The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour

MR. MacNeil: Good evening. Leading the news this Monday, Soviet Leader Gorbachev opened talks with Fidel Castro in Havanna, President Bush said he supports the goal of ending Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the U.S. accused nationalist guerrillas of violating the Namibian independence agreement. We'll have details in our News Summary in a moment. Judy Woodruff is in Washington tonight. Judy.

MS.WOODRUFF: After the News Summary, Mikhail Gorbachev's visit to Cuba is our lead focus. We have an extended report from Correspondent Charles Krause. Then the defense opens its side of the story in the Oliver North trial. Nina Totenberg joins us to explain. Next, Elizabeth Brackett looks at the bitterly fought race for Mayor of Chicago, we have a report on how the Alaskan oil spill is affecting one small fishing village and Essayist Anne Taylor Fleming wonders about an aging basketball star.NEWS SUMMARY

MR. MacNeil: Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev spent a day in talks with Fidel Castro in Havanna. After a massive and enthusiastic welcome by Cubans yesterday, Gorbachev laid a wreath today at the monument to Jose Marti, the poet revolutionary who is Cuba's national hero. Then addressing his host simply as Fidel, Gorbachev toured an exhibition of Cuban economic and industrial development. The two leaders went into seclusion for six hours of talks. Gorbachev's references on arrival to the tremendous future for Latin America made observers think he intends the Havanna visit as the springboard for an eventual tour of Latin America, a continent no Soviet leader has ever visited. Judy.

MS.WOODRUFF: Here in Washington, President Bush met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and said afterwards that he agrees there is a need for a properly structured Middle East Peace Conference and for an end to Israel's occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The President's statements came in the Rose Garden after the hour long meeting.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Egypt and the United States share the goals of security for Israel, the end of the occupation, and achievement of Palestinian political rights. These are the promises held out by a sustained commitment to a negotiated settlement towards which a properly structured international conference can play a useful role at an appropriate time.

PRESIDENT HOSNI MUBARAK, Egypt: A majority of the Israel people is shaping up in support of peace. Worldly powers are adopting constructive policies designed to help the parties reach agreement. In short, the situation is ripe for an active effort more than ever before.

MS.WOODRUFF: President Bush's statements are seen by some observers as possibly exerting pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, who is due to visit Mr. Bush this Thursday.

MR. MacNeil: The United States said today that the hard won agreement to make Namibia independent is in danger of collapsing and blamed Namibian nationalist fighters. The State Department said that SWAPO, the South West Africa People's Organization, had violated the accord which went into effect April 1st by crossing the border this weekend. Today SWAPO guerrillas were fighting South African forces. We have a report from David Simmons of Worldwide Television news.

DAVID SIMMONS: The day began with intense activity on all fronts. South Africa, which has brought demobilized units back into action, sent more troops North. The United Nations too dispatched more soldiers to the battle zone where more than 160 SWAPO guerrillas and Namibian policemen have died in the three days of fierce fighting. In the bush land of Northern Namibia, the first evidence of South Africa's response to the alleged SWAPO's incursion, the bodies of 21 black nationalist guerrillas. Pretoria claims up to a thousand guerrillas crossed the border from Angola. The gun battles, which broke out on a day the U.N.-brokered cease- fire was to take effect, took their toll on South African forces too. In Zimbabwe, SWAPO Leader Sam Nigoma called South Africa's actions over the weekend deliberate provocation to delay the start of Namibia's peace plan. But in Capetown, South Africa's Foreign Minister Pete Botha was adamant SWAPO is to blame for putting Namibia's independence plan on the rocks.

MR. MacNeil: In Haiti, the government claimed last night that a coup by disgruntled army units had been foiled, but today the rebels threatened to attack the capital city unless their leader was released. Reuters reported that heavy shooting broke out today on the outskirts of the capital Port Au Prince. The so-called "leopard battalion" of the army also blocked roads near the capital to block demands for release of their commander, Himler Ribu. "If Ribu is not released," the rebels warned on the radio, "we will reduce the city to ashes."

MS.WOODRUFF: The defense began to present its case today in the Oliver North trial. A witness testified that the late CIA Director William Casey had said that President Reagan designated Oliver North to handle the Nicaraguan Contra's military need in the event of a Congressional ban on official U.S. aid. North contends that he was taking care of the Contras under orders from higher ups. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court today refused to stop North's trial or to block the trials of two of his co-defendants, former National Security Adviser John Poindexter and arms dealer Albert Hakim. The Justices didn't give a reason, but they rejected North's attorney's argument that grand jurors and grand jury witnesses had been exposed to the highly publicized Congressional testimony of all three men.

MR. MacNeil: Relatives of people killed in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland last December met President Bush today and complained of insensitive treatment by the government. They told the government they'd been treated with incompetence and lack of compassion by the State Department. Afterwards, they rallied in a park across the street from the White House and called for a Congressional probe of the bombing. Bert Ammerman, brother of one of the dead, said it now appeared that the tragedy could have been prevented.

BERT AMMERMAN, Brother of Victim: The information, the revelations that have taken place in the last four to five weeks, is an indication to most Americans that there was enough forewarning to detect the plastic bombing that was in place on Pan Am Flight 103. The only answer that we'll get an answer to that is to have an independent ad hoc committee to bring all these agencies together to answer these questions.

