THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 6 FEBRUARY 1966

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005968139
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: February 6, 1966

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A004300100001-8
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
THE PRESIDENT'S
DAILY BRIEF
6 FEBRUARY 1966
23
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DAILY BRIEF
6 FEBRUARY 1966
1. North Vietnam
2. Vietnam
3. Belgium
Hanoi today sent its MIG-21s into
action for the first time. Two of the
high-performance fighters were scrambled
from Phuc Yen against a .11-2 reconnais-
sance flight over northwestern North
Vietnam.
One of the fighters tried to inter-
cept the U-2 when it was more than 50
miles inside Laos on its return flight.
Despite this aggressive behavior, neither
MIG was able to bring the U-2 down.
There is other evidence that Hanoi
is broadening the scope of its MIG
fighter operations. Late last week,
several flights took off at night to
challenge US air strikes. These were
the first such attempts by the Vietnam-
ese Air Force, indicating a growing con-
fidence in Hanoi in both its pilots and
its all-weather aircraft.
Moscow, Peking, Hanoi, and the Viet
Cong have all blasted the Honolulu gath-
ering. Predictably, they look upon it
as a strategy conference to work out
tactics for escalating the Vietnam war.
Moscow terms the meeting "danger-
ous and ominous" in that it "could lead
to an extension of the conflict in South-
east Asia, the consequences of which are
hard to imagine."
The crisis continues following the
King's refusal to accept the government's
resignation. There was one hopeful de-
velopment today, however. The doctors
decided to suspend their strike. This
may well be a result of the King's own
intervention. He has been taking an un-
usually direct part in the current crisis,
a reflection of the gravity with which
he views it.
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4. Dominican Republic
5. Cuba
6. Ecuador
There has been some progress in the
past several days in moving Defense Min-
ister Rivera Caminero toward a voluntary
departure. Garcia Godoy, however, is
balking over some of the conditions Ri-
vera Caminero has set. Fearing leftist
reaction, the president is reluctant to
guarantee that the army, and air force
chiefs remain and that there be no fur-
ther changes in the high command for
the duration of his regime.
Relations between Havana and Peking,
on the decline for more than a year,
have now taken another sharp turn for
the worse. Fidel Castro today publicly
accused Peking of trying to subvert the
Cuban armed forces with "a massive dis-
tribution of propaganda."
Regarding the Chinese cutback on its
trade of rice for Cuban sugar this year,
Castro charged China with joining the
"Yankee imperialist blockade." China,
he said, was engaged in "blackmail, ex-
tortion, pressure, aggression,and strangu-
lation of smaller countries" like Cuba.
Military leaders have been unable
to agree on whether to replace the pres-
ent junta with a single executive. This
division is itself a bad sign. The ma-
jority
favor the assumption of full
power by a single military man, cancel-
lation of the 5 June elections, and
strong measures to halt student disor-
ders.
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7. Italy
8, Libya
Early national elections may be
necessary. Aldo'Moro gave up his effort
to form a new government late yesterday.
Though there is apparently to be another
attempt to reconstitute the center-left
coalition under some other Christian
Democrat, divisions within that party
will make it difficult. President Sara-
gat plans other delaying tactics in the
hope that elections can be avoided, but
the prospects seem dim.
Aging King Idris is seriously con-
sidering an early move to abolish the
monarchy and establish a republic. He
seems motivated largely by a determina-
tion to prevent the succession of the
crown prince,whom he thoroughly distrusts
The King apparently plans to entrust
transitional arrangements to former
prime minister Halim, the man who was
largely responsible for Libyan approval
of the Wheelus Base agreement.
Libya has been politically stable
under the conservative King's rule, but
restive reformist elements in the army
and civil bureaucracy have been waiting
on the sidelines for his passing.
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TOP SECRET
TOP SECRET
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