THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 18 MAY 1968

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005976154
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: May 18, 1968

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6:
The President's Daily Brief
18 May 1968
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THE PRESIDENT'S
DAILY BRIEF
18 MAY 1968
1. South Vietnam
. North Korea
3. Soviet Union -
Czechoslovakia
Resignation of Prime Minister Loc
and his cabinet this morning came at
President Thieu's request and in prepa-
ration for the long-planned government
reorganization. There is no aspect of
crisis, despite all the scurrying
around by newsmen. The embassy believes
announcement of the new cabinet--pre-
sumably to be headed by Tran Van Huong--
will come tomorrow.
Signs are appearing that a shake-
up recently took place high in the
leadership. Positions just below the
top three in the hierarchy seem to have
been affected. Details are hard to
come by, but early indications are that
hard-liners have won out over men who
are--by North Korean standards--moder-
ates.
Kosygin's sudden appearance in
Prague yesterday signals the start of
some tough bargaining. We expect him
to insist on firm commitments from the
Czechoslovak leaders that they will
moderate their course and effectively
curb liberal dissidence within and out-
side the Communist Party. If Kosygin
is satisfied, he may then be forthcoming
about Prague's earlier request for a
large and desperately needed loan.
Soviet Defense Minister Grechko,
who also turned up in Prague yesterday,
brought along a number of high-ranking
officers. This show of military brass
will add weight to Kosygin's arguments.
Soviet military units, meanwhile, re-
main in place around Czechoslovakia's
borders.
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4. France
5. Berlin
The domestic crisis is getting
worse as student and labor disturbances
spread outside Paris. Premier Pompi-
dou's stern public warning on Thursday
has been met only with defiance. The
workers in a number of key factories
have joined in the struggle, calling
strikes of "unlimited duration" and in
some cases seizing the plants.
has
it on good authority that the regular
army has been alerted to move in should
the reinforced police and gendarmes be
unable to handle the situation.
Late press reports say De Gaulle
has cut short his trip to Rumania by
one day and will return to Paris today
to take personal command.
The West Berlin branch of the neo-
Nazi National Democratic Party plans a
rally in the city today. This will in-
vite counterdemonstrations by leftist
students. The West Berlin police are
preparing for trouble.
* * *
The East Germans, encouraged by
Bonn's reluctance to take strong counter-
measures to the restrictions on access
they have applied so far, are said to
be thinking of requiring passports and
visas for all West Germans traveling
overland to Berlin. This would be a
logical next step,
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6. Panama
7. Communist China
General Vallarino seems finally to
have concluded that Arnulfo Arias' elec-
toral majority was so big that his vic-
tory cannot be denied./
What happens next is anyone's guess.
Vallarino will likely resist any attempt
by President Robles to fire him, and it
could well be Robles who gets kicked out.
Vallarino's most immediate problem
is to assure continued unity of the Na-
tional Guard. (
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8. Israel
9, Cambodia
The tribal rebellion in the north-
east, and a more serious Communist-led
insurgent effort in the south, come at
a bad time for Sihanouk. The budget is
already strained from four years of eco-
nomic decline. Sihanouk cannot find the
money to beef up the army. He blames
the Communists for his troubles, but
still cannot seem to understand how all
this could happen under such an enlight-
ened leader as he.
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Top Secret
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Top Secret
FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY
1.) Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
.) North Vietnamese Reflections of U S
Political Attitudes
Top Secret
16
18 May 1968
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
18 May 1968
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
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Press Officer Gives His Impressions: Nguyen
Van Sao, one of the press officers of the North Viet-
namese delegation to Paris, reportedly told a friendly
journalist that he intended to stay in Paris for a
"long time." He made the statement in London, where
he was a correspondent for a Vietnamese newspaper
before joining the Paris team. He also volunteered
the information that the head of the delegation,
Xuan Thuy, would not remain in Paris much longer
than two weeks.
Sao's remarks are probably largely his own im-
pressions. He is not a high-ranking individual in
the North Vietnamese scheme of things, and it is
doubtful that he has any inside information on
Hanoi's intentions on the talks. He has made free-
wheeling statements in the past which have not al-
ways been completely accurate, and probably has a
better idea of his own plans than he does of Xuan
Thuy's.
* * *
Soviet Officials Hope for Success: Several
Soviet diplomatic officials from the ambassadorial
level on down have been expressing a hope for the
success of the Paris talks. Reference to the pos-
sibility of improved Soviet-US relations has on
several occasions been coupled with these expres-
sions. Little additional private commentary has
been forthcoming, however, and the Soviets have
been careful not to imply that success may be
brought about by any concessions on Hanoi's part.
On the contrary, Soviet public media have been push-
ing the line that the onus for success or failure
rests on the US.
* * *
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Hanoi Resumes Shelter Construction, Discourages
Returnees: According to a French press dispatch from
Hanoi, North Vietnamese authorities have ordered a
step-up in shelter construction in the capital city
and have begun a campaign to prevent evacuees from
returning en masse./
/one of the first noticeable re-
sults of the US bombing restrictions was the influx
of people from outlying areas.
The French news service now reports that the
city has inaugurated a "short competition campaign"
to "evacuate the population and increase shelter
construction." The problem is not minor, according
to the news dispatch, which cites figures in the
tens of thousands for individual wards. Parents
have been informed that children must stay out of
the city and cannot come home even for the summer
recess,.
The evacuation order may have been necessitated
by an inability to cope with the wholesale return
of hundreds of thousands of former residents in .a
short space of time. The coupling of the evacuation
order with increased shelter construction, however,
implies that Hanoi is prepared for a resumption of
the bombings. /
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II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
Hanoi Backs Poor People: On 17 May the Hanoi
news agency's international service in English picked
up the recent Viet Cong radio item on the Poor
People's Campaign. It called the campaign the be-
ginning of a "period of struggle of profound social
significance," and linked it to the civil rights and
antiwar movements in the US. The broadcast asserted
that the cause of these "struggles" was US preoccu-
pation with the war in Asia and said that the "South
Vietnamese people" consider such demonstrations a
manifestation of "militant solidarity."
* * *
Hanoi on Reserve Call-up: North Vietnamese propa-
ganda has made a special point of noting measures
which it describes as further US escalation of the
war. The latest of these was in a Hanoi broadcast
on 16 May in Vietnamese to South Vietnam which cited
Associated Press reports about the call-up of
20,000 US reservists. The broadcast says this occur-
red just when the Paris talks were beginning, and
charges that this "proves" the US is still bent on
"aggression" in Vietnam. The broadcast ridicules
the idea that a few thousand additional troops can
save the US from a "stalemated situation."
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Top Secret
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