THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 24 OCTOBER 1967

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005974080
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: October 24, 1967

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The President's Daily Brief
-rop-9ta64.e4 24 October 1967
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DAILY BRIEF
24 OCTOBER 1967
1. South Vietnam
2. North Vietnam
Nearly complete, but unofficial,
returns show Catholics doing well in
the lower house elections. Catholic
candidates (who will probably work well
with Thieu) have taken about 20 per-
cent of the seats. Official returns
will be released on Thursday.
About 20 Buddhists have also won,
but in most cases it is not known
whether they are actively aligned with
the militant or moderate factions of
the Buddhist church. In Saigon, how-
ever, two of the winners are very prob-
ably connected with the militants.
Former province chiefs, army offi-
cers, and other officials--most of
whom are likely to be friendly to the
government--have also done well, and
nearly 20 Constituent Assembly deputies
have been returned. Ethnic Chinese
swept all four of the seats in one Sai-
gon electoral district.
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Israel
4. Soviet Union
5. India
Tel Aviv almost certainly feels
its Navy has lost face, and that let-
ting the Egyptian action go unavenged
would encourage the Arabs to further
military action. Any retaliatory ac-
tion--and we think an air raid the most
likely--would probably be against Egypt
alone. The Israelis would probably pre-
fer to strike the Egyptian Navy, but
its ships are being dispersed. Air
strikes against naval bases would be a
logical second choice.
A major space event appears likely
on 25 or 26 October.
We believe the event canceled
in September was a circumlunar flight
with a return to earth landing. The
Soviets will probably call the same play
again, using an unmanned Soyuz capsule.
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6. Soviet Union Moscow seems to be encouraging Ni- 50X1
geria to ask for economic assistance.
Lagos has not yet reacted offi-
cially. But we doubt that the Niger-
ians, who insist that the military as-
sistance Moscow provided last summer
was a purely commercial deal, are ready
to accept economic assistance. This
picture could change, however, if Ni-
geria's traditional sources of assist-
ance falter in the aftermath of the war
with Biafra.
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Top Secret
FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY
Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
Top Secret
20
24 October 1967
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
24 October 1967
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
-Hanoi Prepares for Soviet Anniversary: North
Vietnam is stepping up its activities in preparation
for the Soviet Union's 50th anniversary next month-,
according to a recent Hanoi broadcast. An "emula-
tion drive" has been launched within the armed forces
and among the civilian population to record achieve-
ments in honor of the "grand date." A number of talks
on the Russian-Revolution have been held and many
books on the subject have recently been published
in North Vietnam. In addition, Hanoi has issued
four commemorative stamps in honor of the occasion.
North Vietnamese delegations have even been sent to
theSoviet Union to attend seminars on the revolution.
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More Indonesian Accounts of Hanoi's Position:
The US embassies in Djakarta and Vientiane both have
passed along accounts of Hanoi's position on negotia-
tions from the Indonesian ambassador in North Vietnam.
-Both reports confirm earlier indications that the Indo-
nesian ambassador is often imprecise in his analysis of
Hanoi's actual stand on important matters. .In one
cable to his home office which was shown our ambpssa-
dor to Djakarta by the Indonesian foreign tinister,
the Indonesian ambassador reported that Rumanian Pre-
mier.Maurer on his recent trip to Hanoi received no
reply when he inquired as to whether:a cessation of US
bombing would result in a reciprocal gesture from Hanoi.
Yet the Indonesian told Ambassador Sullivan that Maurer
received "positive" assurances that talks would take
place soon if the bombing stopped.
In his 23 October conversation with US Ambassador
Sullivan in Vientiane, the Indonesian ambassador to
Hanoi claimed that North Vietnamese Premier Pham Van
Dong and Foreign Minister Nguyen Duy Trinh had taken
a hard line against negotiations with him in late Sep-
tember, but he'veered back toward the standard Indo-
nesian line that talks may yet be in the offing by
telling Ambassador Sullivan that he saw some "nuances"
in the Burchett article from Hanoi which he felt con-
stituted "forward movement" on North Vietnam's. part.
The "nuances" he mentioned, however, turn out to be
either misreadings of Burchett or insignificant seman-
tic problems.
* * *
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.II. _NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
,ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
'Further Hanoi Commentary on Antiwar Rally: A
Hanoi broadcast on Sunday quoted "Western reports"
stating that last weekend's demonstrations in Wash-
ington involved about 200,000 people and represented
the largest antiwar rally in the US capital's history.
The broadcast asserted that Washington was a "besieged
city"--saying that it took 4,800 police and national
guardsmen, 4,000 military police, and 6,000 para-
troopers to suppress the demonstrators. It claimed
that the Pentagon was turned into a "barbed wire-
ringed fortress," but all "repressive measures" could
not prevent the people from demonstrating against the
US "dirty war" in Vietnam. The broadcast also reported
that hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched
in protest against US "aggression" in European and
Asian cities last Saturday.
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