THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 2 JANUARY 1969

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005976541
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: January 2, 1969

_ Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006600360001-5
The President's Daily Brief
2 January 1969
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THE PRESIDENT'S
DAILY BRIEF
2 JANUARY 1969
1. Middle East
The atmosphere remains charged.
Israel and Lebanon are trading accusa-
tions of further incidents, including
the shelling by Arab terrorists of two
Israeli villages and an Israeli over-
flight of southern Lebanon. The over-
flight apparently prompted an emergency
session of the Lebanese cabinet to con-
sider its response to an Israeli inva-
sion.
The Lebanese Government's days may
be numbered. Newspapers are cudgeling
it for failing to resist the Beirut air-
field attack, and there are loud calls
for Prime Minister Yafi's resignation.
An anti-Israeli demonstration
scheduled for Beirut this morning could
turn into an antigovernment riot. Pub-
lic demonstrations have been banned,
but we do not think that the army, which
is ashamed of its lack of anti-Israeli
punch, would stop this one if it gets
started.
The Soviets have offered immediate
military and economic assistance to
Lebanon, and Egypt's Nasir has urged
President Hilu to accept. Hoping to
forestall strong domestic pressures for
such a deal and to keep Lebanon oriented
toward the West, Hilu has asked the US
ambassador for military aid.
On the Israel-Jordan frontier,
there have also been more incidents.
Both sides are claiming increased at-
tacks on settlements in the border area,
and skirmishing appears to be more or
less continuous since 31 December. As
a result, the US might expect a call
for arms aid from Jordan too.
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Ll%)04% /
2. South Vietnam
3. Vietnam
During December the rate of infil?
tration into South Vietnam from the
North was the second highest ever noted.
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-4. Cuba
Castro today marks the tenth anni-
versary of his rise to power. There
will be a "biggest ever" rally in Revo-
lutionary Square, on the scale of a mil-
lion persons. Castro himself plans a
major address but has given no hint of
its contents.
5. Communist China We believe China has produced its
first jet medium bomber.
6. Indonesia
The TU-16 will probably be the
mainstay of the Chinese bomber force
in the future. It will be several years,
however, before significant numbers can
be produced and deployed to operational
units.
The economy is looking up, reflect-
ing general progress toward stability.
For the first time in memory, basic com-
modity prices fell during the Muslim
holidays in December.
While inflation over the past year
has averaged about two percent a month,
this is a far cry from the runaway situ-
ation of 1967. The success of the gov-
ernment's five-year economic development
plan, to begin in April, will largely
hinge on continued progress in price
stabilization.
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7. Yugoslavia -
Soviet Union
8. Kuwait
Belgrade and Moscow are making ef-
forts to maintain good economic rela-
tions despite their political squabbles.
They have just agreed to an increase in
trade of almost 30 percent for 1969 over
the planned level of 1968. This will
probably prove optimistic, given the re-
luctance of Yugoslav, importers to take
on Soviet goods of poor quality and high
price.
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Top Secret
FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY
1.) Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
2.) North Vietnamese Reflections of US
Political Attitudes
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16
2 January 1969
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
2 January 1969
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
Ho Chi Minh's New Year Message: Short, but with
a few words for nearly everyone concerned, including
the "progressive people of the United States," Ho's
New Year message was dedicated to war. It included
cordial best wishes of "solidarity, struggle and suc-
cess to our compatriots, fighters, and cadres...in
both North and South Vietnam." If anyone was omitted,
it was Hanoi's negotiators in Paris, who apparently
could be lumped under the category of "our fellow
countrymen living abroad." In fact, not a word was
devoted to the Paris talks. Instead, Ho dedicated
last year's "glorious victories" to still bigger
ones this spring. He exhorted all to "fight so the
Yanks quit and the puppets topple," and held out
the prospect of achieving a "north and south reunited."
* * *
North Vietnamese Balancing Act Between Moscow and
Peking: On 21 December, Hanoi's daily paper, Nhan Dan
carried side by side the contradictory Soviet and Red?_
Chinese messages of congratulations to the Liberation
Front on its eighth anniversary. Moscow offered "sym-
pathy and support for...a political solution...in line
with the principles of the 1954 Geneva Agreements."
Peking stressed that final victory would be won "by
persisting in the people's war." The paper's editorial
quoted from both messages without favoring either one.
More
Dbservations from Hanoi:
over 100,000 youngsters were in the capital
in early December in defiance of the evacuation regu-
lations. Some of these children living in the city
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bicycle up to 25 kilometers outside Hanoi for primary
education. The high school and college students are
less fortunate. Their classrooms are much further
away, and if they wish to continue their education,
they must remain in the countryside.
Foxhole shelter liners were still being manufac-
tured in Hanoi in large numbers, up to 1,000 on one
street alone. Local "security forces" engaged in a
civil defense exercise featuring street fighting along
three of the main streets of the ca ital Th ,,s
the first exercise of its kind 50X1
noted in the past two months. Air raid 50X1
alerts were infreauent an0 antiaircraft fire was
light, at a loss to explain the 50X1
apparent random firing of surface-to-air missiles
during the day, at a rate of perhaps a dozen a week,
when no alert had been sounded. 50X1
these could be shots at high-level reconnaissance 50X1
planes, testing of weapons or crews, or the deliber-
ate using up of old-style missiles so that the newer
type supplied by the Soviets might be brought into
use.
There appears to have been a vast southward move-
ment of gasoline carriers, storage tanks on trailers,
and underground storage tanks during the daylight
hours. A significant increase in the amount of tim-
ber transiting the city in a southerly direntOn was
also noted, there
was practically no road transport in Hanoi after dark.
Moscow to Hanoi Air Service: The Soviet Union
has begun laying the groundwork for a commercial air-
line route to Hanoi which will skirt China.
? The Soviets have never had a commercial air route
to Hanoi. Until this year they sent an occasional
unscheduled military flight via China.
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During the past few months, it has become in-
creasingly clear that North Vietnam is bent on enlarg-
ing international air passenger service to Hanoi. Air
traffic between Hanoi and Peking has recently been ex-
panded from two flights per week to three, with the
usual stopover at Canton. Beginning the first of thIS
year, civil air traffic between Phnom Penh and Hanoi
is to be renewed by Royal Air Cambodge after a three-
year lapse,
* * *
II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
. ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
There is nothing of significance to report today.
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