THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 13 AUGUST 1968

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005976301
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: August 13, 1968

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The President's Daily Brief
M-Tp--Se.gze,L13 August 1968
23
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THE PRESIDENT'S
DAILY BRIEF
13 AUGUST 1968
1. Czechoslovakia -
East Germany
France
Ulbricht made yesterday's trip
to Czechoslovakia as short as possible,
but much of it must have been painful
to him even so. He ventured only as
far as a Czech spa 12 miles from his
East German sanctuary. His plane was
met by a small, silent crowd. ("One
person forgot himself and clapped,"
noted a US Embassy officer.) The
people in town followed him with cries
of "Long live Dubcek!" Dubcek and his
lieutenants went out of their way to
make sure Ulbricht was aware of the
enthusiastic support the Czechs have
been giving their leaders.
The East German and Czech delega-
tions talked for seven hours yester-
day, but we cannot conceive that they
have anything useful to say to each
other.
Ulbricht goes home today. A more
congenial guest, Rumania's Ceausescu,
is due in Prague on Thursday.
Couve de Murville was unusually
forthcoming in discussing French domes-
tic policies with Ambassador Shriver
on Saturday. Couve's principal points
are noted at Annex.
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3, Nigeria
4. Afghanistan
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ANNEX
Couve Discusses Domestic Policy
Couve de Murville gave Ambassador Shriver a pre-
view of the government's domestic programs in a con-
versation on Saturday. Among the high points:
--France is in for more austerity. The next
government budget will show a large deficit, and
further tax increases are on the way. Tax credits
will be granted for new investment, however.
--France will be moving out from behind its
protectionist barriers, and the French will have to
"accustom ourselves to the rigors as well as enjoy
the advantages of an open economy." One bitter pill
will be a higher unemployment rate.
--The educational system will be decentralized,
and the government plans to involve professors, ad-
ministrators, and students at each university in the
process of reform. As a result the universities,
which now are all cut to the same centuries-old pat-
tern, will develop a diversity much like that in the
US.
--Couve also foresees the growth of specialized
schools and institutions similar to our junior col-
leges to take care of students who cannot be absorbed
by the existing universities.
The economic measures Couve talked of are fairly
orthodox, albeit a bit more international in orien-
tation than De Gaulle's previous policies. Recent
proposals from radical Gaullists--including De Gaulle's
own vague promise that the workers would be permitted
to participate in the management of their enterprises--
were not mentioned by Couve at all.
Ambassador Shriver notes that Couve seemed to
be making a special effort to seem forthcoming.
Twice he prefaced his remarks with the statement,
"Perhaps it is indiscreet for me to say this, but...."
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At the end of their talk, Couve said he has "always
believed in being completely frank and aboveboard."
When the ambassador asked if there were any problems
in Franco-American relations, Couve laughed and re-
plied, "Everything's fine. We have no problems with
the US."
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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
2.) North Vietnamese Reflections of U S
Political Attitudes
Top Secret
16
13 August 1968
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
13 August 1968
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
North Vietnamese Propaganda Travels: A North
Vietnamese delegation was scheduled to leave Cairo
on 11 August for Sudan and a tour of Africa. In
Cairo the delegation participated in the meetings
of the preparatory committee for an international
conference in support of North Vietnam. The con-
ference, sponsored by the Afro-Asian People's Soli-
darity Organization, is planned for 7-9 September.
Clarification: The North Vietnamese foreign
ministry issued a note on 10 August clarifying what
it called "distortions" of an interview Premier
Pham Van Dong gave to a Filipino newsman recently.
The foreign ministry said that the premier
"reiterated the sacred right to self-defense of the
entire Vietnamese people," and that all other inter-
pretations are "ill-intentioned distortions." Hanoi
continues to be unusually frank in discussing this
issue, but clearly wishes to avoid going all the way
and acknowledging that its troops are in the South.
* * *
II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
Hanoi on US Elections: North Vietnam has broken
a long silence on the US election campaign by publish-
ing an article in the army newspaper on 10 August.
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The article takes the same Marxist-Leninist approach
General Giap used nearly a year ago in arguing that
US elections were merely a capitalist farce and
would not result in any change in US policy in Viet-
nam. This tack in the army newspaper probably is
intended to caution military forces and the general
populace that strenuous military efforts are still
necessary and that no false hopes should be raised
because of the Paris talks and the elections.
Such propaganda provides no clues to Hanoi's
real attitude. The North Vietnamese leadership is
intensely interested in this year's US elections.
Even though for the past several months the subject
has hardly been mentioned in Vietnamese Communist
propaganda, North Vietnamese officials both at home
and abroad have probed on the subject at every op-
portunity.
The new article is a fairly complete review of
US election developments in the past few months.
It has derogatory comments for all the leading per-
sonalities. Senator McCarthy is called a "second-
rate politician with little experience or money,"
and the Kennedy, Humphrey and Rockefeller "cliques"
are all upbraided for spending large sums of money.
The article comments that the Vietnam war has
exerted a strong effect on the elections and claims
,that this is the first time such .a foreign issue
"has become decisive" in the US. It notes that the
Republican platform "discoursed on the Vietnam prob-
lem," and pledged to "step up the peace talks" and
to "avoid a fake surrender." Mr. Nixon, says the
paper, has promised to settle the war through "peace-
ful talks," but still maintains his "aggressive de-
sign." The paper concludes by condemning both the
Republican and Democratic parties and claiming that
President Johnson argued against expanding the war
during the 1964 campaign and then "immediately turned
aside and reneged on his commitment."
This more freewheeling approach to the US elec-
tions was also introduced in Paris on 12 August when
the spokesman for the North Vietnamese delegation
told a news conference that Nixon's Vietnam policy
was "impudent." The spokesman dismissed the Repub-
lican platform by saying it does not call for a full
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bombing halt and the withdrawal of US forces. He
also described as "inaccurate" Vice President
Humphrey's declaration that peace is closer than at
any time in the past. He added that "the Paris
talks have so far failed to progress by one inch or
one millimeter."
* * *
Hanoi Quotes Senator Clark: Hanoi's press
agency carried an item in English on 12 August say-
ing that Senator Joseph Clark had concluded from a
recent tour of South Vietnam that the war is a
"stalemate."
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Top Secret
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