THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 24 NOVEMBER 1967

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005974137
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: November 24, 1967

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The President's Daily Brief
T1'gr-S&144e1_24 November 1967
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DAILY BRIEF
24 NOVEMBER 1967
1. Cyprus
2. Egypt
The threat of war has not notice-
ably diminished in the last 24 hours,
though the Greeks yesterday began show-
ing some willingness to consider troop
withdrawal from Cyprus. Whether they
can bring themselves to go far enough
fast enough to satisfy the Turks is still
an open question. The Turkish finger is
still on the button.
The latest scheme for accomplishing
the job without an unacceptable loss of
Greek face is a proposed tripartite
statement by Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus
calling for the removal of all foreign
troops, except the United NTYTons forces.
The Greeks say they could agree "in prin-
ciple." They insist, however, that
they cannot negotiate under duress and
say that Turkey must first scale down its
military threat.
On Cyprus itself, tensions have
grown dangerously.
a-
This is one factor that led Am-
bassador Belcher to initiate the evacu-
ation of US dependents today.
Nasir's tough speech yesterday is
bad news. It will further raise Middle
East tensions and make an eventual settle-
ment much more difficult. A key point
was his categorical statement that Egypt
"will never allow Israel, whatever the
cost, to pass through the Suez Canal."
This departs from his previous position
that Israel could ultimately use the
canal if the Palestine refugee question
was solved.
We are at a loss to explain Nasir's
hardened stand. It could be a reflec-
tion of new confidence in Egypt's mili-
tary strength and perhaps also a bow to
popular anti-Israel sentiment.
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3. Soviet Union
4. Soviet Union
5. Communist China
Pravda yesterday carried a long
editorial againcalling for a new world
conference of Communist parties. The
Vietnam war and the "chauvinistic,
great power course of the Mao Tse-tung
group" in China were cited as the main
factors making such a conference neces-
sary. . Pravda's pitch was the familiar
one that Mao's actions have caused "ser-
ious damage" to efforts on behalf of
the Vietnamese Communists.
Some of Moscow's less enthusiastic
allies will look dimly on this latest
linkage of Mao's apostasy with the
world conference. We understand that
Moscow was able to get agreement this
month for an early "preparatory" con-
ference only after promising that the
sessions would steer clear of attacks
on China.
The space failure on Wednesday was
a significant setback to Soviet plans.
We think it means the Soviets will now
be unable to send a manned flight
around the moon and back until well af-
ter the middle of next year.
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6. Panama President Robles
7. United Kingdom
has washed
his hands for the time being of further
efforts to get consensus on a presiden-
tial candidate. His two months of try-
ing ended only in deeper divisions and,
greater confusion.
There seems to have been a final
break between the President and David
Samudio, the man he had chosen as his
successor but whose candidacy split the
coalition. After Robles withdrew his
support from Samudio, the latter defi-
antly went ahead and got himself nomi-
nated for president by two of the eight
coalition parties.
Yesterday, the fragmentation pro-
ceeded further with the surprise an-
nouncement that four other coalition
parties had joined with the opposition
to back Arnulfo Arias' bid for the presi-
dency.
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FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY
Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
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24 -November 1967
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
24 November 1967
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
Burchett on Negotiations: United Press Inter-
national ticker yesterday carried a summary of an
article by Wilfred Burchett for a "forthcoming issue
of War/Peace, a liberal journal." Burchett's comments
are said to be in answer to a published letter by
War/Peace editor Richard Hudson.
"It is not correct to say that the Liberation
Front is waiting for an American withdrawal before
it will talk with non.- Viet Cong South Vietnamese,"
he said. "Indeed, just this possibility is perhaps
one of the main points in the new Front program."
Burchett said the offer of "halt the bombings
and talks can start" made last January still holds.
He said the talks would be "meaningful as far as the
North Vietnamese are concerned."
--"Haiphong is already one-third destroyed as
far as residential, commercial, and industrial sec-
tions are concerned."
--"All power stations, as they existed before
the bombing started, have been destroyed."
--"China is ready to intervene at any moment."
--"Communists have no illusions that a new US
President will mean a pull-out."
--"Communists are prepared for a war of 10,
15, or 20 years or more, and have organized accord-
ingly."
--"The Viet Cong never regarded the South Viet-
namese elections as serious and therefore did not
sabotage them, and in fact voted. Bombing incidents
were organized by the Saigon government."
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II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
Hanoi on President Johnson's Press Conference:
Hanoi Radio on Wednesday, quoting Nhan Dan for the
same date, had this to say about fRF-Wegident's
press conference on 17 November.
"Never before have Johnson and his aides talked
so much of peace as recently. Johnson alone made
11 speeches on the Vietnam problem in the first 17
days of this month. The latest was delivered at a
White House press conference 17 November in which,
as noted by Western press reports, he looked out of
temper from beginning to end. This reflected the
tragic isolation which has forced him to come out
as a pleader for his own policy of war intensifica-
tion and expansion in Vietnam.
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"Apart from harping on the old theme of commit-
ments in Vietnam, Johnson gave other pleas for the
US aggression. He claimed that the United States had
dispatched more than 470,000 troops to Vietnam to
protect US security and that this is tied in with
Southeast Asia. This is sheer sophistry often re-
sorted to by the colonialists.
"Another :plea used by Johnson to intensify and
widen his aggressive war in Vietnam is that North
Vietnam has not yet agreed to come to the negotiating
table. Johnson once again threatened to use maxi-
mum strength against the Vietnamese people. This
proves that the US imperialists have not yet given
up the illusion of forcing the Vietnamese people into
submission by violence. Their peace talk proposals
merely serve as a smokescreen to cover their reckless
war escalation. Their words have always clashed with
their deeds. On the same day, Johnson personally
ordered American warplanes to launch new air raids on
Hanoi and Haiphong. US planes ruthlessly bombed hos-
pitals, markets, pagodas, churches, and heavily popu-
lated quarters, and even fired missiles on the for-
eign embassy, area and the Office of the Indian Dele-
gation to the ICC in Hanoi.
"The intensified raids on North Vietnam cannot
save the 'Johnson clique from its critical situation
in South Vietnam, but have only brought it still
heavier defeats and greater isolation. So long as
the US imperialists have not stopped definitively
and unconditionally the bombing of North Vietnam,
have not stopped their aggressive acts in South Viet-
nam and.withdrawn their troops from there, the friends
of peace, justice, and freedom all over the world
will reject with utmost indignation and contempt any
professions of peace desires by US imperialism, how-
ever attractive a form they may assume.
"The 17 November press conference brought ,
nothing new except that it shed more light on the
odious features of the chieftain of aggression, a
past master in deception and lying."
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