THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 28 FEBRUARY 1970

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1969-1977
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005977323
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: August 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2016
• Publication Date: February 28, 1970

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2016/04/27 : CIA-RDP79T00936A008000240001-2
The President's Daily Brief
28 February 1970
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THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF
28 February 1970
PRINCIPAL DEVELOPMENTS
In Laos, the Communists are beginning to probe the
approaches to General yang Pao's base at Long Tieng.
(Page 2)
Guatemala's foreign minister has been kidnaped, ap-
parently by one of the country's several Communist
groups. (Page 3)
-Negotiations for a new center-left government in Italy
are now faltering over the issue of relations with the
Vatican. (Page 5)
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1SRAEL-EGYPT
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New Communist Activity South of the Plaine
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977592-70 CIA
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LAOS
The Communists are beginning to probe government
positions south of the Plaine des Jarres. Early yes-
terday an enemy force overran a lightly defended
mountain outpost about ten miles from Long Tieng.
General yang Pao is now moving troops in to retake
the post. Only a handful of enemy troops are still
on the summit.
There are as yet too few Communist troops
south of the Plaine to mount a major at-
tack on Long Tieng or the outposts guarding
its approaches.
the current prob-
ing activity is probably the first step in
a larger effort against Long Tieng.
In Vientiane, Prime Minister Souvanna is putting
pressure on his generals in south Laos to provide re-
inforcements for the fighting in the north. He has
managed to extract promises of some troops to
strengthen defenses north of yang Vieng, but these
forces are neither, numerous enough nor are they of
the calibre to do much good.
Souvanna is also trying to get the conflict
back into the diplomatic arena. He has called pub-
licly on the signatories of the 1962 Geneva Accords
to reconvene, although he has not yet issued a for-
mall request to the cochairmen--the UK and the USSR.
2
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GUATEMALA
Members of the Cuban-oriented Rebel Armed Forces
(FAR) claim to be holding Foreign Minister Fuentes
Mohr, who has been missing since his departure from
ameeting with OAS election observers last night.
The, FAR told several radio stations that Mohr will be
killed unless a student arrested. by the government is
released within 24 hours.I
This seems to be part of a laat-minute
Communist effort to disrupt the general
elections scheduled for-tomorrow.
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USSR-FEDAYEEN
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ITALY
Our embassy in Rome reports that the attempts
of the four center-left parties to form a coalition
are now faltering over the issue of relations with
the Vatican. The trouble started when the Vatican
recently issued a diplomatic note of protest against
pending Italian divorce legislation. The Socialists,
Unitary Socialists, and Republicans have called on
the caretaker Christian Democratic government to re-
ject the note. Prime Minister Rumor has made no move
to do so, and a member of his staff reports that Ru-
mor is discouraged over prospects for forming a new
government.
A bill permitting divorce passed the lower
house last year. Before the Vatican's in-
tervention, the question of upper house
action on the bill had not been considered
an important hurdle for the current nego-
tiations. Even if this difficulty is over-
come, other sticky issues will need to be
resolved, including the question of amnesty
for those charged with illegal acts during
the 1969 strikes, economic policy, and ex-
tending the policy of center-left coopera-
tion to local governments.
President Saragat has the constitutional
power to call early national elections,
but it is unlikely that he would exercise
it except as a last resort and after re-
peated failures to find a successor gov-
ernment.
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NOTES
USSR - Middle East: Moscow is pressing its ef-
forts to dissuade the US from giving Israel more
military aircraft. First Secretary Makarov of the
Soviets' London embassy, citing a recent CBS news re-
port that Washington would do so, told an American
embassy officer on Thursday that this was a serious
matter and that the Soviets would give the US a "beat-
ing."_ Makarov, who is known for floating trial bal-
loons, said the US decision left Moscow no alterna-
tive but to supply "more sophisticated equipment"
to the other side. He added that since the Arabs
are not qualified to use such equipment, "other ar-
rangements would have to be made." A Pravda article
the same day echoed Makarov's warnings.
North Vietnam:
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Top Secret
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