THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 21 JUNE 1968

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005976213
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: June 21, 1968

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006200120001-5
The President's Daily Brief
t 21 June 1968
23
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006200120001-5
50X1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006200120001-5
THE PRESIDENT'S
DAILY BRIEF
21 JUNE 1968
1. Soviet Union
2, Arab States -
Israel
3. Soviet Union
Ambassador Dobrynin says he has
been ordered to fly home on Saturday.
He has had to cancel a dinner engage-
ment here on Wednesday in order to
make the trip.
We suspect the Soviet leadership
wants to have him on hand for the regu-
lar meeting of the Supreme Soviet (Par-
liament) on Wednesday. These are often
routine affairs, but in this case some-
thing may be said about the Paris talks
or Soviet-American relations.
Egypt and Israel have both moved
troops into a disputed area near the
Suez Canal following the killing of
five Egyptian soldiers there on Tues-
day. Any clash would probably spread
to other points along the canal.
There may also be incidents along
the Israeli-Jordanian cease-fire line.
The Israelis claim the Jordanians re-
cently used mortar and artillery fire
against settlements on the Israeli
side, and they say they will feel
forced to respond in kind unless the
bombardment stops.
The Soviet naval contingent in the
Mediterranean has been reduced at least
temporarily. The reduction is small--
from a little more than 30 ships to a
little under that number--and probably
does not presage a major withdrawal.
The prolonged operation of the
larger contingent has strained Soviet
resources. Most of the ships now in
the Mediterranean are in port or at
anchor.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006200120001-5 -
50X1
50X1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006200120001-5 ?
4. South Vietnam
5. Poland
the
long-disputed central committee meet-
ing will probably be held in July or
August. This suggests that although
Gomulka is still not entirely sure of
himself, he thinks he has won back a
good deal of ground from the hardliners
around Interior Minister Moczar.
We hear that
it was Gomulka who was responsible for
bringing the anti-Semitic campaign to
an almost complete halt last month.
This was a campaign with which Moczar
and his allies had been closely identi-
fied. As the meeting approaches, the
friction between the two leadership
groups will probably grow.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006200120001-5
50X1
50X1
50X1
50X1
50X1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006200120001-5
6, Czechoslovakia
7, Greece
The Dubcek regime has hinted that
it will permit the establishment of new
political parties. Such parties and
any other interest groups would have to
operate within the framework of the Na-
tional Front, a catch-all grouping which
is dominated by the Communists. They
apparently would have a definite voice
in policy formation, however. The
Czechoslovak interior minister says 70
new "organizations" have already re-
quested the regime's sanction.
* * *
The long-heralded Warsaw Pact ex-
ercise got under way in Czechoslovakia
yesterday.
Papadopoulos shuffled his cabinet
yesterday. The changes are confined to
second-echelon ministries; the impor-
tant portfolios remain in the same
hands.
Our embassy believes a good many
of the new men may be improvements
over their predecessors. It also notes
that Papadopoulos succeeded in keeping
the revolutionary junta out of the line-
up, perhaps at the cost of alienating
some of its members.
King Constantine, meanwhile, has
told Ambassador Ackley that he remains
in desultory contact with Athens, but
he showed no sense of urgency about a
reconciliation. He has recently been
traveling and talking to such diverse
personalities as Harold Wilson and the
Shah of Iran, both of whom gave him the
congenial advice that he should bide
his time.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006200120001-5
50X1
50X1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006200120001-5
8. France
As Sunday's Assembly elections ap-
proach, the French voter seems strangely
apathetic, possibly because he feels the
election will solve nothing. ?The Gaul-
lists are trumpeting warnings of the
Communist peril, the Communists are try-
ing to score a victory over the non-Com-
munist left, and the center parties are
urging voters to support a "third way"
between left and right. Everyone, in
short, is mouthing generalities and no
one is dealing substantively with the
social and economic issues which recent-
ly paralyzed France.
Predictions about the outcome are
risky. Sunday will be just the first
round of the elections, and a run-off
is scheduled for 30 June. Between the
two rounds, a complex bargaining pro-
cess will take place among the parties
which will determine which candidates
will run on the second ballot. The
Gaullists, with their "red peril" theme,
are hoping the anti-Communist reflex is
more powerful among voters than it has
been in the past. If it is, they may
get their absolute majority.
Even the French pollsters are shy-
ing away from this one. Our embassy has
reported the results from only two sam-
plings. Both of these indicate that the
Gaullists and a small, far left party
which has identified itself with student
grievances may make modest gains, and
that the Communists, the center, and
Francois Mitterrand's leftist federation
may lose a few seats.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006200120001-5 -
50X1
50X1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006200120001-5
Top Secret
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006200120001-5
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006200120001-5
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 50X1
16
21 June 1968
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006200120001-5
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006200120001-5
50X1
Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
21 June 1968
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006200120001-5
50X1
50X1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006200120001-5 50X1
UK-Schoenman: Ralph Schoenman, US citizen who is
Lord Russell's secretary and an anti-Vietnam-war advo-
cate, evaded British authorities and sneaked into the
country last week. His whereabouts there are unknown.
British authorities slapped an entry ban on him last
March and he would be deported if found. The London
press reports that the home office has begun an in-
vestigation to determine how Schoenman was able to
evade immigration authorities.
* * *
Repairs to Bridge Finished: The Paul Doumer
Bridge appears to be open to traffic with repairs
largely completed. Photography taken Tuesday showed
the last of seven spans replaced and all decking
finished. It also was noted that there are 19 road
and rail by-passes around the bridge.
* * *
II. 'NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE:WAR
There is nothing of significance to report today.
-2-
50X1
50X1
50X1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006200120001-5
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006200120001-5
,
Top Secret
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006200120001-5