviously the Israeli government had made a decision. The prime minister said it in public only a few minutes ago that he's not even going to bring it to a discussion in the cabinet. So we might never find out whether it would have worked or not.

LEHRER: What happens now in simple -- nothing, right? I mean --

Mr. HALPERIN: No, no, there is -- as it was mentioned here before, some very harsh economic measures were taken only a few days ago. Cuts in the budget, increase in subsidies, and you saw it only minutes ago that there [is an] enraged public about it. The government will try to convince the public in Israel that they have to absorb part of this additional burden, not to be compensated in full for it. So that the purchase power really decreases, and the consumption in Israel goes down a little bit, and this of course will have the desired effects.

LEHRER: So, in a nutshell, Mr. Halperin, what we have to do is just watch and see what happens over the next several days and maybe weeks to see if the public does accept it and see if it all shakes itself out, right?

Mr. HALPERIN: Well, as you know, in economic policy there is no panacea. Nothing solves the problem from one day to another, so we'll have to wait and see.

LEHRER: Mr. Halperin, thank you. Robin?

MacNEIL: Today in West Germany people trying to block deployment of U.S. missiles in December began 10 days of protests, but at the first demonstration, West German police outnumbered anti-nuclear demonstrators. They were attempting to blockade a U.S. Army barracks near Bremerhaven. Bremerhaven was chosen as the target of the opening demonstration because it's the principal seaport for the supply of the 250,000 American soldiers and airmen stationed in Germany. But the German police were determined to keep the port operating, and several thousand extra policemen were brought in from surrounding towns to reinforce the Bremerhaven security force. So when 3,000 demonstrators arrived to block the roads leading to an American barracks, they were outnumbered two to one by 6,000 policemen. About 250 demonstrators were taken away.

In Moscow the Soviet commander of the Warsaw Pact forces warned that if the NATO missiles go into Western Europe the Soviet bloc will deploy more nuclear weapons. The warning, by Chief of Staff Generaly Viktor Kulikov, was the most specific Soviet statement to date. The general added that the Soviets would take what he called "corresponding countermeasures" with regard to U.S. territory and increase the strength of its conventional forces. Jim?

LEHRER: In two other countries in another part of the world, great numbers of people turned out today to demonstrate their feelings. In Seoul, South Korea, they were the emotionalfeelings of grief over the 17 government officials killed in the explosion Sunday in Rangoon, Burma. More than one milloion Koreans participated in a national funeral for the dead, which included four members of President Chun Doo Hwan's cabinet. President Chun, on a goodwill visit to Burma, was only a few blocks away when the bomb exploded at a mausoleum outside Rangoon. The Korean officials killed in the blast were awaiting Chun's arrival for a wreath-laying ceremony. Today President Chun again blamed the Communist government of North Korea for the bombings. The mourning South Koreans were jammed into a square in the southern part of Seoul; all over the country others joined in by observing a minute of silent prayer on signal from the sound of sirens. Relatives wept and some collapsed as Buddhist monks chanted prayers and clashed cymbals in the traditional ceremony of as Buddhist monks chanted prayers and clashed cymbals in the traditional ceremony of farewell for the dead. The United States was represented by Defense Secretary Weinberger, who said he was present to show that Americans stand firmly with South Korea in defense of its security.

And in the Philippines, some 15,000 women marched through the main business district of Manila to protest the regime of President Ferdinand Marcos. The marchers were led by Corazon Aquino, widow of assassinated dissident leader Benigno Aquino. It was only the latest of many anti-Marcos demonstrations that have hit the Philippines since Aquino was killed 3 1/2 weeks ago at the Manila airport. Robin?

MacNEIL: Henry Kissinger and the members of his special commission continued their six-day odyssey through Central America, touching their fourth country in a week, Guatemala. Surrounded by heavy security, the team was briefed by Guatemala's rightist military leaders. Mr. Kissinger did not make a customary arrival statement, and a scheduled meeting with reporters at the U.S. Embassy was canceled. The bipartisan commission, charged with recommending long-term solutions for Central America, has already been to Panama, Costa Rica and El Salvador. They will go to Nicaragua on Saturday, and Judy Woodruff describes what awaits them. Judy?

JUDY WOODRUFF: Robin, the Kissinger commission may not find a warm welcome when it arrives in Nicaragua. Sandinista officials there are still assessing the damage caused by Tuesday's guerrilla attack on the country's largest oil depot about 100 miles northwest of the capital.

