THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 24 APRIL 1976

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1969-1977
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0006015091
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: August 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2016
• Publication Date: April 24, 1976

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The President's Daily Brief
April 24, 1976
To
2
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Exempt from general
declassification schedule of E.O. 11652
exemption category,513(1),(2)dO
declasified onLi on approval of
the Director of Central Intelligence
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a
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LATE ITEM
Lebanon: A Beirut radio broadcast this morning
reports that President Franjiyah has signed the
constitutional amendment that permits the election
of a new president. The broadcast adds that Franjiyah
has forwarded a copy of the amendment to the speaker
of the Chamber of Deputies. (This information up-
dates the article on page 1.)
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z? vix I IlL, .1 AL./ .1 V 1 V .L.1 2
April 24, 1976
Table of Contents
Lebanon: President Franjiyah has not yet signed the constitu-
tional amendment that would permit the election of a new
president. (Page 1)
China: The unidentified Chinese vessel operating in the South
Pacific has continued to move in a southeasterly direction
and is now about 4,000 nautical miles from the mainland.
(Page 2)
China: The campaign of criticism against Teng Hsiao-ping has
caused widespread dissatisfaction in the general population
(Page 3)
USSR - Southern Africa:
25X1
25X1
(Pa?5X1i)
Notes: Morocco - Western Sahara; France West Germany - Cyprus;
USSR; Portugal (Pages 5 and 6)
FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
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VI V / ill-, A 1 \IL/ LI A A., 1-/ IVA WAY A-I A
LEBANON: President
Pranjiyah has not yet
signed the constitu-
tional amendment that
would permit the elec-
tion of a new president,
as many hoped he would
yesterday. The twice-
postponed meeting of
principal Christian
leaders to discuss this
matter is now set for
today.
25X1
The leftists, to underscore Kamal
Jumblatt's threat to establish a
rival Muslim government unless
Franjiyah resigns by May 2, yester-
day set up a new municipal council
in Tripoli under their control.
Although Syrian-controlled PLA
forces have established a buffer
zone between the combatants in Bei-
rut, sporadic exchanges of artil-
lery and mortar fire continue to
expose the fragility of the truce.
Neither the Christian nor Palestin-
ian forces charged with policing
the cease-fire in their respective
areas have been willing to crack
down hard on violators or to clear
disputed areas.
The Syrian press, meanwhile, has
given increasing play to charges
that the US, Israel, and Egypt are
working in collusion against Syria
in Lebanon in order to distract at-
tention from the Sinai accord and
undermine Palestinian-Syrian soli-
darity.
1
--continued
FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
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U. .S. S. R.
U. S. S. R.
MONGOLIA
PEKING SEA OF
NORT JAPAN
OR
SOUTH
KOREA
CHINA
IND*IA
MACAO'
ONO
KONO
D.TN
SOUTH
CHINA
SO.
,I.NAm SEA
BRUNEI
(U.K
INGAP
Sumatra
INDIAN
OCEAN
559C,70 4-76
Ch'ing-tao
Cele
EAST ..
CHINA
SEA
Okinawa
1,1111,IPPINES
1 NDO,NES !Ad e2
SEA OF
OKHOTSK
ARIANA IS.
44-7,7,0 isu'INDs
PACIFIC
Wake
OCEAN
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PORT. TIMOR
ARAFURA SEA
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AUSTRALIA
TASMANIA
(Austrobal
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IS.
? SOLOMON
IS
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CORAL
NEW HEBRIDES IS.'toi
SEA
New Caledonia
TA SM A N
SEA
NEW
ZEA LA ND
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1 ' L../ 1 %. 1 11 L./ 1 1 V L., L.'Li1 v 1 V 11 A
A member of French Pres-
ident Giscard's staff
has told US embassy of-
ficers that Paris would
be willing to send a
"symbolic" military
peace-keeping force to
Lebanon.
CHINA: The unidenti-
fied Chinese vessel op-
erating in the South
Pacific has continued
to move in a southeast-
erly direction and is
now about 4,000 nauti-
cal miles from the main-
land.
These suspicions have apparently
gained considerable currency among
senior Syrian officials as well.
President Asad told Senator Mathias
recently that he suspects the US
and Israel of trying to keep Syria
tied down in Lebanon and preoccu-
pied with issues extraneous to
peace negotiations.
The French official made clear
that Paris envisions a small mili-
tary contingent that would prima-
rily serve as an "optical" counter-
weight to the Syrian presence. He
emphasized that the French would
not accept a "policeman's role"
and would not participate without
the unanimous consent of the par-
ties immediately involved.
