THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Tet Declassified
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 05974323
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: April 27, 2019
• Document Release Date: April 30, 2019
• Publication Date: March 12, 1968

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The President's Daily Brief
Top Secrct 12 March 1968
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DAILY BRIEF
12 MARCH 1968
. South Vietnam
. Laos
3. Cambodia
SECRET-
GeneralT-O-R�
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Le Nguyen Khang, III Corps
commander, believes that the government
is deteriorating and that Thiel will he
unable to do anything about it.
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widespread
dissatisfaction exists in the officer
corps over the government's failure to
take advantage of the opportunity to
rally the people following the Tet of-
fensive.
Khang believes followers of Ky will
make a determined try to get Ky appointed
prime minister. Khang denies rumors,
however, that either he or Police Direc-
tor Loan is planning any action against
the government.
There are a number of signs point-
ing to a new round of Communist attacks
in the southern part of the country.
A significant enemy build-up in the
Bolovens Plateau region is apparently
under way, and there may be as many as
four North Vietnamese regiments cur-
rently in the Saravane-Sedone valley
area. The Communists are also stepping
up pressure near Thakhek.
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4. Soviet Union
5. Soviet Union
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6, Panama'
7. Okinawa
8. Poland
9. East -
West Germany
The National Assembly ended a four-
hour session last night without taking
a vote to impeach Robles. After hearing
the investigating commission's recommen-
dations that the charges against the
President be accepted, progovernment
deputies asked to have all the documen-
tary evidence read into the record--a
tactic that may well tie things up for
several days.
Local leftists protesting against
B-52s at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, have
also stirred up publicity about the
special reconnaissance aircraft there.
we anticipate more headlines
and perhaps demonstrations against these
planes. Contingency plans at Kadena are
already in effect.
Student rioting in Warsaw resumed
yesterday and now there are signs that
the unrest is spreading to other ele-
ments of the population. The party
press, for instance, admits that more
than half of those arrested are not stu-
dents, but does not identify them. There
are also rumors that workers in the capi-
tal are preparing to strike at the "op-
portune" moment to protest against po-
lice handling of the disturbances.
The East Germans have decreed that
members of the neo - Nazi German Nation-
alist Democratic Party, or people "en-
gaged in neo-Nazi activities," are banned
from entering East Germany and transit-
ting to West Berlin. In essence, this
means the East Germans have devised an-
other issue which they can use to inter-
fere with traffic to Berlin. Allied ac-
cess is not affected.
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4ep-Seefet�
FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY
Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
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12 March 1968
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
12 March 1968
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
Hanoi Official Agrees to Discuss POW Issue: The
charg� the North Vietnamese Embassy in Vientiane
has agreed to meet with US Embassy officials to dis-
cuss the prisoner of war issue. Efforts to contact
the charg�n the same subject last year were re-
buffed. In a conversation at a reception on 8 March,
the deputy chief of the US mission informed the
charg�f US plans to release three North Vietnamese
sailors, in reciprocity for Hanoi's release of three
pilots. When the charg�as told of earlier US ef-
forts to contact him, he invited the US official to
meet with him to discuss the POW issue. When asked
about his remark to Ambassador Sullivan last month
implying that Hanoi might release additional US pris-
oners, the charg�eplied that he personally believed
that further releases could be expected in line with
the "humanitarian" policy of the Liberation Front.
Hanoi Plays Up Thieu-Ky Friction: Radio Hanoi,
in a broadcast to South Vietnam on 10 March, zeroed
in on political instability in Saigon in the wake of
the Tet offensive and attempted to dramatize Western
press reports of friction between Thieu and Ky. The
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commentary used recent changes in the South Vietnam-
ese Army's command structure, the arrest of prominent
civilian politicians, and the refusal of the Nation-
al Assembly to grant Thieu emergency powers to il-
lustrate its thesis that the Saigon government is
about to collapse. All elements of this government
are "quarreling like cats and dogs," according to
.the broadcast. Vice President Ky was described as
"pouring everything into an effort to overthrow
Thieu" and Thieu was reportedly trying to curb .Ky's
pOwers. All ,of these internal problems, concluded.
the broadcast, make the US position in South Vietnam
increasingly difficult.
* * *
Hanoi Sends Students Abroad:
/Hanoi is continuing to send large num-
bers of students abroad for technical training. The
ministry informed the provinces that an estimate of
the number of students for study abroad has been de-
cided upon and that if the provinces were in agree-
ment with the figures, student files should be sent
to Hanoi during March. The number of students for
foreign training included 400 from populous Nghe An
Province, and 20 each from sparsely populated Lai
Chau and Lao Cai provinces.
* * *
North Vietnam Shipping Report: Ship arrivals
and import tonnages reached new highs in January.
Ship traffic was so heavy that congestion slowed op-
erations in Haiphong harbor. Imports of general.car7
goes set a new record, and petroleum and bulk food
imports were near their previous highs. More than
three quarters of all goods in January was brought
in by Communist ships.
Imports in February were down appreciably, in
part because of congestion at Haiphong. Imports of
foodstuffs in particular dropped sharply.
North Vietnamese exports, meanwhile, have re-
cently begun to rise. Coal accounts for most of the
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increase, and this in turn reflects the repairs
which have recently been made to the main hold-up
in the coal pipeline--processing facilities at Cam
Pha.
* * *
II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
:Hanoi Reports Antiwar Activity: In its 9 March
English language broadcast, Hanoi radio continued
its policy of reporting statements and meetings in
the US protesting the war. It reported that 20 of
the 30 members of the faculty of the University of
Chicago Divinity School had signed a statement pro-
testing the war and supporting those students who
resisted being drafted into the armed forces. A
teach-in held on 6 March at Southern Connecticut
.State College and addressed by Yale University chap-
lain William Coffin, Jr. was also reported. Coffin
was described as one of the five American intellec-
tuals being prosecuted for their antidraft roles.
:He was quoted as saying that "what is traitorous in
this country is not to dissent but to remain blindly
submissive." Finally, a press conference held in
Washington on 6 March by Boston University profes-
sor Howard Zinn (who was involved in the release
of the three US pilots) was recounted. Zinn com-
pared the magnanimous release of the pilots to the
"heinous act of the US authorities in prosecuting
�the five antiwar American intellectuals."
--T-G-P�S-EeRET
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