THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 5 DECEMBER 1973

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1969-1977
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0006007614
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: August 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2016
• Publication Date: December 5, 1973

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The President's Daily Brief
5 December 1973
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Exempt from general '
declassification schedule of E.O. 11652
exemption category 5B( I ),( 2 )43 )
declassified only on approval of
the Director of Central Intelligence
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF
5 December 1973
PRINCIPAL DEVELOPMENTS
Arab leaders are trying to close ranks in anticipa-
tion of Secretary Kissinger's visit.
Heavy attacks by North Vietnamese units in Quang Duc
Province have dealt the South Vietnamese a severe
setback and could link the Communist-held area not
far from Saigon to the supply road leading to the
DMZ. (Page 3)
Abu Dhabi, which produces 7 percent of all Arab oil,
will make no further production cuts in January.
(Page 4)
The Japanese Government is increasing its aid to
Arab states to help ensure a steady flow of oil.
(Page 5)
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Most of the NATO allies remain vague about or op- 25X1
posed to US suggestions for burden-sharing. (Page 6)
Today's notes include reports on
new sttehgth
tor the dollar and gold in European money markets,
failure of Turkey's President to form a government,
and the chaotic Danish political situation following
yesterday's elections. (Page 7)
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ARAB STATES - ISRAEL
Arab leaders are trying to close ranks and pre-
sent a united front when Secretary Kissinger tours
the area just prior to the Geneva peace conference
on December 18. Syrian leaders are expected to con-
sult in Cairo before the Secretary's visit.
Syria has bowed to pres-
sures and will attend the peace conference.
predicting that
Egyptian-Libyan relations will return to normal by
the end of the week. High-ranking officials from
Egypt, Syria, and Tunisia have visited Tripoli re-
cently to try to placate Libyan President Qadhafi
and persuade him that Arab countries should bury
their differences because of the new situation in
the confrontation with Israel.
The Israeli cabinet held a special session yes-
terday. Local political observers suggested that
it was held to instruct Defense Minister Dayan for
his visit to the US this week or to discuss Prime
Minister Meir's exchange of views with Undersecre-
tary Rush on Monday.
General Siilasvuo has failed again to get the
Egyptian-Israeli disengagement talks going. Both
sides appear to be waiting for talks with US offi-
cials before continuing negotiations on the subject.
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QVANG
ouc'
? G ia N
K-lerkp
LAM DON
554971 12-73
Capital Special Zone
a)
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
SOUTH VIETNW
North Vietnamese units have overrun Kien Duc,
in Quang Duc Province, and are threatening the pro-
vincial capital at Gia Nghia, 12 miles away. Field
reports indicate that the Communists effectively
used tanks and artillery to support their attacks,
despite heavy government air strikes and artillery
barrages.
The Communist assault came as the South Viet-
namese were completing preparations for a campaign
of their own to retake several border camps in the
province that has been in Communist hands since
early November. Intercepts show that the Communists
were aware of the government plans, moved in fresh
troops, and ordered all units in the area into a
high state of readiness. A one-day delay in the
government's offensive, caused by the late arrival
of reinforcements, apparently enabled the North
Vietnamese to beat Saigon to the draw.
The loss of Kien Duc, the first district capital
to be captured by the Communists since the cease-
fire, will be a severe psychological blow to South
Vietnamese units in the highlands. Moreover, if the
Communists hold their gains in Quang Duc, they will
have secured the remaining link in their north-south
supply corridor to bases north and west of Saigon.
There are no indications that the North Vietnam-
ese intend to extend the fighting to other areas, but
serious new Communist attacks could be triggered by
government retaliatory actions elsewhere, or by con-
tinued Communist successes in the highlands.
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ARAB STATES - PETROLEUM
Abu Dhabi Petroleum Minister Otaiba has pub-
licly announced that his country is planning no
further oil production cuts for January. Otaiba
had previously told a US official that this policy
had been decided secretly at the Algiers Summit
Conference last week and was intended to apply to
all producing countries.
Abu Dhabi ?produces only .7 percent of all Arab
oil, and if it continued cutting back through March,
its output would have gone down to 900,000 barrels
per day.
Abu Dhabi has been exceedingly generous with
its pledges of financial support to the Arab cause.
Although its commitment of $250 million is less in
absolute terms than that of its neighbors, the money
represents more than 80 percent of its foreign ex-
change reserves. Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait,
and Libya have pledged 40, 33, 12, and 10 percent
of their respective foreign reserves.