MR. MacNeil: Transportation Sec. Samuel Skinner announced new regulations to prevent sky terrorism. He said all airlines would have to obey all Federal Aviation Administration bulletins warning of possible threats and steps to avoid them. Until now, such recommendations have been advisory. Skinner said all airlines would have to install devices to detect plastic explosives in high risk airports throughout the world, a measure that could take years to complete.

MS.WOODRUFF: In Covington, Tennessee, workers continue to try to locate the body of an eighth person believed to have been killed when a bridge collapsed Saturday night. A tractor trailer and three cars went into the rivers of the Hatchi River when a 60 foot section of the bridge gave way, killing at least seven people. State officials said months of flooding on the river may have caused the bridge piers to weaken.

MR. MacNeil: Exxon apologized today for the Alaska oil spill, publishing the policy in full page newspaper ads around the country. In addition, the company defended its handling of the spill, claiming it moved swiftly and competently to minimize the damage. The oil slick has almost doubled in size since Friday, spreading to more than a thousand square miles, an area bigger than the State of Rhode Island. The tanker's captain, Joseph Hazelwood, is still in hiding, with a warrant out for his arrest. There was an oil tanker spill in West Germany today but it was not nearly as serious as the one in Alaska. A tanker carrying heating oil ran aground in the Rhine River during the middle of the night. It leaked about 3,000 gallons of oil, but cleanup crews got most of it.

MS.WOODRUFF: The San Diego Yacht Club announced today that it will appeal a New York judge's ruling which takes the America's Cup sailing prize away from San Diego, and gives it instead to a New Zealand club. The Justice ruled that the U.S. team should not have won the cup last September, because it used a multi-hulled catamaran, instead of the traditional mono-hull sailboat used by the New Zealand club. That's it for the News Summary. Still ahead, Mikhail meets Fidele, Oliver North goes on the offensive, Chicago's bitter mayoral race, Alaska after the spill and an aging athlete's last hurrah. FOCUS - DOS AMIGOS?

MR. MacNeil: Our lead story tonight, the visit of Soviet Leader Gorbachev to Fidele Castro's Cuba. Castro, the now graying revolutionary, has dealt with five Soviet leaders since Kruschev. With Gorbachev, he confronts for the first time a Soviet leader younger than himself, and Gorbachev also may be bringing some of his new ideas to Castro, who remains one of the few world leaders still promoting unvarnished Marxist/Leninist ideology. Experts who make a career watching Cuba and its Soviet patron are following this visit with special interest, and Correspondent Charles Krause talked with several of them. Here is his report.

CHARLES KRAUSE: Even before Mikhail Gorbachev landed in Havanna yesterday, there was general agreement among the U.S. experts. They believe Gorbachev's historic visit could mark a turning point in relations between Cuba and the Soviet Union and potentially between Cuba and the United States. Gorbachev is the first Soviet leader to visit Cuba since 1974. By all accounts, the purpose of his trip is to reaffirm Fidel Castro's standing as a friend and ally of the Soviet Union, and despite improved relations to underscore Cuba's continuing value as a Soviet military outpost just 90 miles from the United States. An estimated 1/2 million Cubans lined the highway yesterday as Gorbachev and Castro made their way from the airport to the city, but despite the well orchestrated display of paternalfriendship, Gorbachev's visit comes at a time of mounting tension between Cuba and the Soviet Union. Castro disapproves of glasnost and perestroika. He's said that publicly on many occasions. He's also believed to fear that Gorbachev may make a deal with the United States to reduce tensions in Central America by cutting military aid to Castro's friends, the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. For his part, Gorbachev is believed to be tired of spending billions of dollars a year to subsidize Cuba's unproductive economy. He's also said to be tired of Castro's public sniping at his policies. Jiri Valenta is an expert on Soviet/Cuban relations at the University of Miami. He's been watching the visit closely.

MR. KRAUSE: Why has Fidele Castro been so critical, openly critical, of glasnost and perestroika?

JIRI VALENTA, University of Miami: Well, he believes, as he says to Latin American leaders, and I interviewed some of their advisers, that Gorbachev doesn't know what he is doing, that he is a bit naive about Contra revolution. He believes that Gorbachev doesn't have too much revolutionary experience, and indeed I hear, as he has told to a couple of Latin American visitors, when he was fighting Gorbachev was at law school, so Gorbachev is younger leader, the first Soviet leader who's younger than any other Soviet leaders he dealt with before. He is the last Communist leader who has been around for a long time.

MR. KRAUSE: Castro?

MR. VALENTA: Castro. He's got certain prestige with an international Communist movement. He is brave. He's supported many radical regimes. He's afraid in the era of new thinking this will disappear, but Castro believes that revolution now in Latin America, in El Salvador, in Namibia, in South Africa, he believes that the Soviet Union is betraying world revolution.

ENRIQUE BALOYRA, University of Miami: I think internally within the Soviet Politburo Gorbachev has to show not that he can discipline Castro but that he's not afraid of him.

MR. KRAUSE: Enrique Baloyra is a professor of Latin American politics at the University of Miami. He says Castro has forged powerful alliances with Gorbachev's enemies in the Kremlin, Ligachev and others as opposed to glasnost and perestroika. As a result, Baloyra says, the visit to Havanna is as much a test of Gorbachev's strength as it is of Castro's. The Soviet leader is not free to deal with Castro as he might like.

ENRIQUE BALOYRA: It is not a satellite, this is no Bulgaria. No Russian leader can go into Cuba and scream at you; the Cubans will not stand for that. So that's not what's in the offing. It's not someone who is coming to talk to a subordinate but someone who is a more powerful ally, a wealthier ally, saying, look, we have a pretty big bill here, and after all, we don't have that much to show for in terms of material realizations outside health and...you know, factories are not doing well and there's too much military expense, and there are a number of things that really don't jive.

