THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 16 JANUARY 1968

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005974226
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: January 16, 1968

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The President's Daily Brief
--Top?Srrrrt? 16 January 1968
23
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DAILY BRIEF
16 JANUARY 1968
1. South Vietnam
2. South Vietnam
3. Jordan
The Confederation of Labor has
authorized more sympathy strikes for
today. There are some indications,
however, that the government may re-
lease the six labor leaders arrested
last week. This could pave the way for
settlement of the strikes.
terrorists set fire
to an oil tank in the Israeli port of
Eilat on Saturday. The King is highly
alarmed over the prospect of Israeli
retaliation against the nearby Jordan-
ian port of Aqaba. Amman is willing
to meet with the Israelis on the whole
matter of continued terrorism, but
only under UN auspices. Tel Aviv wants--
as always--direct talks.
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4. Saudi Arabia ?
Jordan
5. France
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6. Soviet Union
Brezhnev, Kosygin, and Podgorny
spent a long weekend in Warsaw talk?
ing with Gomulka and company.
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Top Secret
FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY
Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
Top Secret
16
16 -January 1968
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
16 January 1968
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
Concern for Rice Crop: A recent Nhan Dan edi-
torial called on rural localities to suspe=all
"talks" that are not urgent in order to complete
the sowing of the spring rice crop by early Febru-
ary. The current planting was said to be proceed-
ing too slowly and might lead to a shortage of
seedlings for transplanting or to shortfalls in
planted acreage.
* * *
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Relations with France: Paris-Hanoi relations
continue their gradual warming trend, according to
Embassy Paris. The North Vietnamese representative
in Paris, Mai Van Bo, edged one step closer to dip-
lomatic status on 10 January by attending his first
official diplomatic reception. The French Foreign
Office has explained that Bo asked to be invited to
the reception on the grounds that the French repre-
sentative in Hanoi enjoyed such privileges, and the
French acceded to the request in the interests of
reciprocity. The French want their man in Hanoi to
be given maximum access to North Vietnamese leaders
and have cooperated over the past year in a gradual
upgrading of diplomatic relations with Hanoi. This
trend will apparently continue in 1968.
* * *
Extra Work: The efficiency of Vietnamese em-
ployees of the diplomatic community in Hanoi is
apparently seriously affected because, in addition
to their normal duties, they are required to work
for agencies of the government for several hours
each night.
This
requirement for additional work may mean that evacu-
ation has shrunk the manpower pool in the capital
so much that all available skilled persons are re-
quired to help the city and government function
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Black Marketing: According to a Western trav-
eler to Hanoi, government cadres in the Nam Dinh
area have been buying pork ration cards from farmers,
then purchasing pork and reselling it on the black
market at prices ranging from two to four times the
original cost.
* * *
II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
* * *
Hanoi on US Antiwar Protests: Yesterday Hanoi
broadcast in English a wrap-up of Western press re-
ports concerning recent antiwar protests in the US.
The broadcast alleged that the demonstration in
front of the Justice Department last week was a "pro-
test against the Johnson administration's persecution
of five American intellectuals who firmly opposed the
US dirty war in Vietnam." A United Press report of
the demonstrations in front of the Fairmont Hotel in
San Francisco is also cited, with the comment that
"Rusk was inside pleading for the Johnson policy of
aggression in Vietnam." Another report, says Hanoi,
tells of 328 American economists who recently sent
an open letter to US Congressmen to protest against
the war, arguing that it "constitutes the principal
source of US economic difficulties."
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