THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 28 MARCH 1968

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005974351
• 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 28, 1968

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The President's Daily Brief
Top St-crci 28 March 1968
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DAILY BRIEF
MARCH 1968
1. North Korea
2. Israel
Satellite photography of 16 March
shows the USS Pueblo at the Najin naval
shipyard, only about 20 miles-from the
Soviet border. It was moved there some
time after 22 February.
Last week's big raid into Jordan
was costly, and the Israeli public is
grumbling. Despite heavy casualties
and much foreign criticism, the coun-
try's borders are no more secure now
than before.
Harsh comments about government
policy are being heard increasingly
and are appearing in the Israeli
press. Somewhat defensively, govern-
ment leaders are trying to justify the
action and the hard-line policy on which
it is based.
Ambassador Barbour thinks this has
become the first visible rift in a long
time between the public and the govern-
ment on an important security issue.
Yet few Israelis in or out of govern-
ment can see an obvious alternative to
present government policy.
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3. Panama
4. Czechoslovakia
5. Poland
The anti-Robles forces failed to
arouse public fervor for the demonstra-
tions they hoped to pull off yesterday,
and attempts to promote a general strike
have faltered. It now appears that
they have little alternative but to
await a judicial ruling on Robles' im-
peachment after the Supreme Court re-
convenes next Monday.
Dubcek intends to nominate 73-year-
old General Ludvik Svoboda to fill out
the remaining 18 months of Novotny's
presidential term. Svoboda is something
of .a national hero, partly because of
his World War II exploits, but he is
poorly equipped to be president and will
probably be little more than a figure-
head for Dubcek. Svoboda's selection
will nevertheless be played as a gesture
to Russian feelings since he is a well-
known advocate of a strong alliance with
the Soviet Union.
The election of a president by the
National Assembly on Saturday will not,
however, be a completely cut-and-dried
affair. There are other contestants.
Some Warsaw students are getting
set for another round of protest action
today. The uproar they created last
week has already warmed up the long-
simmering factional rivalries inside
the top party leadership. It is too
early to see where all this will lead.
It is already clear, however, that for
the first time Gomulka has been forced
to share his tight grip on the policy
levers in Warsaw.
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6. Greece
7. Indonesia
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The junta has yet to generate
much public interest in its proposed
move toward constitutional government.
Most Greeks remain apathetic, and
leading politicians of the old regime
imply that they will boycott the con-
stitutional debate and the referendum
set for late this summer.
President Suharto got most of
what he wanted from Congress yesterday--
a five-year term as full president and
postponement of the scheduled congres-
sional elections. The civilian-domin-
ated Congress did, however, put some
brakes on the emergency powers given
Suharto two years ago. This should
help appease those who have been wor-
ried about the predominant role of the
military in the executive branch.
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Top Secret
FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY
Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
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28. March - q968
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
28 March 1968
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
Hanoi Calls on Public for an All-out Effort: An
editorial published in Hanoi's party daily on Sunday
calls on the North Vietnamese public to redouble its
efforts in support of the war in the South. "Now is
the time," it said, "to concentrate all our forces"
and devote "everything to the struggle." The theme
is not new, but the editorial has an unusual sense
of urgency about it. It describes current develop-
ments in the South as "a new situation." It character-
izes the fighting there as "a general offensive and
uprising," terms which the Communists used frequently
at the start of the Tet offensive but which have been
used only sparingly since then. The editorial also
talks of "mobilizing" the troops and the people of the
North, suggesting that a special manpower roundup may
be under way.
Front Interview: A prominent Liberation Front
spokesman has portrayed the Communist Tet offensive
as a giant step toward making the US position in the
South untenable, but not as an attempt to seize power
in one fell swoop. Like other Vietnamese Communist
spokesmen, he offered no hints of a willingness to
compromise and made clear that the Communists continue
to seek a settlement wholly on their terms.
Nguyen Van Tien, the head of the Liberation Front
delegation in Hanoi, told a Japanese correspondent in
a two-hour interview on 25 March that "most" of
South Vietnam has been "liberated" since the Tet offen-
sive and that the allied forces are "surrounded" by a
"great sea" of hostile humanity. He claimed the of-
fensive's purpose was not to occupy the cities but to
disorganize allied forces and create psychological un-
rest.
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Tien questioned US interest in a peaceful settle-
ment, but he said that if Washington "respects the
Vietnamese people's fundamental rights," then there
are "many ways to hold talks." He made clear that
North Vietnam's offer to talk in return for a bombing
halt did not commit the Communists to over-all peace
negotiations. He said the Front supported Hanoi's de-
mand for an unconditional bombing halt, but he went
on to stipulate that if the US wants "peace talks,"
it "should end its aggression in South Vietnam" and
withdraw all its armed forces.
Tien dodged a question about what kind of gov-
ernment would appear in the South after the war. He
said it would be a "highly flexible coalition govern-
ment," and explained that this was made clear in the
Front's political program last summer.
Tien also played down the significance of Khe
Sanh and said the Communists did not consider it a
second Dien Bien Phu.
* * *
Increased Security in Hanoi:
the foreigners who were recently
stopped or detained for questioning include two Swed-
ish diplomats who visited recently, the French News
Agency correspondent, and the Indian military represen-
tative to the International Control Commission in
Hanoi.
It is not certain if these individuals were in-
discreet in their wanderings or if North Vietnamese
security forces are simply more vigilant. The latter
seems likely in view of the newly published security
decree.
* * *
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Administrative Changes near the Chinese Border:
Communications intelligence indicates that the North
Vietnamese have adjusted their local administrative
boundaries in the northwestern Dart of the country
near the Chinese border.
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IL NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
North Vietnamese Army Newspaper Comments: Hanoi's
army daily on 25 March claimed that- the recent Tet of-
fensive had contributed significantly to a political
crisis in the US in which President Johnson was increas-
ingly isolated from his colleagues and his critics. The
army editorial was broadcast both to audiences in North
Vietnam and in English to Havana for replay to the US.
The domestic broadcast indulged in unusually
harsh language, calling the US President a wounded
"wild beast" who "shouted for war." The broadcast to
Havana zeroed in on the President's critics within his
own party and said President Johnson was facing his
"darkest tragedy" since his accession to the presidency.
The newspaper reported that Senator Robert Kennedy and
Senator McCarthy were using the Vietnam question as a
"trump card," and that the New York Senator was de-
manding an end to the war, a change of US policy, and
the removal of the President.
* * *
Hanoi Reports AP Criticism of Westmoreland's
Strategy: Hanoi's international service on 27 March
reported an analysis of US military strategy and tac-
tics by Peter Arnett of the Associated Press. Accord-
ing to the broadcast, Arnett said that General West-
moreland will be remembered above all for his use of
massive firepower--so massive that "aircraft and artil-
lery are called in to do the job that infantrymen did
in other wars.... More and more Americans.. .see this
massive use of firepower as the major weakness in US
military tactics in Vietnam," Arnett is represented as
saying.
* * *
"Antimilitarist" Meeting of "Black Americans":
Two hundred members of the "antimilitarist movement
and organizations of black Americans" met recently
in Illinois, according to the Hanoi international
service. The meeting allegedly drafted a "common pro-
gram of action" against the war in Vietnam and against
US racism, and decided to organize an antiwar demon-
stration next August in Chicago.
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