THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Tet Declassified
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 05947645
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: April 27, 2019
• Document Release Date: April 30, 2019
• Publication Date: March 19, 1968

Approved for Release: 2019/04/17 C05947645
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The President's Daily Brief
Top Secra 19 March 1968
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DAILY
DAILY BRIEF
19 MARCH 1968
1. Vietnam
2. Poland
3. France
TCP SECRET -
We have new evidence that the Com-
munists have been continuing a high
rate of infiltration into South Vietnam
since Tet. Another group of radio sta-
tions controlled by the High Command in
Hanoi has been identified in the infil-
tration communications network. The
Communists are also adding rapidly to
their land-line communications link
from North Vietnam to their forces in
the South.
Hanoi has meanwhile moved at least
one--probably two--more of its IL-28
bombers from South China to Phuc Yen air-
field. It already had two of them there.
For the first time in the current
crisis, uniformed soldiers armed with
automatic weapons are being seen in the
streets of Warsaw. Armed police are
also coming in from other cities.
Rumors abound that Gomulka is short-
ly to deliver a major speech, perhaps .
today. The Italian ambassador thinks
this may be the occasion for announcing
changes in the party leadership. The
security reinforcements in the capital
may be to help control the crowds that
would be rounded up for a Gomulka speech.
Unrest continues in other Polish
cities.
The French are moving ahead with
preparations to resume atmospheric nu-
clear testing in the Pacific this June.
If they stick to schedule, this year's
series will include their first true
thermonuclear shot.
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TOP SECRET
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4. USSR-Space
5. Israel
6. Egypt
7. Nepal
iOv SECRET -
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Something must have gone wrong with
the re-entry of the Soviets' latest un-
manned spacecraft on 9 March. The de-
tails are not clear,/
the same day that
Soviet officials were concerned and jumpy
about events surrounding the re-entry.
A high space official telephoned
Dmitri Ustinov, the party's watchdog on
space, to brief him on the trouble. Us-
tinov tried to calm his colleagues, im-
plying that the outcome of the mission
had given everyone some anxious moments.
In the next breath, the space offi-
cial was insisting to Ustinov that "we
should not miss the 23rd under any cir-
cumstances." Presumably he was referring
to another launch schedule, possibly the
23rd of March or April.
The Israelis are grim in the wake
of yesterday's terrorist incident near
the southern port of Eilat. At last
word, two adults were dead and 27 child-
ren wounded after a school bus hit a
mine. This surely raises the chances of
a bigger than usual Israeli retaliation
against Jordan.
Nasir is to get six more medium
bombers today from the Soviets. This is
the second such delivery since the June
war and raises the number of these jet
bombers in Egypt to twelve, compared to
26 before the war.
Only fragmentary information is
available on King Mahendra's condition
following his heart attack on Friday.
He has been an autocratic ruler and the
lid will stay on even during a fairly
long convalescence. His death, however,
might bring problems. The King's son
and heir, now a 22-year-old Harvard stu-
dent, would have a hard time of it.
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8. Iran
9. Panama
10. Chile
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The Shah is putting the squeeze on
the Western oil consortium, and this
time he is deadly serious. He insists
that it must increase production over
the next five years at a rate far great-
er than the consortium can entertain.
He has given it until 20 April to come
up with a solution. If it does not, he
may well seize consortium territory, in-
cluding producing oil wells, so Iran can
produce more on its own. He says he
must have the income for Iran's develop-
ment program.
General Vallarino, still walking
the tightrope, has decided not to issue
the formal declaration of support for
Robles which the President asked him
for. Instead, he intends quietly to
tell Arnulfo Arias that the National
Guard will refuse to uphold a guilty
verdict against Robles if the verdict
comes before the resumption of the Su-
preme Court session on 1 April.
On the face of it, this looks like
a clever move to put the monkey on the
court's back. But no one is neutral in
Panama, and the Supreme Court is packed
with Robles' friends. This is why Arias
has been--and will continue--pressing
hard for an assembly verdict before
1 April.
President Frei does not have the
muscle to fight hard for his vital anti-
inflation program. His able new finance
minister resigned in protest last week-
end over the President's failure to back
him up in the face of heavy political
fire. The result could well be a new
surge of inflation and more budgetary
problems. This would only benefit the
Communist-Socialist coalition in the
coming congressional elections, now only
a year away.
TQP-SEC�RE---T
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