The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour

INTRO

ROBERT MacNEIL: Good evening. The Lebanese government today brought out its air force and got it mangled. President Reagan and the Congress were still wrangling over how long U.S. Marines should stay there. We're going to try to sort out who wants what in Lebanon, a situation that's causing mounting concern in Washington. Jim?

JIM LEHRER: Robin, the rank and file of the Teamsters Union upset its leadership today, voting overwhelmingly against a package of wage concessions. We're going to look at why they did it and what may happen next because they did it. We also have an unusual update on the awful disease called AIDS, not from the perspective of the researcher or the statistician, but from that of the victim.

AIDS VICTIM: It sounds strange but it does -- I can't think of one area of my life that this disease has not changed.

LEHRER: There's also news on the courtship of the Hispanic vote, a felony charge against Robert Kennedy Jr., and a major women's-pay court decision. And we have a whizbanger on Japanese productivity at the end tonight that borders on the unbelievable.

MacNEIL: Almost every day the fighting in Lebanon seems to escalate by one more step. Today the Lebanese government brought out its small air force for the first time to bomb Moslem and Palestinian positions east of Beirut. The entire air force is comprised of only six 20-year-old Hawker Hunter jets, only five of them operation. Druse gunners shot down one, damaged two others, and forced a fourth to make an emergency landing in Cyprus.The Lebanese army claimed victories in the mountains today; the Druse denied them. In Today's fighting the U.S. Marine base at Beirut Airport was hit by artillery shells and small-arms Fire; no casualties were reported. Jim? Lebanese Factions

LEHRER: There's been no settlement of the dispute between President Reagan and Congress over the War Powers Act and whether it should apply to the U.S. Marines' presence in Lebanon. White House spokesman Larry Speakes said today the situation in Lebanon is at a pivotal point, and called for strong bipartisan support of the U.S. role there. The issue is whether that support comes through the War Powers Act or through a simple resolution. The Democratic caucus in the Senate yesterday voted 29 to 0 to insist it be through the act. Asked today at a White House photo session if he could live with that, President Reagan said "I'm sure I can, yes," but he declined to say any more. "It's being discussed," he said. Republican Senator Charles Percy, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, predicted there would be an agreement, one that would involve the use of the War Powers Act.

Sen. CHARLES PERCY, (R) Illinois: We have made it quite clear that the War Powers Act must be used. And the question is how. We differ on whether a six-month, an 18-month, or no deadline should be put on it. So we don't speak with one voice on that. I think we do speak for the most part with one voice in saying that we should now implement the War Powers Act; and of course, it has been triggered by the resolution that's been introduced and we will be holding hearings shortly on that resolution.

MacNEIL: Tonight we have a detailed look at the forces that make a arranging a ceasefire in Lebanon no simple matter. Now, at the roots of the civil war in Lebanon is the story of a political understanding that's in danger of coming apart as armed factions strengthen their positions for the next round of political wheeling and dealing. Since Lebanon became independent in 1945, power has been divided among several religious groups.The president has always been a Maronite Christian, now Amin Gemayel. But the prime minister has always been a Sunni Moslem. The speaker of Parliament has always been a Shiite Moslem, and the Cabinet has always included leaders of other religious groups including the Druse. Walid Jumblatt, leader of one faction of Druses, is not in the government, but he's demanding a share of power, and his troops are fighting the government in the mountains near Beirut. And in Beirut, four Western countries -- the United States, Britain, France and Italy -- have stationed a peacekeeping force which the insurgents look upon as a prop for the beleaguered government of Amin Gemayel. The prop for the insurgents is Syria, which has some 40,000 troops in Lebanon. Led by the president, Hafez al-Assad, the Syrians hold positions in the north, east and southeastern parts of Lebanon, and have forces in the mountains overlooking the capital. They're reported to be supplying the Druses.

Syria's role and ambitions in Lebanon are ambiguous but nonetheless important. Yesterday Saudi and American diplomats were in Damascus seeking President Assad's approval for a ceasefire plan. Among the elements in the puzzle is a faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which has some 1,500 fighters in the mountains who may be helping the Druse. And on the government side is the Phalange, a major Christian political party led by President Gemayel's own father, Pierre Gemayel. It has its own militia, and 6,000 Phalangists are fighting against the Druses in the mountains. So it's an exceedingly complicated puzzle that confronts the United States and others now trying to stop the fighting and restore political stability. Jim?

LEHRER: We go further into the task of unraveling and thus understanding the competing forces and interests in Lebanon now with Edward Azar. Dr. Azar is director of the Center for International Development at the University of Maryland and serves as a consultant to the Lebanese government of President Amin Gemayel. First, Dr. Azar, is President Gemayel willing to negotiate away some of his central authority in order to accomplish peace?

Dr. EDWARD AZAR: Well, he's expressed that view several times that the internal consensus in Lebanon is the most important, one of the most important priorities, and that such a consensus in the context of independence and sovereignty is one that he seeks very -- he values very highly and seeks very effectively and efficiently. He has made several gestures, including the one of last night when Khaddam of Syria and Bandar of Saudi Arabia came to Lebanon to the president and to the government and offered -- and discussed a plan that was carried back to Syria for the purpose of finding a political solution which would protect the Lebanese consensus. It's four-pronged agreement. One says for an immediate ceasefire, calls for an immediate ceasefire. The second is for the return of the expellees as way back as 1975.

