THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 10 JANUARY 1972

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1969-1977
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005993073
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: August 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2016
• Publication Date: January 10, 1972

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2016/06/14 : CIA-RDP79T00936A010300080001-4
The President's Daily Brief
10 January 1972
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF
10 January. 1972
PRINCIPAL DEVELOPMENTS
North Vietnamese troops are maintaining pressure on
Long Tieng; in the south, government forces have
evacuated Ban Gnik at the edge of the Bolovens Plateau.
(Page 1)
In Bangladesh, leftists and militant students have
pledged to cooperate for the time being with Sheik
Mujibur Rahman, who arrived in Dacca this morning.
(Page 2)
Malta's Prime Minister
Mintoff might scale down his financial demands on
the British, but London seems unmoved by efforts to
raise the NATO package offer. (Page 3)
The Italian Government may resign in the next few
days. (Page 4)
FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
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LAOS
? GULF:
OF
TONKIN
552405 1-72
? ?
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
LAOS
Irregulars at the remaining government positions
north of the Long Tieng valley continue to undergo
frequent shelling and ground probes by North Vietnam-
ese troops in the area. Communist raiding parties
have also been entering the valley in the past two
days. One such group early yesterday attacked yang
Pao's headquarters in the center of Long Tieng be-
fore being driven off.
These raids notwithstanding, North
Vietnamese regiments massing in the area
are apparently taking their time and making
sure that their tactical and logistic prep-
arations are completed before launching
any major assault on Long Tieng. They may
also hope that their gradually increasing
pressure on Long Tieng and its forward de-
fenses will encourage defections in govern-
ment ranks.
In southern Laos, the government force defending
Ban Gnik on Route 23 was withdrawn this morning.
The troops at Ban Gnik, the last naturally
defensive position on the western edge of
the Bolovens Plateau some 12 miles west of
Paksong, had been virtually surrounded, and
supporting aircraft received heavy ground
fire. The attacking force consisted of pos-
sibly two battalions with artillery support.
No effective government force remains be-
tween the Bolovens and Pakse. We doubt, how-
ever, that the North Vietnamese will press
their advantage and move further west along
Route 23 at this time. The Communists' ob-
jective in this region has been to control
the Bolovens to permit an unimpeded flow of
supplies to their forces further south.
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BANGLADESH
Sheik Mujibur Rahman arrived in Dacca this morn-
ing after a short stop in New Delhi on his flight.
from London. The small leftist parties as well as
the militant Awami League student, organization have
pledged to cooperate with him for. thetime being.
The. studentgroup says it intends to judge the gov-
ernment by its early performance
It will not be long before Mujib, essen.-
tially a moderate, personally faces the
kind of pressures that have already been
exerted on the Awami League .government.
The government has successfully resisted
pressure from the leftist parties.to be
included in the cabinet, but the appoint-
ment of their leaders to a.central board
for a national militia shows they cannot
be ignored. Even within the Awami League,
leftist elements have appeared ascendant.
Irritants regarding the status of the In-
dian troops may also increase. Some Ben-
galis are beginning to have doubts about
the Zack of any definite time for the
troops' departure. A joint communiqug is-
sued yesterday said only that Indian
forces will be withdrawn when Dacca re-
quests it. Although the population as a
whole still appears favorably disposed
toward the Indians, the army's attempts
to disarm various guerrilla groups have
caused Awami League student leaders to
threaten armed resistance.
FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
MALTA-UK
Prime Minister Mintoff N.
/would be willing to come
down from his figure of $46.8 million annually to re-
tain the British presence.
\Mintoff might accept less than his
current demand.
London so far seems unmoved by the willing-
ness of some of its NATO partners to in-
crease the present NATO package offer of
$26 million annually by raising their con-
tributions. In the North Atlantic Council
meeting tomorrow, the British are likely
to stick to the position that the present
offer is?fair and reasonable, and may argue
that the costs to them of either withdrawing
or staying make an additional British con-
tribution unwarranted. London, however,
probably would not oppose a larger offer
from its partners if it is made outside the
formal NATO package.
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ITALY
Christian Democratic Party secretary Arnaldo
Forlani.told American, Embassy officials on Saturday
that the Colombo governmentwould resign mithin the
"next few days" because the small Republican. Party
had decided to withdraw from the governing majority
and, the Social Democrats refused to remain without.
them. Colombo had previously planned to ask for a
full debate'on thegoVernMent's program and' on its.
continuation in office when Parliament reconvenes on
18January Forlani contends that debate could ex-
acerbate the situation and make inter-party negotia-
tions more difficult,.
A cabinet crisis almost certainly could
not be resolved by 25 January, the pro-
posed date of Colombo's visit to Washing-
ton. Colombo would remain as a caretaker
prime minister through this period, how-
ever, and might decide to meet the Wash-
ington date in this capacity.
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
NOTE
USSR-Cuba: The two Soviet built Osa-class
guided missile patrol boats being towed across the
Atlantic should arrive in Cuba early this week.
They probably are going to Cabanas, a naval base
west of Havana. The Osa is armed with four missiles
with a range of about 20 miles. The Cubans may
scrap some of their 18 older and smaller Komar pa?
-
trol boats that carry only two missiles.
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t
Top Secret
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