THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 19 JULY 1972

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1969-1977
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005993419
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: August 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2016
• Publication Date: July 19, 1972

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The President's Daily Brief
-7
19 July 1972
45
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Exempt from general
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exemption category 5B(1),(2).(3)
declassified only on approval of
the Director of Central Intelligence
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THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF
19 July 1972
PRINCIPAL DEVELOPMENTS
Cairo's semiofficial newspaper, al-Ahram, appears to
be hedging on President Sadat's announcement that
Soviet military personnel must leave Egypt. The
Soviets have not yet reacted publicly to Sadat's
announcement. (Page 1)
? South Vietnamese troops inside Quang Tri City are
edging closer to the Communist strongpoint in the
citadel. (Page 3)
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EGYPT-USSR
Several hours after President Sadat publicly
insisted that Soviet military personnel leave Egypt,
the semiofficial Cairo daily al-Ahram appeared to
be hedging on the extent of Cairo's demand. Al-Ahram
said that Soviets engaged in training the Egyptian
armed forces are not affected by the decision. Al-
Ahram asserted that Egypt is eager for the provisions
of theEgyptian-Soviet treaty of friendship and co-
operation to remain in force.
In his speech yesterday before the Arab Social-
ist Union's Central Committee as summarized by the
Egyptian news agency, however, Sadat announced he
had made three important decisions. Sadat said that
as of Monday he had terminated the services of Soviet
military advisers and experts in the country and had
replaced them with Egyptians. He had also ordered
the Egyptian military to take over exclusive control
of all installations and equipment established since
the June 1967 war, apparently an allusion to impor-
tant Soviet facilities in Alexandria, Mersa Matruh,
and Aswan. Finally, Sadat said his actions were
taken to facilitate consultations on a "new stage"
in the Soviet-Egyptian relationship, although he
insisted that he had no intention of altering basic
cooperation between the two countries.
The theme of Sadat's speech--which followed
that of a current series of articles by al-Ahram
editor Muhammad Haykal--was that Egypt requires com-
plete freedom of action in dealing with Israel.
Sadat alluded to disagreements with Moscow on the
supply and control of Soviet weapons and said he
could not accept restrictions on Egypt's ability to
make its own political decisions. He observed that
Egypt had no desire to have "friendly advisers"
fight Egypt's battle, and he implied that by taking
over equipment and missions controlled by the So-
viets he would free the Soviet Union from authority
and responsibility for Egypt's future actions.
The number of Soviet military personnel cur-
rently in Egypt is estimated at about 13,000.)
(continued)
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The Soviets have become accustomed to
Sadat's surprise moves, but these latest
steps may have caught them off guard.
The communique' winding up Prime Minister
Sidqi's recent visit to Moscow for ex-
ample, carried no hint of the new direc-
tion that Sadat had chosen.
There has been no.public reaction thus
far from the Soviets, who may be waiting
,until they can be certain which forces
must leave Egypt.
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Demilitarized Zone
Gulf of
Thailand
104
553356 7-72
116
Capital Special Zone
SOUTH VIETNAM
190
MILES
12-
10-
a 61.
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SOUTH VIETNAM
South Vietnamese Airborne troops inside Quang
Tri City are edging closer to the citadell.the Com-
munist-held strongpoint in the city's northern sec-
tion, but Communist resistance is stiff. On the
city's northern outskirts, other airborne troops
pushed back a tank-led ;enemy infantry force after
an eight-hour battle early yesterday. Other,govern-
ment units, including airborne and marines to the
east of the city, report continued enemy shelling
but only light ground Contact.
Scattered action has been reported elsewhere.
Hue was again hit by rockets. In Kontum Province,
Communist forces northwest of the provincial cap-
ital attacked a South Vietnamese Army patrol-their
first such action in that area_in two weeks.
A prisoner has claimed that a North Viet-
namese unit is tasked with holding back
government units while other Communist
forces complete their withdrawal from
Kontum. We believe that the attacking
forces were elements of this unit.
In the Mekong Delta, increased enemy activity
continues in Kien Hoa Province. A government out-
post just south of Mo Cay district town was de-
stroyed by a mortar and ground attack. Farther
west in the delta, an element of the North Vietnam-
ese 32nd Regiment has been detected near the enemy
Base Area 470 in western Dinh Tuong Province. The
32nd may have been brought in to aid other Communist
forces that have been attempting to expand the base
area and secure surrounding lines of communication.
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USSR
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NOTES
Romania: A national party conference, the sec-
ond since Nicolae Ceausescu became party chief in
1965, opens today in Bucharest. We expect the con-
ference to be a relatively low-keyed affair, with
discussion focused on the economy and educational
reform. As in the case of the last conference in
1967, we expect some high-level personnel shifts in
party and state agencies but Ceausescu will remain
in firm control.
China:
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Top Secret
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