THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 3 APRIL 1971

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1969-1977
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005992565
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 14
• Document Creation Date: August 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2016
• Publication Date: April 3, 1971

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The President's Daily Brief
3 April 1971
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF
3 April 1971
PRINCIPAL DEVELOPMENTS
The situation in Pakistan is discussed on Page 1.
Only 1,800 fresh North Vietnamese troops were de-
tected in the infiltration system during March.
(Page 2)
Heavy fighting has been noted on a hill overlooking
enemy supply routes from the Plaine des Jarres in
Laos. (Page 3)
Six infantry and two artillery regiments are now
operating within a 12-'mile radius ofChUp in Cam-
bodia. (Page 4)
A small army unit in northern Thailand near the Laos
border was ambushed by an insurgent force of 100
earlier this week. (Page 5)
Clashes in Jordan continue as seven Arab countries
prepare to meet in Cairo today. (Page 6)
Party conservatives are trying to build up their
strength in Czechoslovakia before the party congress
in May. (Page 7)
FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
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St
NEPAL ;
BHUTAN
?Gooch Behar
R angpur
IND
%uhati
Y.
A
Shillong?
Farakk:\si,
Berga.
Rajshahi
-
-?.MYMENSING Syih
- A
?
EA-ST PAKISTAN
.`s
Kushti
Calcutta
Khulna e
Bar isat,
,J5?;
rAgartala
,
Narayanganj
_
, Corn ilia
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, ?????
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88
,y
Chlttaiong
25
50
75
MILES
H U of HP' \ (, U.
Cox's Bazar
Rangpur Centers controlled by the army according
to US Consulate General
92
BURMA
551253 4-71 CIA
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
PAKISTAN
The army controls a number of population centers
but little of the countryside, according to the US
consul general in Dacca. Central government control
of Dacca and Nerayangani is a fact,
the
consulate estimate that Chittagong is held by the
army. The central government, according to the con--
sul general, probably has also maintained itself.in
Khulna, Rangpur, Saidpuri Comilla, Sylhet, Dinajpur,
and Jessore. Apparently reliable press reports,
however, continue to indicate that-the.city of Jes-
sore, as opposed to the nearby military cantonment,
has been taken by East Pakistanis.
With monsoon rains due in.about two months, the
consulate believes there is apossibility the army
will find itself marooned in a-series of strongpoints
around the province during the summer and will have
difficulty supplying some of them.
Officials at-the consulate:genetal also feel
there are indications thatthe-army may be thinking
of starving the East Pakistanis into -submission,'
Even if this is not the: goal, -a situation: in which
the army controlled major ports and transportation
centers and the East Pakistanis the. countryside
could have grave effects on-the welfare of the pop-
ulation,
The Pakistanis apparently do not intend to al-
lbw any further thinning-out flights by foreign mili-
tary aircraft. Instead they have proposed that Brit-
ish, French, and US nationals use Pakistan Interna-
tional Airlines planes. Two flights a day would op-
erate to Karachi from 4 April through 7 April, with
a total capacity of 1,256. An estimated 750 Americans
are expected to participate in the airlift and the UK
has responsibility for nearly 800 more persons.
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NORTH VIETNAM
Only about 1,800 fresh North Vietnamese troops--
nearly all of them bound for southern South Vietnam
or Cambodia--were detected in the infiltration sys-
tem during March.
There still is little
or no exploitable infiltration data from
the head of the system in North Vietnam
or from other stations along the northern
part of the traiZ, where until January
most infiltrators were detected, and some
troops could have slipped through unde-
tected. The available evidence suggests,
however, that the March .total--as well as
similar low totals from January and Febru-
ary--is a generally accurate reflection
of the infiltration flow.
The low rate for the past three months can
be explained in part by the demands im-
posed on the North Vietnamese rear serv-
ices system by Operation Lam Son 719. A
more important reason, however, may be
that Hanoi had substantially completed its
dry-season infiltration effort by the end
of last year. About 75,000 troops have
moved south since last September, compared
with 57,000 in the 1969-70 dry season.
The North Vietnamese are unlikely to close
down the infiltration system completely
this coming wet season, as they did in
1969 and as they were beginning to do in
1970 until events in Cambodia forced a
change in pZans. Infiltration thus is
likely to pick up before long and then
continue at an increased though still mod-
est rate over the next few months.
FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
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---t'Zmneu
tlaa
aig
Sala Pho
Khou
Muong Sou
?c",,,,,f`4/4-,? '&'---
I regular
syvee operation
\leNORTH
an a
VIETNAM
?I I:31 Lang \
\
Sam Th ..\
? Hill 1662 ?
Long Tie I , 1
13 \ r gulars meet? (
avy resistance _
'THAILAND
?Government-field location
? Communist-held location
THAILAND
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
LAOS
Two of Vang Pao's irregular battalions, compris-
ing some 650 men, moving northeast from Long Tieng
have had two days of heavy fighting trying to oust
Communist forces from Hill 1662, a key point over-
looking enemy supply routes from the Plaine des
Jarres. An irregular company is moving to reinforce
these battalions, and tactical air strikes and ar-
tillery fire are being used to press the drive.
