THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 25 JANUARY 1968

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005974242
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: January 25, 1968

??? Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24: CIA-RDP79T00936A005800050001-8
The President's Daily Brief
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25 January 1968
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DAILY BRIEF
25 JANUARY 1968
1. North Korea Pyongyang is still defiant on the
release of the Pueblo and its crew.
2. South Vietnam
3. Laos
Four Soviet naval ships are oper-
ating in the vicinity of the Enterprise
and its escorts. These units appear
to be monitoring the activity of the US
task force, but have shown no hostile
intent. Soviet ships regularly operate
in this area.
Some members of the lower House
may be plannin to dabble in ?eace ef-
forts.
Over a week after the debacle at
Nam Bac, the government still cannot ac-
count for more than half of the troops
deployed there. Large stocks of heavy
weapons, ammunition, and other equip-
ment were also lost. We do not believe
that the Communists intend to drive far
south from Nam Bac, but they are step-
ping up their annual dry-season campaign
against government guerrilla bases in
the northeast.
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4. Nonproliferation
Treaty
5. West Germany
6. Jordan
some Foreign Ministry officials are
taken with the idea of bilateral talks
with the Soviets on Bonn's role in West
Berlin. On Tuesday, State Secretary
Carstens assured an embassy officer
that the government had made no decision
on this matter. A half hour later,
Carstens phoned to say that Kiesinger
had just said "there was nothing to
worry about."
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BILLBOARDS AND WEAPONS POSITION.
TRENCHES DUG ACROSS RAIL SPURS.
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7. Communist China
8. France
Satellite photog-
raphy of last December provides glimpses
of the trouble.
There are large crowds, billboards,
and weapons positions along the streets,
with what look like other weapons posi-
tions on rooftops. A number of adminis-
tration buildings are surrounded by
trench networks, and several rail spurs
leading to local industries are inter-
sected by trenches. The rail yard it-
self is heavily congested.
None of this activity was seen on
photography of last June. Recent evi-
dence indicates that the trouble is not
over yet.
De Gaulle told New York Times cor-
respondent Cyrus Sulzberger on Monday
that "there was no question" of lift-
ing the embargo on Mirage aircraft for
Israel at this time. De Gaulle as-
serted that if these planes were sent
to Israel, they would be used "to de-
stroy Damascus."
The same day Couve de Murville
told Ambassador Bohlen the decision on
the Mirages for Israel would be "fur-
ther postponed," but some would be sold
to Iraq "on commercial terms." ?To the
observation that this would not make
the French very popular in Israel, Couve
shrugged his shoulders. He later ad-
mitted that French policy was "slightly
pro-Arab."
* * *
De Gaulle also told Sulzberger that
the French Canadians were the most op-
pressed minority in the world "with the
exception of the Arabs in Israel and the
Tibetans in China."
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Top Secret
FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY
Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
Top Secret
Is
25 January 1968
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
25 January 1968
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
* * *
Kosygin to Hanoi?:
Premier Kosygin will go on to
Hanoi after his visit to New Delhi later this week.
Such a visit could be timed to coincide with the
Tet bombing pause. The last high-level Soviet visit
to Hanoi was in January 1966, when Politburo member
Shelepin led a delegation to North Vietnam during
the 37-day pause. The current US-Korean trouble
could alter any plans Kosygin might have.
* * *
Hanoi Holds the Line: North Vietnam seems un-
willing to go any further in publicly elaborating
on its position concerning talks with the US. After
strongly denouncing President Johnson's restatement
of the San Antonio formula in his State of the Union
message, North Vietnamese media generally have con-
centrated on presenting Hanoi's usual hard-line treat-
ment of the war and ignored the issue of negotiations.
On 22 January, Mai Van Bo, who last week pub-
licly stressed the positive aspects of Hanoi's posi-
tion, cancelled a scheduled interview because he had
"said everything he had to say up to now."
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Hanoi still has not endorsed Mai Van Bo's off-
the-record interview with a French journalist on
17 January. His remarks at that time may have ex-
ceeded the bounds of what Hanoi wants said in pub-
lic
* * *
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* * *
II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
Nothing of significance to report.
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