THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 25 OCTOBER 1976

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1969-1977
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0006466880
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 14
• Document Creation Date: August 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2016
• Publication Date: October 25, 1976

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The President's Daily Brief
October 25, 1976
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To ecret 25X1
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Exempt from general
declassification scheduk of E 0 11652
exemption category 5E415,12113/
declassified only on approval of
the Director of Central Intelligence
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
October 25, 1976
Table of Contents
China: Speakers at the rally in Peking on Sunday implied that
the party's Central Committee, which has not met in full
session, has formally confirmed Hua Kuo-feng as successor
to Mao Tse-tung. (Page 1)
Lebanon: Christian forces captured the military barracks in the
key southern town of Al-Khiyam on Saturday. The cease-fire
has generally been holding throughout the rest of the coun-
try. (Page 2)
Rhodesia: Rivalry among the four Rhodesian black nationalist
leaders invited to the Geneva conference is still preventing
adoption of a united position. (Page 4)
Italy:
(Page 5) 25X1
Notes: USSR; Portugal; Iran-USSR (Pages 7 and 8)
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CHINA: Speakers at the
rally in Peking on Sun-
day implied that the
party's Central Commit-
tee, which has not met
in full session, has
formally confirmed Hua
Kuo-feng as successor
to Mao Tse-tung.
The misleading reference to the
Central Committee endorsement seems
to lend an air of legality to Hua's
promotion amid signs that the
leadership, despite its forceful
move against leading leftists on
the Politburo, is reluctant--or
as yet unable--to make further
decisions. Hua himself seems to
have avoided deliberately a ple-
nary session of the Central Com-
mittee, possibly because there
are still a number of leftists,
including military men, among its
approximately 300 members.
At the rally Hua, in addition to
his new position as chairman of
the party and of its military
commission, was identified as
premier, indicating that no deci-
sion has yet been made to name
Li Hsien-nien to that post.
The remaining members of the
Politburo, including those who
reside outside the capital, ap-
peared in the same order of rank
they held prior to the arrest of
the four leftists. Politburo mem-
ber and Shenyang Military Region
commander Li Te-sheng attended
the rally, despite his apparent
links with the left and a report
that he is being "held in Peking."
Shanghai, China's largest city,
has been left leaderless by the
arrests of the four leftists on
the Politburo, three of whom were
the top three party officials in
that city. Although alternate
member of the Politburo Ni Chih-fu
reportedly was sent with others to
assume the leadership in Shanghai,
Ni was identified at the rally by
his usual title of secretary of the
Peking party committee.
--continued
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MEDITERRAXEAN
620581 10 76
BEIRUT
*
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fa g
iido,.t "FATA LAND"
qub Region
S Y R I A
IIP/DA m A s c u s
a
itirlit, p , 1 1
Khiyam
Mt( ( Golan
Heights
le
Bint.JabaYt,
i /
ii o
1
I
ISRAEL
MILES 20
0 KILOMETERS 20
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
Peking party boss Wu
Te, in the major ad-
dress at the rally,
said publicly what has
been rumored for some
time--that Mao person-
ally passed the mantle
to Hua.
LEBANON: Christian
forces aided by defec-
tors from the leftist
Lebanese Arab Army took
the military barracks
in the key southern
Lebanese town of AZ-
Khiyam on Saturday.
Wu was unspecific in his charges
against the ousted leftists, but
raised a new, albeit vague, accu-
sation that they had "illicit re-
lations" with unnamed foreign
countries. This could pave the
way for charges that the leftist
quartet colluded with the USSR.
Wu may have been alluding to the
continuing problems facing the
leadership when he mentioned the
"difficulties" and "twists and
turns" that lie ahead.
* * *
The Christians claim this action
gives them control over all access
routes into the Arqub region--com-
monly known as "Fatahland"--that
has for years been the principal
staging base for fedayeen opera- 25X1
tions into Israel.
the Christians also have laid siege
to several villages south of Al-
Khiyam and are demanding the sur-
render of Bint Jubayl, which has
been heavily shelled by Christian
and Israeli artillery for the past
several days.
