THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 16 SEPTEMBER 1968

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005976359
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: September 16, 1968

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The President's Daily Brief
t 16 September 1968
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THE PRESIDENT'S
DAILY BRIEF
16 SEPTEMBER 1968
1. Israel -
Arab States
2, South Vietnam
Nasir and Eban both made relative-
ly mild public statements yesterday,
apparently in hopes of cooling off the
superheated atmosphere. We see no
sign that tensions have abated much,
however.
Thieu hopes to get "Big" Minh on
his side when Minh returns from exile,
but he has told Ambassador Bunker he
is worried that opposition factions
might try to exploit the naive general.
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3. Soviet Union -
Czechoslovakia
4, Yugoslavia
Soviet troops have now been almost
entirely pulled out of Prague, but
they are encamped
just outside the city. Amid recurrent
rumors that Dubcek's days in office are
numbered, the Czech leadership continues
its exhortations to the populace to toe
the line.
Tito recently expressed the follow-
ing views on Yugoslavia's current situa-
tion, according to a knowledgeable
source of the US Embassy:
--Belgrade will have to re-examine
all its foreign and domestic policies
in the wake of the invasion of Czecho-
slovakia, which ushered in a "new era
in international relations and relations
among Communist parties."
--The Yugoslays must assume that
Moscow is hostile to them, and the coun-
try will have to stay "in an almost per-
manent state of military readiness."
--Recent military and civil meas-
ures have been a heavy expense, and more
such measures are on the way. Social
and economic reforms will have to be de-
layed. There is a good chance that the
Soviets will make much use of economic
pressure in applying the screws to Yugo-
slavia.
? --Belgrade will not be asking the
US for arms "for the time being."
--Tito is furious with Nasir for
parroting the Soviet line on Czechoslo-
vakia. He doubts that relations with
-Egypt will ever be the same.
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5. Soviet Union
6, Sweden
Yesterday the Soviets, after a
frustrating year of false starts and
malfunctions, finally launched a
spacecraft toward the moon with their
largest space booster. If all goes
well, the craft will orbit the moon
and return in about a week.
The Czech crisis produced an up-
set victory at the polls yesterday, for
the Social Democrats, who picked up
most of the votes lost by the Swedish
Communists. They had earlier been in
trouble with the electorate on domes-
tic issues, and we believe that in the
postelection period they will concen-
trate on these problems and give less
prominence to their anti-US policy on
Vietnam.
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FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY
1.) Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
2.) North Vietnamese Reflections of U S
Political Attitudes
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1.8
16 September 1968
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
16 September 1968
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
Nhan Dan on US Responsibility: Hanoi's party
daily Nhan Dan, in a 15 September article by Commen-
tator, stated that if the US persists in its policy
of "aggression and obduracy," it will have to bear
the full responsibility for stalemate at the Paris
talks and prolongation of the war. The article,
broadcast over Hanoi's international service in
English, declared "the so-called reciprocity" for a
bombing halt "is none other than a scheme by the
United States to force the Vietnamese people to give
up their just struggle against US aggression and for
independence and freedom." It castigated the "belli-
cosity of the Johnson administration" and called for
an end to US "aggression" and for US recognition of
and talks with the Liberation Front on matters related
to South Vietnam.
Review of Recent Activities South of the 20th
Parallel: North Vietnamese military, and logistics
activities in the panhandle were hampered by heavy
rains and flooding during the week of 2-8 Sentember.
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.Propaganda on Tay.Ninh: Hanoi's international
service in English yesterday painted a glowing pic-
ture of the Communists' military "successes" in,Tay.
.'Ninh Province. .Quoting a Nhan Dan editorial, it
dlaiMed that between 10 and 13 ni5-tember,
five bate-
talions and four companies "totaling thousands of
enemy".were wiped out or decimated. The defensive
line of the "enemy" in Tay Ninh had been penetrated
and his clear-and-hold strategy had failed, the edi-
torial stressed.
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? II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
There is nothing of significance to report today.
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