THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 26 MAY 1969

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1969-1977
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005976793
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: August 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2016
• Publication Date: May 26, 1969

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The President's Daily Brief
26 May 1969
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
I, MAJOR PROBLEMS
MIDDLE EAST
The tenuous agreement between Lebanese President Hilu and
Rashid Karami has come unstuck, and the chances have dimmed
that Karami will form a new cabinet. Karami now says he will
not accept Hilu's proposed restrictions on the fedayeen unless
the fedayeen, acting through Egyptian intermediaries, also
agree to accept them., Hilu plans to sound out other Muslim
politicians for the premiership if he cannot get Karami to
change his mind again in the next week or so.
All this is happening amid signs that the period of rela-
tive inactivity among the fedayeen in southern Lebanon is com-
ing to an end. The terrorists have begun firing on Lebanese
Air Force planes and have hit one of them.
SOVIET AFFAIRS
The Czechoslovak central committee plenum scheduled for
29 May is shaping up as an important encounter in the struggle
between conservatives and moderates for control of the party.
National party first secretary Husak--in office for little
more than a month--is fighting to gain control of the party
and to point it along an internally moderate and pro-Soviet
course. He is being challenged by conservatives, led by Czech
first secretary Strougal, who are now on the offensive.
FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
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The Soviets, by denying Husak public support, are not
making it any easier for him. Moscow, for example, is said
to have rejected Husak's bid for a visit before the plenum.
His one-day visit to Poland on Saturday, his earlier consul-
tations with Hungarian leader Janos Kadar, and a planned
meeting with East German leader Walter Ulbricht on 26 May
probably are attempts to drum up support.
VIETNAM
Thieu successfully launched his National Social Democratic
Front yesterday before an audience of some 2,000 members of
the six political parties making up the new front. In his ad-
dress to them, Thieu emphasized that the front is not designed
to monopolize patriotism or to seek dictatorial power. The
door is open, Thieu said, for others to join or to form op-
position groupings, and he called for those who wished to par-
ticipate in the anti-Communist struggle but who differed with
the policies of the front to organize themselves.
There is still a long way to go before the front becomes
a functioning national political organization. Thieu may even
doubt that it will ever amount to much more than a vehicle to
gi:Ve various political factions some sense of participation
in the government process. A hint of what Thieu probably sees
as the basic organizations for the struggle against the Com-
munists came in his reference to "other important anti-Com-
munist elements" such as the army, the civil service and the
government administration. He noted that the new front "will
cooperate" With' these forcesin the fight against the COmmu
nists.
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95131 5-69 CIA
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
EUROPE
There is nothing of significance to report.
II. OTHER IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS
SUDAN
Many of those involved in yesterday's coup in Khartoum
are pro-Egyptian or are connected with the Sudanese Communist
Party. Colonel Numayri, the leader of the ten-man Revolution-
ary Council, is a suspected Communist. Eleven of the 21 mem-
bers of the new cabinet are suspected or known members of the
Communist Party, and five of these 11 are members of the party
central committee. The remaining new cabinet members have
leftist links
We still cannot tell how secure the new ruling group's
hold is. The army as a whole has long been conservative;
about a third of its members belong to the Ansar religious
sect which forms the backbone of the conservative Umma Party.
LAOS
The government's counteroffensive south of the Plaine
des Jarres has been dealt further setbacks. The remaining
positions at Phou Khe have fallen to North Vietnamese attacks.
Government troops also have withdrawn from Xieng Khouangville
in the face of numerically superior enemy forces.
3
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Meo leader yang Pao, with Souvanna's backing, nevertheless
plans to continue his efforts to keep strong pressure on the
Communists. Government guerrillas yesterday were regrouping
near Phou Khe for a counterattack.
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SOVIET UNION - PAKISTAN
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