LEHRER: The what now?

Dr. AZAR: The expelled people, the people expelled from their homes for the last eight, nine years, with immediate compensation and rehabilitation programs. The third is the formation of a committee for the Lebanese army, the Lebanese Forces --

LEHRER: That's the Phalange --

Dr. AZAR: The Lebanese army is the government's --

LEHRER: The government's army.

Dr. AZAR: the Lebanese Forces are the forces of the --

LEHRER: Phalange.

Dr. AZAR: -- Phalange and other groups, the support forces. The third is Amal, which is mainly Shiite, and --

LEHRER: Shiite Moslems.

Dr. AZAR: Shiite Moslem. And the fourth is of the national salvation group, which is headed by Walid Jumblatt.

LEHRER: That's the Druse.

Dr. AZAR: The pro-Syrian elements of Sunnis and Druse and Christians. And those four would be the ones to -- a committee out of these, or these would be in charge of seeing to it that those conditions -- that is, the ceasefire and rehabilitation -- are attended to.And the fourth condition is one where the president immediately calls for a dialogue on the future of the political solution. And it would include the leadership of the Christian Lebanese front, of the Druse, of the Sunnis and of the Shiites -- the familiar names in Lebanese politics would be brought to such a dialogue. He accepted those conditions --

LEHRER: The president did. President Gemayel accepted it.

Dr. AZAR: And his government, and they -- Bandar and Khaddam went back to Syria. But I just heard a few hours ago that the Syrian government had turned them down. But I think turning them down, as we shall hear later, is part of an arrangement and perhaps some bargaining. But at this point I think there is a general feeling that a political solution is in the offing and that the United States supports it. By the way, the conditions also that were placed there was that Syria would have a representative as an observer of these four steps are implemented, and Saudi Arabia would have one. And of course, for many Lebanese, some of the Lebanese nationalist representatives here on the panel and elsewhere, would say this is a very tough condition and one that remains sort of ominous for the future of Lebanon.

LEHRER: Thank you. Robin?

MacNEIL: For insight into the political goals of the forces in opposition to the Gemayel government, we talk with Paul Saba, a Lebanese-American attorney who formerly taught Middle East politics at Boston College and Boston University. Mr. Saba joins us tonight from public station WGBH in Boston. Mr. Saba, what do the Druse want in this situation? Do they actually want a piece of the government, or do they just want to lessen the Christian Phalange influence in the government?

PAUL SABA: I think they want in the first instance to prevent the imposition of Phalangist hegemony, physically and politically, on that part of Lebanese territory where the Druse population is primarily concentrated -- mainly in the mountains in the south-central districts --

MacNEIL: In other words, they want to keep control over the land they control now.

Mr. SABA: In first instance, yes. Beyond that, I think they are interested in achieving, along with other communities and other opposition political forces in Lebanon, a reform of the Lebanese electoral and political system which will make possible a more equitable and a fairer allocation of political and civil power among the communities, among the population as a whole.

MacNEIL: In other words, that old political understanding, the carve-up since independence, just isn't good enough anymore -- you couldn't achieve peace on that, you've got to redesign the system. Is that what you mean, from their point of view?

Mr. SABA: I'm quite sure that that is the position they take, that the old consensus is simply unworkable, and that there must be something like a substantial good-faith reform of the entire electoral and political system in order to make anything like stability return to Lebanon and in order to ensure something like a national consensus and conciliation in the country.

MacNEIL: Now, we keep hearing that the Druses, who are the ones who are, in part, shelling the Marines down on the coast, are backed and supplied by the Syrians. I mean, how close are the Druse to the Syrians, and are they doing what the Syrians want, or what is the situation?

Mr. SABA: I have no doubt that the Syrians are involved to a certain extent: I'm not sure exactly to what extent. They may very well be providing logistical and other physical support for the fighting. Nevertheless, I think it's a misrepresentation and a terrible oversimplification of that complex reality in Lebanon to represent that the Druse, or indeed any other religious community or any of the opposition forces, are essentially creatures or agents of the Syrians. The fact of the matter is that the opposition to the Phalange, and the policies of the government that are consistent with those of the Phalange, comes not only from the Druse population of the Central Mountains; it comes also from the Shiite population of South Lebanon and the major suburbs of southern Beirut. It comes also from the religiously mixed population of West Beirut. And a point that is often ignored and overlooked, there is substantial opposition to the policy of the Phalange from the Christian north of the country as well. Now, to suggest that Syria is therefore at the origin of the conflict in Lebanon is really to denigrate the majority of the Lebanese population and to suggest that that majority from north to south and in the mountains is incapable of itself determining its own political interests, in articulating its own aspirations within the Lebanese system.

MacNEIL: Well, thank you. Jim?

LEHRER: A view of the Phalange Party now -- that is the Christian political group headed by President Gemayel's father, Pierre Gemayel. Robert Basil of the American Lebanese League has that perspective. He was undersecretary of defense for international activities in the Ford and Carter administrations. Mr. Basil, do you agree that the time has come to re-carve up the political solution of Lebanon?

