THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 18 OCTOBER 1968

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005976415
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: October 18, 1968

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006500050001-0
The President's Daily Brief
18 October 1968
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THE PRESIDENT'S
DAILY BRIEF
18 OCTOBER 1968
1. Panama
2, Czechoslovakia
3. France
- There has been nothing new:re-
?ported overnight On the question of
Arias' leaving the Canal Zone, -Panama
City is quiet.
There is growing concern in Czech
party circles that pro-Soviet conserva-
tives are about to make a bid for
power. .The party's weekly journal, for
instance, yesterday attacked "discred-
ited or evidently incompetent" people
who are trying to make a comeback. The
journal warned that Czechoslovakia must
either stick with Dubeek's policies or
?face a return to Stalinism. Dubcek,
meanwhile, remained :well in the .back-
ground during Kosygin's stay in Prague.
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4. Communist China
5. South Korea
6. Nigeria -
Soviet Union
The messy business of putting the
Communist Party back together again has
become the central issue in China. The
big questions now are who is to be re-
cruited, who is to be promoted, and who
is to be purged. Until. the leadership
is able to control the infighting, how-
ever, progress toward rebuilding will
be slow indeed.
President Pak has expanded his
private informant network both in the
military and in the civilian govern-
ment. He has also re-established an
army security command with primary re-
sponsibility to guard against coup
plotting. These moves look like the
first steps to discourage opposition
to Pak's running for a third term in
1971. Pak still has to get the two-
term limitation amended out of the
constitution, and much of the officer
corps may fight this.
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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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18 October 1968
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
18 October 1968
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
Le Due Tho Arrives in Hanoi: Le Duc Tho com-
pleted his trip from Paris to Hanoi on Thursday.
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,Nhan Dan Line is Tough: An authoritative "Com-
mentator" article in the North Vietnamese party daily
on 17 October takes the usual unyielding line on the
Paris talks. All blame for the "stalemate" is heaped
on the US for refusing to stop the bombing. The con-
cept of reciprocity is firmly rejected, and in two
places the article scores President Johnson for call-
ing on North Vietnam to "meet the minimal require-
ments of fairness" by exercising military restraint,.
* * *
Pro-Hanoi Meetings in Paris: The French Interior
Ministry has turned down the Foreign Ministry's request
that pro-Hanoi meetings scheduled for this weekend in
Paris be banned.
The US Embassy, has been informed that the meetings will
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be held inside a building and admission will be by
invitation only. (Presumably, therefore, they will
not technically be "public.") A Foreign Ministry
official was clearly embarrassed by the decision,
but he said it had been made at a "very high level"
and nothing more could be done about it.
Burchett to Make "Documentary": Wilfred Bur-
chett's current trip to Hanoi apparently, has to do
with a "documentary" for the Russell War Crimes Tri-
bunal. The film is to "denounce the myth" of the
partial bombing halt.
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OVA I
OUAI
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II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
There is nothing of significance to report today..
-4-
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Top Secret
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