President Giscard is under strong
political pressure, especially
from orthodox Gaullists, to play a
leading role in resolving Lebanon's
troubles. Giscard has shown a pen-
chant for acting as an interna-
tional middleman on economic and
political issues during his two
years in office.
25
X1
If this vessel is in fact a subma-
rine, it is probably the nuclear-
powered Han. The distance and
time involved make a diesel-
powered unit--a Chinese R-class
2
--continued
FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
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v./ v 111 .1-1 1 lt A-1 1-./
CHINA: The current
campaign of criticism
against Teng Hsiao-ping
has engendered wide-
spread dissatisfaction
and bitterness among
both middle and lower
level cadres and the
general population.
for example--an unlikely candidate.
Recent satellite photography shows
that the Han is not at the two
bases--Hulutao and Hsiao-ping-tao--
where it has been seen most often
in the past. Because another sub-
marine base farther to the south
at Chingtao, where the Han has
been seen previously, has not been
covered recently, we are unable to
state positively that the Han is
the vessel in question.
Assuming the Han is involved, we
do not know where it is going or
the nature of its mission. Train-
ing in open ocean operations and
navigation is the most likely rea-
son, but the Chinese could have
another purpose in mind.
Some lower level officials, a num-
ber of Chinese serving abroad, and
even tour guides in China have
shown a surprising willingness to
discuss candidly Chinese internal
politics with foreigners--a depar-
ture from attitudes that have pre-
vailed for decades. Even more un-
usual, a considerable number of
officials seem willing openly to
criticize Mao Tse-tung himself.
Widespread and sometimes outspoken
support for Teng and for the poli-
cies he and the late Chou En-lai
represented has been evident since
the initial announcement in early
February that the former vice pre-
mier had been blocked from the pre-
miership. Many Chinese have com-
mented that the charges against
Teng are false and that he has
been treated unfairly. The unhap-
piness with recent events seems to
be quite widespread; Teng, in fact
may be more popular today than he
was before the campaign against
him began.
3
--continued
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F vix IVL:d0.11_11_.di V I l_/.1 V 1../
USSR-SOUTHERN AFRICA:
There seems little doubt that Mao's
political stock has fallen and
that many Chinese blame him for
the latest leadership upheaval.
The current criticism of the Chair-
man appears to surpass that which
surfaced following the failures of
the Great Leap Forward in the early
1960s. Moreover, it is being ex-
pressed openly and directly rather
than indirectly and by analogy, as
was the case in the 1960s.
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
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559E? 4-76
C:z)
NORTH
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
290
490
STATUTE MILES
Madeira Islands
(Pori)
Canary Islands
Ci (Spain)
0 e
El Aaitin
Bojador?
se
tbraliar aoean
tu K) methter(
Rabat
Bechar
IA
Guaira
WESTERN
SAHARA
MAURITANIA
MAL
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F J -1 RLJ F k.) ill IL I V 1 l..// V.Ld
Moroccan forces are en-
gaged in what Rabat
hopes will be the final
clean-up operations
against Polisario guer-
rillas in Western Sa-
hara.
France and West Germany
NOTES
Military operations began over a
week ago to clean out small pock-
ets of Polisario forces.
the Moroccans have had some
success in driving the guerrillas 25X1from the Guelta area. Moroccan
fighter aircraft have been support-
ing the operations, and in one in-
stance may have drawn SA-7 missile
fire from the Polisario forces.
The Moroccans claim that Algerian
forces have shifted positions in
the southwest border area within
the past week. Although we cannot
yet confirm any major shifts, the
latest satellite photography shows
that some MIG-21 fighters have
flown to the airfield at Bechar25xl
for the first time.
5
--continued
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
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PUIC 1 fIC ricrokuLiv iffy
Six years after it first
became operational, the
Soviets have assigned
the MIG-23 Flogger to
their strategic air de-
fense forces.
The Portuguese military
is on full alert to
counter any attempt to
disrupt the national
legislative assembly
election tomorrow.
Satellite photography
showed 12 of these aircraft at
Smolensk, an air defense fighter
base some 200 miles west of Moscow.
The aircraft is the only opera-
tional Soviet fighter with some
capability to detect, track, and
engage targets flying below it.
That capability, although rudimen-
tary by US standards, should pro-
vide limited improvement in Soviet
ability to cope with low altitude
attackers.
The alert reflects concern that
there may be a repetition at the
polls of the violent incidents
that have marred the three-week-
long election campaign. On Thurs-
day, security forces were rushed
to key diplomatic missions in Lis-
bon in the wake of a bomb blast,
which destroyed the Cuban embassy.
6
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Top Secret
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