THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 10 FEBRUARY 1968

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005974271
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: February 10, 1968

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The President's Daily Brief
?T-0lr5rrtaH? 10 February 1968
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DAILY BRIEF
10
FEBRUARY 1968
1.
South Vietnam
Khe
Sanh and the rest of
(as of 5:30 AM
EST)
Vietnam
night.
were relatively quiet
2. North Korea
South
last
The Communists, however, may be
preparing for a new round of attacks
in several areas--possibly within the
next few days. North Vietnamese forces
all along the Demilitarized Zone appear
set to attack, and there are major
enemy concentrations near Danang. Far-
ther south, elements of three Communist
divisions are in position either to
strike US positions not far from Saigon
or assist in operations within the city
itself. Some prisoners taken in the
recent fighting predicted follow-up at-
tacks within a week or ten days.
We have noted no unusual activity
by North Vietnamese aircraft in the
last 24 hours.
Pyongyang's recent official state-
ments show no change in its attitude to-
ward the Pueblo case. The regime has so
far made no publiccomment on the latest
meeting at Panmunjom.
Soviet Party Secretary Ponomarev ar-
rived in Pyongyang yesterday, where he
will have a chance to take a reading of
North Korean attitudes on the Pueblo af-
fair.
The main purpose of Ponomarev's
visit, however, is probably to brief th
North Koreans on the Budapest meeting of
Communist parties scheduled for later
this month. Ponomarev was in a high-
level Soviet delegation that recently
left Japan after trying unsuccessfully
to persuade the Japanese Communist Party
to attend.
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3. Soviet Union
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4. Yemen
5. Indonesia
6. Hong Kong
Satellite photography of late Jan-
uary shows the air strip the Soviets
have been building at Taiz practically
finished. Although it could take al-
most any kind of plane, it will be of
little immediate military help to the
republicans. There are no facilities
for storing supplies, and the roads
leading to the scene of the important
fighting--far to the north--are gen-
erally blocked by the royalists.
The monumental economic mess in-
herited from Sukarno is keeping Suharto
awake nights. Skyrocketing rice prices
have already pushed the cost of living
beyond the increase anticipated for
all of 1968. The government's great-
est worry is that Western aid donors
will not meet the request for an eco-
nomic assistance package of $325 mil-
lion.
Suharto wants no political sniping
and yesterday announced a massive shake-
up in the appointed parliament. Next,
he will ask parliament to make him full
president and to postpone the national
elections scheduled for this summer.
Peking is now stressing sweetness
and light in its support of the colony's
Communists. A donation of winter
clothes for the "needy compatriots" ar-
rived from China this week. Peking has
also offered 5,000 tons of rice "to
ease the plight of victimized workers."
This wolf-in-sheep's-clothing ap-
proach is consistent with Peking's di-
rective to the local Communists last
December, telling them to shift to a
long-range "political struggle."
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Top Secret
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Top Secret
FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY
Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
Top Secret
10 February. 1968,
16
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
10 February 1968
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
Communist Propaganda on "Uprising" in South:
Hanoi and Liberation Front propaganda continues to
stress the "great revolutionary successes" under way
in South Vietnam. Some of Hanoi radio's accounts
are said to be based on direct reports from Commu-
nist correspondents in Saigon itself. The general
pitch is that "revolutionary" forces, riding a crest
of popular enthusiasm, are "liberating" more and
more areas. They are said to be consolidating their
control in a number of places by setting up "revolu-
tionary administrative machinery," including "people's
courts" to try and sentence "the puppet officials
who owe many blood debts to the people."
Viet Cong radio broadcasts continue to surface
new organizations allegedly composed of dissident
South Vietnamese Army men and other groups opposing
the Saigon regime. They insist that large numbers
of people are rallying to their banners.
Hanoi's army daily on 8 February hails the re-
cent action at Lang Vei as a "striking example of
quick attack, complete annihilation, and holding
the initiative on the battlefield." The paper says
that this and other battles in Quang Tri Province
are coordinated with those in the rest of the coun-
try, and that they provide great encouragement for
Communist forces fighting in the cities.
* * *
A New Moscow Statement on Vietnam: The state-
ment issued by TASS yesterday is clearly, aimed at
underlining the main themes in recent Hanoi and
Liberation Front propaganda about the "great suc-
cesses" achieved in the current Communist offensive
in South Vietnam, The TASS release goes on at length
to claim that these successes were accomplished with
"the active support" of the people of South Vietnam.
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The "camp of the patriotic forces" in South Vietnam,
TASS claimed, has been enlarged further. Other
"demOcratic and national forces" have come forward
to join the National Liberation Front in the struggle.
The events of the past ten days prove again, TASS
claims, that the "Saigon regime" is rotten and is
prevented from falling only by "US bayonets."
The TASS statement makes no mention of any new
Soviet response to the situation in Vietnam. It
does say that US "vandalism" in South Vietnam causes
"anger on the part of the Soviet people," and that
mass meetings are being held throughout the country
to condemn the US.
The statement concludes with the declaration
that if the US truly wants talks on settlement of
the war, "then what prevents it from taking advan-
tage of the proposals of the North Vietnamese Gov-
ernment and the Liberation Front?" Persistence in
the war "can only bring new defeats and new failures
to the US."