[voice-over] The result was this fire on the fuel tank farm at the port of Corinto on Nicaragua's Pacific Coast. The flames consumed 3.2 million gallons of fuel, destroyed eight storage tanks, and damaged several tons of food and part of the coffee crop, which was stored nearby. Seventeen people were injured; the area's entire population -- 25,000 people -- had to be evacuated. One official said Corinto looked like a ghost town. The government said it was part of a rebel campaign to sabotage the economy, and it sent a complaint to Washington because the CIA supports the guerrillas.

[on camera] Nicaraguan authorities say now that the fires are under control. The country's only remaining oil unloading port is on the Atlantic Coast, where rebels destroyed 400,000 gallons of fuel in a September raid. Yet another September rebel attack knocked out a third oil depot at Porto Sandino. For a look at the impact of these attacks we talk with William Leogrande, who is professor political science at the school of government and public administration at American University. For the past year, Mr. Leogrande worked with the Democratic Policy Committee on Central American issues. He has traveled frequently to the region, and he was last in Nicaragua this past August. Mr. Leogrande, just how much damage do you think these attacks have done now to the Nicaraguan economy?

WILLIAM LEOGRANDE: Well, I think they've made a serious impact on the ability of the industrial sector of the Nicaraguan economy to function, particularly with the attacks on oil, an energy source. Nicaragua has no significant indigenous supply of energy. So to attack its energy source -- imported oil -- is to create a situation where industrial production becomes very difficult for them.

WOODRUFF: Well, there was one economist there who was quoted as saying that this could paralyze a significant part of the country. Do you agree with that?

Mr. LEOGRANDE: Well, I think you have to understand that Nicaragua is a very underdeveloped country. What that means is that the bulk of the economy is still agricultural, and a substantial portion of Nicaraguan food is produced in Nicaragua itself. Although these kinds of attacks do serious damage to the industrial sector, and to some extent to the agricultural sector, in fact the Nicaraguan economy is so underdeveloped that there's a limit to how much damage can be done to the economy with this kind of sabotage.

WOODRUFF: But there'll have to be fuel rationing, for example, won't there?

Mr. LEOGRANDE: There will probably have to be fuel rationing as a result of this, yes.

WOODRUFF: Well, we're talking about a very vulnerable economy, aren't we? I mean, there is one -- there is a single oil pipeline; there's a single bridge over which most of the foreign trade passes.

Mr. LEOGRANDE: That demonstrates the vulnerability of the more developed industrial sector of the economy. It also demonstrates how limited that sector is in the economy as a whole. The Nicaraguans produce a larger proportion of their own food -- that is to say, import less food -- than any other country in the region. So Nicaragua, although it would be a serious problem for them, has more of a capacity to operate despite these kind of attacks than probably any other country in Central America.

WOODRUFF: Well, I guess the important question is, what about the goal of these rebels? Are they going to be able to weaken the grip of the government, the Sandinist government, as a result of these kinds of attacks?

Mr. LEOGRANDE: I think that are going to do damage to the economy and they are going to increase people's concern about economic shortages. But the real political question is, who will be blamed for the economic shortages? I think that the government is making a concerted effort, and a successful one, to convince the population that it is the United States and the counterrevolutionary forces that are responsible for the economic sabotage, and therefore are responsible for the general economic problems in society. This is a strategy that Fidel Castro used very effectively in Cuba in the early 1960s.

WOODRUFF: So you're saying it could backfire?

Mr. LEOGRANDE: I think it could backfire very substantially and have the effect of rallying the population around the government.

WOODRUFF: All right, thank you, Mr. Leogrande.

Mr. LEOGRANDE: Thank you.

WOODRUFF: Robin? Nicaraguan Economy

MacNEIL: Another view now from Robert Dornan, national spokesman for the Central American Freedom Alliance, a coalition of conservative groups. Mr. Dornan, a former Republican congressman from California, has traveled to Central America three times in the past year, and was last there in August.Mr. Dornan, regarding this latest attack on the oil installation, do you regard that as a success?

ROBERT DORNAN: Well, I do, and I think that if it had not been for this contra activity both in the northern and the southern part of Nicaragua over the last year, probably the government would have collapsed by now in El Salvador, and that country would be in utter chaos with the first contingent of probably two million more refugees from El Salvador heading to the United States border to add to the one-half million that we already have here in the United States illegally.

MacNEIL: You're suggesting that these attacks have stopped the Nicaraguans from sending supplies, as the U.S. alleges they are doing, to the rebels in El Salvador?