ROBERT BASIL: Well, I think that that is -- if the Lebanese people, in a dialogue devoid of military hostilities, conclude that should be done, then I believe it should be done.

LEHRER: What would be the Phalange position on that?

Mr. BASIL: Well, the Phalange position is precisely that, that at the point of a gun -- for example, Mr. Jumblatt represents a minority of the Druse; he doesn't even represent a majority of the Druse, and the Druse itself is a small group. And for him to drive the whole train in trying to force, with Syrian and Soviet backing, a solution that's completely tilted away from a solution that would more properly be arrived at, were hostilities to be ceased and political leaders, not militia leaders, would sit down, political leaders that truly represented the people, then the result of that dialogue would dictate what the people truly believed. I think the prior speaker, in indicating the broad will of the people from north to south, is quite mistaken. President Gemayel was elected for the first time in the history of Lebanon overwhelmingly. And Lebanese politics have elections much like the U.S. and Britain, where they're quite close. Never in history did anyone get elected that overwhelmingly. And almost a year later, President Gemayel enjoys the support of 77 out of 92 Parliamentarians that represent every conceivable bloc, Christian and moslem, in the country.

LEHRER: Well, then why are all the factions fighting him?

Mr. BASIL: Well, all of the factions are not fighting him.

LEHRER: Well, then why are all those who are fighting him, fighting him?

Mr. BASIL: Well, the groups that are fighting him are those that, after seven years of Syrian occupation, have been armed, selected and armed by the Syrians.

LEHRER: So you think -- you disagree with Mr. Saba. You think the Syrians are really behind all this.

Mr. BASIL: Oh, I agree with the United States assessment and the Lebanese government's assessment and disagree totally with Mr. Saba, who seems to agree with Mr. Assad's assessment that despite the fact that he occupied the country for seven years, selected leaders that he armed and replaced political leadership with militia leadership, and had these people speak for the people, as they do in Eastern Europe, and to claim this is a broad base of support for the people, I think, is a simplification which is -- well, it's an inaccuracy. I think the political leadership that is represented by the duly elected people in the Parliament reflect the broad will of the people and they still have overwhelming support for President Gemayel. And I think that's the reason President Reagan is still committed strongly to support the government of President Gemayel.

LEHRER: Thank you. Robin?

MacNEIL: Here to explain Syria's considerations and how they might react to the ceasefire plan is Michael Hudson, director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University. Dr. Hudson returned this weekend from a trip to Damascus, where he talked to many Syrian government officials. Dr. Hudson, you heard a moment ago Mr. Azar say that he understood that Syria -- Damascus had turned down this plan. If that turns out to be the case, what wouldn't they like about it?

Dr. MICHAEL HUDSON: Well, I think the Syrians are trying from their perspective to redress a certain imbalance they feel has taken place at their expense in Lebanon since the treaty -- the agreement was concluded some months ago between Israel, Lebanon and the United States. And they are taking full advantage of what is clearly very substantial popular opposition in Lebanon among important Lebanese groups to that treaty, and they're taking advantage of what they see, and I think with some justice, as the eroding authority of the Lebanese government of President Gemayel.

MacNEIL: Now, let me ask a couple of things about this. You say they're taking advantage -- are they controlling or running the opposition to Gemayel?

Dr. HUDSON: I would think not. I think there is plenty of indigenous and authentic and quite well-organized opposition to President Gemayel already.

MacNEIL: How much is it part of Syria's motive, with its Soviet backing, to embarrass the United States in this situation?

Dr. HUDSON: What I was told in Damascus was that the Syrians are very interested in establishing a dialogue with Washington. They feel that they are now the number one power on the Arab side, and they feel that they've demonstrated in the past that they can play a responsible and a limited role. As you may remember, they have supported the Phalangists in the past; they have fought the Palestinians.They have played a rather complicated role, and I think this is what they're angling for right now. But they feel that to do so they must give at least some limited support to the Druse, who in their view are on the defensive, having been in part pushed out of their regions by the Phalangist militias. And to make it a little more complicated, they see, as do --

MacNEIL: Please don't make it any more complicated.

Dr. HUDSON: They see, as many Lebanese do, an all too close relationship between the Lebanese army and the Phalangist militia itself. And that makes it very difficult for President Gemayel to be able to assert that he really is president of all the Lebanese.

MacNEIL: From what you can determine, do the Syrians want a piece of Lebanon, a permanently partitioned Lebanon of Which they would control a piece, or would they -- do they just want a Lebanon in which Moslems have more control?

Dr. HUDSON: Well, I think if they saw that Lebanon were on the verge of disintegration, they would be ready to take a piece of it. They have strongly insisted to me that they don't want to do this. On the other hand, they see that the Israelis seem to be in southern Lebanon to stay, and if that's the case, their view is that they're certainly going to use all their power to redress the balance as best they can. And that of course ultimately is bad news for an independent Lebanon.

MacNEIL: What was the reaction in Damascus to the United States announcement that it was broadening the powers given to the Marines?

Dr. HUDSON: Well, I wasn't there at exactly that time, but I can imagine that there's considerable concern. When I was there, Syrian officials told me repeatedly that they were very concerned, and indeed perplexed, they said, about what they saw as an American threat to their position. So I should think that the latest events are causing considerable concern in Damascus.

