THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 21 SEPTEMBER 1968

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005976369
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: September 21, 1968

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The President's Daily Brief
-f0l,-StL-t'e-2 1 September 1968
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.THE? PRESIDENT'S
DAILY 'BRIEF
21
SEPTEMBER 1968
1,
Soviet Union -
Eastern Europe
The Warsaw Pact commander,
Marshal Yakubovsky, arrived in
Thursday, ostensibly to discuss
strengthening of the pact with
ian officials. The visit will
Soviet
Sofia
the
Bulgar-
probably
2. Czechoslovakia -
Soviet Union
cause nail-biting in Rumania,,Yugoslav-
ia, and even in Austria, but there is
no evidence that the Soviets are about
to take any military, action.
The Rumanians may, however, come
under greater pressure in the near fu-
ture to fulfill their obligations under
the Warsaw Pact, perhaps even to permit
joint maneuvers to take place on their
territory.
Meanwhile, the Soviet propaganda
machine keeps grinding away at Berlin
.and West Germany.
There are signs of growing dis-
agreement over how to carry out the Mos-
cow accord. Dubcek and his colleagues
are said to be resisting the removal
of a number of Czech officials. The
Czechs in fact have counterbalanced
"resignations" of liberals by ousting
conservatives favored by Moscow.
Prague has also announced the
"temporary" postponement of some eco-
nomic reforms attacked in the Soviet
press--language which obviously will
not please Moscow. Prague is also say-
ing that nonparty people will share in
the management of "social, economic,
and other processes." This is clear
defiance of Soviet insistence that the
party increase its control.
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3. Congo
(Brazzaville)
4. Philippines
5, Honduras
Chances of early military inter-
vention by Kinshasa have faded. Mobu-
tu
is junketing around various
North African capitals and seems to
have lost his opportunity. Brazza-
ville's new leader, Ngouabi, appears
to be consolidating his power position
handily.
Manila's yellow press is whipping
up anti-US sentiment, claiming the US
has sided with Malaysia in the Sabah
dispute. Several senators and congress-
men have joined the assault. One has
gone so far as to demand withdrawal of
American bases, and demonstrators ap-
peared at the American Embassy yester-
day.
There is more smoke than fire in
this. The Sabah issue, however, has
touched a sensitive nationalistic
nerve, and various elements on the Ma-
nila scene will try, to manipulate it
for their own ends.
The labor movement, which had been
bickering quietly with the government
for six months, suddenly called a gen-
eral strike Thursday. The government
in response has declared .a state of
siege. As long as the army stands be-
hind the government, the strikers have
little chance of accomplishing very
much, but President Lopez may order
harsh measures which could furnish his
opponents with martyrs and a new unity.
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FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY
1.) Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
.) North Vietnamese Reflections of U S
Political Attitudes
Top Secret
10
21 September 1968
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
21 September 1968
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
Living Conditions: Notes made by a member of
an infiltrating.North Vietnamese unit describe severe
privation in the provinces of southern North Vietnam
through which he passed. According to the writer,
the people he observed south of the 19th Parallel
suffered acute shortages of food and clothing; women
were dressed in rags, and children begged food from
the North Vietnamese troops. The writer, said the
cost of living in the southern provinces was four
times higher than that above the 19th Parallel.
Agricultural workers, he wrote, earned only about
27 pounds of manioc and corn a month, and lack of
manpower left many rice fields uncultivated.
Conditions in the North Vietnamese provinces
still subject to bombing are undoubtedly severe.
The government has probably evacuated a considerable
number of the residents, contributing perhaps to the.
"lack of manpower" described in the notes; and to
the hardships of those remaining.
The writer's bleak observations may also have
been influenced by his own deteriorating morale.
The notes disclose that his infiltration unit lost
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more than 60 percent of its original complement to
desertions and sickness during the march south.
This figure, of course, is most unusually high.
Normally, desertions and sickness account for about
10 to 20 percent.
* * *
II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
More on the US Campaign: In its latest commen-
tary on the US presidential race, Radio Hanoi's domes-
tic service on 18 September restated its contempt
for all.three major candidates and arrived at its
standard conclusion: "They are all alike." The broad-
cast claimed that all candidates agree on continuing
the "aggression against Vietnam,".and all "demand
reciprocity." It threatened "even heavier blows" by
the Vietnamese people if the new president fails to
meet Hanoi's demands.
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