THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 17 JULY 1968

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005976255
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: July 17, 1968

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The President's Daily Brief
17 July 1968
33
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THE PRESIDENT'S
DAILY BRIEF
17 JULY 1968
1. Iraq
2. North Korea
Baghdad radio announced this morn-
ing that a "military command council"
has seized power. President Arif. and
.Prime Minister Yahya, along with the army
and air force chiefs, have been removed
from office. The orientation of the com-
mand council is not yet clear, but one
report indicates that it may be connected
with the Baathist party, a strongly .anti-
Western organization that once briefly
governed Iraq andis now in power in
neighboring Syria.
Initial proclamations of the command
council have a standard.Arab "revolution-
ary" flavor. .They denounce the Arif gov-
ernment for neglecting the army and thus
contributing to the Arab defeat in June
1967.
Recent satellite photography shows
that at least 16 of North Korea's 27
SA-2 surface-to-air missile sites are
now occupied. This is an increase of
two since the beginning of the year.
Thirteen new sites were constructed
since the seizure of the Pueblo, but
this is the first detected increase in
firing units.
The Soviets probably supplied the
new equipment under last year's aid ?
agreement.
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3. Uruguay
4. Czechoslovakia
The Soviets have offered aircraft
and other equipment to the Uruguayan air
force, on credit terms dubbed by one of-
ficial "so liberal that they amounted to
grant aid." Jet trainers and transports
probably were involved. We know that key
officers in the air force are unhappy
with their present equipment and are look-
ing for new sources of supply.
members
of the Soviet party's Central Committee
have been summoned to Moscow for a meeting
today. The apparent haste in calling the
gathering suggests that exceptionally im-
portant matters are to be considered. At
the least, Brezhnev would have the oppor-
tunity to report on last weekend's Warsaw
meeting and to obtain a committee resolu-
tion that could serve as another element
of pressure on the Czechs.
Prague meanwhile is standing its
ground. In an outspoken press conference
on 15 July, Dubcek's man in charge of se-
curity and defense pointedly suggested
that changes be made in the Warsaw Pact
organization in order to emphasize the
equality of Pact members. The Czech party
leadership met yesterday to prepare a
reply to the still unpublished letter
sent to them by the five Warsaw conferees.
A top Czech party spokesman has
said that the French and Italian Commu-
nist parties have urged the Soviets not
to intervene in Czech affairs. The Brit-
ish and Belgian parties apparently have
taken a similar line. The Yugoslays and
Rumanians are continuing to give vocal
support to the Czechs.
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5. Soviet Union.-
Czechoslovakia
6. Communist China
North Vietnam Peking is making new efforts to get
traffic on the rail line to North Vietnam
back to normal. Severe factional fight-
ing.has impeded traffic through Kwangsi
Province since mid-May.(
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7. Nigeria
8. Indonesia
The Biafrans are worried that pub-
licity over their refugee problem is
diverting attention from their aims of
achieving a
settlement.
The army drive against Communist in-
surgents in East Java, now in its seventh
week, is producing results. The Commu-
nist party chief was captured recently
and one of his top deputies killed. To-
gether they were reported in charge of
guerrilla activity in the area.
50 to 60 suspected Communists are being
executed each day. On a smaller scale,
this recalls the bloodbath that followed
the Communist coup attempt three years
ago. The insurgents nonetheless can still
.field sizeable. groups., Andithe government
expects that military operations will be
necessary for sometime.
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Top Secret
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Top Secret
FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY
1.) Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
.) North Vietnamese Reflections of U S
Political Attitudes
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17 July 1968
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
" 17 ',July 1968
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
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. The Communist Youth Festival and Vietnam: The
Communists' Ninth World Youth Festival, to be held in
'Sofia, Bulgaria, from 28 July to 6 August, will heavily
emphasize Vietnam, with a "Vietnam Day" scheduled for
29 July, according to Embassy Sofia.
The embassy notes that Vietnam is virtually the
only unifying issue among the various delegations, sev-
eral of which are widely divided on other issues. At
least 150 Vietnamese delegates representing both North
Vietnam and the Liberation Front are expected, and
American deserters and draft resisters are to meet
with delegates duting the festival. ?A Vietnam informa-
tion center will open in downtown Sofia on Vietnam Day
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to provide current information on the course of the
war and to sell Viet Cong banners and medals made
from downed US aircraft':
* * *
Giap Shows: Hanoi's Defense Minister, Vo Nguyen
Giap, made one of his relatively rare appearances re-
cently. Hanoi Radio's domestic service noted on
15 July that Giap had been present at a recent re-
gional military conference discussing new instructions
concerning the regiom',s "political tasks."
* * *
II. ,NORTH VIETNAMESE.REFLECTIONS'OF US POLITICAL
,ATTITUDES ON:THE WAR
Hanoi on Dr. Spock: Citing Western reports as
its source, Radio Hanoi yesterday, said that Dr. Ben-
jamin Spock recently received a standing ovation from
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an audience which he had addressed in Cleveland?.
Broadcast in English over Hanoi's international ser-
vice, the announcement added that Spock had recently
been fined and sentenced to prison "only because he
opposed the dirty US war in Vietnam."
* * *
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Top Secret
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