THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 11 APRIL 1968

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005974375
• 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 11, 1968

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006000150001-4
The President's Daily Brief
11 April 1968
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DAILY BRIEF
11 APRIL 1968
1. South Vietnam
2. Cuba
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There still is a good deal of ap-
prehension about US - North Vietnamese
talks. Prominent men both in and out
of the government are express- 50X1
ing concern that the US will not ade-
quately protect Saigon's interests.
South Vietnamese leaders are mak-
ing a special effort to allay suspicion.
On the military front, Communist
forces are generally staying clear of
large-scale actions
Tuesday night Castro made a major
change in his thesis on revolution
which may be aimed at repairing some
of his damaged bridges to the Soviet
Union.
In contrast to his adamant stand
that a rural guerrilla war is the ul-
timate road to victory, Fidel praised
the role of the urban population in
the Cuban revolution. This puts Castro
more in line with the doctrinaire Com-
munists who insist revolution must be
spawned in the cities. It may also en-
courage urban terrorists in Guatemala
and Venezuela.
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3. Singapore
4. Panama
5. Iran
Arias has now injected the canal
treaties into the presidential campaign.
He made a speech Monday night calling
on his backers to show their rejection
of the treaties by voting his ticket on
12 May. Arias
would push for further negotiations if
elected. He undoubtedly hopes this emo-
tional issue will whip up the popular
enthusiasm he was unable to generate
during the recent impeachment crisis.
The Shah is pressing for a clear
understanding on whether the US will
supply his military needs over the next
five years. This subject was raised
again with Ambassador Meyer on Monday.
If the problem is not resolved in the
interim, the Shah is sure to raise the
issue when he visits Washington in
June.
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6. Poland
7. Soviet Union
There are some tenuous signs
Gomulka may be losing ground in the
factional struggle, but no clear win-
ners are in sight yet.
Warsaw atmosphere as that
of a witch hunt with the average Pole
unable to see, understand, or influence
what is going on.
The Central Committee wound up its
two-day session yesterday with a state-
ment reflecting Moscow's growing con-
cern that events in Eastern Europe will
encourage domestic dissent. The state-
ment
blamed the West
for "undermining socialist society" and
disrupting Communist unity.
Little was said about such domes-
tic matters as agriculture. Evidently
these were overtaken by the more press-
ing problems of divisiveness and liber-
alization in Eastern Europe.
* * *
Luna 14, launched Sunday, apparent-
ly did go into orbit around the moon
yesterday. Its principal mission prob-
ably is to send back photographs of
prospective landing sites for a manned
lunar program.
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FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY
1.) Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
2.) North Vietnamese Reflections of U S
Political Attitudes
Top Secret
16
11 April 1968
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
11 April 1968
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
Internal Security in North Vietnam: Hanoi's re-
cent publication of a new decree against "counter-
revolutionaries" may have been primarily a measure
to tighten the regime's control apparatus in prepa-
ration for a new and crucial period of the war.
The decree doubtless was a warn-
ing to unreliable elements of the population. It
may indicate greater concern over both internal se-
curity because of the war and over allied sabotage
and intelligence operations. It seems likely, how-
ever, that the decree was but one of a series of
steps the regime took last fall in preparation for
the new and large-scale military effor,t it was then
mounting in support of Communist forces in South
Vietnam. Some of this concern may stem from the de-
cision to commit substantial additional portions of
North Vietnamese armed forces to the conflict and
thus reduce those available for security in the North.
* * *
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,Hanoi Prices:/
/prices in the North Vietnamese capital:
--The official rice price is equivalent to
about five cents a pound, but rice bought on the
black market costs roughly three times as much.
--The "rice" ration is actually half rice and
half flour, with the monthly ration based on the in-
dividual's job. Most of the rice in Hanoi comes
from Communist China.
--Chicken and beef are expensive, running about
$1.50 a pound.
--The official exchange rate is 3.53 dongs to
$1.00 US. On the black market, however, the rate
is 5 or 6 dongs to the dollar.
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* * *
II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
Liberation Front Sends Condolences on Dr. King's
Death: Nguyen Huu Tho, chairman of the Liberation
Front, has sent a message to the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference offering his condolences on
the assassination of Martin Luther King. In a broad-
cast by Hanoi on 9 April, Tho claimed that King had
been murdered by "racists" in the US, and alleged
that the tragic death of Dr. King pointed up the
"bloody suppression of the legitimate struggle of
the black Americans" by the Johnson administration.
Tho also noted in his message that the US had been
making it a practice for many years now to send
"black forces" to Vietnam to oppose the "just struggle
of the South Vietnamese people."
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