THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 24 SEPTEMBER 1968

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005976373
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: September 24, 1968

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A006400200001-4
The President's Daily Brief
--ro-rSrtr-gt---24 September 1968
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THE PRESIDENT'S
DAILY BRIEF
24 SEPTEMBER 1968
1. Mexico
Students and security, forces
clashed again last night, and 52 people
reportedly were wounded by gunfire.
Both sides appear primed for a
showdown. Security officials expect
Diaz Ordaz to order the army onto other
campuses in Mexico City shortly, and
the Mexican press .reports that several
leftists are to be tried for_sedition.
The students reportedly are planning
another massive demonstration before
'the end of the month, and the Trotsky-
ites and other far-out types among them
are organizing classes in street .warfare.
2. Czechoslovakia - A Czechoslovak official has told
Soviet Union
our embassy, the following:
--Dubcek is currently so popular
that he cannot be removed, but he may
yield to unrelenting Soviet animosity
and step down voluntarily. This could
occur after the next party congress,
which the Czechs reportedly have tenta-
tively, scheduled for December.
--Dubcek and Svoboda are almost
constantly at odds.
--Most Soviet troops will be out
of Czechoslovakia by 28 October.
* * *
This morning's press is carrying
conflicting reports about whether the
Czech leadership is going ahead today
with its oft-scheduled trip ,to Moscow.
The trip apparently will not take place
until the two sides have reached sub-
stantive agreement in Prague, and fur-
ther delay would suggest that there still
are issues to be resolved.
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3. Rumania
4. Yugoslavia -
Soviet Union
The Rumanians may be learning to
live with the Soviet forces mobilized
near their border.
Sharp anti-Soviet polemics is- 50X1
from Bucharest immediately after
the invasion of Czechoslovakia, but
having gotten on record, the Rumanians
have since refrained from criticism of
the Warsaw Five. Some Rumanian offi-
cials have remarked that as each day
passed they were becoming less apprehen-
sive.
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sued
At the same time, Rumanian lead-
ers periodically put out explicit re-
minders that the threat from Moscow
still exists. This obviously is true,
but Bucharest would not be above empha-
sizing the threat as a way of using the
crisis in the Communist world to advance
its own interests. The Rumanians may
in fact believe that focusing world at-
tention on the danger of Soviet inter-
vention is a good way of keeping the So-
viets from moving in.
Pravda has attacked Tito personally
for his government's increasingly liber-
al domestic policies. The Yugoslav
press has responded with eulogies for
Tito and new declarations of the coun-
try's determination to follow its own
path, but Belgrade is nervous.
The Yugoslays fear Moscow may try
to exploit both their traditional intern-
al rivalries and the controversies which
have arisen over the government's econom-
ic and social reforms. They are also
worried about possible Soviet economic
reprisals.
Yugoslav fears notwithstanding,
our estimate is that overt hostility
from Moscow will unite the Yugoslays
as nothing else could.
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5. West Germany
6. Peru
Controversy continues over the six-
week-old agreement between the Belaunde
government and the US-owned International
Petroleum Company. The radical wing of
Belaunde's own party is threatening to
withdraw its support of the government
unless the agreement is nullified, but
the government has found an ally in the
main opposition party, which strongly
supports the agreement. Rumor has it
that the military is thinking of taking
a hand in the debate.
Some changes in the political line-
up seem likely as a result of all this.
We would expect to see more military
faces in any reshuffled cabinet.
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Top Secret
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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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24 September 1968
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
24 September 1968
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
Conditions in Hanoi: Hanoi remains on a war foot-
ing despite the absence of US bombing
The city's civil de-
fense program, including construction of streetside
individual bomb shelters, continues.
many industries remain dispersed
outside Hanoi.
Some evacuees howver, have returned to Hanoi.
truck traffic in Hanoi, as
well as along the Hanoi-Haiphong road, is common dur-
ing the day, whereas-prior to the bombing restric-
tions, trucks moved only during hours of twilight and
darkness.
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Bomb Damage in Hai Duong: 50X1
as late as last May, bomb damage in Hai Duong 50X1
city was still hamperin? road and rail traffic between
?Hanoi and Haiphong, the destruction of Hai 50X1
Duong almost total. oods passing through Hai Duong
by rail had to be off-loaded, taken across pontoon
bridges by truck, and then reloaded on trains before
continuing on to Hanoi or Haiphong.
* * *
New Identification Card for Infiltrators: A new
infiltration document more sophisticated than those
seen during the past several years was found on 11
September near'Con Thien, just below the eastern De-
militarized Zone area. It included a physical descrip-
tion of the bearer and his fingerprints in addition
to information routinely seen in earlier documents.
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The owner of the card apparently was a member of
an infiltration group which entered the pipeline in
North Vietnam during the May-June period of this year.
A date on the pass suggests it may have been issued
during May.
This new identification card may be part of a Com-
munist effort to tighten security and control over in-
filtrating personnel. There have recently been indica-
tions of North Vietnamese concern over desertions from
southbound infiltration groups.
* * *
II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
There is nothing of significance to report today.
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