Mr. DORNAN: Exactly, Robin. What you have here, and it's the first time that there has been a situation like this that I can think of in recent history, is a mirror image of the problem inside two countries -- one country pro-American, the other anti-American. What the Nicaraguans are getting is really a taste of their own medicine. The guerrillas, whether they're right-wing or left-wing, anywhere in the world, always have the advantage that the aggressor or offensive forces have of calling their shots. The minute a guard falls asleep at an oil refinery, a group comes in and blows up that refinery. So now Nicaragua finds what it's like to have a revolution without boundaries, whether or not Ortega denies or confirms he made that statement. There would be no revolution existing -- there would still be social injustice -- I'm not saying that would go away. But there'd be no revolution in El Salvador without the Kremlin-Cuban-Managuan connection, and now Nicaragua finds itself on the ropes with the aggressive, tight guerrilla fighter that we would like to develop, as far as spirit is concerned, in the Salvadoran soldier, who has too long stayed in the cortel and not carried the war out to the communist guerrillas in the hills of El Salvador.

MacNEIL: Let me ask you this. Do you happen to know whether the United States supports and backs this concerted effort by the Contras against the Nicaraguan economy? I mean, is this something the United States approves of and backs?

Mr. DORNAN: Well, if I were still an active-duty congressman, I could ask for a top secret briefing -- and not being on the Intelligence Committee, whether or not I would get a full briefing would remain to be seen. But my feeling now that I'm on the outside of government, and just part of that cheering section telling President Reagan, "Hang in there. Your policy is right, we agree with what you're doing, at least in the conservative community," I would have to surmise that the aircraft raid that took place just a few days before I went down there in September, against these same Corinto oil refineries, is something that had to be staged with the kind of money that could only come into a guerrilla effort with the help of maybe Venezuela, the United States or some other stronger South American countries. The motor boat raids along the coast -- I remember just three years ago meeting with one of the contras who came up to Alexandria, here, and what he asked me to help him get -- as a congressman, I had no way to do that -- was clothing and boots, and then he showed me a bunch of color slides and they were really a rag-tag group of people in the woods on that border between Honduras and Nicaragua. And this tremendous change, this metamorphosis in three years into one of the toughest fighting guerrilla groups anywhere in the world has got to have been accomplished with some good planning and good money going in to help them.

MacNEIL: Briefly, what do you think of Mr. Leogrande's idea that this may all backfire and increase sympathy for the Sandinistas?

Mr. DORNAN: Well, I think the sides are pretty well drawn up in the country now. I wouldn't contradict the professor and say that there won't be some rallying of people out in the countryside near the combat areas, but even ther it seems to be a mixed bag. The people divide up. After all, under Somoza they only had meat twice a week outside of the middle class in the city. Now nobody has meat at all for over four months, in the city or out, except in the Intercontinental Hotel where they want to feed the East bloc and Western journalists a little meat.

MacNEIL: Mr. Leogrande, do you agree with that, that people have already chosen sides in Nicaragua?

Mr. LEOGRANDE: No, I don't think that's entirely true. Certainly in the cities the middle class and the upper class are quite alienated from the government. But in the countryside I think you have a situation which is fairly typical of Latin American countries, where people are looking to see if the government produces on its promises, and the government has done, I think, a good job of recruiting supporters in the countryside through its agrarian reform program, through its health and education programs. Now people in the countryside are seeing the return of war and the loss of some of those services because of the expansion of the area of conflict, and I think that the effect of that is going to make people who were neutral or undecided as to their loyalties, that that's going to move them towards support of the government.

MacNEIL: What about that, Mr. Dornan?

Mr. DORNAN: Well, I think that, again, how the average hard-working lovable peasant feels out in the countryside once an entire government has collapsed in the city because they can't feed its people -- remember, all of these nations down there are one-city nations. As Managua went against Somoza, so went the country. And if Managua collapses and there virtually is no middle class support -- Professor Leogrande and I agree on that -- for this new government -- keep in mind that just two weeks ago all nine Catholic bishops -- now, this has not been reported on the networks that I know of, and I think I heard you folks touch on it once. Nine -- count'em, nine. All nine Catholic bishops have said that Nicaragua is now an absolute and total dictatorship. You have a few little rebel renegade liberation theology priests running around saying otherwise, but the clergy has lined up with the Holy Father here, and they've said that jumping out of the frying pan of right-wing dictatorship repression and no real franchise for the people into the hellfire of communist dictatorship, where there is absolutely no way to go for the people economically or with freedom of speech, religion -- we'd better listen to the Catholic bishops, not renegade priests down there who haven't had a collar on in five or six years.

