THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 10 JANUARY 1969

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005976555
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: January 10, 1969

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The President's Daily Brief
---7-'"Sec-r-et..10 January 1969
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THE PRESIDENT'S
? DAILY BRIEF
10 January 1969
1. France
2. Jarring Mission
De Gaulle's failure to consult
his cabinet before slapping the "total
embargo" on arms and spare parts to
Israel is not likely to cause him any
trouble that he cannot handle.
As far as we can tell, nobody in
the cabinet was informed ahead of time,
maybe because a number of ministers
strongly oppose the idea.
Now that he has had a chance to
digest the new Soviet timetable for
Arab-Israeli negotiations, Ambassador
Jarring plans to meet in Zurich with
the Israeli foreign minister on.14 Jan-
uary.
Jarring will not visit the Middle
East until the end of the month or
even later. Presumably he wants a bet-
ter reading of how the powers involved
feel about the Soviet proposal.
The Soviets, meanwhile, are being
coy about explaining the imprecise de-
tails of their proposal. At least for
now, Moscow apparently prefers Jarring
and the other interested parties to
take it from here.
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3. Warsaw Pact -
CEMA
4. Egypt
5. Communist China
6. South Vietnam
The Rumanians are expected to come
under heavy Soviet pressure at a Warsaw
Pact summit meeting to be held in the
Polish capital later this month. One
of the agenda items probably will be
discussion of plans for a pact exercise
in Rumania this year.
The signs are that the pact's lead-
ers will at the same time put on their
economic hats and convene the Council
for Economic Mutual Assistance (CEMA)
to press Rumania to de-emphasize nation-
al development in favor of "united ac-
tion."
President Nasir is "profoundly
satisfied" with the medical treatment
prescribed for his seriously injured
brother by two US Navy doctors who
rushed to Egypt on 8 January from Be-
thesda. Nasir was injured in a bad
automobile accident last week. The
Egyptian medical team treating him was
greatly impressed with the consulting
Americans, calling them the "best doc-
tors they had ever met."
New contests for political power
are springing up in China's vast prov-
inces, and these could force a delay
in holding the party congress which
early this spring was to have been the
scene of a try for national reconcilia-
tion. The apparent resolution of po-
litical infighting late last year may
have been more hope than reality.
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7. Portugal-Rhodesia
8. Soviet Union
9. Panama
Portugal's efforts to Stamp out
rebels in Mozambique have been bol-
stered over .the past two months by tac-
tical Air support from Rhodesia. The
Portuguese are also getting help from
Rhodesian ground troops, although we do
not know what,kind or how much. In the
past the Rhodesians have conducted joint
border sweeps with the Portuguese, but
this newest involvement is the deepest
yet.
Early this morning the Soviets
launched their second Venus probe this
year. It was sent off only five days
after the first one, which is on course.
Another step in the junta's "revo-
lutionary" reform program seems to have
been taken with the resignation on 8
January of five of the eight civilian
cabinet members.
Their replacements probably are
pliable, but are not believed to have
ties to the country's traditional elite,
although our information on this is
still sketchy. If the colonels now in
control are breaking with the old oli-
garchy, their next move will probably
be to create an independent power base.
* * *
Yesterday passed without student
demonstrations marking the anniversary
of the anti-US riots in 1964. The com-
memorative ceremonies will last for
four days, however, and there still
could be an antijunta manifestation.
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ANNEX
Vietnam
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Top Secret
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Top Secret
FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY
1.) Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
.) North Vietnamese Reflections of US
Political Attitudes
Top Secret
_ 16
?1-0 January 1969
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
10 January 1969.,:.
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
Infiltration Continues: Hanoi is maintaining a
high rate of infiltration into South Vietnam. New
battalion-size groups have been detected at a rate
of roughly one a day so far this month. This was
the level for most of December until a surge toward
the end of the month, when the total number of south-
bound troops reached well over 30,000. Most of the
new groups seem to be headed for the northern provinces
of South Vietnam or those around Saigon.
At least a portion of the commo-liaison network
serving infiltrators moving southward in North Viet-
nam was overhauled in late November. One of the reasons
for streamlining the system is that infiltrators
are now traveling much farther within the sanctuary
of North Vietnam before crossing over to the infil-
tration routes in Laos, where they must still under-
go the rigors of US air attacks. Moreover, they are
using truck and train transport much more extensively
than before the November bombing halt.
* * *
Front Hits US "Delay" Again: Liberation Radio
on January 8 issued another propaganda blast in Viet-
namese blaming the US for delaying the opening of
peace talks. The criticism was coupled with a warning
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that delay would not improve the allied military po-
sition.in South Vietnam. Washington cannot face the
truth either at the peace table or onthe battlefield,
claimed the broadcast. It went on to boast that the
Communists hold the initiative on the battlefield and
are threatening the allied position even in their
"last and Well fortified Saigon lair."
The Communists also discussed the assassination
of Saigon's education minister in a broadcast of 8
January. Although the main thrust of the broadcast'
was to direct the finger of suspicion away from the
Communists and. play up the murder as part of the in-
ternal intriguing of the Saigon government, the Com-
munists could not resist the opportunity to boast
that they too were able to pull off such murders if
they wanted to. Using a familiar Viet Cong technique
of taking credit for antigovernment action whether
responsible or not, the broadcast claimed that anyone
who "stubbornly clung to the.Americans" was likely to
meet an untimely death--at the hands of either "the
people,'" his political rivals, or the US itself.
* * *
'Seaborne Trade in 1968: Seaborne imports into
North Vietnam during 1968 increased by almost 40 per-
cent compared with 1967. The increase was largely
accounted for by a rise in the shipment of foodstuffs
(mainly flour andrice) and petroleum from the Soviet
Union and China.
The Soviets continued to be the source of the
largest share of North Vietnamese imports. account-
ing for about 43 percent of the total.
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electric power
and mining equipment, machine tools, excavators, metal,
railway construction equipment and rolling stock as
items which North Vietnam has been receiving from the
Soviet Union.
North Vietnamese exports in 1968 were 21 percent
higher than in 1967. The traditional exports of pig
iron and cement were not shipped abroad last year,
and miscellaneous and general cargo declined, but coal
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exports increased by 45 percent. The growth in coal
exports probably stemmed from the repair of coal
handling facilities and improvements in mine manage-
ment.
In the past, representatives of Communist coun-
tries have complained that the Vietnamese were wast-
ing much of their aid goods, such as flour. Recently
there have been many complaints in the North Vietnam-
ese press of waste and inefficiency in the use of
both materials and manpower.
* * *
II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
Wire Service Notes California Rally: The new
Liberation Front wire service designed to reach press
services as far away as Europe is being used to publi-
cize not only Viet Cong successes in Vietnam but also
the international support the Communists are receiving.
One of the transmissions on this service on 8 January
played up a rally held in San Francisco to celebrate
the anniversary of the Front's founding.
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Top Secret
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