THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 12 APRIL 1975

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1969-1977
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0006014770
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 15
• Document Creation Date: August 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2016
• Publication Date: April 12, 1975

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The President's Daily Brief
to"
April 12, 1975
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Exempt from general
declassification schedule of ED. 11652
exemption category 5B( I ),(2),(3)
declassified only on approval of
the Director of Central Intelligence
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
April 12, 1975
? Table of Contents
Cambodia: The evacuation went smoothly last night;
most government officials elected to stay in
Phnom Penh. (Page 1)
South Vietnam: Heavy fighting continues in the Xuan
Loc area. The North Vietnamese army 1st Corps
and 312th Division are making rapid progress in
their move south. (Page 2)
Thailand-USSR: Army commander Krit Siwara believes
Thailand must seek closer links with the Soviet
Union. (Page 4)
China: China reportedly plans a significant reduc-
tion in military manpower in 1975. (Page 8)
Portugal: The major political parties have formally
given up any opportunity for civilian control
of the government for at least three years.
(Page 7)
Notes: USSR; Syria; Belgium (Page 8)
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Phnom Penh
Tuol
Leap.
Hello? pter)anding
e..37
Government
defense line
4:2?
4.)
StatutqA Hes
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CAMBODIA
The evacuation of Phnom Penh went
smoothly last night. The entire opera-
tion took little more than four hours.
Some 260 persons were evacuated, in-
cluding about 140 Americans. Several
American newsmen apparently chose to
remain.
There was no panic in the city. The last
helicopter was fired on; no Americans were hit,
but one Cambodian was killed and seven were wounded.
Ambassador Dean, in a telephone conversation
with Saigon just before he left, reported that a
number of Cambodian officials had placed their fam-
ilies aboard the helicopters but that most of the
cabinet members elected to stay. Republic Party
strongman Sink Matak--who ranks high on the list
of "traitors" the communists say they will execute--
was the only high ranking official specifically
mentioned as staying. Acting president Saukham
Koy was one of the few officials who left. Ambas-
sador Dean reported that the cabinet was meeting
to decide its next course of action.
According to the last reports of the US de-
fense attachgs in Phnom Penh, communist forces
have widened the gap in government defenses north
of Pochentong airport, but so far have made no ef-
fort to push closer to the airfield. Inconclusive
ground fighting occurred on other battlefronts
around the capital. Intercepted messages indicate
that the communists are nearly ready to launch
heavier attacks, including shelling of the city
from the east bank of the Mekong River.
Artillery and rocket fire on Pochentong air-
port intensified yesterday, forcing cancellation
of the last two DC-8 flights from Saigon. As of
yesterday, Phnom Penh had an 11-day supply of am-
munition, 10 days of rice, and 13 days of fuel.
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PHNOM)
PENN
a,
557679 4-75
3
APITAL SPECIAL ZONE
South China Sea
CON 1 ? 1.5_,
0 3,0 Miles
0 15 30 Kilometers
??? a' 41'
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
SOUTH VIETNAM
Heavy fighting is continuing in the
Xuan Loc area, and the government reports
this morning that it has pushed the North
Vietnamese out of the town for the third
consecutive day.
South Vietnamese airborne troops arrived in
Xuan Loc yesterday, and a relief column is also
fighting its way eastward along Route 1 toward the
town. The reinforcements will give the government
the equivalent of about two divisions at Xuan Loc,
and the region commander plans to launch a major
counterattack today against the three communist
divisions there.
Communist attacks have declined in the north-
ern delta, and the government appears to have the
initiative. South Vietnamese troops overran a com-
munist base area near the Cambodia border, killing
several dozen communists and capturing a substan-
tial amount of supplies. This probably will tem-
porarily disrupt communist plans for attacks in
Hau Nghia and Long An provinces. Farther south,
the communists early today continued to probe gov-
ernment defenses around Can Tho, and also attacked
two district towns along Route 4.
The North Vietnamese army 1st Corps and 312th
Division are making rapid progress in their moves
south. Radio direction finding placed the corps
headquarters in the Laos panhandle on April 9 and
the 312th headquarters farther south near the Bo-
lovens Plateau on April 10. Both were near the
Demilitarized Zone a few days ago. The movement
through eastern Laos indicates that the 1st Corps
and its subordinate divisions are going to the
Saigon area. The 312th could arrive in the next
two weeks, and other units of the corps could
reach the provinces north of Saigon even sooner.
The 320B Division, the lead unit of which crossed
into northern South Vietnam in late March, has
not been spotted since then. Some of its units
could now be approaching the southern part of
South Vietnam.
(continued)
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CHIN A
CHIN A
BURMA
GULF
OF
TONKIN
enatarind Zone
Hue
HAINAN
Da Nang
GULF OF SIAM
1; ha Trang
?CaniRanh
0
0 50 100 150 Miles
O 1
50 160 'tc, KItometers
557684 4-75 CIA
?AO PUO QU9C
(Vietnam)
VungTau
CON SON ,sxv?N
a o'
4?'
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
Hanoi has bluntly rejected your request for a
cease-fire. It charged that you are asking the
South Vietnamese people to deprive themselves "of
their legitimate right to punish the enemy," (pre-
sumably the Saigon government) in order to protect
the Paris Agreement.