MacNEIL: Mr. Leogrande, do you surmise, as Mr. Dornan does, that the U.S. administration through the CIA knows about and backs this attack on the economy, this strategy of attacking the economy?

Mr. LEOGRANDE: Oh, I think there's very little doubt about that.

MacNEIL: Well, if so, what do you think of that policy for the U.S. to be backing?

Mr. LEOGRANDE: Well, first ofall, it's a policy which contravenes our treaty obligations under the United Nations Charter, under the charter of the Organization of American States, and I think that it's a policy which in the long run is going to be counterproductive, not only because it's going to rally the population around the government, but also because it is bringing about that which we say we are most concerned with; that is, the role of Cuba and the Soviet Union in Nicaragua. The Nicaraguans under attack are going to look for some allies, some source of military assistance, to defend themselves. The Reagan administration has done its best to see that Western countries don't provide that military assistance, so the Nicaraguans are going to turn increasingly to Cuba and the Soviet Union. When this policy began, there were, by U.S. estimates, 200 Cuban military advisers in Nicaragua. Now the estimate is 2,000, and I suggest that that's an indicator of the effectiveness of this policy in dividing Nicaragua from Cuba and the Soviet Union.

MacNEIL: We have to leave it there, gentlemen. I thank you both for joining us. And we will be back in a moment.

[Video postcard -- Saranac Lake, New York] Teen Suicide

LEHRER: There are few human tragedies more disturbing than the death of a young person. When that death is the result of suicide the disturbance is especially painful to all touched by it: parents, other family and friends, as well as the community and society in which the young victim lived. It is a problem that experts have only recently begun to grapple with with any kind of joint of concerted action. One of the first national meetings on this subject among mental health professionals was convened today, in fact, in Topeka, Kansas. They and others are confronted with a new statistical reality: that among American teenagers, suicide has become the third leading cause of death, that the suicide rate among them has tripled since the mid-1950s. We explore this troubling subject from several different perspectives, including that of a Texas community hit by a sudden rash of teenage suicides this summer. Charlayne Hunter-Gault begins our report. Charlayne?

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Jim, nowhere in the country is the matter of teenage suicide more real than in the Dallas, Texas, area. The suicide rate there for young people there between the ages of 15 and 24 is more than twice the national average. The Dallas Suicide and Crisis Center reported that in 1982, 28 Dallas County residents younger than 20 committed suicide. Our report tonight begins with the story of one of those towns -- Plano, Texas, a community just north of Dallas. Kwame Holman narrates.

KWAME HOLMAN [voice-over]: In the last seven months, five teenagers in Plano, Texas, and one in a neighboring suburb have committed suicide. At least 16 other teenagers have tried to kill themselves. The tragic epidemic has intrigued the nation, and it has frightened the parents of Plano. Parents like Diane Jablonski, who moved south to Plano with her three children when her hunsband's company transferred him here.

DIANE JABLONSKI, Plano parent: It's sad and it makes me really want to cry to think that a child finds life so despairing. It really scared me, especially because I have a 14-year-old who is just starting into high school.

HOLMAN [voice-over]: Her son Andy also was frightened. He knew about the 16-year-old who committed suicide in February, the 18-year-old who took his own life six days later, the 14-year-old who shot himself in April, the 17-year-old couple who died in each other's arms in a closed garage in August, and the 18-year-old who put a shotgun to his head when his girlfriend broke up with him.

ANDY JABLONSKI, Plano teen: I was scared at first because, you know, so many kids just going out and killing themselves.

HOLMAN [voice-over]: Andy's younger brother Jason was surprised by the suicides.

JASON JABLONSKI, Plano teen: They were just pressured to the point where they'd have to kill themselves, that surprised me.

HOLMAN [voice-over]: The rash of teenage suicides seemed on the verge of becoming an epidemic. Young people were urged to call the nearby Dallas Suicide and Crisis Center. Hotline workers found themselves handling more and more calls like this one.

HOTLINE WORKER, Dallas Suicide and Crisis Center: Bill, could you put the gun down? Could you put the gun down while we talk? I'll hang in -- I'll stay right here with you, and you put the gun far away from you where you can't get it. Would you do that? I guess you've never felt this low before, have you? About as low as you've gotten then. I sure won't feel very good if you do anything like that. I'll be devastated. I really will. I'll have to admit to you that I'm pretty shaky myself. But you called us for help, and now I really want to help you. Bill, could you make a contract with me? Could you make a suicide contract with me? I mean, say that you wouldn't do anything until you talk to us again? Would you be willing to call us again if it doesn't work out?You got me all involved with you now. I want it to work. Okay? Bye-bye.

