THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 7 DECEMBER 1965

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005968035
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: December 7, 1965

- Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24: CIA-RDP79T00936A004100340001-4
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
THE PRESIDENT'S
DAILY BRIEF
7 DECEMBER 1965
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DAILY BRIEF
7 DECEMBER 1965
1. North Vietnam
2. South Vietnam
the site has encountered
serious technical difficulties with its
missiles.
It is likely that other sites have
encountered similar difficulties, prob-
ably caused in many cases by constant
movement of fragile equipment from site
to site. The Vietnamese weather is an-
other factor, as is the fact that North
Vietnamese seem to be taking over respon-
sibility from the Soviets for on-site
checkout of missiles and gear.
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The Viet Cong today announced that
they would observe a cease-fire from
6:00 p.m. local time Christmas Eve un-
til 7:00 a.m, the next morning. The
Communists have declared unilateral
cease-fires before. In the past, these
have always been in observance of Viet-
namese New Year, not Christmas.
The gesture this year probably is
designed for its impact on Americans in
addition to the usual aim of trying to
create the impression among Vietnamese
that it is the Viet Cong who call the
shots.
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Communist forces are making ever wider 50X1
use of a new family of automatic weapons,
which give them a firepower advantage at
close range over friendly units, except
those equipped with the M-16 rifle. This
is important,for Communists now try to
keep very close to US and',Allied-units.
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3. Rhodesia
4. Greece
The Africans and their friends are
stepping up the pressure for more force-
ful British action against Rhodesia.
Even the moderate Nigerian Govern-
ment has hardened considerably toward
London on this issue. The Nigerians
evidently regret some of the extreme
resolutions passed at the recent meet-
ing of African foreign ministers, but
they are desperately seeking some dra-
matic action by Britain to save them
from having to reveal the relative impo-
tence of the Africans themselves.
In London, on the other hand,- Wil-
son's bipartisan support is dissolving
as he makes his own tougher noises.
Even the usually pro-Wilson Daily Mirror,
the world's largest circulation daily,
has raised a warning flag against any
military operations in Rhodesia.
Premier Stephanopoulos' shaky gov-
ernment is increasingly worried over
Greece's economic slide. Public confi-
dence is. ebbing rapidly; in recent :weeks
there has been a sharp increase in gold
buying and a drop in savings bank deposits..
Stephanopoulos wants to take rigorous
measures to redeem the situation. He
doubts that parliament,will approve them,
however, unless he gets US help at the
same time. To emphasize the gravity of
his problem, the government has had King
Constantine Writeto,President,Johnson.
requesting a loan,.
The overshadowing development which
Greek moderate politicians fear is that
economic deterioration will lead to a new
political crisis and revive the threat of
a royal military dictatorship.
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5. Communist China
6. Indonesia
The game of
editorial and counter-editorial,
e ween Peking and Moscow, is continu-
ing. The pace has increased lately, but
the rules have apparently not changed.
The Soviets are still following a
relatively restrained line
but this does not prevent them from re-
sponding forcefully, as they have in re-
cent Pravda articles, when they think
that Peking is vulnerable.
Sukarno's emotional appeal on Sun.t.
day evidently did not move the army
leaders. General Nasution returned to
the charge in a speech yesterday, stat-
ing that organizations and activities
of the Communist Party must be destroyed.
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7. Soviet Union
The annbuncement Of a five percent
increase in defense spending in the 1966
Soviet budget does not represent any
significant new departure, in Soviet
policy,. The 1966 figure Of 13.4 billion,
rubles is still a half billion below the
all-time high of 1963,
The actual magnitude of Soviet mili-
tary spending is heavily camouflaged.
Increases or deal-eases of this magni-
tude are announced for domestic and for-
eign political impact, and do not them?
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selves reflect actual Soviet defense pro-
grams. There are special problems in analy-
sis this year because of the fiscal reforms
announced by Kosygin last September.
The figures available at the moment
nevertheless suggest that Soviet military
expendituraAs likely to increase, prob-
ably at the expense of the civilian economy.
In particular, it seems probable that
Brezhnevvs agricultural reform program
may suffer.
Our knowledge of Soviet strategic
attack and defense development and de-
ployment programs iS also consistent
with some increase in the defense budget.
8. Dominican Republic Garcia'Grodoy's hopes of integrating
rebel military into the regular armed
forces have been dimmed again.
On the surface, the problem is still
to reconcile the lists of names submitted
by the rebels with the list of "accept,?
ables" that the regular commanders have
drawn up. The real problem, however, may
be that the rebel leaders do not want to
integrate. They may believe that they
can keep their political leverage only
if they keep their fighters together in
a separate group.
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9. Uruguay
Yet another round of labor trouble
has begun in.Montevideo. The civil serv-
ice union yesterday began a strike of
indefinite length.
The main issue now is the govern-
ment's refusal to lift penalties imposed
on workers who took part in earlier
strikes. The government is still tak-
ing a tough line,.and has again put
emergency security measures into effect.
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