THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 5 JUNE 1968

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005976184
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: June 5, 1968

_ Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006100310001-5
The President's Daily Brief
5 June 1968
23
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THE PRESIDENT'S
DAILY BRIEF
5 JUNE 1968
1. France
2. South Vietnam
The back-to-work movement is pro-
ceeding slowly indeed. Among others,
public transport, postal, and radio-
television workers are still on strike,
and the automobile, steel, and chemi-
cal industries are still shut down.
Thieu has turned down the Assembly's
general mobilization bill and asked for
some amendments to make it more palat-
able to the military. Among the "sug-
gested" amendments are expansion of the
draft age and elimination of veterans'
exemptions.
Thieu has threatened to promul-
gate his own mobilization decree if the
defense committees of both houses do
not accept the changes.
If Thieu carries out his threat,
he will severely strain relations with
the lower house, which drafted the pres-
ent limited bill. Indeed, he may even
alienate the upper house, which had
been more willing to grant Thieu broad
powers in the mobilization law.
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3, South Vietnam
4. Israel-Jordan
5. Soviet Union
General_Khang, the commander of
III Corps, recently unburdened himself
of complaints about Thieu, Premier
Huong, and democratic institutions in
general in a talk with Ambassador Ber-
ger. Khang is close to Ky, and his
discontent almost certainly reinforces
the vice president's own unhappiness.
Ky himself was in a black mood
when Berger and General Abrams called
to express their regrets over Sunday's
accident. In his despondency he even
talked of resigning, but Berger doubts
that he will convert his talk into ac-
tion,
Yesterdays heavy exchange of
fire along the border seems to have
been triggered by nervousness on both
sides on the eve of the first anniver-
sary of the outbreak of war. The ex-
-change started with small-arms fire but
escalated quickly, with the Israelis
finally sending aircraft to bomb Jor-
danian positions. The shooting died
down again at dusk. Both sides have
complained to the Security Council.
Demonstrations commemorating the
outbreak of the war are still sched-
uled in Jordan today.
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6. Czechoslovakia
7, Ecuador
In a speech to 6.,000 party activ-
ists on.Monday, Dubcek attacked Novot-
ny and the conservatives with Unprece-
dented vehemence, While he admitted
that some anti-Communists were trying
to establish themselves politically,
he indicated he was sure he could con-
trol them. He also made only a nominal
effort to hide Czechoslovakia's dis-
agreement with the Soviets on some
points of Marxist dogma'.
The speech was part of a country-
wide campaign to sell the government's
liberal "Action program" and undermine'
the conservatives. His remarks have a
self-confident ring, leaving the im-
pression that he no longer expects the
Soviets to line up behind the conserva-
tives,
* * *
The first Soviet contingents--
small ones, according to the Czech
press--have entered Czechoslovakia for
this month's Warsaw Pact exercise.
The outcome in the presidential
election in Ecuador was no surprise.
The aging demagogue, Jose Maria Velas-
co, came out on top in the three-way
contest, but he received only a little
over a third of the total vote.
Velasco's opponents are likely to
have a majority in the legislature,
and it seems likely that they will try
to find some way to remove him. As
Velasco himself said after the elec-
tion, "The only thing Ecuadoreans can
ever unite upon is in opposition to
whatever government is in power."
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8. Suez Canal
It has been a year now since the
Suez Canal was closed, and we think it
will stay closed for quite some time.
The economic impact of this closure has
been noticeably smaller than it was in
1956. Supertankers, for instance, can
now carry Middle Eastern oil around the
Cape of Good Hope for not much more
than it used to cost to use the canal.
The only countries which are really
suffering are those in South Asia and
?the Far East. Freight rates between
Western Europe and Communist China have
gone upas much as 50 percent since the
canal was closed. US grain shipments
to India and Pakistan have been simi-
larly affected.
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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 Secret
16
5 June 1968
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
5 June 1968
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
.Giap Talks Tough: Nothing particularly new or
startling emerged from an interview with Vo Nguyen
Giap published yesterday in the French Communist
Party journal, Humanite. As North Vietnam's senior
soldier, Giap takes a hard position for publication,
and the Humanite.interview was no exception. The
General restated Hanoi's determination to keep fight-
ing until its objectives are met. He remarked that
the North Vietnamese question the good will of the
US, stating the only peace that will be acceptable
will be a peace with complete independence, free
from "American interference."
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Kennedy Letter: The Czech news service is pub-
licizing what it claims are excerpts from a letter
written by Robert Kennedy. As quoted by the Czechs,
Kennedy stated the US "must unconditionally stop
the war in Vietnam" and reach agreement with the
Liberation Front as well as with Hanoi.
The Czechs claim the letter was in answer to
some questions posed by a Czech newspaper and have
told the US Embassy it was published in the paper
Monday night. The embassy, however, has not been
able to find the letter in print.
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* * *
II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
There is nothing significant to report today.
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