MR. KRAUSE: Wayne Smith knows Cuba well. He was head of the U.S. intersection in Havanna in the early '80s. Now a professor at Johns-Hopkins in Washington, Smith says that he believes Gorbachev has a very specific agenda for his meetings with Castro and that the Soviet leader will be diplomatic but firm in their private talks.

WAYNE SMITH: Johns-Hopkins University: No. 1, he will wish to persuade, urge Castro to stop any public criticism of perestroika and glasnost. And I think he will point out to Castro that running the Soviet Union is after all his responsibility. Whether Castro wishes to accept perestroika and glasnost for Cuba is his affair, but leave the running of the Soviet Union to me, and he probably then will follow on by saying, and by the way, speaking of that massive Soviet economic assistance on which you depend so heavily, you really should make better use of that assistance in the development of your economy, in the rational more effective development of your economy because that assistance cannot continue indefinitely at such a high level, thus making two points, that there are certain leverages that the Soviet Union has to exert against Cuba and that Castro really must make better use of the Soviet economic assistance.

MR. KRAUSE: If Castro has a weak point, it's the Cuban economy. Totally dependent on sugar and Soviet economic assistance, even Cuban government officials admit privately that socialism in the tropics is largely a failure. Food and consumer goods are often in short supply. Yet, Castro has ruled out the kinds of economic and political reforms Gorbachev is trying in the Soviet Union. Ernesto Betancourt is Director of Radio Marti, a U.S. Government radio station which broadcasts to Cuba. He says Castro views reform as counter revolutionary.

ERNESTO BETANCOURT, Radio Marti: He is very unhappy with the idea of perestroika. He feels that this is abandoning Marxism and Communism and going into capitalism. He had very openly been critical of that alternative.

MR. KRAUSE: Is there another reason though? Is it because it would imply a greater political opening in Cuba, itself?

ERNESTO BETANCOURT: Definitely, he finds it very threatening.

MR. KRAUSE: While official Cuban radio has virtually banned reports of glasnost and perestroika and downplayed Gorbachev's visit, Radio Marti has provided full coverage. Castro, himself, has reportedly complained that news of reform in the Soviet Union is being used to undermine his regime. That assessment was confirmed by Cuban exiles we talked with at La Esquina De Tecas, a popular Cuban restaurant in Miami. Luis Fors is an attorney whose father still lives in Havanna. Fors says he talked with his father last week, just a few days before Gorbachev's arrival.

LUIS FORS, Cuban Exile: They're fascinated with the visit of Gorbachev. They're eagerly awaiting that visit, just like they eagerly await for any news from the Soviet Union. Magazines, newspapers from the Soviet Union are purchased immediately as they come in; it's unbelievable.

MR. KRAUSE: Why?

LUIS FORS: Because they're eager for news about glasnost and perestroika. They see that as a possibility for having their own glasnost and perestroika in Havanna. To them, that's fantastic. That's why I'm saying we have to back up Gorbachev in what he's trying to do in the Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe, and that's why we have to push for restoration of economic ties, and recognize the Castro government, so we can go in there, we can actually visit Cuba freely, like we've been trying to do for the last two or three years.

MR. KRAUSE: So in some ways at this point, it's almost as if the United States and the Soviet Union have certain interests in common in Cuba?

LUIS FORS: Just like they have interest globally and we've seen it in the reduction of tensions, global tensions, in Afghanistan, Angola, and now Nicaragua. We should see the reduction of tensions in Cuba in the very near future.

MR. KRAUSE: Whether Gorbachev can convince Castro to help reduce Central America, to be less critical of glasnost and perestroika, and to become more flexible at home may not become apparent for some time.

WAYNE SMITH: Johns-Hopkins University: No, I do not expect any significant change in Soviet/Cuban policy toward Central America to be announced. I do not expect any announcement of any change really in Cuban/Soviet relations to be announced. They will reach an accommodation if you will in private, and in public, the stress will be on solidarity and friendship and the close relations between the two countries.

MR. KRAUSE: As you look at this visit, do you think it could be potentially significant for the United States?

JIRI VALENTA, University of Miami: It could be potentially significant if Gorbachev succeeds convincing Fidele Castro that he has to adopt principles of glasnost and perestroika. That would strengthen the hands of those in this country who would like to have better relationship with Cuba, so I think that the visit and subsequent decision would be very decisive in American/Cuban relations.

MR. KRAUSE: That having been said, Valenta and others believe Moscow's relationship with Castro today is not unlike Washington's relationship to Ferdinand Marcos a few years ago. Like Marcos, Castro may have outlived his usefulness and there is speculation that while in Havanna, Gorbachev may have begun to look for Castro's successor.

JIRI VALENTA: I don't think the Soviets are ever going to give up on Cuba. All they want is more rational economic decision making, perestroika, more openness so there is no discontent, and better relationship between the Soviet Union and Cuba, so they don't have to pay for everything in Cuba. That's what they want and they tried to accomplish this with Castro. If it's impossible with Castro, I think they might be looking for a successor tactfully.

MR. KRAUSE: What do you think Gorbachev hopes to gain from this visit?

ENRIQUE BALOYRA, University of Miami: Legitimacy among Latin American Communists, a sort of blessing of Castro in the sense of saying this guy is okay, this guy is no dummy, he's not selling us guys out.