HOLMAN [voice-over]: The community wanted to know why people were feeling so suicidal, but in Plano those answers are hard to find. It looks like the perfect affluent suburban community, filled with beautiful parks and impressive looking schools. It's a clean city, designed for family living. So why are young people killing themselves in this town that looks like the American Dream? Some experts think it may be because Plano is growing too fast. In 1970 it was a town of 17,000. Today 90,000 live here.

DEEJAY: Loverboy on 92 1/2, KAFM-FM, Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, 9 o'clock.

HOLMAN [voice-over]: But not that many settle here. They stay only until their next job transfer.[pop song lyrics] The dislocation and uprooting are hard on the teenagers. Many of them have no guarantee that they will be at the same school next year. In fact, at this high school, nearly one student in 10 is new to the school district this year.

Ms. JABLONSKI: I think the stress of moving is a big factor in kids' attitudes in Plano. They want to become a part of the community.

HOLMAN [voice-over]: Judie Smith, program director at the Dallas Suicide and Crisis Center agrees that isolation is a problem for teenagers.

JUDIE SMITH, Dallas Suicide and Crisis Center program director: I think if you look at the nature of suicide, the dynamics of suicide, what you'll find more often is an experience of loss. That loss of support when they're moved from one community to the next is there.

HOLMAN [voice-over]: Plano also is a town that puts a premium on achievement. Its teenagers feel the pressure to succeed.

Ms. JABLONSKI: It's a very, very strong thing here. Number-one football team, number-one band, number-one cheerleading squad. It's good to be that, you know, proud, and really go for it, but you sometimes feel like, you know, if you're average, you're a failure here.

ANDY: It's mostly people compete with each other and try to be better than their neighbors and sort of that stuff like that.

JASON: They want to get the best grades and they want to be better than everyone in their class.

ANDY: It gets too intense.

Ms. SMITH: The pressure may be put on in a subtle way. They may not be told directly, "You will be considered successful only if you achieve this, but the kids may look at the parents, and the parents are very achievement-oriented themselves."

HOLMAN [voice-over]: It's hard to pinpoint the specific causes for suicide, but whatever the causes, the citizens of Plano want help. They got that help in a meeting called by the school board and led by Judie Smith.

Ms. SMITH: I am convinced that the most effective way to prevent a suicide or to lower the suicide rate is to have people like yourselves be aware of the problem, be able to recognize some of the warning signs, and then get involved.

PARENT: Why do you think that my generation did not consider suicide as an option, and this generation -- this is a viable option they think about, where with us, I don't think it entered many of my peers' minds to do something.

Ms. SMITH: I wish there was an easy answer to that -- our job in preventing suicide would be a lot easier. I think we need to look at some of the sociological factors. We need to look at the increase in divorce rate, number one. We need to look at the mobile society. When we were young we may have had aunts, uncles, grandparents, even the neighborhood grocer that we used to go down and buy candy every day, okay. These were friends that we knew as we grew up. That's what's missing.

HOLMAN [voice-over]: In the schools young people have turned to non-traditional sources for help.

POLICE OFFICER: Don't think of me as the heat, or don't think of me as, you know, it's a big bust. Every time I walk out there somebody yells, "It's a bust. Hide the stash." You know? I'm here more or less to help you all to keep you out of trouble.

HOLMAN [voice-over]: The police had come into several schools to talk about drugs and alcohol, but a surprising number of teenagers turned to them as confidants who could be trusted with more personal problems. Officer Rick MacDonald.

RICK MacDONALD, Plano police: Some of the problems in the school, some of the family problems that kids were having were a lot greater than we had expected. Sometimes they'd come to me and they tell me things that they don't tell their parents. And it makes you wonder, you know, why can't they talk to their parents at home, and why can't their parents talk to them?

HOLMAN [voice-over]: MacDonald believes that one way to avoid future suicides is to radically increase communication at home -- communication that could prevent minor problems from turning into major crises.

Officer MacDONALD: Our best advice that I could give any parent, you know, to talk to the kids. When you're traveling, your kid gets home from school, please talk to them. And some of the kids feel like they don't have a home life, and that's what we're trying to build back up here in Plano.

