THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 29 OCTOBER 1968

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005976433
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: October 29, 1968

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006500140001-0
The President's Daily Brief
29 October 1968
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THE PRESIDENT'S
DAILY :BRIEF
29 OCTOBER .1968
1. Israel-Arabs
The comparatively heavy weekend
casualties along the Suez Canal have
been .a shock to the Israeli public,
and many are saying "this puts an end
to all the talk of peace." ?The govern-
ment will have to take this mood into
account. It may well conclude that
Sunday's retaliatory shelling of the
Suez refinery, which damaged at most
four storage tanks, was not a.suffi-
ciently vivid example of the eye-for-
an-eye principle to discourage the Egyp-
tians. The Israelis are probably also
worried that the relative effectiveness
of the Egyptian shelling on Saturday '
means that Soviet advisers have finally
drummed some military techniques into
Egyptian gunners.
The Jordanian and Egyptian for-
eign ministers have threatened to leave
New York for home unless Eban shows a
little give in his negotiating position.
This threat is primarily a means of ap-
plying still more pressure on Jarring
to induce new concessions from Eban,
but the two Arabs are perfectly capable
of carrying it out.
Eban, who was due in New York on
Sunday, has been delayed in Israeli
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2. Czechoslovakia
3. South Asia.-
:
Soviet Union -
Communist China
4. Peru
Defying a ban on public demonstra-
tions,several thousand students and
young workers filtered through police
barriers yesterday to march on Hradcany
Castle and protest the Soviet occupation.
Others demonstrated in downtown Prague.
Soviet reactions were restrained; no
troops were seen in the area, although
Soviet Army staff cars monitored the
demonstrations.
In a further effort to project an
image of political normality, the So-
viet press gave the 50th anniversary
of the founding of the Czech republic--
the occasion for the demonstrations--
standard, fairly low-key treatment.
Service rivalries have led to the
first open break in.the unity of the
revolutionary, government. The minis-
ter of aviation--an original member of
the three-member junta--has departed
in a huff over air force promotion pol-
icies.
President Velasco still has per-
sonal control over the government, but
continuing bickering among the military
seems likely to prove a major headache
for him.
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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
2.) North Vietnamese Reflections of U S
Political Attitudes
Top Secret
16
29 October 1968
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
29 October 1968
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
Hanoi Scuttlebutt:
diplomatic
circles in the North Vietnamese capital are full of
rumors about Sino-Vietnamese frictions.
the
Chinese have put up signs along the border area which
promise not to abandon the Vietnamese to the "revi-
sionists." Chinese are now be-
ing seen more frequently in downtown Hanoi and that
some of them are wearing Mao buttons.
One rumor claims that Chinese laborers in North
Vietnam are being withdrawn only to be replaced by
Chinese combat troops. Another says that Ho Chi Minh
himself has gone to Peking to discuss the Paris peace
talks. There is no confirmation of any of this re-
porting and the last two suggestions seem most un-
likely. The report is a good illustration, however,
of the extent to which the Soviets are fanning the
fires.
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Front Office in Stockholm: The Swedish Committee
on Vietnam has announced that the Liberation Front
opened an information officecin Stockholm yesterday,
its second in the West, A similar office was opened
in Paris earlier this month.
The Communists have indicated the importance they
attach to the Stockholm office by sending one of their
more experienced overseas representatives to head it.
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Le Phuong, formerly in charge of the Front's relations
with the Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organization
.and ..a. frequent delegate to leftist international front
meetings, is the number one man.
* * *
Delegation Turned Down: The Dutch have rejected
visa requests by a combined North Vietnamese --Libera-
tion-Front delegation which had hoped to visit the
Netherlands.
* * *
Doumer Bridge:
The
Doumer bridge has been open to rail and vehicle traf-
fic since late June, after heavy damage from December
bombings was repaired. However, sources in
Hanoi reported that through late September the bridge
-showed a noticeable sway and pronounced vibration un-
der heavy traffic.
The piers supporting the bridge were only tempo-
rarily repaired last June to expedite traffic. The
rising,waters of the Red River during the heavy rains
of September may have strained the piers. There has
been no indication that traffic has been diverted from
,the bridge. There are, however, some 19 rail and
highway by-passes across the Red River.
* * *
11. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL ATTI-
TUDES ON THE WAR
:Bryn Mawr Petition: Hanoi Radio on 28 October
publicized a petition by Bryn Mawr College students
calling for a halt to the bombing. Over its interna-
tional service, the radio claimed that the petition
was published in the New York Times -and signed by 1,000
"former" Bryn Mawr students. The broadcast also pub-
licized the desertion of ten more US-soldiers to Sweden.
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Top Secret
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