CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00975A011700070001-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 14
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 22, 2003
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: July 25, 1968
• Content Type: REPORT

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Secret
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DIRECTORATE OF
INTELLIGENCE
Central Intelligence Bulletin
DIA review(s) completed.
25 July 1968
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No. 0217/68
25 July 1968
Central Intelligence Bulletin
CONTENTS
South 'Vietnam: Situation report. (Page 1)
Czechoslovakia-USSR: Top level meeting still shrouded
in secrecy. Page 2)
Turkey: Student demonstrations have resumed. (Page 3)
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Congo (Brazzaville): President's offer to quit is an
attempt to consolidate his position. (Page 6)
India: Extremists may be making some progress toward
forming a new "Revolutionary Communist Party." (Page '7)
Cuba: Shift of interior minister may mean move by
Castro to gain more control over security apparatus.
(Page 8)
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USSR-Egypt: Amphibious landing demonstrations (Page 10)
Israel-Algeria: Hijacked airliner (Page 10)
Rumania: Oil-swap deal (Page 10)
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[South Vietnam: The ground war in South Viet-
nam continues to reflect a slightly stepped up pace.
Several sharp small-unit engagements have been
reported in each of the country's four corps areas
in the past two days. In addition, Communist forces
unleashed a heavy mortar bombardment against Loc Ninh
in Binh Long Province, where a multi-regimental enemy
troop buildup has been in progress for several weeks.
Allied facilities at Da Nang and Hoi An also came
under enemy rocket and mortar attacks.
the Communists
may be preparing for limited group attacks against
Hue and several nearby district towns, possibly dur-
ing late July or early August.
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25 Jul 68 Central Intelligence Bulletin 1
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C Czechoslovakia-USSR: Official silence shrouds
the top level Soviet-Czechoslovak meeting.
Neither side has acknowledged that the meeting
is under way and so far no evidence is available that
it has in fact begun. All members of the Soviet polit-
buro have been out of sight since 22 July, however,
and the Czechoslovak presidium dropped out of public
view on 23 July. Czechoslovak sources have generally
hinted that the meeting has not yet begun, but this
may be an attempt at concealment. Moscow probably in-
sisted on tight security precautions, and this time
the Czechoslovaks appear to be complying.
The news media of both countries are still ex-
changing verbal blows. Radio Moscow has ridiculed
US denials of intervention in the Czechoslovak sit-
uation, and repeated earlier allegations that the US,
in concert with West Germany, is seeking to split the
Communist countries.
A Czechoslovak party spokesman admitted yesterday
that some Soviet units remain in Czechoslovakia. He
added, according to one press account, that they "will
remain until a communique is published." The Czecho-
slovak military attache in Poland told his American
counterpart on 23 July that some 5,000 to 6,000 troops
remained.
No further details on the extent and activity of
the USSR's large rear-services exercise have been re-
ceived.
With the exception of East Germany, no Eastern
European country appears to favor Soviet military in-
tervention in Czechoslovakia. The Yugoslav counselor
in Warsaw reports that the Polish leadership is ada-
mantly opposed to military intervention, while the
Turkish foreign minister has said that visiting Hun-
garian Foreign Minister Peter told him that the Hun-
garian Government opposes armed intervention in Czecho-
slovakia.
Central Intelligence Bulletin
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Turkey: Student demonstrations, sparked by the
death of a student beaten by police on 17 July, have
resumed in Istanbul.
About 30 members of a student delegation were
arrested as they tried to place a black wreath in-
scribed "Murderers" at the door of the Istanbul
governor's office. University representatives have
vowed to organize further protest marches against
"police brutality."
Although there is probably sympathy for the
family of the dead student, public sentiment appears
to be hardening against the leftist demonstrators.
A night of violence followed a rightist counterdem-
onstration against an anti-US rally in Konya, in
central Turkey.
The Turkish military establishment, which was
aligned with the radical students in the 1960 coup
against the rightist Menderes government, is re-
portedly angered and humiliated by the recent leftist
attacks on US Navy personnel visiting Istanbul. Even
junior officers who formerly expressed sympathy for
the student protest movement are now said to be hos-
tile.
25 Jul 6 8 Central Intelligence Bulletin 3
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Congo (Brazzaville): Massamba-Debat's offer on
22 July to vacate the presidency is probably an at-
tempt to consolidate his position against potential
leftist opposition and to gain broad popular support.
In a nationwide radiobroadcast, the President
said he would turn over his position to anyone more
capable who presented himself with the approval of
the people before noon 27 July. He attributed his
offer to the desire to spare his countrymen the
bloodshed that accompanies the taking of power by
force.