Ms. JABLONSKI: Well, I can agree with the police officer when he says, you know, to listen to your kids. And it seems more so here in Plano than in other communities that we've lived in, is that the parents are trying so hard to keep up with the rest ofthe community that they aren't there for their kids. And to me parenting is not giving things to your children; it's giving yourself to your children.

HOLMAN [voice-over]: The parents of Plano heard the message and they started listening more to their children, but at the meeting Judie Smith warned them that they had one more lesson to learn, that they needed to confront the subject of suicide openly and directly.

Ms. SMITH: If we accomplish one thing tonight, I hope it will be to get you over the fear of using that word, suicide, because we firmly believe being that direct about it will be truly helpful to the person who is suicidal.

HUNTER-GAULT: Although the rate of teenage suicide is increasing, it is not a new phenomenon, nor is it limited just to Texas. We hear now more from a mother whose 14-year-old daughter committed suicide 10 years ago. She is Paulette Loomis. She has been active in crisis counseling in Falmouth, Massachusetts, and she joins us tonight from public television station WHYY in Philadelphia. Mrs. Loomis, 10 years have passed. From what you know now, do you know why your daugher committed suicide?

PAULETTELOOMIS: Well, that's really hard to know. I think probably because she had a low feeling of self-worth, although we tried to build her up. I think she withdrew from society. I think she was very sensitive and highly perceptive, and I think she didn't realize that the pain she felt in trying to square her idealism with what she saw in the world around her wasn't a forever thing.

HUNTER-GAULT: In hindsight, can you see any signals that she might have been sending then that would have alerted you to this impending tragedy?

Ms. LOOMIS: Well, yes, I think there were signals. I think there always are. She, in the summer before this happened, which was in December, had taken some pills. She, however, said no, it really wasn't an attempt, she was trying to call attention to things that were going on with her sister.

HUNTER-GAULT: You mean, you knew about that and asked her about it?

Ms. LOOMIS: I knew about that, and we started family counseling, you know, feeling that if the whole family went together that would help. However, I think that particular situation would have been better had she had her own counselor. In other things that I saw, I noticed that she stopped being interested in her clothing, in keeping her hair clean. I had to mention to her, you know, that she should do these things. Some people give things away. We found in her writing after her death -- "Who -- what will happen to my treasures when I'm gone?"

HUNTER-GAULT: This was a diary she kept?

Ms. LOOMIS: She kept a journal. She wrote letters, and she asked us not to read them.

HUNTER-GAULT: During the time that she was writing them.

Ms. LOOMIS: That's right, and we found about 80 poems, a lot of them to do with her suicidal feelings, after her death.

HUNTER-GAULT: Do you have any feeling now that when she asked you not to read them she might have been asking you to read them?

Ms. LOOMIS: No, I don't think so. I think she really didn't want us to know the extent of her pain, and she did have a suicide pact with her sister in which it was agreed that no one would tell her father and me the extent of her feelings.

HUNTER-GAULT: But her sister obviously didn't go through --

Ms. LOOMIS: She didn't tell us, and it was a heavy thing for her sister. You know, she was only two years older. Here was this 14-year-old and her sister Laurel was only 16. It's a very heavy thing, you know. What do you do?

HUNTER-GAULT: Well, we'll come back. Thank you. Jim?

LEHRER: Mrs. Loomis' daughter's Vivienne's story inspired a psychiatrist and a schoolteacher to write a book about her and her tragic death. The teacher was Holly Hickler, who teaches English at the Cambridge, Massachusetts school Vivienne attended. Six years ago she created a class that she still teaches called "Adolescence." It's designed to help teenagers cope with the kinds of stress that can lead to suicide. Ms. Hickler joins us tonight from public station WGBH in Boston. Ms. Hickler, do you speak directly about suicide is this class?

HOLLY HICKLER: Yes, we speak directly about a lot of issues in that class. I started that class after Vivienne's death and during the time we were thinking of writing the book. And I was so concerned that children have a forum, and that they have touch with adults, too. So we invented a course called "Adolescence" and we focused it on five major issues that adolescents have to meet with. They don't necessarily solve them; that's a lifetime thing. But these are the issues we came up with: separating from family, integrating sexuality with caring, visualizing a personal future, making deeper friendships, maintaining your selfesteem without unusual reward or punishment.

LEHRER: Is the class designed for those young people who are in fact having problems that could lead to suicide, or is it designed for anybody who is interested in discussing this?