MR. KRAUSE: What do you think Castro hopes to gain from this trip?

ENRIQUE BALOYRA: Castro hopes to gain another one of his magic acts in which he will outstage a foreign leader, in which he will show his immediate entourage that he is still Desi Arnez, that he can make the bongo play, you know, and the people dance to this tune, and that he still is going to get the girl, you know, and continue to deliver aid to the Cuban people, and when the Soviet is taking off, turn around to his lieutenants and say, we did it again, guys, we pulled it off again.

MR. KRAUSE: Gorbachev is scheduled to make a major address in Cuba tomorrow and to leave Cuba for London on Wednesday.

MR. MacNeil: Still to come on the Newshour, the Oliver North trial, the Mayoral election in Chicago, the Alaska oil spill, and an essay on aging athletes. UPDATE - DAY IN COURT

MS.WOODRUFF: Next tonight the case of the United States versus Oliver North. The trial, now in its tenth week, entered a new phase today. The defense began presenting its case, calling four witnesses to testify for the former White House aide. Nina Totenberg of National Public Radio was there and now she joins us. Nina, thanks for being with us.

MS.TOTENBERG: My pleasure.

MS.WOODRUFF: What was it that the defense was trying to prove today? And then tell us whether they achieved that or not?

NINA TOTENBERG, National Public Radio: Well, we don't yet know exactly what the defense strategy would be, but I would say their best witness today was a fellow by the name of Vincent Canestrero, and he proved or at least he testified to a number of things that the defense wants on the record. Mr. Canestrero said that he worked for an agency of the United States Government unidentified, but it later became quite clear that it was the CIA, and he later was transferred to the National Security Council where he worked with North. Now the big bomb shell that he testified to today was that he had been present at a meeting with CIA Director William Casey and others at which Casey said that Oliver North had been selected by higher ups to in essence replace the CIA if the Boland Amendment passed banning military and intelligence aid to the Contras, that Oliver North would become the contact man for para military operations for the Contras, and he testified that Casey said that that authorization for that deed, for Oliver North becoming the contact man, that it was authorized by the President of the United States. He said Mr. Casey said he discussed it with the President of the United States and this is how it was to be handled. That was the big item that he testified to.

MS.WOODRUFF: Now is this something that has come out before now, or is this the first time we've heard this in so many words?

MS.TOTENBERG: This is the first time we've heard this in so many words and I'm told that Mr. Canestrero did not say that precisely at all in his grand jury testimony and you can be sure that he will be under rigorous cross-examination on this point tomorrow.

MS.WOODRUFF: He was not cross-examined today?

MS.TOTENBERG: He was not cross-examined today. He also testified that there was great concern at the National Security Council about leaks from Congress and he testified about threats to North's life from the terrorist organization Abu Nidal, and those threats seemed very real, and he testified about how he had tried to get protection for North and had been unable to do that and of course, when North did get protection in the form of a security fence paid for by arms dealer Richard Secord, that became the basis for one of the charges against him accepting an illegal gratuity.

MS.WOODRUFF: So he was trying to explain that there was a reason, there was a real need for this kind of security?

MS.TOTENBERG: That's right. So he was a very good witness for the defense.

MS.WOODRUFF: Now what about the other three witnesses, did any of them have anything that materially affected the way this is going?

MS.TOTENBERG: Well, the most interesting other witness was the former CIA General Counsel, Stanley Sporkin, now a federal judge. And I would say that he turned the tables on the defense. You know, in the past, we've talked about prosecution witnesses who became witnesses for the defense. This was a defense witness who became a witness for the prosecution, and he was testifying on direct examination about the finding that he drafted for the President to sign, authorizing the Iran arms sales and authorizing that notification to Congress be deferred. Brendan Sullivan, the defense council, kept referring to it as "no notification" and he kept correcting him and saying "deferred notification". On cross- examination, Prosecutor David Zorno really made the most of Sporkin, and he asked him a series of questions, did this authorization, did you contemplate lying to Congress, answer, no, did you contemplate altering or shredding documents, answer, no, did you contemplate lying to the attorney general, answer, no.

MS.WOODRUFF: So what's the significance of that all coming to?

MS.TOTENBERG: Well, the significance really could be read on Oliver North's face. He got bright red when Sporkin was testifying about how he had been around a long time and he would never lie to Congress.

MS.WOODRUFF: "He" Sporkin?

MS.TOTENBERG: "He" Sporkin. You tell it straight or you don't tell it at all. If you don't have permission to tell the secrets, then you say you're sorry, you're not free to answer, and at that point, Oliver North just flushed red.

MS.WOODRUFF: Now are these things said in a subtle way or were they said so clearly that there was no mistaking what he was talking about?

MS.TOTENBERG: There was no mistaking. These were direct questions. Was this an authorization to lie, did you lie to Congress, or did you tell the truth, and he said, oh, no, I've been around this town too long, you tell the facts straight, and that's when Oliver North looked very embarrassed.

MS.WOODRUFF: Now there were two other witnesses today, Ellen Garwood who is a wealthy now widow who gave money for the Contra cause.

MS.TOTENBERG: She directly contradicted one of the prosecution's witnesses. Carl Channel, who organized the National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty which raised money for the Contras, had testified that she had twice written out checks in support of the Contras for military supplies in the presence of Oliver North, and she said that, "was a lie", that she had not.

MS.WOODRUFF: Did she come across as believable, or is it possible to make that sort of a judgment?