Despite his reference to a possible coup, there
is little evidence to suggest that Massamba-Debat is
imminently threatened. There have been rumblings of
discontent, particularly from Cuban and Chinese Com-
munist-supported leftist elements who lost influence
in a January government reorganization, but such
rumblings are endemic in the. nation's political sys-
tem.
The relatively moderate President, who has re-
mained in power by carefully manipulating the oppos-
ing factions, may again sense opposition maneuvering
in the wings. His latest move may be an attempt to
ward off a potential leftist power play before elec-
t
ions which should place at the end of the year.
F
25 Jul 68
Central Intelligence Bulletin
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India: Extremists from the radical left Com-
munist Party (CPI/L) appear to be making some prog-
ress toward forming a new "Revolutionary Communist
Party," although formidable barriers still exist.
In Andhra Pradesh, extremists expelled from the
CPI/L in mid-June have moved to form a new party
around the nucleus of their sizable splinter group.
They have planned two months of intensive recruit-
ing, to be followed by a state convention formally
inaugurating the party. A coordination committee
has been set up to contact extremist factions in
other states. In Kerala, where the CPI/L dominates
the state's coalition government, party leaders have
been feverishly trying to contain the growing ex-
tremist movement but may be losing ground.
Formidable barriers, however, still block the
way to the formation of a viable new national Com-
munist party to compete with the 70,000-member CPI/L
and the long-established 55,000-member pro-Moscow
Communist Party (CPI/R). Outside of Andhra, the'ex-
tremists are probably strongest in West Bengal,
where the movement began about a year ago. The
Bengalis, however, favor an even more radical brand
of Maoist ideology, advocating immediate armed strug-
gle and total rejection of the parliamentary path
to power. The less doctrinaire and more opportun-
istic Andhra group seems unlikely to subordinate
itself to the Bengali leadership, which until now
has dominated the move toward a third party. Both
factions are already jockeying for position to con-
trol the proposed new party.
25 Jul 68 Central Intelligence Bulletin 7
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Cuba: The reassignment of Interior Minister
Ramiro Valdez may be an attempt by Fidel Castro to
gain greater personal control over the Cuban security
apparatus.
Havana Radio announced on 24 July that Valdez
will take an "advanced military course," and that he
will be "replaced" by Sergio del Valle. Valdez is a
member of the eight-man politburo of the Cuban Commu-
nist Party, and a long-time intimate colleague of
Castro. It is not clear, however, whether Valdez has
been permanently replaced or will resume his post
after completing the course.
Valle, also a member of the politburo, has been
a deputy of Raul Castro in the Armed Forces Ministry,
and has not had direct experience in security affairs.
Castro has been concerned with the increasing
acts of overt opposition to the regime since new
austerity measures were imposed in March. Last month
it was officially admitted that sabotage was the
cause of the destruction of an Oriente feed factory.
Refugee sources have also claimed that fires at sev-
eral other plants and at Cuba's principal oil refin-
ery were acts of sabotage.
Castro may also be concerned about his own
safety. A number of assassination plots have been
reported in recent months. 25X1
25 Jul 68 Central Intelligence Bulletin 8
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USSR-Egypt: In mid-July Soviet naval units
operating in tahe Mediterranean near Alexandria con-
ducted two demonstrations of amphibious landings.
Three Soviet amphibious ships and two destroyers
probably participated in the show, which was put on
for senior Egyptian officers. Although Soviet am-
phibious ships have operated in the eastern Medi-
terranean almost continuously since the Arab-Israeli
wart this is the first time they have been detected
conducting landings. 25XI
E Israel-Algeria: Israel probably will try for
a short me t.? use political pressure to recover
its hijacked airliner and Israeli passengers before
carrying out a. retaliatory action against either
Algeria or Egypt. Tel Aviv already has blamed Cairo
for the hijacking, on the grounds that Egypt sup-
ports Arab terrorism. Competition among the various
terrorist groups may well spark even more spectacu-
lar attempts to hijack or blow up Israeli airliners
or to bomb Israeli diplomatic installations. The
Arab governments exert almost no control over ac-
tions by most members of these groups. 25X1
Rumania: Bucharest has proposed to swap oil
with a US international. oil company in order to avoid
the cost of transporting Saudi Arabian crude oil
around Africa. The Rumanians this year want to ex-
change 300,000 tons of Saudi crude, for which they
have already contracted, for the same quantity of
US-controlled oil to be delivered from Mediterranean
ports to Rumania; next year they would like to in-
crease exchange to 1.1 million tons. This arrangement
is similar to recent oil-swap deals which Moscow ar-
ranged with Western oil companies in order to offset
increased transport costs for delivery of Soviet oil
east of Suez after the closure of the uez Canal.
25 Jul 68 Central Intelligence Bulletin 10
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