THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 23 DECEMBER 1968

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005976527
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: December 23, 1968

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006600290001-3
The President's Daily Brief
7-,SLzIL23 December 1968
23
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OW\ I
ecs
THE PRESIDENT'S
DAILY BRIEF
23 DECEMBER 1968'
. Middle East
Gromyko arrived in Cairo Saturday
on a visit that appears to have been
set up on short notice. It is conceiv-
able his mission is to obtain,some
token of flexibility from Nasir that
Moscow can use in its effort to get bi-
lateral US-Soviet talks on the Middle
East.
Recent Soviet initiatives on.the
Middle East have shown little that is
new, although the Russians apparently
have dropped their earlier idea of a
four-power. conference 'with the US, So-
viet Union, France, and Great Britain
participating.
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-France
3. Nigeria
4. Korea
While the sobering effects of the
franc crisis and Czechoslovakia have
left France a.somewhat less persistent
burr under the West's saddle., there
still is no give on basic De Gaulle con-
cepts. British accession to the Euro-
pean Economic Community, for instance.
Meanwhile, we continue to note
signs of sagging confidence in the gov-
ernment. No French politician seems
prepared to challenge De Gaulle direct-
ly
Ojukwu shows no inclination to give up,
even though he has agreed to an eight-
day truce covering Christmas and New
Year's.
Predictably, the NorthKoreans
-haVe-all their transmitters:working on
%their version of the Pueblo crewHre..-
Contributinglto,the,broadcast
:noise out of Pyongyang this morning:is
. a prerelease'"press conference" :with
the crew, a "letter of gratitude!! from
it, a foreign ministry:statement, trans-
cripts of the US "apology," 'and a cas-
cade of the venemous verbosity. that .
passes .for news commentary. -Thus :far
the North-Koreans.have chosen to ignore
.the repudiation.of the "confession."
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,
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Top Secret
FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY
.) Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
2.) North Vietnamese Reflections of US
Political Attitudes
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23 December 1968
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
.23 December 1968
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
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Relations With Prague Cool: A Czechoslovak
remarked recently that re-
lations between Hanoi and Prague were correct, but
distinctly cool. The Czechoslovak said he had men-
tioned this to some Soviet colleagues and was told
the North Vietnamese considered Czechoslovakia the
"black sheep of the socialist camp."
* * *
-II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
Tho's Christmas Greetings: Nguyen Huu Tho,
President of the National Liberation Front, has
sent a Christmas and New Year's message to the
"American people." In the text broadcast by Hanoi's
international service on 21 December, Tho expressed
thanks for "your big efforts aiming to stop the war
of aggression by the US." Tho went on to predict
success in "the great struggle against the US Gov-
ernment's aggressive policy. The legitimate inter-
ests of our two peoples and the interests of world
peace will certainly win complete victory."
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