THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 17 MARCH 1967

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005968840
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: March 17, 1967

cs, Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24: CIA-RDP79T00936A005000420001-5
The President's Daily Brief
-TorSe.c.gel 17 March 1967
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DAILY BRIEF
17 MARCH 1967
1. Communist China
2. Vietnam
Two more politburo members--the
finance minister and state planning chief--
have come under attack in Peking, but
they are not being hit as hard as agri-
cultural specialist Tan Chen-lin. Like
Tan, however, both work for Chou En-lai.
Chou could also have been the indi-
rect target of a recent Shanghai editorial
condemning critics of the Red Guard. It
said flatly that those who attacked the
Guards for their relatively few mistakes
are enemies of the "Cultural Revolution."
posters in Peking defending Chou, suggest-
ing that his supporters fear he himself--
and his influence for rationality--may be
coming under attack.
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3. South Vietnam
4. Ethiopia
Premier Ky, while still very much
a candidate, seems to be shying away
from seeking military endorsement for
the presidency. There are signs that
he may instead try to organize civilian
support for his candidacy.(
We cannot be sure that Ky-will
actually try to follow this course, but
if he does, it will jar the precarious
unity maintained thus far in the-Direc-
torate and threaten the political.sta-
bility of the past 20 months.(
The Ethiopians are getting edgy as
Sunday's referendum on French Somaliland
approaches. They swear up and down that
recent troop movements have been for con-
tingency purposes only, but their sus-
picions of the Somali Republic seem to
border on the paranoid.
. The Ethiopian prime-minister, for
example, claims leaders of the Somali
tribesmen in French Somaliland are ready
to spark an independence drive whichever
way the referendum goes, and the Somali
Republic is ready to help them. This
could be true
.Ambassador:Korry still thinks Addis
-Ababa is planning no offensive action.
However,.misinterpretation of Somali
military movements, fear that Nasir may
be egging the Somalis on, and a general
tendency to flap in a situation like this
have all reinforced Ethiopian fears of
being a "Christian island in a.Moslem sea."
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5. Tunisia
6. West Germany -
Poland
. Indonesia
President Bourguiba appears to have
weathered a serious coronary attack;
his French specialist says his recovery
prospects are excellent. Nevertheless,
Bourguiba's son has gratefully accepted
the US offer to send heart specialist
General Thomas Mattingly.
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Acting President Suharto, now that
Sukarno can no longer snap at his heels,
has set economic improvement and the elec-
tion of a new congress by mid-1968 as his
major targets.
On the economic side, Suharto faces
staggering problems. A stabilization plan
slowed inflation during the last quarter
of 1966, but increased government expendi-
tures and seasonal rice shortages have
again spiraled prices upward. Moreover,
the civil service is badly overgrown and
underpaid; to make ends meet, it has to
violate the very economic control measures
it is supposed to enforce.
Another serious problem will be grow-
ing strains on Suharto's government as its
civilian members become more restive under
the army's pervasive control.
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8. France?Algeria
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Top Secret
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