MacNEIL: Thank you. Jim?

LEHRER: Dr. Azar, best you can understand, does the government of President Gemayel see the Syrians as the key to this?

Dr. AZAR: Well, the government sees that the Syrians are the most important negative force in Lebanon; so do the Lebanese, a great deal of the Lebanese, among the Sunnis as well as Shiite as well as Druses and others. It is very difficult to listen to an argument about Syria and not -- you remember that Syria is at odds, is at war with every single country it borders -- Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan, one way or another. It has always wanted a part of Lebanon -- if not physically, [then] the control of Lebanon. Now, that's not to say there aren't Lebanese who don't like Amin Gemayel or who don't have their own views. But to give a benevolent view to the Syrians, attribute a benevolent view at this point in time, when the minority rule in Syria itself, the Alawites, in their own struggle are trying to deal with the Lebanese one way and with the Americans another, and with some Americans one way and with some Americans another -- it is actually to be quite simplifying and perhaps even distorting what's going on. This is what I wanted to say -- the Lebanese see these things very well.They've lived with the problems of Syria for quite some time. The Syrians have their agents in Lebanon just like other powers do. It's not only an ideological struggle; there are interests, there are wills. Syria's fight with Israel brings it to the kind of struggle it's got with the Lebanese and with other factions. But, you know, of course I don't expect the Syrian official to be telling me, as they told Dr. Hudson, that they are not interested except in peace and harmony and so forth. They've not had that in the past.They're just another --

LEHRER: Dr. Hudson?

Dr. HUDSON: Well, please don't put words in my mouth. I would be the last to attribute pure benevolence to the Syrians, or indeed to any other actor in this game.

Dr. AZAR: I'm glad to hear that.

Dr. HUDSON: I think that the Syrians play the game of realpolitik in the Middle East with consummate skill. They have outmaneuvered almost everybody now. And I think the question that -- and it's a hard question that everybody has to face is, how are you going to deal the Syrians into this, and is there -- are they going to be reasonable? I'm inclined to think that their aims in Lebanon are limited, and I think one can argue that they have legitimate defense and security concerns. But I would certainly not say that Mr. Khaddam or others that I've met are pacifists or pie-in-the-sky idealists.

Dr. AZAR: Thank you, that's all I meant. I agree with you otherwise.

LEHRER: What about the point that was made that President Gemayel is going to have problems being the president of Lebanon as long as he is perceived to be under the control or supported by the Phalange movement?

Mr. BASIL: That perception is held by the Syrians and their allies in Lebanon, but not by the bulk of the Lebanese body politic. Prominent Sunni -- the dean of Moslem politicians is Saeb Salaam, and he is the strongest supporter of President Gemayel, and has just written a letter to President Reagan saying, "You must stand fast against our battle with Syria and the Palestinians before it's too late, and if Lebanon falls to Syria, every moderate Arab regime from the Atlantic to the Gulf will fall." So he has the support of these groups within Lebanon and the classic leadership.

LEHRER: Mr. Saba, you disagree with that?

Mr. SABA: Yes, I do fundamentally disagree. I'd like to also make a point about Mr. Basil's earlier reference to the support that the president received from the Lebanese Parliament and the characterization of that Parliament as somehow representative of the Lebanese people. The fact of the matter is that the present members of the Lebanese Parliament were last elected in 1972. There should have been elections in 1976; they were put off because of fighting. There should have been parliamentary elections again in 1980; they too were put off because of the overall situation in the country. The fact of the matter is that the present membership of the Lebanese Parliament has not stood the test of a popular election now in 13 years. So to suggest that somehow or other they are fully in tune with the overall thinking of a large portion of the population and perhaps the majority, I think again is to oversimplify the situation.

LEHRER: All right. Mr. Saba in Boston, thank you very much; gentlemen here in Washington, thank you. I'm glad we cleared all this up. Robin?

MacNEIL: There was more news today of the Korean airliner shot down two weeks ago.Late today in Montreal the International Civil Aviation Organization overwhelmingly adopted a resolution which "deeply deplored" the downing of the Korean jet and called for an independent inquiry. The ICAO is a U.N. agency, but their majority rule governs it and the Soviets could not veto it as they did in the United Nations Security Council last week.

Japanese experts finally deciphered the last words uttered by the Korean pilot after his 747 was hit by two Soviet missiles. In a high-pitched voice he said, "All engines and rapid decompression." That was taken to mean the plane had lost power on all four engines. In the Sea of Japan, where it crashed, Soviet and U.S. warships came within 500 yards of each other, almost shooting distance, as the search for wreckage of the plane and its flight recorder intensified. The governors of New York and New Jersey have banned planes carrying Soviet diplomats from landing at New York area airports as a protest over the Korean airliner. That raised the question of how Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko and other Russians could get to the session of the U.N. General Assembly next week.Late today the State Department said Gromyko could use a military base in the New York area. And we'll be back in a moment.

[Video Postcard -- Camden, Maine]

LEHRER: The Spanish words for "white house" are casa blanca, and that's what some aides at the big White House here in Washington have facetiously been calling their place this week because it was officially Hispanic Heritage Week, so declared by the President on Monday and so followed up with a series of words and acts by the President and top administration officials. It ended today with Mr. Reagan addressing a group of Hispanic military men and women and their families. A quick review of the Hispanic week that was at Casa Blanca.

