THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 16 JULY 1968

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005976253
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: July 16, 1968

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006200330001-2
The President's Daily Brief
-----T?o-p?S-eff-vet-- 16 July 1968
32
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THETRESIDENT'S
DAILY BRIEF
16 JULY 1968
1. South Vietnam
2. Soviet Union
3. Communist China
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4, Soviet Union -
Czechoslovakia
5. International
Communism
The departure of Soviet troops is
continuing at a leisurely pace. The
Czechs are now saying it will be Sunday
before the whole contingent has left
Czechoslovakia. Moreover, some of the
Soviet units which did leave over the
weekend seem to have bivouacked just
across the border.
Leaders from the five orthodox
countries--the Soviet Union, East Ger-
many, Poland, Bulgaria,. and Hungary--
wound up their meeting in Warsaw yes-
terday afternoon. The meeting's final
communiqu?while making the conferees'
concern abundantly clear, is notably
milder than recent pronouncements on
Czechoslovakia in the orthodox party
press.
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day's meeting dragged out much longer
than had been planned, and we suspect
that some haggling had to take place be-
fore the conference could reach the re-
quired "complete unanimity of views."
Our guess is that the Hungarians ex-
erted a moderating influence.
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6. France
De Gaulle apparently plans to post-
pone action on his.reform program until
the fall. This was the message which
came through in the government's law-
andorder Bastille Day pronouncements
and in its crackdown on student rioters.
It Seems implicit in the mini-shakeup
of the cabinet, in which most of the im-
portant ministers under Premier Couve
turned out to be holdovers from the
'Pompidou days.
We also note that the government
is pushing hard on orthodox fiscal mea-
sures designed to shore up the franc.
France The second test of the 1968 series
was detonated yesterday.
8. West Germany
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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
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- 18
16 July 1968
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
16 July 1968
NOTES ON THE SITUATION
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* * *
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t.))(1
* * *
.Hanoi Propaganda: Nhan Dan, the party newspaper,
has heaped scorn upon US. 'hypocrisy" and US "prin-
ciples" expressed during the 10 July session of the
Paris talks, according to an international service
broadcast in English over Radio Hanoi. The article
by "Commentator" charged that the highest American
principle was the "principle of aggression." "Com-.
mentator" is a designation usually-indicating:high
party authorship.
PiCturing Vietnam,as a nation which has never
imposed its will upon other nations by force., the
article cites "historical fact" .to show that the US
has engaged in wars during the 20th century only to
serve the "dirty interests" of its "ruling finan-
ciers."
The article ridiculed the'"billion dollars" in
economic assistance to Southeast Asia offered by
President Johnson as "rotten bait." It advised the
US to devote its resources .to coping with its own
financial crises as well as its:"economic, social.
and political confusion."'
* * *
Windup of Jurists' Conference: The World Con-
ference of Jurists concluded on 10 July in Grenoble,
France, with a propaganda blast at US "aggression"
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in Vietnam, according to a Hanoi international ser-
vice broadcast in English on 13 July. The statement
issued by the conference endorsed Hanoi's major posi-
tions down the line, including "recognition of the
great importance of the founding of the Alliance of:
National, Democratic and Peace Forces."
* * *
Reaction to Death Sentences: The Liberation
Front's radio has responded with outrage to the death
sentences imposed last week by South Vietnam on ten
leaders of the Alliance of National, Democratic and
Peace Forces who were tried in absentia. The Front
broadcast described the "US aggressors and their lack-
eys" as a "clique of 'criminals who have drunk human
blood without wincing," and denounced the trials as
a "cheap psychological trick" and a "dirty farce"
which clearly exposes the "panic of the US aggressors
and their lackeys."
* * *
II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
Statement of Solidarity Committee: The Vietnam
Committee for Solidarity with the American PeOple,
whose founding in Hanoi was noted last week, has ex-
tended the hand of "militant solidarity" to'Americans
engaged in the antiwar movement.
In a statement over Radio Hanoi's international
service in English on 12 July, the committee empha-
sized the "common history" of struggle against tyr-
anny shared by Vietnamese and Americans. It warmly
praised the-American people's "valiant acts against
the US war in Vietnam," which, it said, the Vietnam-
ese' people regard as "precious encouragement" in
their struggle for national liberation..
Declaring that the Vietnamese people have al-
ways clearly distinguished between the warlike US
Government and the peace-loving American people, the
statement expressed the solidarity committee's "warm-
est greetings and wishes" that organizations in the
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.US antiwar movement "will win greater achievements"
in the struggle to end the war in Vietnam "being
conducted by the US Government."
* * *
Hanoi Quiet on US Elections: Analysis of North
Vietnamese propaganda from 28 June through 12 July
shows that it contains no reference to the US elec-
tion campaign and no mention of any of the candidates
as such.
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