THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 20 AUGUST 1968

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005976313
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: August 20, 1968

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The President's Daily Brief
Taa. 20 August 1968
23
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THE PRESIDENT'S
DAILY BRIEF
20 AUGUST 1968
1. Czechoslovakia
.2. Communist China
YThe army may have new authority
to impose order on fighting factional-
ists. Recent editorials in the major
Peking newspapers have contained the
most forthright statements against the
Red Guards since the latest decision
to restore order was taken in July.
The word now is that the "vanguard"
role played by the Red Guards is ended,
and they must subordinate themselves
to the working class. This directive
is being widely disseminated', It will
probably prompt. "worker-peasant teams"-
supported
-
supported by the army-to use harsher
measures in their current efforts to
bring under control university students,
who are the backbone of the various Red
Guard movements,'
There is no indication that the
emergence of this new line signals fur-
ther changes in the Chinese leadership,
?but a report that the army has increased
its patrolling of Peking streets may be
a sign of tension.
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3. Communist China
. Israel-Jordan
5. Australia -
Southeast Asia
The question of which Comes first--
direct negotiations or the exchange of
substantive positions through some
sort of intermediary--is still bedev-
illing Jarring's effort to find a Mid-
dle-East settlement. The Jordanians
had understood that Eban was willing
to get into:substantive matters in in-
direct explorations with:Jordan. Jar-
ring has now told Husayn And Foreign
Minister Rifai that Eban has reverted
to insistence on direct negotiations.
The Jordanians say that they could en-
ter joint meetings if Israel would ac-
cept the principle of withdrawal by
giving a prior indication of what lines
it would propose as "secure and recog-
nized boundaries"-even if such an Is-
raeli proposal Were unacceptable to
Jordan.
Jarring will talk with the Is-
raelis today. If he gets something
from them, he will return to Amman on
Friday.
Prime Minister Gorton appears to
have made up his mind to pull all of
Australia's forces out of Singapore and
Malaysia by 1971, except for some ad-
visers and a small air contingent. Gor-
ton told Ambassador Crook he does not
see "any sense" in an Australian troop
commitment there. Gorton's policy could
split his government, since some of its
members do not believe in the "Fortress
Australia" concept of defense.
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6. Greece
7. Nigeria
The embassy comments that the
Greek regime has been shaken and
sobered but not panicked by the at-
tempt last week on the life of Papa-
dopoulos. Its internal strength is
undiminished and its position vis-a-
vis Andreas Papandreou has probably
been improved. The government appar-
ently intends to hold the constitu-
tional referendum on schedule--
29 September. Former political lead-
ers in Greece seem to recognize that
there is no alternative to approving
the constitution and then, hopefully,
moving on to general elections.
Beginning today the Red Cross is
resuming direct relief flights to
Biafra. The International Committee
of the Red Cross is providing the co-
ordinating umbrella for national Red
Cross societies, which will supply
chartered aircraft
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Top Secret
FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY
1.) Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
2.) North Vietnamese Reflections of U S
Political Attitudes
Top Secret
16
20 August 1968
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
20 August 1968
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
* * *
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Communist Strategy Claims: Radio Hanoi has
broadcast a military commentary from its army paper
contending that the new style Communist military
offensive used during Tet has forced the US to
abandon offensive operations in South Vietnam.
There Are no more "search and destroy" operations,
claims Chinh Binh, one of Hanoi's principal writers
on the war in the South. US troops Can no longer
be spared for forays into Communist-controlled ter-
ritory, he says, because they have to be deployed
defensively to protect bases, population centers
and important communications lines already under
allied control. This process, the author boasts,
has made it possible for the Viet Cong to increase
their control of the countryside.
II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
More on the Republicans: On 15 August, in a
commentary on the results of the Republican Party
convention, Radio Hanoi concluded that so far as
Vietnam is concerned, the Republicans have "no more
to offer than the Johnson administration." Noting
the ?party's "reactionary" platform plank on Vietnam
and Nixon's approval of President Johnson's "obdu-
rate" stand on reciprocity, the domestic service
broadcast dismissed both parties as birds of "the
same feather."
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