Pres. RONALD REAGAN [Monday]: Just as their forefathers sought a dream in the new world, Hispanic Americans have realized their dreams in our great nation and will continue to do so. Their dedication to higher purpose reflects what is best in the American spirit. Now, therefore, I hereby proclaim the week beginning September 11th, 1983, as National Hispanic Heritage Week in honor of the Hispanic peoples who have enriched our daily lives, our traditions, and our national strength.

DONALD REGAN, Secretary of the Treasury [Monday]: Our administration has appointed more than 125 Hispanic Americans to senior positions in this federal government.

Pres. REAGAN: I intend to nominate Katherine Ortega to be -- to the post of treasurer of the United States. And I'm very proud that my own administration has over 125 Hispanics already in positions, and another 20 or 25 who soon will be. We've appointed them to positions that are not just traditionally Hispanic positions. Today you'll find Hispanics at the FCC and the CAB and all over government.

JEANE KIRKPATRICK, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. [Tuesday]: I am an Americanist, and by that I mean to indicate that not only do I feel myself to be a citizen of the United States, profoundly identified with my own country, but also a citizen of this hemisphere, profoundly identified with the experience of the Americas, North, South and Central.

Sec. REGAN [Wednesday]: I'd like to join with you in recognizing National Hispanic Week, your lineage, your heritage.

Pres. REAGAN [Wednesday]: . . . know that my concern is not something new or some grand campaign strategy, as some have indicated. Since my days as governor of California I've been aware of the rich contributions that Americans of Hispanic descent have made and are making to our country.

LEHRER: Democrats do claim all of this Republican activity was politically motivated, but they countered with some of their own events this week, announcing a major voter registration drive among Hispanic voters, among other things. House Speaker Thomas O'Neill did the big number last night, making a speech to the annual Congressional Hispanic Caucus dinner here in Washington.Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale was also there. Robin?

MacNEIL: Robert Kennedy, Jr., the son of the late senator, was charged today with possession of heroin, a felony punishable by up to two years in prison. Kennedy, who's now 29, became ill last weekend while flying to Rapid City, South Dakota. The police got a search warrant to look into his flight bag. Pending his next court appearance, Kennedy has entered a hospital for treatment.

Disputes over teachers pay are continuing in Los Angeles and Chicago. In Los Angeles the teachers stayed out of school today in a one-day boycott. They will vote Monday on whether to authorize a strike. And in Chicago, more than 90% of the teachers have voted to strike October 3rd unless they get higher wages. Jim?

LEHRER: Everyday it seems there is a new story about AIDS, the mystery disease that strikes mostly homosexual or bisexual men, that destroys the body's immune system and for which neither a cause nor a cure is known. Today's story is about a nun in Canada who died of the disease in 1981. Doctors now say she apparently contracted the disease while working in Haiti in the 1970s, which may mean it was present in Haiti before it began to strike homosexuals in this country. Also this week, the government reaffirmed it was spending $40 million in research on AIDS, and said that a half a million calls have been received on the federal AIDS hotline since it was set up in July, some of them, according to officials, from people who mistakenly believed AIDS was spreading the way measles once did when they were in grade school.And, as always, there was the weekly victim count from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. Forty-five new cases, on average, are reported each week; the total now stands at 2,290 victims nationally -- 926 have died from the disease. With all of those numbers, of course, go names and faces, as we see in this close-up portrait of an AIDS victim. It was produced by Brendan Henehan of public station KTCA, Minneapolis-St.Paul.

PAUL HENEHAN [voice-over]: Earlier this year, Bill Runyon's life slowed way down. Earlier this year, Bill first found out he had AIDS. For the most part, nights at the bars have been replaced by days at garage sales. For a number of reasons, he now leads a more quiet, a more solitary life.

BILL RUNYON: I didn't really think that much about it until I started losing all my energy. I'd go to work and I'd come home and have to lay down and sleep for two or three hours before I could get up and finish the evening. And I took all of the things under consideration that a lot of times I'm basically a lazy person and like to lay around and take it easy. But even for me, I had less energy than usual for anything. So I came down with these sores on my legs, which has turned out to be the herpes zoster, and I was frightened, thinking it was Kaposi's sarcoma. And I came out here and found out what it was, but I had to be put in the hospital for IV therapy.

HENEHAN [voice-over]: Herpes zoster, or shingles as it's commonly known, is just one in a series of infections Bill has had this year, one in a series of scares that's kept him in and out of the university hospitals.

Mr. RUNYON: I do have days when I feel just great and I feel like I've never been sick a day in my life. And I have a lot of those days, as a matter of fact. But it's just when one of these opportunistic infections hit, they hit hard, and they're serious and they need to be taken care of.

HENEHAN [voice-over]: But Bill isn't the only one frustrated by this uncertain disease. So is his doctor.

[interviewing] How do you go about treating someone with either pre-AIDS or AIDS?

Dr. FRANK RHAME, University Hospitals: There's no treatment for AIDS. All we do -- and this is real discouraging -- is sit around and wait for him to get an opportunistic infection and then treat it.And that's real uncomfortable for the physicians and a heck of a lot more uncomfortable for the patients.