Israeli Defense Minister Peres in
a speech on Saturday indirectly
acknowledged that Israeli forces
have been providing support for
the Christians' operations, but he
denied that the Israelis have
crossed the border. The continued
Israeli-supported Christian attacks
2
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Some Arabs are inter-
preting the attacks as
a dual Christian-Israeli
effort to cut off Pal-
estinian access to the
border before the Leb-
anon truce takes full
effect and before action
can be taken to imple-
ment the Cairo accords
of 1969 regulating Pal-
estinian activity in
Lebanon.
in the south threaten the overall
cease-fire in Lebanon--which was
still generally holding elsewhere
in the country yesterday--and are
likely to be a major issue at the
Arab summit that opens in Cairo
today.
Although the Cairo accords, which
were reaffirmed at the Riyadh sum-
mit last week, generally restrict
the Palestinians to the refugee
camps, they also allow the guer-
rillas virtually free run of some
areas of the border adjacent to
Israel. The Christians and Is-
raelis clearly are intent on creat-
ing a buffer zone in the south
that will prevent Arab acquiescence
in this provision of the accords.
Syria is likely to be pressured
at the summit today to rein in its
Christian allies.
Asad probably could win the sup-
port of the moderate Arab leaders,
particularly if, as seems likely,
Christian dominance of the border
area has been accomplished by the
time the summit opens.
PLO Chief Yasir Arafat undoubtedly
will try to play up the Israeli
involvement in the hope of embar-
rassing the other leaders into sup-
porting him. Arafat is probably
under pressure from his more rad-
ical subordinates and the leftists
to resume fighting in response to
the Christian attacks.
* * *
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RHODESIA: Rivalry
among the four Rhode-
sian black nationalist
leaders invited to the
Geneva conference is
still preventing adop-
tion of a united posi-
tion.
The nationalists have chosen their
delegations and have departed for
the conference, which formally
opens next Thursday.
Sithole is leading a rival delega-
tion to the conference and still
claims to be the leader of ZANU.
He has stated that he wants the
black delegations at Geneva to
put up a united front.
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* * *
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ITALY:
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USSR: The latest sat-
ellite photography
shows that the Soviets
are moving ahead with
plans to make the mo-
bile SS-X-20 inter-
mediate-range ballistic
missile operational,
possibly by the end of
this year or in early
1977.
The arrest of Portu-
guese Major OteZo Car-
valho accounted for
the increased state of
readiness ordered on
Saturday in the Lisbon
military region.
NOTES
Photography taken in early Octo-
ber indicates that the Soviets
are continuing to construct new
buildings at two SS-4 sites in
western USSR and at a partially
dismantled SS-7 site in the east-
ern USSR, probably for use as sup-
port bases for the SS-X-20 IRBM.
Some of the buildings, which could
house mobile missile launchers,
are equipped with sliding roofs.
Some of these buildings are already
connected by cable to other build-
ings which may contain launch
control vans.
The Soviets could launch missiles
directly from the buildings with
the sliding roofs in the event they
do not receive enough advanced
warning of an attack to allow move-
ment to remote launch positions.
* * *
Lisbon remains quiet. An extreme
leftist group announced yesterday,
however, that it was planning a
week of nationwide demonstrations,
beginning today, to protest the
arrest.
President Eanes may have taken ac-
tion against Carvalho at this time
to win the support of rightist ele-
ments in the military who have not
been happy with the way Eanes is
directing the country's affairs.
* * *
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Iran's decision to re-
turn the Soviet mail
plane pilot who defected
is probably an effort
to relieve the tensions
that have developed be-
tween the two countries.
In returning the pilot under the
provisions of an anti-hijacking
treaty signed in 1974, the Shah
acted against the advice of his
foreign ministry, which had con-
cluded that the treaty did not
apply in this case.
Moscow has become increasingly
critical of Iranian purchases of
US arms. The Soviets believe that
these purchases will enable the
Shah to permit a greatly increased
US military presence in Iran.
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Top Secret
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