THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 8 SEPTEMBER 1966

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005968515
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: September 8, 1966

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A004700120001-2
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
THE PRESIDENT'S
DAILY BRIEF
8 SEPTEMBER 1966
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DAILY BRIEF
8 SEPTEMBER 1966
1. South Vietnam
2. North Vietnam
3. Soviet Union
The government has announced that
some 5,300,000 persons have registered
to vote on Sunday. This is about thir-
teen percent above the registration for
last year's local elections.
Public interest in the election is
increasing, but awareness of the issues
involved is spotty and there is some
cynicism about the outcome. Ky, the
eternal optimist, says he would regard
a turnout of between 60 and 70 percent
of those registered as satisfactory.
Communist efforts to sabotage the
polling are continuing and may become
more dramatic in the next day or two.
Local officials doubt, however, that
these will appreciably reduce the turn-
out.
Foreign merchant shipping to North
Vietnam in August was at the lowest
level ever recorded. Hanoi's dwindling
supplies of export commodities were in
part responsible for a decline in calls
by Free World, Chinese, and East Euro-
pean vessels.
Soviet shipping to North Vietnam
was well above average in August, how-
ever. Soviet vessels have been bringing
in a wide variety of items to bolster
the economy and the war effort.
Moscow wants to buy a million tons
of French wheat despite the best Soviet
grain harvest in five years. The Rus-
sians have said they will keep importing
until last year's agricultural reform
takes hold--and, as far as we can see,
that day is a good 15 years away.
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4. Communist China
5. Somali Republic
6. Syria
Twenty Somalis from northeastern
Kenya have been sent by the Somali Re-
public to the Soviet Union for six
months of guerrilla training. This is
the first indication of direct Soviet
involvement in the Somali-run guerrilla
war in Kenya. Heretofore the guerrillas
have all been trained by the regular
Somali Army.
Tanks are in the streets of Damas-
cus as the Syrian capital buttons up for
another round of squabbles among
Baathist leaders. All members of the
hierarchy are equally ill disposed to-
ward the US and whatever shifts are made
in the leadership are not likely to
change that attitude.
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7. Colombia A dynamic new leader is emerging
in Latin America.
President Carlos Lleras Restrepo,
in office just over a month, is wield-
ing his new broom with rare vigor. He
has moved quickly to set the stage for
a wide range of social reforms and tax
measures to buttress his economic de-
velopment, goals. On the inter-American
scene, he has already become a leading
spokesman for economic cooperation in
the hemisphere.
Lleras faces many potential pit-
falls, not the least of them the deeply
ingrained conservatism of many of his
countrymen. He is now struggling with
Congress in an attempt to free himself
of a constitutional requirement that
important legislation must be approved
by a two-thirds vote.
The outcome of this fight will
have an important effect on Lleras'
ability to realize his programs. It
remains to be seen, here as well as
elsewhere, whether or not the vigor of
his approach sets up equally strong re-
sistance.
?Lleras had an important success
this week which will bolster his pres-
tige at this politically strategic mo-
ment. He successfully faced down a
threatened Communist-led student strike.
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