Mr. RUNYON: Of course, there's always that think in the back of your mind that you try to push out all the time, that says "I'm dying, I'm dying, I'm dying," and that keeps me from being as motivated sometimes as I should be to do things other than self-destructive things. It sounds strange, but it does -- I can't think of one area of my life that this disease has not changed.

HENEHAN [voice-over]: Very early on, Bill found himself pretty much alone. He expected and received rejection from the straight world. For one thing, he lost his job at a Minneapolis blood bank. But he also faced a more surprising, and painful, rejection -- from the gay community. And while he says that he gets a lot of support from gays now, some bitterness remains.

Mr. RUNYON: I felt a lot of animosity towards the gay community when I first came down with AIDS, and I did go public. And the only support that I had was from people that I've known for years and years and years and years, and they supported me because they were -- they felt they loved me and felt compelled to, even though they were afraid. But I felt no real sense of support.I would like to work, but -- I'm a good bartender and a good waiter, but people will not hire me because they're afraid the public will find out that I have AIDS and quit eating there or quit drinking there.

HENEHAN [voice-over]: The public fears Bill. And ironically, Bill fears the public.He's learned that he needs to worry about the dangerous infections in the everyday world around him.

Mr. RUNYON: Yeah, I do. I for the most part don't go into real crowded places anymore. If people come to visit me and they have a real bad cold or something like that, I don't talk to them, or tell them that I'll have to talk to them later. I'm a real affectionate person and I don't kiss people like I used to. It was just commonplace for me to kiss everyone hello and goodbye that I knew, and now I don't do that. That's one of the things that's changed about me. When I go to the bars now, especially if I meet someone, I can't look at somebody that I think's attractive more than twice and start talking to them without having to go through the whole AIDS thing with them.

HENEHAN [voice-over]: Pam Juvland is a good friend of Bill's and lives in the apartment right next door. She admits, reluctantly, that Bill's AIDS is an issue for her too.

PAM JUVLAND: I think as far as the closeness goes, I think it definitely has made an impression. I really do. Because, as I say, all the feeling is still there. You know, I love Bill and always will. But, you know, it's that unknown.

HENEHAN [voice-over]: Bill's life since he's come down with AIDS has been a constant struggle. With the public, with friends, and with himself. Most of the time it's a fight he seems to be winning, but sometimes this disease is toomuch for him.

Mr. RUNYON: I went to Illinois to visit my parents, and on the way back I came through Chicago and I felt, "Well, it sure would be nice to just pretend like I don't have AIDS." So I went to a bar that I've gone to a few times in Chicago and I met this guy and wasn't really planning on having a relationship with him, but I ended up spending two days with him. And it was a real, real nice time. The only thing was that I failed to tell him that I have AIDS -- or at that time it was pre-AIDS. And of course I came back to Minneapolis feeling really guilty about that, and two days later he called Tim Campbell, the editor of the GLC Voice, and asked him if I wasn't on the front page of that paper as having been diagnosed as having AIDS. Well, he was so mad he was ready to fly to Minneapolis and shoot me.

HENEHAN [voice-over]: Many expect AIDS victims to give up sex, and Bill has restricted his sexual activity. But he is not yet celibate. Ralph, his lover, recently came from California to visit.

Mr. RUNYON: I think that if I or if Ralph felt like we were bad for -- if Ralph or I both felt that I would give him AIDS, we wouldn't be having sex. But the sex that we do have is very limited and very precautionary. So maybe in the long run it'll be good. I think it's good for the gay community because now it's bringing back values that were lost, which it's bringing -- taking gay people out of the Me Generation. We're having to reach out to one another, love each other, care for each other; and I think a lot before AIDS came along, that wasn't happening. Everybody was out for themselves and everybody was pumping up and looking good, and not really communicating or loving each other. And if I'm suddenly cured or if I live another 20 years, my life is going to be better in a lot of respects than it's ever been before.

HENEHAN: Do you think you're going to live another 20 years?

Mr. RUNYON: No. I don't think I am.

LEHRER: Since that report was completed several weeks ago, Bill Runyon has been back in the hospital for four days for treatment of a respiratory infection. He still hasn't been able to find a job. And we'll be back in a moment after another one of our moving picture postcards.

[Video Postcard -- White Mountains, New Hampshire]

LEHRER: In the state of Washington, most of the laundry workers at state hospitals and other facilities are women, while most of the state's employees who operate farm equipment are men. The equipment operators are paid significantly more than the laundry workers.Today a federal judge in Tacoma, Washington, ruled that was wrong -- the two jobs are comparable and the pay should also be comparable. The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union on behalf of 15,000 women who work for the state, the largest pay-equity suit of its kind ever filed. And a spokesman said the fight is not over.

DIANA ROCK, American Federation of State and Municipal Employees: We intend to press the issue before scores of state and local governments until it is resolved. We believe that a victory here will take years and years off the battle for pay equity and for comparable salaries for women workers across the country.