Ms. HICKLER: It's anyone who's interested. Actually, addlescence is a very stormy time for most people, and the ups and downs and the depressions and the losses in self-esteem come out in this class, and I hope that it helps those who might be gathering steam and might be possibly thinking of suicide, and lets them ventilate it. One thing we do in the class is interview adults and ask them how they got through all these issues that we talk about with each other.

LEHRER: Do you seek, as the teacher in the classroom, to identify kids who might be potentially suicidal and then try to deal with that problem in some professional way?

Ms. HICKLER: I'm always very aware of deeply unhappy kids, and like all schools, the Cambridge school in Weston has our psychological aides, and we are all alerted. In fact, after Vivienne died, we started a seminar for teachers so that we would try to funnel kids to counseling. One of the problems is that adolescents don't make very good clients. They tend to look upon it as a sort of parental situation.

LEHRER: Is it structured in a way that if you -- say, another teacher in the school, a counselor or whatever in the school, determines that there is a young person who is potentially suicidal, can that kid be ordered to go to your class?

Ms. HICKLER: No, and I don't think that would be a good idea. It's always an oversubscribed class, so that I give it twice every year. I don't think it would be good to force people into that. We have to respect everyone's way of dealing with problems. But I think many kids are attracted to it because they hear about it from each other.

LEHRER: I see. Thank you. Charlayne?

HUNTER-GAULT: A view now from a professional analyst who counsels troubled children and teenagers. She is Dr. Cynthia Pfeffer, a psychiatrist at New York Hospital, and professor of psychology at Cornell University Medical College. Doctor, you've heard a teacher now and a mother talk about reasons that they feel young people commit suicide. What other insight can you give us into the reasons?

CYNTHIA PFEFFER: Adolescence in general is a time of identity formation.It takes many years for one's sense of self to develop, and those youngsters who are suicidal tend to be having more difficulty with a sense of identity. Many of them are feeling angry at frustrations. Others feel very sad; many feel lonely. The stresses currently in modern society are often overwhelming for a large number of adolescents. Many of these become so sad, angry or lonely, that they begin to think about suicide.

HUNTER-GAULT: What do you mean, the stresses?What kind of stresses?

Dr. Pfeffer: Today's society is quite mobile. There are also great shifts in population --

HUNTER-GAULT: Same thing we heard in the Plano case.

Dr. PFEFFER: Yes, I fully agree with much of what was said about that. There's one thing I would like to add, though. There have been some studies that point out that as the population of adolescents increases, the possibility of risk for suicide also increases. Also, as the population decreases, the suicide might decrease also. We heard in the Plano situation that that's a very rapidly growing population of youngsters, so that in that small town one would expect the condensation of adolescents to be such that there may be an increase in the number of adolescents who would commit suicide.

HUNTER-GAULT: I was intrigued by the parent in there who said that suicide just wasn't a viable option for her generation.Are these stresses much worse now for young people than they were for her generation?

Dr. PFEFFER: Many of the adolescents report that they are. They feel -- they worry about the future.They worry about whether they would get into other schools later on, or if they would find jobs, or if they would become successful at whatever they wish to do. Many of them find each other, and another important factor is the discussions among adolescents. Many of the adolescents I've spoken with who were suicidal tell me many stories about friends of theirs who also have thought about suicide.

HUNTER-GAULT: From your observations and work with young people, is there a typical profile of a suicide-prone teenager, or is there a suicidal personality that you can define?

Dr. PFEFFER: The teenagers who I would be most concerned with are those who seem to have a change in their personality and their functioning -- their functioning socially and in school.Many of them are unable to concentrate. They may withdraw, as we heard Mrs. Loomis speaking about her daughter. Others take to other types of behavior. They may leave home. They may become erratic. They may become very angry and have outbursts of anger. Many of them try to signal their distress. They write notes; they may tell friends; they may even try to hurt themselves in a less serious way initially as a signal.

HUNTER-GAULT: To gain attention?

Dr. PFEFFER: Yes.

HUNTER-GAULT: Right. Jim?

LEHRER: Mrs. Loomis, is there anything that you would like to add to that, in terms of signals that folks could look for in teenagers as warning signals about the potential suicide?

Ms. LOOMIS: Well, depression and moodiness, and I think that's the signal for any parent. And I think that what the woman in Texas said about talking to children -- oh, I think it was the policeman. I think that's true, and if you can't talk to your child, find somebody who can. It may be a parent, it may be the other parent in the family. It may be a teacher. It may be anyone. But I think when you find that this is going on, you try everything. And I feel, in looking back, that perhaps we didn't try enough.

