Shultz Vows U.S. ‘Power’ Will End Global Terrorism

Secretary of State George P. Shultz pledged today that “American resolve, backed by our power” would one day rid the world of terrorism.

He spoke as events were rapidly unfolding in the hijacking of a Pan Am jumbo jet in Pakistan.

“Our prayers and our all-out efforts go to the hostages on Pan American Flight 73 and their families,” Shultz said.

“The day has not yet arrived when terrorism has taken its place among other vanquished barbarisms of our time,” Shultz said in a speech at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. “But that day will come--and when it does, history will show that American resolve, backed by our power, tipped the balance in favor of peace and security.”

At the same time, it was announced in Washington that the U.S. carrier Forrestal cut short a port call in Naples, Italy, and steamed across the Mediterranean toward Cyprus, the intended destination of the hijackers before the Pan Am jet was stormed by Pakistani commandos. One official called the move an attempt to avoid any chances of “another Beirut.”

That was a reference to the June, 1985, hijacking of a TWA airliner. The hijackers who assumed command of that plane killed a Navy diver who was among the passengers and then succeeded in spiriting other hostages off the plane to hide-outs inside the city.

“We don’t want another Beirut,” the source said. “We don’t want that plane flying to Beirut if it takes off.”

The official declined to say what action the Navy jets aboard the Forrestal had been prepared to take. Another source noted, however, that Navy planes had succeeded last fall in forcing down an Egyptian airliner carrying the men who hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro.

The Forrestal arrived in Naples last Sunday after a weeklong exercise in the eastern Mediterranean with Egyptian forces. The huge carrier, with roughly 85 aircraft aboard, had been expected to remain in port at least through Wednesday.