LEHRER: The judge there will rule on the women's request for $300 million in back pay and other relief later. Robin? Teamster Wage Vote

MacNEIL: There's been a lot of good economic news lately, but one industry did not have such good news today and that was trucking, at least unionized trucking.The rank and file of the Teamsters Union, voting across the country, overwhelmingly rejected a plan to cut wages for some drivers.The vote was 94,000 to 13,000, a defeat for the Teamsters new president, Jackie Presser. He proposed the wage concessions rider to the present three-year contract, saying it would lead to more jobs. Nearly one third of the teamsters in the trucking industry are currently out of work.Unionized trucking companies have steadily been losing business to nonunion firms and the concessions were an effort to help those companies get back some of the business. But today the rank and file refused. The Teamsters are not the only union to have said no recently.

[voice-over] Last month, when AT&T demanded givebacks, telephone workers staged their first strike in a dozen years. General Motors workers at the Packard Electric division in Warren, Ohio, voted down a wage deal worked out by management and union leaders.

1st MAN: Well, the company has the ability to move the jobs away if they want to. If they feel that the union is against them, why would they want to stay in the area?

MacNEIL [voice-over]: The deal would have drastically cut the wages of newly hired workers. GM had warned that if the concessions were not approved, new operations would be shifted to Mexico. But the workers voted down the deal anyway by a 5-2 margin.

2nd MAN: You look back on the concession agreements, once the concession agreements were made in the auto industry, every manufacturing concern that had a contract come up immediately asked for and got concessions. The low-wage concept I think will open up that low-wage concept to the entire valley.

MacNEIL [voice-over]: Of all the unions, the machinists have been the most consistently hard-nosed about givebacks. As a result, the machinists are involved in a series of long, bitter strikes, including one against Continental Airlines and another against Phelps Dodge.

3rd MAN: This company is not going to give you anything that you don't battle for -- that's been proven for 30 years right here.

MacNEIL: This week Chrysler workers got back most of the concessions they made to keep the company alive and will reach parity with G.M. and Ford workers by 1985. In the teamsters situation, union president Jackie Presser told his members, "concessions represented an opportunity to restore economic dignity and security to thousands of laid-off teamsters and their families." One union official who rejected that position was Doug Allan of Local 208 in Los Angeles. He joins us at public station KCET in Los Angeles. Mr. Allan, why did you oppose the concessions?

DOUG ALLAN: Well, I, and along with the Local 208 in Los Angeles and many members across the country, 13,000 or over, voted no on that rider to the national [unintelligible] for many reasons. We don't have time to go into the whole rider. But I will give you four specific reasons. Number one, the members of Local 208, when they come into the union, they join the union, they take on oath in front of the membership saying they will not work for less than the industry. And that means that wherever you're working, they will not work for less than that amount. Number two, in 1985 Jackie Presser, if he's still president, will be negotiating our new contract in 1985. This puts the negotiating -- Jackie Presser and the negotiating team in a bad position to negotiate a contract when some of the employees are making $11 an hour and some are making $13.50. The third thing is that we've always stood for unionism, and that is equal pay for equal work. If we had passed this rider, the animosity that would have been caused in the workplace -- me making $13.50 an hour and a fellow employee doing the same job right beside me $11 an hour -- the companies would have had nothing but animosity between the workers.

MacNEIL: That's because the concessions were to pay workers who had been laid off but might be rehired a lower wage than the ones who are working now. That was the idea behind that, right?

Mr. ALLAN: I'm getting to that point now. That is my main, and I think most people's position, officials and members, why they turned this contract down. As you may or may not know, in the Teamsters Union we have a hard time making the employer live up to the word, the written word of a contract.And that's what this rider would be, a written contract. And in this contract, there is not one word that guarantees or promises or hopes to the laid-off people that would be put back to work. And that is the main issue why the members turned this rider down.

MacNEIL: Well, thank, you. We'll come back. Jim?

LEHRER: The national leadership of the Teamsters Union did strongly support the wage concession proposal, but they declined to send a spokesman tonight. We thus get the pro-concession position from William McIntyre, a consultant to the unionized trucking industry. He has been involved in the past on management's side in bargaining with the Teamsters Union. Mr. McIntyre, who or what is going to get hurt as a result of this vote today?

WILLIAM McINTYRE: The currently employed teamsters who are working for the unionized motor carriers.

LEHRER: Men like Mr. Allan, you mean.

Mr. McINTYRE: Men like Mr. Allan.

LEHRER: How?

Mr. McINTYRE: How? Because this concession, if you can call it a concession, would have provided the trucking industry an opportunity to reduce their unit labor cost, to provide an opportunity for them to compete for the freight that is being moved by unorganized carriers at depressed rates. They could have brought back to work many laid-off people as a result of the loss of freight to the unorganized people. Having reduced their unit labor cost, they financially stabilize their industry; they financially then can look forward to an opportunity to re-equip the company of its equipment, which is deteriorating. We know from statistics that trucking manufacturing is more depressed than automobile manufacturing. So there are literally thousands and thousands of pieces of equipment that will be needed to be replaced in the next year, two, three, four years. If the companies do not have the financial stability to do that, they're not going to be providing jobs, they're going to lose more jobs.

LEHRER: And they're going to lose them to companies that are using nonunion drivers.

Mr. McINTYRE: That are using nonunion drivers.It's obvious that there are people willing to work and provide the service that the motor carrier does, because the freight is being moved. So if the organized carrier cannot compete in the marketplace for that, the individuals, the people who are working for them now will be the ones that ultimately suffer.