LEHRER: Ms. Hickler, in Boston, what kind of signs do you look for? Let's put it this way. What kind of signs would you recommend that people who are watching now who may be around teenagers, what should they look for?

Ms. HICKLER: I think it's -- I agree with what Paulette Loomis said, and with Dr. Pfeffer. I think when you see depression and isolation and withdrawal and a drop in performance, all of those things would concern me as a teacher and as a mother. And I think teachers have a kind of unique opportunity because they're with kids every day. They see them more than their own parents do. [They] have a unique opportunity to observe it and do something about it when it first starts.

LEHRER: Dr. Pfeffer, what do you think of what Ms. Hickler is doing, dealing with this thing in an open classroom?

Dr. PFEFFER: I think it's a very progressive approach. I think that more should be done in the classroom, and I fully agree that the teachers are often the first people to see a child who might be seriously upset and might consider suicide. I think also educating youngsters is a way of potential prevention, and of course intervention, too.

LEHRER: In other words, you would agree with the woman in Dallas, the suicide prevention professional, who said the word should be used openly, it should be discussed. You would agree with that, correct?

Dr. PFEFFER: I definitely agree with that. In fact, I had one youngster who I asked about it. I asked if that youngster ever thought of hurting herself. She immediately said to me, "What do you mean? Do you think that I want to kill myself, do I want to commit suicide?" These youngsters are fully aware of suicide. They know what it means, and they've had many thoughts about it.

LEHRER: Mrs. Loomis, was the word suicide ever used by your daughter in any conversation with you or anyone else?

Ms. LOOMIS: Yes, and I did talk to her about it, and not very long before she finally died I asked her, "Are you still thinking about suicide?" and she said, "Well, I did think about it, but I'm glad I went through that, and I'm not thinking about it now." And I think when she said that she really meant it. But something happened there that she went really down into the depths and couldn't figure another way to handle the situation.

LEHRER: Dr. Pfeffer, is this new awareness of this, the fact that there's a meeting today in Topeka, Kansas, that I mentioned at the beginning, the fact that we are talking about it tonight -- is this kind of thing going to lead, do you think, to a -- is is possible to solve this problem, or are there such societal problems involved that don't look for any quick fixes from the mental health professionals?

Dr. PFEFFER: No, I'm very hopeful. I think educating not only professionals but the community at large is extremely helpful and will help in decreasing the suicide rate. Education, knowing where to go, who ask for help. The police person that we saw is a great asset to the community. Youngsters not only go to professionals, but they seek out other people who they feel comfortable with. The sense of increasing supports is, I think, one of the most essential aspects of suicide prevention.

LEHRER: I see. Ms. Hickler, you have been teaching your course now for six years. Have there been any instances where you feel, when you went home that day, that you felt that you had actually prevented a young person from taking his or her own life?

Ms. HICKLER: I felt that there were many forums when upset kids felt better by talking to each other and by hearing from older people how they had weathered some pretty bad storms in their own adolescence. One of the kids brought in his grandmother, and his grandmother said, "I have four pieces of advice for you for the kids. You can stand on your own feet. You can survive despair. You can find your own community. And you can face losses." And things like that, with kids being able to write about, read about, discuss the things that concern them, I do think prevents the sort of buildup of isolation that leads to suicide.

LEHRER: Well, Ms. Hickler, I think that's a good place to end it. Thank you very much in Boston; Dr. Pfeffer, thank you; and Mrs. Loomis, in Philadelphia, thank you for being with us. Robin?

MacNEIL: Before we go, here again are the main points in the news.

President Reagan announced he will appoint his national security adviser, William Clark, to be secretary of the interior, succeeding James Watt.

The President also gave the go-ahead to set up a committee for his re-election, and the man who will head it says he has no doubt Mr. Reagan will be a candidate.

The White House is tired of public differences between economic adviser Martin Feldstein and Treasury Secretary Regan. It is reviewing their speeches before they make them.

The Soviet Warsaw Pact commander warned that the Soviets will deploy more nuclear weapons if NATO puts U.S. missiles in Europe this winter.

There was more fighting in Lebanon, and talks between the warring factions took place.

Israel's new government faced a new political crisis. The finance minister resigned when leaks killed a plan to link the faltering economy directly with the U.S. dollar.

Good night, Jim.

LEHRER: Good night, Robin. And we'll see you tomorrow night. I'm Jim Lehrer. Thank you and good night.