Intercepts suggest that North Vietnamese
forces have begun to concentrate to the
northeast and east of Long Tieng in the
past two weeks. There now appear to be
elements of at least seven Communist bat-
talions in this vicinity. The irregular
operation could serve to delay or defer
any major ground assault on Long Tieng
from the northeast.
About 1,100 other Meo irregulars are conducting
a sweep operation toward Ban Na from the northwest
in an effort to relieve North Vietnamese pressure on
that artillery site. So far this operation has met
little resistance and has turned up a number of
abandoned enemy positions, suggesting that at least
some of the Communist units in this area have shifted
to the east.
The government.effort to push back Communist
units around Luang-Prabang is moving forward slowly,
and somehigh ground positions northeast of the
royal capital have been-reoccupied.- An irregular
task force of a thousand men- trying to move up Route
4 north of the royal capital is still stalled by
enemy resistance, however.
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
CAMBODIA - SOUTH VIETNAM
During the past week the headquarters of the
Communist 7th Division has moved to the eastern edge
of the Chup plantation, while the headquarters of
the 9th Division has moved deep into its interior.
A regiment of the 5th Division has also relocated
to the Chup area, and is now on the plantation's
northern edge. These shifts raise the number of en-
emy units operating within a 12-mile radius of Chup
to six infantry and two artillery regiments.
The Communists have frequently moved their
main-force units rapidly in and around
Chup during the course of the two-month-
old South Vietnamese offensive. Some of
these moves during this period were clearly
designed to defend against ARVN actions,
while others were for purposes of rest
and resupply. The current moves could be
related to this pattern. They also raise
the possibility of increased enemy combat
action.
4
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THAILAND
Early this week ?a small Thai Army unit provid-
ing security for a road construction crew in north-
eastern Nan Province near the Lao border was ambushed
by an insurgent force estimated by local police at
100 strong. Ten government troops and two highway
workers were killed. Most of these casualties oc-
curred when fire from either a rocket or grenade
launcher hit the fuel tank of an armored personnel
carrier. Earlier in March the insurgents in this
same general area used a 60-mm. mortar to turn back
an army operation, killing eight government troops.
Chinese Nationalist irregular forces operating
under Bangkok's direction in adjacent Chiang Rai
Province have also found the going increasingly, dif-
ficult. After some initial successes at the outset
of operations late last year, the irregulars--partly
because of a lack of support from Bangkok--have been
sitting in isolated base camps under continual har-
assment from the insurgents.
The government is faring little better in the
tri-province area of north-central Thailand. On 1
April, for example, a three-truck troop convoy was
ambushed west of Lom Sak, with one soldier killed
and 13 wounded.
The northern insurgents' tough resistance
to government probes indicates the high
value they place on maintaining a foot-
hold in their border redoubts. They evi-
dently are better armed now than at any
other time since their movement began in
early 1967.
5
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JORDAN
Clashes between the fedayeen and government
forces continued yesterday with intermittent firing
throughout Amman. The government claims that north-
ern border towns had been fired on from Syria
/ A rash of incidents in
scattered parts of the country late Thursday and
early Friday morning included the blowing up of a
refinery pipeline .r
The Popular Front for the Liberation of
PaleStine (PFLP) appears responsible for
many of the incidents./
Seven Arab countries-have agreed to Cairo's
. call for a meeting to discuss the situation,. but
Jordan will not attend. The representatives, pre-
sumably on the ambassadorial level, are expected to.
gather in the Egyptian- capital today. A number of
these countries are continuing their propaganda at-
tacks on King Husayn, and the Cairo-based Fatah
radio has issued a set .of demands, including a call
for- the ouster of Premier Wasfi Tal and other "rene-
gade" elements.
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CZECHOSLOVAKIA
The Supreme Court on. Thursday , overturned the
legal' rehabilitation in 1969 of an elderly victim
of the Stalinist purges in the 1950s. This decision
followed by only a week the court martial of a, for-
mer lieutenant general who had been a leading liberal
of ficial under Dubcek in 1968. Both the court and
the military establishment are controlled by conserv-
atives anxious further to discredit the liberals.
The action by the Supreme Court may.. be an
opening move by the party conservatives
to reverse the numerous rehabilitations
approved by the Dubcek regime:an& con-
tinued, albeit at a sloWer pace, under
Husak..- Rehabilitations, affecting as they
do the financial and social standing of .
the individual as well as his family, are
one of the few remaining vestiges. of Czech-
oslovak liberalism.
These judicial actions, therefore, are
aimed at undermining Husak 's attempts to
reconcile the party and ex-liberals while
avoiding a direct attack on him. In this
way the conservatives are seeking to build
strength prior to the Czechoslovak party
congress scheduled for May and to recruit
support. All of this is heaping the pres-
sure on Husak, though there does not ap-
pear to be a move under way to unseat him
at this time.
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