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JAPAN - ARAB STATES
The Japanese Government is increasing its aid
to Arab countries to help ensure a steady flow of
oil. Tokyo recently gave the International Red Cross
a $1-million grant to aid wounded Egyptian soldiers
and will raise its yearly UN contribution for Pales-
tinian refugee relief from $1 million to $5 million
in 1974. Japan will also expedite loans agreed to
earlier this year--a $30-million project loan to
Syria and a $10-million commodity loan to Egypt.
Tokyo is considering loan requests from Iraq,
Jordan, Libya, Sudan, Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia,
as well as a second request from Cairo. Saudi Arabia
is also seeking further technical assistance. Japa-
nese Deputy Prime Minister Miki will soon visit the
Middle East to discuss the Arab requests.
Tokyo also is reportedly willing to help fi-
nance reopening the Suez Canal, and may join with
private lenders in a $500-million credit to Iraq to
finance construction of an oil refinery, pipelines,
and a liquefied petroleum gas plant. In addition
to official aid, the Arab countries would like to
secure sizable amounts of Japanese private capital
and assistance to help industrialize their economies.
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NATO
The response to US suggestions on how the NATO
allies might help to reduce the US balance-of-payments
deficit has varied:
--Belgium, Canada, Denmark, West Germany, The
Netherlands, and Norway support the idea that
the US' share in all or some portions of the
NATO budget be reduced. All NATO states agree
only that the question should be studied.
--Denmark, Italy, The Netherlands, and Norway
favor increased purchases of military equipment
in the US. Turkey will continue to buy large
amounts of US materiel, while the British have
suggested London might make additional purchases.
--Only The Netherlands is willing to assume the
additional budgetary costs resulting from sta-
tioning US troops in that country.
--West Germany and Canada maintain that their
major contributions to burden-sharing are made
through bilateral offset,arrangements. The
West Germans, however, have offered less than
half of what the US desires in the offset
agreement.
Other NATO states either are adamantly opposed
to contributing to a multilateral burden-sharing
system or have reservations about doing so. The
British, for example, have stated that they will
not participate in any multilateral NATO budget re-
lief schemes because of their own military balance-
of-payments deficit. The Turks also refuse to
participate. Luxembourg is still examining the
issue, while France, Greece, Iceland, and Portugal
have made no commitments and apparently are reluc-
tant to contribute at all.
Bonn's attitude toward its bilateral offset
agreement with the US will have a decisive effect
on the other allies. If the West Germans continue
to offer only about $1.4 billion, the other NATO
states will be hard pressed to make up the differ-
ence required by the Jackson-Nunn amendment for a.
full.offset of costs.. If Bonn substantially in-
creases its offer, others will be encouraged to
make additional contributions.
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NOTES
Korea: Seoul and Pyongyang are giving only
low-keyed propaganda treatment to developments along
the Northern Limit Line, but North ? 1
continue to patrol across the line.
Indications of
how North Korea intends to pre itsclaim to these
coastal waters may become evident at today's pre-
liminary meeting of the South-North Coordinating
Committee. An incident could occur when Seoul sends
the next resupply ferry to the islands
International Monetary: The dollar again
strengthened markedly against major European curren-
cies in light trading yesterday in continuing re-
sponse to European oil uncertainties. The guilder
was. under the most pressure, with the Dutch central
bank intervening in moderate amounts to keep its
currency within the European band. The price of
gold also moved up more than $5 in a day. Gold ap-
parently has joined the dollar as some traders' pre-
ferred alternative to the European currencies.
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Denmark: The political scheme of things is in
shambles following yesterday's election. All five
traditional parties were big losers as voters flocked
to four new parties of the center and right. 'High
taxes, inflation, and too radical a pace toward change
cost the incumbent Social Democrats 46 of their 70
seats in parliament, and the government Is expected
to resign today. The four new parties, plus the
Communists who are back after a 13-year hiatus, took
60 of the parliament's 179 seats. The disparate
platforms of the ten parties will be hard to recon-
cile and it may be some time before a new government
can be formed.
Turkey: President Koruturk confessed yesterday
that he has failed to promote formation of a govern-
ment based on the results of elections on October 14.
His only proposed solution is to form a national
coalition government representing all parties. Some,
if not all parties, have rejected participation in
a coalition. Koruturk did not call for new elections,
saying the matter was for parliament to decide. He
left the impression that the military do not intend
to intervene again unless chaos resulted from "un-
justified political squabbles."
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