MS.TOTENBERG: Well, she did come across as very believable. She was sort of your classic character figure out of a play, kind of doddering in with her coat. It was 80 degrees in that courtroom. She had a sweater, and a coat on and a hat, and she clutched the coat around her as she testified in a very firm voice, lecturing the jury about the threat of Communism at great length and saying that she had told the President of the United States that what he needed to do was get rid of Secretary of State Shultz because he was hurting the Contras too. So she was believable up to a point, but on cross-examination an essential part of her testimony on a related matter, she had testified that Oliver North had not been present when a list of weapons had been drawn up, and she was faced with her grand jury testimony which was exactly to the contrary.

MS.WOODRUFF: Then how did she deal with that?

MS.TOTENBERG: She said when she heard that, well, perhaps I said that, my mind was clearer back then, I don't deny it, my husband has died since, and I've had a lot of tragedy.

MS.WOODRUFF: So in a case like that when she has testified one thing and Channel has testified just the opposite, it's going to be up to the jury to make up its mind who it's going to believe.

MS.TOTENBERG: It's going to be up to the jury, although in the last analysis I suppose the prosecution will make the argument that it may not matter exactly whether North was in the room when the check was written, that this was a scam, where one guy would make the argument and the other guy would make the hit.

MS.WOODRUFF: One last quick point, last Friday, Judge Gesell told North's attorneys that he was not going to require President Reagan to testify on North's behavior. Now does that have a material effect on the outcome of this trial?

MS.TOTENBERG: Well, it does because it means Mr. Reagan will not come and testify either as a character witness to Oliver North, or to say that he did or did not authorize lying to Congress or the other things that North did, and the judge said in his opinion, he said, basically, he pointed out that there is not one shred of testimony is what he said to show authorization that the President authorized these activities. Even, for example, Mr. Canestreres' testimony today is shown to be true that Oliver North had authorization to violate the Boland Amendment, that is not what he's charged with. He's charged with lying to Congress and shredding documents, and that's what the defense has to show, that he had authorization for that.

MS.WOODRUFF: All right, Nina Totenberg, once again, thanks for being with us.

MS.TOTENBERG: Thank you, Judy. FOCUS - RACE OVER RACE

MR. MacNeil: We turn next to politics Chicago style. Two of Chicago's favorite spectator events take place tomorrow, a Cubs home opener and a Mayoral election. The latest polls show Richard M. Daley with a healthy lead. If he does win, he'll be the first white to replace a black mayor in a major U.S. city and that has the supporters of the late Mayor Harold Washington concerned. Correspondent Elizabeth Brackett has this report. [RADIO BROADCAST SEGMENT]

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Chicago's voices filled the air ways the week before the Mayoral election. Some of the loudest were on black talk radio. [RADIO BROADCAST SEGMENT]

MS.BRACKETT: Much of black Chicago is pulling for this man, City Councilman Alderman Timothy Evans. Evans is running as a candidate of the new Harold Washington Freedom Party. He's 10 to 20 points behind in most of the polls, but Evans is counting on the price and affection blacks had for the late Mayor to propel him into the Mayor's Office. Twelve thousand Evans supporters filled this hall, believing that only Evans can carry on the legacy of Harold Washington. The late Mayor's image filled the hall, a nostalgic reminder of the battles Washington had waged in his five years as Mayor.

ROGER FARMER, Evans Supporter: We've elected one black Mayor. Now is our chance to do it again and to look forward to something in their future.

MS.BRACKETT: Introduced to the crowd by his chief supporter, Jesse Jackson, Tim Evans let the crowd know how he saw the current fight.

TIM EVANS: We're going to win on April 4th, because the people know they have a clear choice, a choice between the Washington reform movement and the Daley machine. We know what Daley's doing. Daley's getting ready to reopen his father's plantation and his new machine is going to be just as bad as the old one, if not worse. We know that.

MS.BRACKETT: Images of his father do not appear on overhead screens at campaign rallies for Richard M. Daley, but some at this lunch for Democratic precinct captains used to attend the same luncheon at the same hotel when the legendary Richard J. Daley was running for Mayor. Richard J. Daley rolled up huge margins in most of his Mayoral contests. Some of the old timers are predicting the same for his son.

GEORGE HAGOPIAN, Chicago Alderman: All I know is when Martin Canelli was the Mayor of Chicago, the city was stagnant, and the man of the hour was Richard J. Daley and he came along and took it out of the doldrums and made it the No. 1 city in the United States of America. I admire the way he ran the city, I think he did a great job, and I think now again when the city's gotten stagnant and going backwards, the man of the hour is Richard M. Daley and he'll win by 150,000 majority vote come next Tuesday night.

MS.BRACKETT: But others who are also products of the old Democratic machine say it's time has come and gone.

EDWARD BURKE, Chicago Alderman: There never will be a return to the old days. Times have changed, voting patterns have changed, the influence of the media, television, radio and politics is dramatic now compared to what it was in the old days. Demographics have changed; it just isn't going to happen.

MS.BRACKETT: Even so, the belief that the machine could return has become a major issue for Tim Evans and his supporters, even those who were only children when the late Mayor Daley wielded his power.

ALVIN MIKEL, Evans Supporter: I think Rich Daley, I think that he would be more into filling the shows of his father in ways which I really didn't appreciate or like at all.

MS.BRACKETT: What do you mean by that?

ALVIN MIKEL: With his father, a lot of people were forgotten, a lot of sides in the city were given things, but it wasn't things that they needed. It was more or less trinkets to shut them up and put them away and keep them quiet.

