THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 23 SEPTEMBER 1968

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005976371
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: September 23, 1968

? Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006400190001-6
The President's Daily Brief
23 September 1968
23
50X1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006400190001-6
? Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006400190001-6 5oxi
THE PRESIDENT'S
DAILY BRIEF
23 SEPTEMBER 1968
1. Soviet Union-
Rumania
2. Soviet Union
3. East Germany -
West Germany
Satellite photography of mid-
September shows that an army in the
Odessa Military District, near the
Rumanian border, has been mobilized.
At least one of the army's three divi-
sions has been brought to full combat
strength and deployed to a training
area near its home garrison. Signs of
mobilization were also apparent at
other places in the district.
The US Mission in Berlin expects
that East Germany will soon start a new
propaganda offensive against West Ger-
many to try to counter wide-ranging
East German dissatisfaction over the
occupation of Czechoslovakia. In addi-
tion, the mission believes the odds are
better than even that the East Germans
will tighten their controls over West
German traffic to Berlin and East Ger-
many--paying special attention to de-
vices most likely to divide West Germany
from the allies.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006400190001-6
50X1
50X1
50X1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006400190001-6 50x1
4. Austria -
Eastern Europe
5. Mexico
Austrian Foreign Minister Waldheim
has told Ambassador MacArthur that he
and his cabinet strongly disagree with
certain "alarmist views of some of the
Austrian military establishment" that
Rumania, Yugoslavia, and Austria will
probably be invaded by the Soviets in
the next few weeks.
Violence in Mexico City over the
weekend was the most serious since the
start of the student agitation two
months ago. Some 1,500 people have
been detained as a result of the bloody
five-hour battle on Saturday.
The protest movement is now begin-
ning to spread to other parts of the
country; marches have already been
planned for Monterrey and other cities.
Security forces should be able to con-
trol the disturbances, but there is no
sign that the students will be quieted
before the Olympics begin on 12 October.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006400190001-6
50X1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006400190001-6 .
Top Secret
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006400190001-6
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006400190001-6
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
23 September 1968
50X1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006400190001-6
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006400190001-6 50x1
Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
23 September 1968
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
Propaganda: Liberation Radio on 20 September
accused the United States of "moving the peace con-
ference toward a stalemate." The Communist commentary
pointed to President Johnson's speech in New Orleans
on 10 September as having "destroyed all the attrac-
tive and cunning hints made by himself and sly old
Harriman in Paris" that the United States "is sincere
in its search for peace" and that "it is willing to
go further, and so forth."
Liberation Radio also attacked President John-
son's statement in New Orleans that the dispatch of
American troops to South Vietnam was in the national
interest of the United States. The broadcast charged
that the President's statement "expressed the true,
aggressive nature" of the US. It concluded by reaf-
firming the Communists' determination to "teach them
(the US) more proper lessons."
50X1
50X1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006400190001-6
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006400190001-6
50X1
A Commentator article in Nhan Dan has picked up
the.same theme, announcing that the717g has brought the
-Paris talks to a "deadlock" by refusing to meet Hanoi's
conditions. -Broadcast.in English on Hanoi's interna-
tional service on 22 September, the article scorned as
"but another version of the claim for reciprocity" the
?US representative's argument that the'US will end its
.attacks on.North Vietnam when the.Vietnamese people
give reason to believe that they will .joinwith the US
in de-escalating the fighting.
"If the US really,wants peace," concluded Commenta-
tor, it must "leave Vietnam to the Vietnamese." "First
and foremost," however, it must "unconditionally halt
the bombing and other acts of war" so that the Paris
talks "may get out of the deadlock."
* * *
* * *
II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
Dick Gregory on the War: Hanoi's international
service in English on Saturday quoted Dick Gregory to
the effect that the US Government is doing "nothing
whatsoever" to try to end the war in Vietnam. The re-
port concerned a news conference it said Gregory held
in Chicago on 11 September to discuss his recent meet-
ing with North Vietnamese negotiators in Paris. Accord-
ing to the broadcast, Gregory "refuted the US allega-
tions that there was some sign of progress at the con-
versations" and declared that "there will be no peace
talks until the bombing ends."
Declassified in in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006400190001-6
50X1
50X1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006400190001-6 ,
Top Secret
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006400190001-6