THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 24 JUNE 1972

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1969-1977
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005993373
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: August 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2016
• Publication Date: June 24, 1972

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2016/06/14 : CIA-RDP79T00936A010800220001-3
The President's Daily Brief
24 June 1972
46
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF
24 June 1972
PRINCIPAL DEVELOPMENTS
The situation in South Vietnam's Military Region .1
is-discussed on Page 1
The implications of Britain's decision to allOw
sterling to float will be discussed at several inter-
national meetings this weekend. (Page 2)
The Chinese
Europe
Panama
(Page 3)
(Page 4)
The Soviet First Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade
is to make an unexpected trip to the US to discuss
trade matters. (Page 5)
FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
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2E25X1
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Q U
Military Region 1
Demarcation Line
oQuang
NG TRI
Enemy Attacks
My Chanh Defense Line
kMe\arine Defensive
?
Positions
4.1k?.46464
Airborne Defensive
(Positions
THUA THIEN
Q U AnN G
SOUTH VIETNAM
Hoi"An
0
QUA'NG TIN
Cu LAO CHAM
TaM?Ky
hu Lai
gD
QUA G NGA1
uan
Ngai
Cu LAO ftF
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0 25 50 Miles
0 25 ? 50 Kilometers
553284 6-72 CIA
5 5
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
VIETNAM
The Communists are continuing to probe and
shell South Vietnamese positions along the My Chanh
River north of Hue, but they have so far been unable
to breach the government's defense line. South Viet-
namese airborne units responsible for the defensive
positions along the My Chanh west of Route I are
taking the brunt of the current North Vietnamese
campaign, but so far are holding their own with the
help of heavy allied air strikes.
The current enemy effort appears designed
as a test of the government's defenses or
as a spoiling operation to keep the South
Vietnamese on the defensive, rather than
as an all-out drive. Similar Communist
attacks were made against marine-manned
positions in the eastern sector of the
Zine in May, but apparently were called
off after it became clear that the Zack
of a natural barrier to enemy armor thrusts
was more than offset by allied naval gun-
fire support. In the current campaign,
the Communists have not committed all of
the infantry units available to them in
the area west of Route 1. Intercepts and
prisoners indicate that only two of some
seven regiments in the area have been
directly engaged in the fighting.
It seems, therefore, that the North Viet-
namese are still "preparing the battle-
field" for an attempt to "liberate" Hue
and the rest of Thua Thien Province. They
appear to have set the stage so that,
should armored elements break through gov-
ernment defenses, their infantry units
could quickly pour through the gap--the
tactics they used in overrunning Quang Tri
Province. Intercepts
indicate that additional enemy tanks,
artillery, ery, ammunition, and supplies con-
tinue to be moved into position both north
and west of Hue. Various Communist artil-
lery and infantry units are maintaining
unusually frequent contact with each other
and are closely monitoring South Vietnam-
ese activities.
FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
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UNITED KINGDOM
The British decision to allow sterling to float poses
a challenge to the Smithsonian Agreement by reducing
the size of the internationally agreed US dollar de-
valuation. In just a few hours following Britain's
announcement, heavy speculation against the dollar
required about $2 billion of European support opera-
tions and forced all major European markets to close
before noon.
European officials generally have expressed approval
of the sterling float. Several international meet-
ings are scheduled this weekend to consider the im-
plications for the US dollar and for the European
Community's narrow exchange rate band. Tighter Euro-
pean controls over capital movements and the collec-
tive floating of Community currencies against the
dollar are among possible courses of action.
Sterling depreciation will improve Britain's compet-
itive position in international markets and ease
the burden of foreign exchange costs associated with
entry into the European Community.
2
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CHINA - WESTERN EUROPE
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
PANAMA
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
NOTES
USSR: Soviet First Deputy Minister of Foreign
Trade Kuzmin will leave for the US tomorrow to "con-
tinue talks begun at the summit on a broad range of
trade matters." The trip, which is both unexpected
and so far unpublicized, may be prompted by Moscow's
desire to put forward a new proposal on settling its
lend-lease debt, a major stumbling block in expand-
ing economic relations. Kuzmin may hope to resolve
this problem before a US team leaves for Moscow in
mid-July for the first session of the Soviet-US com-
mittee on trade and economic matters.
UK-MBFR: In a paper recently submitted to
NATO, the British emphasized the dangers of mutual
and balanced force reductions and noted that nego-
tiations on MBFR should come only after thorough
exploration. The British agreed with the nearly
unanimous sentiment in NATO that MBFR is too com-
plicated to be negotiated at a Conference on Secu-
rity and Cooperation in Europe. They proposed that
the conference create a special "security commis-
sion" to consider MBFR, a proposal similar to one
already put forward by Moscow. The British appar-
ently favor this approach at least in part because
it would delay the opening of any talks on MBFR.
Fedayeen:
5
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Top Secret
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