* * *
Defense Minister Giap Speaks: Hanoi seems to
have gone out of its way to highlight the otherwise
obscure occasion of North Korean Army Day. The at-
tention may have been partly a gesture of support
for the Pueblo capture, as well as for North Korean
aid to the Vietnamese Communists.
North Vietnamese Defense Minister Giap apparently
was a center of attention as he played his first
ceremonial role in public for some months. Nothing
he said provided any solid clues on Hanoi's inten-
tions toward the war. Giap told an audience on
8 February that the Communist offensive in South
Vietnam had created a "new situation" favorable for
continuing the fight until "final victory." He took
a similar line in a message to the North Koreans,
in which he said the Vietnam conflict was entering
a "fierce phase," but he made no suggestion that
there would be any early end to the fighting.
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* * *
US Prisoners Fail to Leave Hanoi: The Interna-
tional Control Commission plane made its scheduled
flight to Hanoi yesterday. When it returned to
Laos, however, the three American pilots supposed to
have been released were not aboard. The only ex-
planation available so far is that the three prison-
ers (and the two Americans who had gone to escort
them) "missed" the flight out of Hanoi.
Front Spokesmen on Lang Vei: Continuing the re-
cent round of press conferences held by Vietnamese
Communist spokesmen, the Liberation Front's man in
Prague told his audience on 8 February that Commu-
nist forces intend to maintain the offensive they
have mounted against the allies in the past ten days.
He reportedly claimed that the tanks used at Lang Vei
were US tanks and had been brought over to the Commu-
nists by defecting South Vietnamese forces. Although
the Communists have captured allied tanks in the past,
aerial photography clearly shows the ones at Lang Vei
were Soviet PT-76 amphibious models. The Front rep-
resentative's comments doubtless were intended to
maintain the fiction that North Vietnamese forces
are not involved in the fighting in the South.
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More Communist Propaganda Claims: In addition
to holding press conferences to publicize Viet Cong
"victories" in South Vietnam, Liberation Front of-
ficials abroad are now apparently disseminating
written propaganda on alleged Communist successes.
The US Embassy in Vientiane reports that North Viet-
namese press officials there have passed to Western
correspondents a mimeographed handout entitled
"Victories Gained by the Troops and Population of
South Vietnam after Six Days of Combat." The docu-
ment closely resembles the content of Liberation
Front and North Vietnamese propaganda.
* * *
* * *
Buddhist Monk Appeals for US Support of Commu-
nist Cause: Hanoi on 8 February broadcast what it
claimed was a letter to the American people from a
Buddhist monk who is vice president of the South Viet-
nam People's Committee for Solidarity with the Ameri-
can People, a Viet Cong front. The monk called upon
the American people to "take stronger actions" to
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demand that the US Government stop the war, stop
drafting "American youths for the dirty war," and
withdraw all US troops so as to put an end to the
fighting. The letter also called on the American
people to raise protests against the US and the
Thieu-Ky persecution of the "revolutionary forces"
in South Vietnam.
* * *
Dutch Government Avoids Crisis Over Vietnam
Issue: The government succeeded in its quiet ef-
forts to undermine the resolve of leftists in Parlia-
ment to pass a resolution asking the prime minister
to urge the US to stop bombing North Vietnam. The
resolution, as finally voted, calls on the govern-
ment to urge all parties to the conflict to cease
hostilities.
The government may soon have another Vietnam
problem on its hands, however. During a parlia-
mentary interpellation, an opposition deputy asked
Foreign Minister Luns whether the government would
permit a session of Bertrand Russell's "War Crimes
Tribunal" to be held in The Hague. Rather than pre-
cipitate a new crisis, Luns hedged in his answer.
* * *
II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
Hanoi Says Communist Victories Make US Leaders
"Utterly ?Nervous": Vietnamese Communist propaganda
is placing considerable emphasis on the theme that
the recent Viet Cong "victories" in South Vietnam
have caused deep concern among US political leaders
A Hanoi broadcast on 7 February claimed that the
"faked optimism" generated by President Johnson
and General Westmoreland several months ago was now
having "the bottom knocked out of it" by reports
from South Vietnam. The broadcast alleged that the
President is "utterly nervous" and cited US press
reports that he had requested each member of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff to sign a statement guaranteeing
that Khe Sanh will not be lost to the Communists.
Hanoi quoted the President as telling the Chiefs that
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"I don't want any damned Dien Bien Phu." The broad-
cast closed by appealing to "American friends" to
side with the South Vietnamese revolution "for the
sake of justice and humanity," and to urge the Presi-
dent "by your antiwar action" to bring the US troops
home now.
A Liberation Front broadcast also on 7 Febru-
ary quoted Western press reports on recent statements
by Senators Edward Kennedy and Morton. Kennedy was
quoted as saying that the US would be wise if it ad-
mitted that the Viet Cong scored a striking politi-
cal success during the last week. The broadcast also
alleged that Senator Morton had admitted that the
Viet Cong could inflict heavy damage on American po-
sitions whenever and wherever they choose and that
the US is in a stalemated situation in Vietnam.
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Top Secret
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