South Vietnamese reaction to your address to
Congress appears to be one of limited encouragement,
coupled with disappointment that the speech did not
qo further.
pto play down as
much as possible "or even ignore" references to
the evacuation of Americans and South Vietnamese.
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THAILAND-USSR
Army commander Krit Siwara, who has
been a strong supporter of the US role in
Southeast Asia,
has reluctantly cone toe.
that Thai-land must seek closer links with
the Soviet Union. this is
necessary to balance Chinese and North
Vietnamese influence in the area. Krit's
views on the subject, however, are not
likely to become official Thai policy soon.
Thailand must seek a solu-
tion similar to that adoptedby India, which has
turned to the Soviet Union as a means of offsetting
Chinese influence, moving closer
to the Soviet Union would be a delicate task and
that the Thai should make only such accommodations
as are necessary to balance the activities of China
and North Vietnam. move was a "sad
alternative" but a necessary one since it was clear
that Thailand cannot depend on the US to keep its
commitments in the future.
There does not appear to be any strong endorse-
ment within the Thai foreign ministry for Krit's
views on the need for a counterweight to China. In-
deed, the for-
eign ministry is moving to improve relations with
Peking and Hanoi in response to events in Indochina.
The foreign ministry probably estimates that better
relations with the Soviet Union--should Bangkok
choose to proceed in that direction--could at some
point enhance Thailand's "neutralist" credentials,
but that rapprochement with China is of greater im-
portance at this time. Should Thailand eventually
decide to alter its relationship with the US by
moving toward the Soviets, Krit's support would be
crucial.
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
CHINA
Peking reportedly plans a significant
reduction in military manpower in 1975 in
order to reduce military expenditures.
a decision to de-
mobilize one million men in ? was announced at a
recent military conference presided over by Polit-
buro member and veteran military leader Chu Te. We
cannot precisely estimate the size of any net reduc-
tion of China's military forces. Our estimates of
China's routine annual recruitment and demobiliza-
tion range from 500,000 to 1,000,000 men; to what
extent the one million( /includes
this usual turnover is unclear. L /refer-
ence to reduced spending suggests that, in contrast
with previous years, some of the troops demobilized
in 1975 would not be replaced.
China's military forces are currently estimated
at well over four million men. The army alone has
over 3.5 million men; the deepest cut obviously
would have to come there.
If a large-scale reduction occurs, it would
suggest that the Chinese believe there is a reduced
threat of imminent hostilities from both the USSR
and the US. Although they almost certainly would
continue to maintain large numbers of troops in the
four northern military regions, the Chinese would
have fewer troops immediately available as rein-
forcements.
Peking did not call up additional recruits
following the Sino-Soviet border incidents of 1969,
but it postponed demobilization of all the troops
then under arms. This action served to swell the
ranks of the army, and the reported demobilization
this year might be designed in part to offset that
increase. In recent years, demobilization of men
whose terms of service were completed and induction
of replacements appear to have taken place in normal
fashion.
(continued)
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During the past several years, Peking has made
strong efforts to return the military to the bar-
racks and to reduce its role in political life.
Peking may have determined that it now has more
troops than can be economically and effectively
used.
A significant reduction of forces probably would
not be without incident. Many soldiers probably see
the army as a stepping stone to employment in the
country's major population centers. They would na-
turally resent being sent to farm jobs in rural areas.
In fact, there have been numerous incidents lately
involving demobilized servicemen demonstrating over
the leadership's failure to give them the benefits
they expect.
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
PORTUGAL
The major political parties yester-
day signed an agreement presented to them
by the ruling Armed Forces Movement,
formally giving up the opportunity for
civilian control of the Portuguese gov-
ernment for at least three years.
The signing of the pact means that the election
on April 25 will not have a significant impact on
the substance of the new constitution, which will
be approved by the assembly but prepared under guide-
lines dictated by the Armed Forces Movement. The
election nevertheless should be an important in-
dication of the political sympathies of the Portu-
guese people.
The Popular Democrats and the Socialists, for
instance, hope their showing will influence the
Movement to look upon them more favorably and to
turn away from the communists. Three embassy sources
have reported, however, that enemies of the moderate
left parties may move to prevent them from collect-
ing a large portion of the vote. They indicate that
the committee of inquiry into the March 11 coup has
reached preliminary conclusions that may implicate
these parties. The committee's report will probably
be published a few days before the election, and
even unsupported charges could hurt the Popular
Democrats and the Socialists at the polls.
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
NOTES
The Soviet failure last weekend in their at-
tempt to orbit two cosmonauts in a Soyuz spacecraft
has once again raised some serious questions about
the overall reliability of Soviet systems and the
safety of US astronauts in the Apollo-Soyuz test
project.
The Soviets have assured the US that the prob-
lem was unique to an "older" booster and will have
no effect on the "newer" booster to be used for the
test project launch. While it is true that some
modifications have been made, we have no evidence
to indicate that the booster has been changed or
improved significantly.
Syria's ground forces have intensified combat
training over the past few months and have begun
to integrate defensive operations into their battle-
field training plans.
The ground forces are already well ahead of
the training cycle of previous years. They have
been practicing such tactics as the controlled with-
drawal from an area while under fire, preparation
of ambushes, avoidance of enemy strongpoints, and
the resupply of armored units under combat condi-
tions. This last was a particularly serious prob-
lem for Syrian forces during the 1973 war, when
many Syrian tanks were abandoned on the battlefield.
Belgian
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Top Secret
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