MS.BRACKETT: The constant comparison to his father and his father's political career rankles the young Daley.

RICHARD M. DALEY, Mayoral Candidate: Well, this, my father died in 1976 and this is 1989. We have major problems in the city. It's funny, my opponents keep talking about my father who is dead. They can't talk about themselves or they can't talk about their vision of the city. They can't talk about better education, they can't talk about economic development or working with the business community, they can't talk about the problem of health; they're just talking about a dead man.

MS.BRACKETT: What the city is also talking about is race. [RADIO TALK SHOW SEGMENT]

MS.BRACKETT: Chicagoans don't like to admit that they vote on the basis of race.

ALVIN MIKEL: I think race has nothing to do it. I believe that if somebody is qualified to fill the position, it doesn't matter if they're black, white.

MS.BRACKETT: Daley supporters say the same.

JIMMY FALK, Daley Supporter: Not so much just because he's white, I'd rather see him get in there because he's white, but I'd rather see him get in there because, like I says, he's more of a take charge type of person.

MS.BRACKETT: But in last month's primary election, the voting was strictly along racial lines. Daley won over 90 percent of the white vote and just a fraction of the black vote. Acting Mayor Eugene Sawyer, whom Daley defeated, won almost all the black vote and only a fraction of the white vote. Tomorrow's results are not likely to be much different. But adding to Tim Evans' problems is a split within his own base of black support. Some former Sawyer supporters may stay home tomorrow, angry at Evans for not supporting the acting Mayor in the primary.

MS.BRACKETT: Do you think that Eugene Sawyer should now endorse Tim Evans over the last weekend?

TOMMY BRISCOE: No. Eugene Sawyer should walk up to Tim Evans and flatten his nose; that's what Eugene Sawyer should do.

MS.BRACKETT: Tommy Briscoe heads up the 10,000 member Postal Workers Union.

TOMMY BRISCOE, Vedolyak Supporter: Politics is no unity. Politics is you scratch my back, I scratch your back, and you get even with people who do you harm.

MS.BRACKETT: Briscoe is so angry at Evans he is supporting the Republican candidate for Mayor, that candidate the former chairman of the Democratic Party in Cook County, Edward Vedolyak, Harold Washington's old nemesis. Newspapers show Vedolyak with little more than 6 percent of the vote, but when it comes to Rich Daley, his tongue is as sharp as ever.

EDWARD VEDOLYAK: Once upon a time there was this great city in the United States where the media, the money people all joined together and said we don't need elections in Chicago, we have a crown prince.

MS.BRACKETT: Widening the many splits in the Democratic Party is Jesse Jackson's support of Evans' independent candidacy. The former Democratic Candidate for President says blacks have no reason to stay with the party this time. He is taking heat for that position, but said party leaders failed to support Harold Washington, when he won the Mayoral primary.

JESSE JACKSON: It was as if it was perfectly all right for these Democratic officials to take the position that they would not support Harold Washington, an incumbent Democratic Mayor, a former Democratic Congressman. The price for any relationship in Chicago or around the nation in the future must be a reciprocal voting and it must be mutual support. [RADIO TALK SHOW SEGMENT]

MS.BRACKETT: In the closing days of the campaign, Democrats here threw a unity dinner. Despite the protests from blacks within this deeply divided party, new Democratic Party Chairman Ron Brown agreed to come to Chicago in support of Daley's candidacy. Brown promised to try and heal the party's wounds, but his mere presence here may have focused more attention on those wounds. While pickets circled the hotel, Brown held a news conference before the dinner. He responded to critics who said he really did not understand Chicago's racial politics.

RON BROWN, Democratic National Committee: One thing I understand clearly is that Richard Daley won the Democratic Primary and I'm the Chairman of the National Democratic Committee. I understand my role and responsibility as Chairman of our national party as a leader of all Democrats. As the Democratic nominee for Mayor, I am supporting Richard Daley. I also, based on the things that Richard Daley has said during his campaign, believe that he is going to reach out to all Democrats and make every effort to bring Democrats and this entire city together.

MS.BRACKETT: That will not be easy for Ron Brown, for Rich Daley, or for Jesse Jackson. Political futures are clearly at stake here. The future of the Democratic Party may be at stake as well. If the party can't get Rich Daley's whites and Tim Evans' blacks together in Democratic Chicago, how can the party form the kinds of coalitions it needs to win on a national level? FOCUS - TROUBLED WATERS

MS.WOODRUFF: Next tonight a look at the human toll of a man made disaster. The Alaskan oil slick now covers more than 1000 square miles, an area bigger than the State of Rhode Island. To see the impact on one small community, Correspondent Lee Hochberg of public station KCTS in Seattle spent several days in Cordova just 60 miles South of Valdez.

LEE HOCHBERG: The flags are flying at half mast in this tiny village just 40 miles from Valdez. Townsfolk here are mourning what they believe is the death of their environment, maybe the death of their village. Like no other town, Cordova, Alaska, a fishing village population 2500, is bearing the brunt of America's worst ever oil spill. The pungent and unmistakable odor of oil permeates the air over these, the once sparkling waters of Alaska's Prince William Sound. In other years, the fishermen of Cordova have plied these waters for the bountiful salmon and herring that are the lifeblood of the local economy, but this year, nobody knows how many fish will survive beneath the oily sheen. Most fear the worst.

