THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 21 OCTOBER 1970

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1969-1977
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005977752
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: August 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2016
• Publication Date: October 21, 1970

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The President's Daily Brief
21 October 1970
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF
21 October 1970
PRINCIPAL DEVELOPMENTS
Lon Nol disclosed his current military strategy in
a recent conversation with Ambassador Swank. (Page 1)
Our first impressions of the new Egyptian cabinet
appear on Page 2,
The Japanese leadership continues its cautious ap-
proach toward shifts in its defense policies. (Page 3)
Egypt
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Soviets(
/(Page 4)
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-104 176
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SOUTH
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550312 10-70 CIA
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CAMBODIA
Lon Nol told Ambassador Swank in a briefing on
military strategy Monday that the Route 6 column
will resume its slow advance toward Kompong Thom
city once Tang Kouk is secured and the population
in rear areas is organized. The column will try
next to take the enemy-held town of Kompong Thma,
at the junction of Routes 6 and 21.
Over the longer run, Lon Nol wants to secure
Route 6 up to Kompong Thom and Siem Reap by moving
troops well north of Route 6--perhaps as far as the
Lao border--in order to plug Communist infiltration
routes. Such an operation would move slowly with
efforts being made.to "mobilize" the people along
the way before each new step forward.
Army Deputy Chief of Staff Sutsakhan will
probably cover the same ground in his meet-
ing with Admiral McCain in Honolulu Later
this week. Sutsakhan is expected to press
for additional US military aid, including
more arms and M-113 personnel carriers.
Ambassador Swank found Lon Nol's presenta-
tion unusually disjointed but thought it
reflected some confidence in the present
military situation. Swank was impressed
by Lon Nol 's emphasis on conducting a
"people's war" that calls for winning over
the rural population and consolidating
control over the countryside as the army
moves forward militarily.
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EGYPT
The new cabinet announced yesterday seems
to reflect a desire for continuity, peace,
and stability by Egyptians in high places.
The selection of Mahmud Fawzi, a skilled
diplomat who served as Nasir's foreign
policy adviser, as Premier underlines
Cairo's continued interest in seeking a
negotiated solution to the confrontation
with Israel. Fawzi does not have a power
base of his own, an added advantage in
this instance, because his appointment
will not stir the bitter political in-
fighting that might have developed if the
more influential Ali Sabri or Zakariya
Muhyeddin had been selected.I
IFawzi
is popular with the officer corps, another
important qualification for a durable gov-
ernment in Egypt.
The makeup of the new cabinet also ex-
tracts maximum political mileage from the
memory of Nasir by creating the impression
that the policies of the Lost leader con-
tinue uninterrupted. Virtually all of
Nasir's cabinet members were retained and
Abd-al-Muhsin Abu-al-Nur, a former mili-
tary colleague of Sadat and Nasir, was
named secretary general of the Arab So-
cialist Union (ASU), Egypt's sole politi-
cal party. Abu-al-Nur had been the ASU's
assistant secretary general since the June
1967 war.
In sum, the distribution of power has not
been seriously altered by the formation
of the new government. The transitional
collegial leadership remains intact and
Sadat, Minister of State Sami Sharaf, and
Interior Minister Sharawi Jumah are still
the key decision-makers in Egypt. AZi
Sabri, a pro-Soviet member of the hier-
archy, is reported to be slated for the
pos,t of vice president in charge of for-
eign affairs where he could serve as a
channel to Moscow.
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JAPAN
The cabinet made some significant last-minute
revisions in the defense policy paper it approved
yesterday. Instead of saying "present" government
policy opposes defensive tactical nuclear weapons,
the revised draft notes that even if these weapons
are constitutionally permissible, the government
adheres to its traditional rejection of nuclear arma-
ments. Statements that the US-Japanese mutual secu-
rity treaty should continue "semipermanently" and
that Japan would never reintroduce military conscrip-
tion were also deleted.
The policy guidelines inthis paper--the
first defense policy paper since World
War II--are relatively cautious. Last
year the paper was shelved because the gov-
ernment wanted to avoid controversy during
the period prior to the renewal of the US-
Japanese security treaty. The paper's
emphasis on the purely defensive nature of
the military forces is intended to ease.
fears in Japan and elsewhere that milita-
rism is being revived. Nevertheless, a
small but increasingly, vocal group, Zed by
Defense Agency chief Nakasone, favors .a
stronger defense posture which does not
exclude nuclear weapons.
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NOTES
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USSR:i
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Singapore: Lee Kuan Yew has admitted that his
offer to open Singapore facilities to Soviet naval
vessels is largely intended to frighten the Austra-
lians into establishing a permanent defense presence
in Singapore. In a talk with a Department of State
officer this week, Lee also denied any thought of
permitting Soviet use of the naval base itself--he
had in mind only "casual visits" to commercial ship-
yards for minor servicing. Lee probably realizes
that his ploy is not likely to alter substantially
Australia's limited "forward defense" policy but
hopes that, at a minimum, it will bring about in-
creased Western use of Singapore facilities.
Italy: Colombo's coalition government faces a
crucial test in Parliament on the ratification of
fiscal and economic decrees that are central to the
government's reform program. These decrees have
been in effect since August but will expire on 26
October without parliamentary approval. Passage
seems likely, but there will be intense maneuvering
among diverse political elements within the coali-
tion, and calculated obstructionism by extreme left
Proletarian Socialists and a militant splinter group
within Italy's Communist Party.
(continued)
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
Romania: CeausescWs address to the UN General
Assembly Monday was a typical Romanian performance
of measured criticism directed at East and West.
While he did not hesitate to call on the United
States by name in connection with the war in Vietnam,
his repeated references to the rights of small na-
tions were an obvious allusion to Romania's strug-
gles against Soviet hegemony. His remark that a
"people can be truly free" only to the extent that
it has a powerful economic and scientific foundation
seems aimed primarily at preparing the United States
for talks on closer economic ties. This tOpic,-along
with Romania's champiOnship of Communist China's
cause, is likely to be on Ceausescu's mind when he
talks with President Nixon next-Monday.
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