THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 18 APRIL 1967

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005973736
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: April 18, 1967

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005100240001-4
The President's Daily Brief
Xep?rsrzie-rer 18 April 1967
23
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DAILY BRIEF
18 APRIL 1967
1. South Vietnam
Ky has just come up with another
device to avoid a showdown inside the
military over the presidency. He has
had a group of some 300 students polled
on their preferences for president.
The survey, just completed, showed that
about 80 percent in Saigon and 60 per-
cent in Hue preferred Ky to Thieu. They
felt Ky was more open and dynamic.
Ky and his staff are now disseminat-
ing these results throughout the political
community. One statistic is being omitted,
however. The students were also queried
as to their preference for a military
versus a civilian candidate. They reg-
istered 90 percent for the latter.
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2. North Vietnam - a large 50X1
Laos increase in truck traffic from North Viet-
nam toward the Plaine des Jarres in north-
ern Laos. This traffic is still heavy,
but our road watchers deeper in Laos have
not seen comparable increases. We cannot
yet determine what is going on.
3. Communist China
Militant Red Guard factions in Peking
are now, for the first time, clawing at
one another. The rivalry, among these
groups--all of them believed responsive
to the most militant elements in the party
leadership--apparently resulted in violent
clashes at Peking University last week.
We have no ready explanation for this
latest twist and are not yet ready to call
it a reflection of new divisions in the
leadership. It could simply be youthful
aggressiveness.
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4. Greece
5. Ghana
Ambassador Talbot fears that the
brewing political storm may well bring
the country to a fateful choice between
two evils: rightist dictatorship or a
government basically hOstile to the mon-
archy and probably also to Greece's
present foreign alignment.
The principal players in this latest
Greek drama have now taken up inflexibly
hostile positions. On the one 'side are
the traditional instruments of power--
the King, the military establishment,
and conservative political interests.
The political forces ranging from
the center to the far left now undoubt-
edly represent the majority of the pop-
ulation. The problem is that Andreas
Papandreou, the left-leaning son of the
ex-premier, is now, the only, vigorous
leader of the main opposition party.
At this point, it seems that the
best that could happen would be if
Papandreou's party wins only a plurality
in next month's election, .The King
could then insist on a coalition govern-
ment excluding the Communists and keep-
ing Andreas out of sensitive security
posts.
The country is quiet and back under
the control of the military leaders who
threw out Nkrumah. Yesterday's coup at-
tempt was poorly planned and carried
out. .It seems to have had the backing
of only a limited number of troops.
There was little bloodshed.
One unfortunate effect of the epi-
sode has been to derail or at least set
back Ghana's attempt to arrange a new
meeting among Nigeria's feuding rulers.
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6 West Germany
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Top Secret
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005100240001-4