RESIDENT: Without fishing, Cordova is a ghost town. We're done. There won't be anybody living here if fishing goes to hell. That's the bottom line; that's it.

MR. HOCHBERG: The spill couldn't have come at a worse time for the fishermen of Cordova. Inside this fish hatchery are some 120 million salmon fry or baby salmon.Within 10 days they will need to be released to the Sound where they will fully develop. Normally, 6 1/2 million of them would later be caught and sold by local fishermen. This year though the local oil slick has taken dead aim on the hatchery and the tiny salmon probably won't make it.

ERIC PRESTEGARD, Hatchery Director: We're fighting to keep them alive right now and we'll see, playing it kind of day by day, we'll see what we can do for them, we want to send them into the best environment possible. This slick, this spill, God only knows at this point. [FISHERMAN ON PHONE]

MR. HOCHBERG: At the Fishermen's Union Hall, volunteers are in the midst of a desperate effort to try to protect the hatchery from the oil. The only way appears to be a series of booms or screens in the water to block the oncoming oil. Exxon, the operator of the marooned ship, says it's unable to help.

FISHERMAN: Exxon was working and trying, but there was confusion in their network.

MR. HOCHBERG: So the fishermen, running out of time, are conducting their own international search for materials with which to save their fisheries. There is mounting disgust in the community for what's perceived as Exxon's cavalier attitude toward the Alaskan environment.

RICK ROSENTHAL, Marine Biologist: Well, I think the response, as we've heard, was so slow in coming, and then what came, the containment booms, the assistance, was certainly not adequate, not even close to being adequate and never will be.

MR. HOCHBERG: Rick Rosenthal is a marine biologist who used to live in Cordova. The Exxon Company brought him up this week to help study the effects of the spill, but upon arriving here and seeing the severity of the spill and what he called Exxon's slovenly attempts to clean it up, he resigned from the Exxon team.

RICK ROSENTHAL: Just look at this. It's really a crime. I mean, you can fly around here and look down and until you get down on ground level and walk around, you can't appreciate how much this oil is inundating the rocks and the seaweeds and start permeating down into the sea bed.

MR. HOCHBERG: Rosenthal says herring, which usually spawn this time of year on beaches like this, probably won't this year, because of this heavily oiled rock weed. And on this day, at least 30 sea otters mired from the oil were pulled from the surf by animal rescue teams.

RICK ROSENTHAL: Well, they're coming across a lot of otters that are soiled and matted from the oil and the sea otter is one mammal, the sea otter is one animal, marine mammal, that has to keep its hair clean all of the time, otherwise, its insulation factor goes and it dies of exposure. This guy is in bad shape. He's matted with oil and it's pretty doubtful that many of these animals are going to live. They're going to die and it looks like they're going to die by the hundreds and maybe even more.

MR. HOCHBERG: For several days, the Coast Guard banned the media from flights like this one to view the oiled beaches, but as reporters figured out ways to elude the restriction, pictures like these began making their way back to Cordova, and the people of the town found that their entire lives, not just their livelihood, had been changed forever by the unrelenting oil now covering 600 square miles around them.

RESIDENT: When I came here in 1966, it was clean and new, and now it's a filthy mess. Everything is in the process of dying and it's terribly sad.

BOB BLAKE, Union Leader: This boat behind you here, my younger son just put $150,000 in it, what's the value of this boat right now? Right now he can't even get the amount of money that he put into it this winter, so everybody's affected.

PHIL McCRUDDEN, Fisherman: I'm sick at heart. But sometimes it's really hard to really sink in. You know, we're so busy trying to get booms to the hatcheries and get things rolling that it's hard to really, you know, step back. And really as we're talking, that's one of the first times I'm think about it, I think really, what does this really mean? You know, personally for me, I've been choked up, I can't believe that.

MR. HOCHBERG: By late week, Exxon had dispatched about a dozen skimming boats to the sound, though no more than six operated at any given time. Cordova's fishermen likened those skimming operations to emptying a bathtub with a Q-tip. It fell to those fishermen to take the most dramatic efforts to save the fishery. One hundred men in 40 boats are working grueling, round the clock shifts to boom off the salmon hatchery from the oil. Butch Johnson is skipper of the Malagi.

MR. HOCHBERG: Tell me this. Did you know anything about making a boom or oil containment before this whole thing started? BUTCH JOHNSON, Fisherman: I'd never done it, ever. I never even knew what one looked like before. I had seen some oil rags that they threw around before, but I'd never seen a boom. There is no plan, there is no...I mean, even Exxon, they should have been able to, they've got a lot of management, they should have a management structure set up. There was never one. I never have had a signed contract. I don't know if I'll get paid or anything; I still don't. My crew doesn't know if they're going to get paid anything for doing any of this. Nobody was even together enough to get anything to do this with.

MR. HOCHBERG: No help from the oil company? BRUCE JOHNSON: None whatsoever; they never helped us a bit. We all feel that the fishery is dead, but we feel it's dead...we keep getting reports of red snappers dying, sea otters dying, birds dying, herring dying, you know, everything dying. I haven't seen it personally, because I've been on this, but people have been out there and told me that, you know, it's mass devastation out there. BOB BLAKE, Union Leader: Currently about 1/4 of the Sound looks like it's wrecked. If the wind switches or if it goes in a different direction, we can wreck the rest of it, and I think as a group we need to exert some pressure.

