THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 4 APRIL 1968

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005974363
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: April 4, 1968

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The President's Daily Brief
To7-S-et-Fa- 4 April 1968
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PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF
4 APRIL 1968
Vietnam
LATE ITEM
A Moscow domestic broadcast early
today carries the first public Soviet
reaction to Hanoi's official statement
of yesterday. It said the significance
of Hanoi's step, "taken with positive
intentions for peace, is difficult to
overestimate." Hanoi's move, the state-
ment goes on, "creates real prerequi-
sites for the liquidation of tension in
Southeast Asia." Now it is up to the
US to respond, Moscow said.
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DAILY BRIEF
4 APRIL 1968
1. Vietnam
2. East Germany
Hanoi has yet to come out with
any significant elaboration of its of-
ficial statement of yesterday. A long
editorial in today's party daily covers
the same ground in more tortuous detail.
The North Vietnamese press attach?n
Laos, however, has dropped word that an
"important policy statement" would be
broadcast on Hanoi radio at 8:00 this
morning, Washington time.
Ambassador Sullivan has learned in-
directly that Charles Collingwood, now
in Hanoi, expects North Vietnam to re-
lease additional captured US pilots in
the near future.
The Soviets have not yet commented
on yesterday's statement by Hanoi. They
have been even more cautious than usual
these past days to avoid publicly get-
ting out in front of Hanoi on the issues
raised in President Johnson's 31 March
speech.
Student restlessness is beginning
to crop up, despite the regime's stren-
uous efforts to keep the country in-
sulated from recent events in Poland
and Czechoslovakia. Student rebels
have staged small demonstrations in
Magdeburg, and students in East Berlin
have openly proclaimed their opposition
to overnment policies.
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3. Sino-Soviet
Relations
4. Israel
5. Hungary
The Israeli military has been un-
usually active these past two days,
and tanks have been seen moving north
from Jerusalem. Official statements
coming out of Tel Aviv are as belliger-
ent as ever. We are not sure what to
make of all this./
For the first time, the Vatican
newspaper has publicly criticized Car-
dinal Mindszenty for obstinately re-
maining in the US Embassy. This looks
like an open effort to press him into
leaving Hungary.
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6. Poland
7. Panama
The struggle inside the party is
spreading and becoming more vicious.
The military are now involved; some
generals have been disciplined for
"ideological subversion." This lends
support to rumors that some army com-
manders were opposed to the harsh tac-
tics used against the rebellious stu-
dents last month.
For the first time, Edward Gierek
has been fingered
as the head of a group in the
leadership "dedicated to taking over
from Gomulka's old guard." This power-
ful Politburo member, who has long been
regarded as the most likely eventual
successor to Gomulka, appears to have
allied himself with some of the hard-
liners.
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Top Secret
FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY
1.) Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
2.) North Vietnamese Reflections of U S
Political Attitudes
Top Secr16et
4 April 1968
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
4 April 1968
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
* * *
Released Women Prisoners: In an attempt to
wring additional propaganda mileage out of the recent
release of two American women by the Viet Cong, Hanoi
broadcast yesterday what it claimed were statements
by the women critical of US policy in Vietnam. Accord-
ing to the Hanoi statement, the women pointed out
that US policy in Vietnam "is wrong" and urged the US
Government to "end the bombing immediately and with-
draw US troops as soon as possible." The women were
also quoted as comparing the war to the American Revo-
lution and as pledging themselves to work for peace
once back in the US.
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? Mid-East and African Delegation to Hanoi:
Hanoi's continuing efforts to obtain greater support
in Africa and the Middle East will include playing
host to a delegation from the Cairo based Afro-Asian
People's Solidarity Organization later this month.
Food Distribution: Hanoi has altered the distri-
bution system in agricultural cooperatives in an ef-
fort to divide food more evenly and perhaps to reduce
the flow of food into the rural free market. Accord-
ing to North Vietnamese magazine articles, all of the
cooperatives were ordered recently to divert most of
the extra rations usually paid as incentives to effi-
cient farmers to those members of cooperatives who
are unable to feed themselves without government aid.
Efficient workers can still get "a little more food"
and a few extra privileges, but only after government
quotas and minimum rations for everyone are satisfied.
The reduction of incentives will almost certainly
hamper agricultural efficiency and production, but
the North Vietnamese are apparently more concerned
about distribution problems in rural areas and in con-
trolling inflationary pressures in the free market
than they are about the possibilities of losing some
production.
North Vietnam has experienced a succession of
poor rice crops since the spring of 1966, but ration
levels--at least in the cities--have been held up by
food imports. Last year imports of grain and grain
products reached record proportions--about 367,000
tons or 8 percent of the usual 4.5 million-ton rice
crop.
* * *
II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
There is nothing of significance to report.
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