THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 2 JANUARY 1971

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1969-1977
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005992401
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: August 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2016
• Publication Date: January 2, 1971

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The President's Daily Brief
2 January 1971
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THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF
2 January 1971
PRINCIPAL DEVELOPMENTS
Peking's New Year pronouncement is cautious in its
claims of progress. (Page 1)
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Venezuela is making tentative moves toward bringing
Cuba into the inter-American system. (Page 3)
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COMMUNIST CHINA
Peking's New Year pronouncement, appearing
as a joint People's Daily - Red Flag - Lib-
eration Army Journal editorial on 31 De-
cember, is remarkably cautious in its
claims of progress. For example, although
party building at higher administrative
echelons has been the first order of domes-
tic business for the past year and a half,
the editorial contains little self-congrat-
ulation over the pace of the program and
fails even to cite the formation of four
provincial party committees, the first to
be formed since the Cultural Revolution.
Its call for unity and organisational dis-
cipline, reiterating a theme first issued
at the Ninth Party Congress in April 1969,
and its appeal to senior cadres to follow
Mao's revolutionary line "still better,"
attest to the complexity of personnel and
policy problems still plaguing party build-
ing and to the regime's frustrations over
continued political squabbling in some lo-
cales.
The editorial's stock-taking of improve-
ments in Peking's international position
is surprisingly limited. It pointedly
ignores China's achievements in the dip-
lomatic field, such as recognition from
Canada and Italy and the favorable UN vote.
Instead, it trots out Peking's favorite
"betes noires"--US-Soviet collusion and
Japanese militarism?as well as examples
which allegedly bear out Mao's statement
on 2 May that revolution is the ?sign of
the times. As in last year's editorial,
Moscow's revisionist policies are declared
to be bankrupt, but this time recent events
in Poland are cited to point up the "deep
crisis" in Eastern Europe.
Although the New Year statement is vague
on the timing of the National People's
Congress, which is expected to serve as
a forum for unveiling the central govern-
ment apparatus and anew five-year plan,
the editorial struck a positive note in
announcing that 1971 would be the first
year of the Fourth Five-Year Plan. Pre-
dictions for the economy were even more
modest than last year, however, and there
were no claims that current planning would
generate another "great leap forward."
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VENEZUELA
The secretary general of the governing party
said at ?a press conference this week that the Or-
ganization of American States should allow govern-
ments to re-establish relations with Cuba if they
want to do so. This could be done, he said, now.
that "Castro has changed his conduct with regard
to? the interference in the internal affairs of
other countries." Earlier, the Venezuelans had
suggested that Trinidad's Prime Minister Williams
explore the possibility of a rapprochement with
Cuba, saying that Venezuela would follow Trinidad's
lead.
These are only tentative moves, but they
suggest Venezuela is considering seriously
steps that could be taken to bring Cuba
into the inter-American system. Caracas
played an important role in the 1963 OAS
decision to isolate Cuba and has stead-
fastly backed this policy since. A change
of Venezuelan policy could prompt several
Latin countries to follow suit.
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NOTE
Laos: In northern Laos, an estimated 200 enemy
troops have attacked elements of a government irregular
battalion deployed about eight miles north of Ban Ban.
There were no government casualties, but the irregulars
were forced to withdraw to the north and east. In
addition, late reports indicate that enemy forces yes-
terday overran several government outposts about seven
miles northwest of Ban Ban. In the south, enemy attacks
forced the abandonment on 1 January of three small
sites on the southern rim of the Bolovens Plateau,
which had been manned by some 200 locally recruited
irregulars.
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