MR. HOCHBERG: If the fishery is devastated, Cordova's union leaders say they're ready to take Exxon to court to regain all they've lost. One hundred fifty people gathered Thursday night at the high school to discuss legal action. BOB BLAKE: We're just going to have to make Exxon pay and they're going to have to fess up. They're not only going to have to fess up to the fishermen and the processors and the tindermen and the crew men, but they're going to have to fess up to the communities and to the state.

MR. HOCHBERG: But for others who are still mourning the loss of Prince William Sound, no court victory will replace the water they loved. FISHERMAN: How do you sue somebody for wrecking your home? I mean, where do you begin to sue... FISHERMAN: What value do you put on a way of life, which is basically what it is, you know, for us that live here. RESIDENT: I would sue for what they did to my land. I don't know what value to put on it, but I think they own me. I think they raped the people of this state that use the Prince William Sound. How do you sue for that stuff? It's a direct violation. It's criminal. I'd almost rather seem 'em being thrown in jail for it.

MR. HOCHBERG: Alaska Gov. Steve Cowper says he'll step forward to ease some of Cordova's pains. Cowper came to town on Saturday to listen firsthand.

MR. HOCHBERG: What did you hear from the people of Cordova today? GOV. STEVE COWPER, Alaska: Well, they're angry and frightened. And they've got a right to be. Their future's in jeopardy. They want to know how they're going to survive over the next few years if there's no fishing season in Cordova, and I don't blame them.

MR. HOCHBERG: Can you help? GOV. STEVE COWPER: Sure I can help and I intend to.

MR. HOCHBERG: How? GOV. STEVE COWPER: Well, we're going to set up some kind of mechanism so that the fishermen can get paid for lost revenue as quickly as possible. We don't want them to have to go through the federal court system and a lawsuit against the Exxon Corporation. We want them to get paid quickly and expeditiously.

MR. HOCHBERG: State of Alaska money? GOV. STEVE COWPER: If we have to advance it, we will, but we'll go after Exxon for the rest of it.

MR. HOCHBERG: How much? GOV. STEVE COWPER: I can't. That's all I can tell you. We've got a meeting here. I don't have any idea how much.

MR. HOCHBERG: But Cowper and the people of Cordova know they'll have to wait until summer if they want true relief and that would be in the form of 50 million salmon and and 10,000 tons of herring coming home to the waters of Prince William Sound. With the water looking murkier each day, that's unlikely. It could be that the sun has set on the Town of Cordova's long history as a rich fishing village. ESSAY - FINAL SCORE

MR. MacNeil: Finally tonight we travel court side for some thoughts from regular Essayist Anne Taylor Fleming about one of the great sports figures of our time. ANNE TAYLOR FLEMING: "Given The Hook?" asked a local sports page headline. Even a casual observer knew at whom the jibe was intended. Poor old Kareem Abdul Jabar, the 41 year old center of the Los Angeles Lakers, was limping through his last season. No longer the invincible captain of the Lakers ship, he's turned into a bald aging giraffe, loping up and down the court at half speed, his signature sky hook, that arching side armed miracle shot that has been his particular genius, missing much more than hitting, tearing your heart with it each time it's released from its huge hands. Let him make it, please let him make it, you find yourself muttering each time he lets go. To watch him now is to watch any of the major champions winding down. Those who won't gracefully bow out at the top of their games. Think of Willy Mays at the end, befuddled in the out field, or Mohammad Ali, up against the ropes, or even Chris Everett now flailing on the court, all of them struggling less against an opponent than against time itself. It's a lot of poignancy to take in when you're out there for a good time and to yell a little and eat hotdogs and forget the pain and pathos of your own life. There's something about Kareem's struggle that seems even more poignant than the others. Maybe it's the sheer size of him, a goggled giant buffeted about by agile whipper snappers, and off the court on the bench where he's spending a lot of time this year for the first time, there are those long sidelined legs and his usually stoic face that nevertheless eagerly telegraphs defiance and dejection in equal measure. I'm still here, the face says, I came to play, I'm not quitting, no forced exit before the season's end, no way. Take that you sports columnists. The truth is Kareem Abdul Jabar never seemed young anyway, not even back when he was the bushy haired, baby faced centerat UCLA. Even back then, he seemed to carry the weight of the world. He never had the flashy joy of a Florence Griffith Joiner or of his teammate, Magic Johnson, none of their cultish, giddy, athletic exuberance. Even back when he made you see that basketball was just ballet with an edge, Kareem still seemed an old soul in a young body. Now the body has caught up. True, it's hard to watch, especially if you're a Lakers fan and would like to see them win their third NBA title in a row, but that's about us, our needs, not his. How merciless we are about these aging athletes, falling for the hook before they're ready. I say let them play, let them swing their rackets and swing their bats and shoot their baskets, and, yes, make all their big bucks for one last season, because what we're seeing is the final flourish of the grit that made them great, even though that grit is no longer enough to put them over the top or make their sky hooks slip through the hoop. That was something else, that sky hook in its hey day, a work of art in motion, an elegant athletic gesture that made a young woman realize for the first time and indelibly the beauty of basketball. For that and to Kareem Abdul Jabar, I am grateful. RECAP

MS.WOODRUFF: Once again, Monday's top stories, Soviet Leader Gorbachev and Cuba's Fidele Castro conducted day long talks in Havanna, President Bush called on Israel to end its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the United States accused anti- government rebels of violating the Namibian Peace Accord. Good night, Robin.

MR. MacNeil: Good night, Judy. That's the Newshour tonight and we'll be back tomorrow night. I'm. Robert MacNeil. Good night.