THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Tet Declassified
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 05974204
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: April 26, 2019
• Document Release Date: April 30, 2019
• Publication Date: January 3, 1968

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The President's Daily Brief
T ecret 3 January 1968
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DAILY BRIEF
3 JANUARY 1968
1. Cambodia
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2. South Vietnam
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3. Australia
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4. Communist China
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5. Soviet Union
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The Communists are intensively
preparing for a new round of attacks
near Dak To, not far from the Cambodian
border area
The upsurge of violence around the
country in recent �weeks is largely
traceable to Mao's latest fulminations.
Brezhnev has postponed the visit
he was to make to Nasir next week. A
heavy workload of domestic business
seems the most likely explanation.
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6. Middle East
7. Syria
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8. Common Market
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Gunnar Jarring, now on his second
round of Middle East capitals, is still
searching vainly for some kind of "open-
ing" toward a settlement. Last week he
found the Israelis unbudged. They con-
tinue to balk at any "piecemeal" steps
toward settlement. A Middle East solu-
tion, they insist, must be the result
of an over-all, formal agreement; this
can come only from meetings among the
interested parties.
The Israelis have decided, however,
on two moves which they hope will im-
prove the atmosphere for Jarring's
talks. They will agree to the removal
of the trapped ships from the canal,
and they have released a new batch of
Arab prisoners.
The wildmen running the regime
have isolated themselves not only from
the rest of the Arab world, but also
from most of their own people. Even
the Russians have had little success
in their attempts to calm down the
Syrian leaders.
The British are billing Foreign
Secretary Brown's consultations with
Italian Foreign Minister Fanfani in
Rome last Friday as the beginning of a
"new cycle" in London's bid for Common
Market membership.(/
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FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY
Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
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a January 1968
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Special Daily Report on South Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
3 January 1968
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
Bomb Damage:
reported
from Hanoi last week that US bombing from 14 to 22
December did "heavy" damage to the Doumer bridge,
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homes in its vicinity, and a railroad rolling stock
repair shop near the Gia Lam airport. The raids
resulted in "the cutting of the bridge for more
than 100 meters," but because of low water in the
Red River, the North Vietnamese "were able to erect
two pontoon bridges so that traffic was not greatly
disrupted." however, that the railroad
shops "appear to be beyond repair."
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The Trinh Statement:
in Hanoi has informed his government that the North
Vietnamese have given added official character to
Foreign Minister Trinh's statement about his govern-
ment's willingness to talk with the US in return
for an end to the bombing and all other acts of war.
the North Vietnamese
provided his delegation with a copy of Trinh's re-
marks in Vietnamese with The
copy, like Hanoi's
contained the phrase that
talks" with the US if the
English language version,
North Vietnam "will hold
bombing is stopped.
the North Vietnamese ambassador in the Chinese
capital left hurriedly--presumably for Hanoi--on
2 January. There was no indication that the am-
bassador's departure was related to the Trinh state-
ment, but this seems to be a reasonable assumption.
Peking has not taken note of the foreign minister's
remarks and it is doubtful that the Chinese, who
have never commented publicly on the earlier Trinh
remarks about talks, will report this latest state-
ment.
the
Liberation Front office in Hanoi has admitted to
the Indonesian ambassador that the Front had urged
the Rumanians to circulate copies of its new politi-
cal program at the UN. Front officials denied, how-
ever, that they had attempted to send representatives
to the UN.
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Hanoi Economic Claims: North Vietnamese propa-
ganda continues to insist that the bombings have not
stopped expansion of local light industries which sup-
port agriculture and produce consumer goods. The al-
leged gains, however, probably have not matched either
the regime's plans or its needs.
A Hanoi broadcast on 30 December says that 500
light industry plants have been built in dispersed
locations in rural areas during the past two years.
Virtually all of these plants are small-scale, work-
shop-type operations and most produce such things as
farm tools, processed foods, glassware, matches, and
cigarettes. The output of these industries is said to
have increased "substantially and in some cases up to
30 percent" compared with 1964, the last prebombing
year.
There is no doubt that dispersed light industries
have enjoyed high priority during the bombing years.
The broadcast claimed, for instance, that investment
in them doubled in 1966 and increased by 37 percent
in 1967. It did not claim, however, that these indus-
tries have met the country's needs, but said only that
they "made an important contribution" toward this end.
Reports from North Vietnam, including those from the
Spaniards who left only recently, consistently describe
shortages of consumer goods. Shortfalls in produc-
tion are to some extent being met by imports from other
Communist countries.
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II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
There is nothing of significance to report.
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To ecret
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