THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 15 MARCH 1968

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005974329
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: March 15, 1968

, Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24: CIA-RDP79T00936A005900210001-9
The President's Daily Brief
Top Secret 15 March 1968
23
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DAILY BRIEF
15 MARCH 1968
1. North Vietnam
2. South Vietnam
3. Japan
Commu-
nist forces may be preparing for an-
other round of coordinated attacks in
various areas of the country in the
near future.
The local Communists are taking
dead aim at all US activities in Japan
and Okinawa related to the war in Viet-
nam. The prospect is for more demon-
strations, perhaps violent ones. Sato,
who faces upper house elections early
this summer, is in a cautious mood and
will try to avoid doing anything that
might further stir up this hornet's
nest.
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4. Panama
5. Eastern Europe
Last night the assembly finally
voted to impeach President Robles. The
trial is set for 24 March. The Presi-
dent was not suspended from office last
night, as he legally could have been.
His removal is likely to await the ex-
pected guilty verdict, probably on 27
or 28 March.
General Vallarino's day of decision
could thus be nearly two weeks away,
but the chances of a compromise solu-
tion now seem remote indeed.
New street demonstrations took
place in Poznan and Lodz yesterday.
Warsaw students have not yet been
brought to heel. The party continues
its heavy-handed efforts to discredit
the student "agitators," but there is
some evidence that it is now groping
for ways to open a dialogue with them.
In Czechoslovakia there was more
bad news yesterday for the beleaguered
Novotny. The suicide of Deputy Defense
Minister Janko dramatizes the despera-
tion and isolation of those who tried
to save Novotny last January. Janko
was in command of the armored forces
and was probably partly responsible for
the ill-fated effort to bring out tanks
in Novotny's behalf.
In Moscow, the press and radio are
silent on recent Polish and Czech de-
velopments.
We
have no doubt, however, that the men in
the Kremlin are watching these events
intently, even anxiously.
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6. Thailand
7. Sweden
Bangkok is making a long-overdue
reappraisal of its efforts to suppress
Communist-led guerrillas in the north.
Senior army leaders now admit
that they have made little progress
against the guerrillas, that their
forces are suffering increasing casual-
ties, and that the government's harsh
tactics against the local tribesmen
have only worsened the situation.
The government is now seeking new
approaches. There is no sign yet, how-
ever, that it realizes that its best
hope for a lasting solution is to win
over the people in the affected areas.
Leaders of the principal opposi-
tion parties have publicly closed ranks
behind the government on the matter of
Ambassador Heath's recall. This was
perhaps to be expected. Now the Swed-
ish press is beginning to take a healthy
look at the basic issues, especially
the damage to Sweden's neutrality brought
about by the antics of Education Minis-
ter Palme.
The ambassador's recall is also
getting a lot of attention elsewhere in
Scandinavia, but editorial opinion is
mixed. Some papers--and most of those
in Denmark--are blasting the US for try-
ing to "intimidate" Sweden. Others are
critical of Sweden for moving beyond
neutrality toward the Communist position
on Vietnam.
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? ,
Top Secret
FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY
Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
Top Secret
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15 March 1968
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
15 March 1968
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
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* * *
North Vietnam Continues Postwar Reconstruction
PlansT
Hanoi has never dropped its reconstruction plans.
Although some major aid projects were suspended in
1965 and 1966, projects like the Thac Ba hydropower
plant have been receiving periodic maintenance to
prevent their deterioration,
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Another index of Hanoi's continuing investment
for the future is the large number of North Vietnam-
ese students that have been sent abroad for long
periods of study in the Soviet Union and Eastern Eu-
rope.
II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
Comments on Foreign Relations Committee Hear-
ings: Initial Hanoi commentary on the Senate For-
eign Relations Committee hearings has centered on
the statements on the Gulf of Tonkin incident. A
Hanoi domestic broadcast on 13 March noted that
Secretary Rusk was "strongly criticized" at the
hearing when he "pleaded for the US aggressive pol-
icy in Vietnam." According to this account, Rusk
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was "forced" to give a clear explanation about the
"fabrication" of the Tonkin incident. The broad-
cast also said that severe questioning of Rusk on
this point reflected the "great worries" of a num-
ber of US senators about the consequences of dif-
fering views on Vietnam policy in the US. State-
ments critical of US policy by Senators Morse,
Fulbright, and Mansfield were offered to support
that contention.
The Hanoi party daily, Nhan Dan, in an_article
broadcast on 14 March, also offerTa?a detailed dis-
cussion of the Tonkin debate both prior to and dur-
ing the Senate hearings. It alleged that the
administration's claims concerning the incident
were "deceitful and slanderous maneuvers" and that
American public opinion was finally seeing throughL
"Johnson's facade." Nhan Dan claimed that the
reason the incident wTg-TeTER- discussed now was
primarily because of recent US "failures" in Viet-
nam.
Summing up its view of the Senate debate, Nhan
Dan claimed that never has the US been criticizTU--
'FHB' condemned so strongly and isolated so seriously
as it is now. Never has it been confronted with so
many difficulties and such grave internal strife as
now. Antiwar opposition, the paper contended, will
grow as Communist successes in Vietnam mount.
* * *
Antiwar Activity: Hanoi, in its English lan-
guage broadcast on 13 March, noted that some 1,000
New York University students and faculty members
had recently demonstrated against Dow Chemical Com-
pany recruiting on the campus. The broadcast also
reported that a political party called "For Peace
and Freedom" has come into being in Pennsylvania.
One of the points in its program, according to the
Hanoi statement, is to demand an end to the "dirty
war pursued by the US in Vietnam."
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