THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 1 NOVEMBER 1968

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005976439
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: November 1, 1968

? Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24: CIA-RDP79T00936A006500170001-7
The President's Daily Brief
-Thp?S-erre-t--- I November 1968
23
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006500170001-7
50X1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006500170001-7 -50X1
THE PRESIDENT'S
.DAILY BRIEF ?
1?NOVEMBER.1968
1, Vietnam As yet there has been no official
(As of 5:30 AM comment on the bombing halt from North
EST) Vietnam or other Communist countries.
The North Vietnamese delegation in
Paris has scheduled a press conference
later today, and this may provide
Hanoi's first public reaction.
Moscow, Warsaw, and Prague all car-
ried brief, factual reports of the
President's statement.
Saigon issued a terse announcement
that the US had "unilaterally" decided
to end the air attacks. Thieu plans
an address to the nation on the subject
tomorrow.
There have been no reports of ma-
jor enemy military action in South Viet-
nam since the President spoke, although
rocket attacks were made against Saigon,
Hue, and My Tho a few hours before his
broadcast. Evidence of offensive prepa-
rations was noted before the announce-
ment when "N-Day" messages indicated
assaults were planned in the highlands
for around 5 November. Yesterday, how-
ever, one unit was told N-Day had been
delayed.
50X1
50X1
50X1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006500170001-7
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006500170001-7
?2. Israel-Egypt
3. Israel-Jordan
4. Communist China
5. Ecuador
Israeli helicopter-borne comman-
dos struck two Nile bridges and a power
station just north of Aswan early this
morning. The Israelis stated that this
was in retaliation for Egyptian artil-
lery, attacks across the Suez Canal last
Saturday. No Israeli casualties were
incurred in the strike 125 miles into
Egyptian territory, according to the Is-
raelis.
Tomorrow is the 51st anniversary
? of the Balfour Declaration in which
Britain recognized Jewish rights to .?
homeland in Palestine. West Bank Arabs
plan a general strike. Given current
tensions, the anniversary could well
trigger major disturbances.
Political enemies are brewing
trouble for Velasco. Students in Guaya-
quil are being encouraged to take to the
streets, both slum dwellers and peasants
have been urged to move onto privately
owned land, and there is a rash of in-
spired strikes. As expected, Carlos
Arosemena is up to his elbows stirring
the pot.
50X1
50X1X1
50X1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006500170001-7
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006500170001-7
;_)un1
6. Poland
7. Berlin
The-polish party opensAAS-fifth
congress on 11 November, and:Gomulka's
authority is seriously threatened'. For'
13 years he has ruled the party, through
An adroit manipulation of the factions
Iwithin it. That system has-been .left
in shambles by intellectual turmoil, .
student demonstrations, and the .cumula-
tive grievances of a decade'. The real
challenge to Gomulka .comes from the
party's-right, itself split into;two'
warring factions.
After the congress, we believe
Gomulka will still be party first sec-
retary, but his will no longer be the
dominant voice. The party--and the
country--will be run by a combination
of elements ranging from anti-Semitic
hardliners to rigid technocrats--with-
out a Dubcek amongst them. They will
continue contending for power among
themselves.
East Germany is threatening to
block West German access to Berlin
when Kiesinger's Christian Democratic
Party meets in the city on Monday. The
threat was made in an official state-
ment yesterday. The East Germans could
cut land access, but not travel by air--
which is how most West Germans would go.
The Christian Democrats are not likely
to cave in before East German pressures.
50X1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006500170001-7
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006500170001-7
:)0X1
50X1
50X1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006500170001-7
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006500170001-7
Top Secret
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006500170001-7
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006500170001-7
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
1 November 1968
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006500170001-7
50X1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006500170001-7,1
Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
1 November 1968
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION.
* * *
Restoration of Production: The North Vietnam-
ese regime is increasingly directing its attention
to problems of restoration of production. A new regu-
lation on economic management designed to restore the
authority of local governments was issued in late Oc-
tober. Local authority has been largely by-passed
during the last three years by party and military of-
ficials who took over all aspects of local administra-
tion to enforce wartime priorities. Since the reduc-
tion in,US bombing, however, several politburo members
have called on.local party officials to relax their
tight control and restore the position and authority
of local governmental organizations.
The Council of Ministers' directive strengthens
the authority of these local units beyond the position
they held in the North Vietnamese administrative set-
up in the first half of the 1960's, at least in the
field of economic management. The North Vietnamese ap-
pear to have borrowed heavily from the approach to.in-
dustrialization adopted by the Chinese Communists in
E50X1
150X1
150X1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006500170001-7
50X1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006500170001-7
the mid-1950's. National control is confined to im-
portant communications and marketing systems and to
industrial installations which are either large-scale
heavy industry producers or those which require siz-
able investment. Provincial and regional governments
are expected to run agriculture, light industry, and
some small-scale heavy industry.
The new. management system implies that the re-
gime intends to adopt the kind of decentralized pro-
gram which has been advocated in earlier theoretical
discussions of postwar economic development. Some
spokesmen, for example, have argued that the forced
evacuation of plants during the bombing Could be used
in a postwar period as a base for developing a decen-
tralized industrialization program.
* * *
Explosives Moving South: Movement of a record
2,200 tons of "explosives" and TNT was noted in North
Vietnamese rear service messages between 16 and 21
October.
The messages did not identify the types of explo-
sives by tonnage, and it is not clear how these large
shipments will be used. The dry season has just begun
in the Laotian panhandle and the Communists are making
extensive road repairs and improvements, partly by
blasting. Explosives are also used to cope with bomb
damage to Mu Gia Pass and Route 912--the two major
North Vietnamese supply routes into the panhandle. It
is likely, however, that a large part of the total
1,600 tons destined for Laos will ultimately be sent
to South Vietnam, possibly in part for local production
of Communist munitions.
* * *
II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
Antiwar Protests: Citing various Western news
agencies and US newspapers as sources, Hanoi reported
several incidents of antiwar protest in the United
States during a 30 October English language interna-
tional broadcast.
-2-
50X1
50X1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006500170001-7
50X1
50X1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006500170001-7
The North Vietnamese reported on an antiwar rally
held in Atlanta on 27 October and an address delivered
there by retired US Army General Hester which condemned
US policy. The broadcast mentioned antiwar and anti-
draft demonstrations held at Lawrence University in
Appleton, Wisconsin, and in Milwaukee. A Reuters dis-
patch about 105 US troops who have refused to go to
Vietnam also was cited.
The broadcast included a brief summary of an
article by John Knight in the Miami Herald which
termed US involvement in Vietnam a mistake.
50X1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006500170001-7
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006500170001-7
Top Secret
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006500170001-7