THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 28 DECEMBER 1972

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1969-1977
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005993699
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: August 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2016
• Publication Date: December 28, 1972

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2016/07/14 : CIA-RDP79T00936A011400230001-5
The President's Daily Brief
28 December 1972
45
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Exempt from general
declassification schedule of E.O. 11652
exemption category 5B(1),(2).(3)
declassified only on approval of
the Director of Central Intelligence
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2016/07/14 : CIA-RDP79T00936A011400230001-5
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2016/07/14 : CIA-RDP79T00936A011400230001-5
FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
LATE ITEM
Israel-Fedayeen: The Israeli Government has
asked the-US Embassy in Tel Aviv to pass on what-
ever information becomes available through US
channels concerning the seizure this morning of
the Israeli Embassy in Bangkok by armed terrorists
of the Black September Organization. The terror-
ists are holding several Israeli Embassy staff
members hostage and have demanded the release by
eight PM today of some 36 persons held in Israeli
jails.
FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF
28 December 1972
PRINCIPAL DEVELOPMENTS
The Warsaw Pact countries may confer next month be-
fore responding to the West's invitation to begin
force reduction talks. (Page 1)
A two year decline in world rice production is ex-
pected to continue into the coming year, compound-
ing existing social and economic problems in a num-
ber of less developed countries. (Page 2)
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(Page 3)
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WARSAW PACT - NBFR
The Warsaw Pact countries, who have yet to
respond to the West's invitation?to. begin force
reduction talks, may confer in January before do-
ing so. Warsaw Pact leaders did not meet as a
group in Moscow during the week of the Soviet Un-
ion's 50th anniversary celebration as some Soviet
officials had suggested they would. Instead they
conferred separately with General Secretary Brezh-
nev.
Their delay in replying to the West may
result from differences between the So-
viet Union and Romania over the Zatter's
desire for full participation in the
MBFR talks.
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
WORLD RICE SHORTAGE
The decline in world rice production of the
past two years promises to extend into the coming
year as well. This downward trend reflects de-
liberate cutbacks in the production of the United
States and Japan in 1970 and 1971 and a variety
of adverse conditions--weather, crop disease, war,
and bureaucratic mismanagement--in other major
rice-producing countries. With carryover stocks
already unusually low in many countries, the need
for imports will increase in 1973 while supplies
available for export will be as much as 20 per-
cent lower than in 1972.
A simultaneous shortage of wheat--due in large
part to the poor harvest in the USSR in 1972--lim-
its one major avenue of relief.
The effect of the shortages is to com-
pound existing economic and social prob-
lems in most rice-consuming, less-de-
veloped countries. The need to import
rice reduces their ability to maintain
the momentum of their development pro-
grams, and the shortages have seriously
increased inflation. In several of the
affected countries, including India,
economic growth in 1972 will not keep
pace with the population increase.
Next year's rice situation could be
eased should China, despite poor agri-
cultural returns in 1972, be tempted
by high prices to increase rice exports.
2
FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
NOTES
North Vietnam:
Egypt: President Sadat breaks an unusually
long public silence today with his first speech to
the nation since mid-October. A year has passed
since Sadat's self-proclaimed "year of decision"
ended and intensified rumblings of discontent in
Cairo provide the backdrop for an address that may
be more militant than usual. Sadat's frustrations
over the lack of any diplomatic breakthrough are
likely to be reflected in the speech.
3
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Top Secret
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