LEHRER: Is this just speculation, or is this a certainty, from your point of view, that this is now going to happen?

Mr. McINTYRE: This is a certainty that it's going to happen because the trucking industry has been in a depressed condition for the last three years, and have needed this kind of response from the teamsters for more years. In fact, the president of the Teamsters, Mr. Presser, advocated a rider much more -- with much more concession in it than this. It was a real concession, an actual rollback for everybody in the wage picture. So that that would have provided a financial stability that this industry is going to need, and they're going to need it desperately in the next few years.

LEHRER: So the Mr. Allans in the Teamsters Union ended up hurting themselve more than they did anyone else today, is that what you're saying?

Mr. McINTYRE: They have done nothing but injure themselves and assist the unorganized motor carrier who is out there gobbling up the freight.

LEHRER: Thank you. Robin?

MacNEIL: What do you say to that, Mr. Allan?

Mr. ALLAN: I have to disagree wholeheartedly with Mr. McIntyre for the simple reason the big companies -- Yellow Freight System, who I work for, Roadway Express, Consolidated Freightways -- they are making money, they are buying new equipment. If this rider had been accepted, the union wages would have dropped, that is true, and the Yellows and the Roadways and the CFs would have given more cut-rates to the shippers. And the Overnights and the Vikings -- the nonunion companies -- would have dropped their rates the same way, and they would have not asked their membership for a decrease in wages; they would have came right out and told them they were going to decrease their wages.

MacNEIL: Mr. McIntyre, how do you answer that?

Mr. McINTYRE: Well, the answer to that is that if the Yellows and the Roadways and Consolidateds want to reduce the margin at which they operate, just to get additional freight, that might occur.However, there is nothing going to stop the flood of traffic moving from the organized carrier who must maintain high rates to the very companies that Mr. Allan just mentioned. Overnight and Viking have increased in size much greater than Roadway, for example, which is a very successful company, today hauling less freight than they did three years ago.

MacNEIL: Mr. Allan, what do you say to that? Although companies like the one you mentioned that you work for are making money, that the trend is towards the growth in the nonunion road carriers?

Mr. ALLAN: Well, the answer to that is what we've been trying to do for some time, and not having much luck. And that is organize. The Teamsters Union, before Jackie Presser and since Jackie Presser has been in, has not been making a real organizing attempt on the nonunion organizing companies. And this is what we need. And lowering wages in the teamsters freight industry is not going to go out there and organize people into the union if our wages are down to what they're making in the nonunion companies.

MacNEIL: Mr. McIntyre, what long-term effect is this going to have on the trucking industry? What is the shape of the trucking industry going to emerge to be?

Mr. McINTYRE: The shape of the trucking industry will be that if their unit labor costs cannot be reduced, there will be a shifting of the movement of freight from organized carriers to unorganized carriers and to other modes of transportation. The railroads have increased the volume of traffic that they are now hauling substantially over what they were hauling five years ago.

MacNEIL: That may all be bad for the trucking industry; what is it for the consumer of the products that are shipped?

Mr. McINTYRE: The consumer will continue to have to pay the cost of transportation. I'm not saying that the trucking industry is in a position or wants to be in a position of increasing its cost of transportation, because what they need in their labor contract is an agreement that will let them maintain the cost of transportation, not increase it.

MacNEIL: Mr. Allan, do you have any regrets now of having voted the way you do, having heard this argument from Mr. McIntyre?

Mr. McINTYRE: None whatsoever. I feel -- I have been 27 years in the Teamsters Union and I have faith in the rank and file of the Teamsters Union. I had been losing that faith with all the concessions that's been going on. But the vote that was put down today renews my confidence in the membership of the Teamsters Union and other unions that are going to go out and stop the concession deals that are going on across this country today. We, the members, are going to stop those concessions.

MacNEIL: Well, thank you, Mr. Allan in Los Angeles, and Mr. McIntyre in Washington. Jim?

LEHRER: To repeat the top stories of this Friday. The Lebanese army lost most of its air force as the fighting continued outside of Beirut. Mr. Reagan and the Congress still haven't worked out anything on the War Powers Act although both sides say they will. And as you just heard, the Teamsters members went against their leaders and rejected a wage giveback proposal. Also, Robert Kennedy Jr. faces a felony charge for heroin possession, and 15,000 women workers won a lawsuit over comparable pay for comparable work in the state of Washington. Robin?

MacNEIL: There was one other bit of economic news today. In August, U.S. industry operated at the highest rate in almost two years -- 76.7%. Higher utilization of capacity makes industry more efficient and more productive. And the words efficiency and productivity made us think of a film that recently came our way from Japanese public television, NHK. It showed how the Japanese ship loaded thousands of cars for export. Specially designed freighters have only 12 hours in port. The challenge is how to load 3,500 cars in that time. They do it with specially trained workers who can load each car in exactly one minute and 27 seconds. Here's how.

[Japanese film]

MacNEIL: And that is something rebots can't do. Good night, Jim.

LEHRER: You're right. Good night, Robin. And you all have a nice weekend. We'll see you on Monday night. I'm Jim Lehrer. Thank you and good night.