THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 28 NOVEMBER 1967

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Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
0005974143
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RIPPUB
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T
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11
Document Creation Date: 
September 16, 2015
Document Release Date: 
September 16, 2015
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Publication Date: 
November 28, 1967
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005600190001-5 The President's Daily Brief -Irop-Sevcr-et 28 November 1967 ?23 50X1 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005600190001-5 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005600190001-5 50X1 DAILY BRIEF 28 NOVEMBER 1967 1. Cyprus 2. France The Turks early today tightened the screws again on the Greeks with a tough counterproposal to Mr. Vance's latest compromise formula. This came after a steady day and night of inten- sive study and consultation among Turk- ish leaders. NATO Secretary General Brosio thinks the new Turkish conditions will be hard for the Greeks to accept, but that Athens would be well advised to do so, given the "very serious mood" in Ankara. As we read De Gaulle's press con- ference, the most noteworthy thing was his sharper tone and the evidence that he is suffering from "hardening preju- dices" on almost everything. He said nothing important that was really new. These were some of his points: --His most aggressive statements were on French Canada. They were fo- cused on resistance to US domination and on the ultimate "sovereignty" of French Canada. He seems bemused by the possibility of closer political ties be- tween France and French Canada than any responsible French-Canadian leader anti- cipates. --De Gaulle's principal reference to the US came in his treatment of the Middle East. The big-four solution he envisages is impossible, he reiterated, as long as the US is engaged in "the vile war it is conducting in Vietnam." --He made a fleeting prophecy of a downward trend for the dollar in the wake of British devaluation. --He flatly rejected British member- ship in the Common Market until Britain radically transforms itself into "one of the pillars of a European Europe." Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005600190001-5 50X1 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005600190001-5 50X1 3. Canada 4. Rumania The ax is falling on Canada's de- fense budget, and it will hurt. Some officials are considering a one-third cutback in Canada's forces in Europe. Defense Minister Cadieux told Parliament last week that he will bring up Canadian force reductions at the NATO meeting in Brussels next month. Governor Harriman arrived in Bucha- rest yesterday in the midst of consider- able ferment over the regime's domestic policies. Party boss Ceausescu intends to impose a series of economic and ad- ministrative changes at a special party conference next week. He has set aside the intervening time for "public debate" on the issues. There are definite nationalistic ramifications in the proposed reforms; they will take Rumania further from the Soviet model. Ceausescu, who has al- ready irritated the traditionalists by "de-Sovietizing" the constitution and other institutions, is obviously not afraid of continuing the process. 5. Pakistan President Ayub takes his alliance with Turkey very seriously. Ankara radio has made several general references to Pakistani support for Tur- key in the crisis. 50X1 50X1 50X1 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005600190001-5 k Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005600190001-5 6. Thailand The perennial problem of the Chi- nese Nationalist irregulars is boiling up again in Southeast Asia. Keng Tung. Location of Chinese Nationalist Irregulars LAOS Pyinmana? ? Chiang-Rai. THAI LAND 68741 11-67 CIA Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005600190001-5 50X1 50X1 50X1 50X1 50X1 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005600190001-5 Tot Secret Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005600190001-5 . Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005600190001-5 Top Secret FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY Special Daily Report on North Vietnam Top Secret 16 28 November 1967 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005600190001-5 50X1 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005600190001-5 Special Daily Report on North Vietnam for the President's Eyes Only 28 November 1967 I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION * * * 50X1 50X1 50X1 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005600190001-5 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005600190001-5 ?J?,.//? I ,Hanoi Comments on Delegation in Italy: North Vietnam's initial comment on its trade union delega- tion's current visit to Italy was contained in a 25 November broadcast. It claimed that the group had been cordially received by leaders of the Italian Com- munist Party "who reaffirmed its solidarity with the Vietnamese people." The broadcast also reported on the delegation's meeting with other leftist groups in various Italian cities and mentioned the donations re- ceived from them. Carmichael: Stokely finally left Tanzania late on Sunday. He told the local press on leaving that he was "going back to hell--the United States--via Europe." Yesterday afternoon, Carmichael showed up in Sweden and made his way to the university town of Uppsala. He will apparently make a speech and a tele- vision appearance there. From Sweden. Carmichael will probably ao to Den- mark * * * II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL ATTITUDES ON THE WAR Hanoi's Interest in US Elections: Hanoi continues to show keen interest in the forthcoming US presiden- tial elections, but it is cautious in assessing evidence of anti-Administration sentiment. North Vietnamese com- mentary takes pains to show that the regime is not count- ing on the elections for a change in US policy, and to -2- 50X1 50X1 50X1 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005600190001-5 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005600190001-5 50X1 stress that the war must be won by frustrating the achievement of US objectives in South Vietnam. This theme was taken up recently in Hanoi's army newspaper which commented approvingly on American antiwar sentiments, but ,asserted that North Vietnam, does not overestimate "internal contradiction" in the US. The deciding factor for victory, said the paper, is to "change the balance of strength in our favor on the battlefield by beating the Americans and their allies, militarily and politically." What- ever the results of the US presidential elections, it went on, the Vietnam policy of the US Government "will not change fundamentally by itself." * * * Hanoi on Dissent: The North Vietnamese have been quick to report recent actions protesting or criti- cizing US policy in Vietnam. A recent broadcast in English from Hanoi reported that 300 students and fac- ulty of Yale University published a statement in the New Haven papers registering their refusal to be drafted for the war in Vietnam. The statement, accord- ing to the radio, condemned the war as "unjust, illegal, and immoral." The broadcast also reported an open letter from 14,000 members of the Democratic Party car- ried in the Los Angeles Times urging the President to -3- 50X1 50X1 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005600190001-5 ? Declassified in 'Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A00560019000175 stop the bombing and the escalation of the war. The signers were reported as stating that they withdrew their support of the President and would devote all their energy to stopping the bloodshed in Vietnam. A third letter, from a group of professors at the University of California at Berkeley published in the San Francisco Chronicle, calling on the US to stop "at once, definitively and without condition the bombing of the North," was also included in the broadcast. Finally, Hanoi reported a statement by former ambassador Galbraith asserting that "the Ameri.:- can people did not support the war in Vietnam and that the US could not win this war." Galbraith was also quoted as urging the administration to stop "forthwith the bombing of the North and bring the troops home." * * * US "Council of War": Hanoi has claimed that the recent meeting in Washington of senior US officials assigned to Vietnam was a "council of war" and that despite official silence on the gathering, Presi- dent Johnson "stressed accelerating the ground war and the speeding up of the dispatch of additional troops so as to push the war to a new stage." This claim was contained in a Hanoi English language broad- cast on 25 November which pointed to the increased January draft call as evidence of the intended "US escalation." The broadcast also pointed out that as the meeting was being held the US was actually ex- periencing "more serious defeats in the war" and that "ever fiercer popular opposition to the war at home" was confronting the "Johnson ruling group." In con- clusion, the broadcast quoted Walter Lippmann's re- cent lament that "the US is going through the worst time in its whole life." * * * Captured US Pilots: A recent Hanoi broadcast in English to US troops in South Vietnam described the "strange rendezvous" of US pilots in North Vietnamese prison camps. The broadcast included the recorded voices of some American pilots relating the details of their capture. The North Vietnamese announcer claimed that the US pilots long for an end to "Johnson's war," and he played songs with antiwar lyrics allegedly sung by the captured pilots. 50X1 -4- Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005600190001-5 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005600190001-5 ? Top Secret Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005600190001-5