THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 4 SEPTEMBER 1968

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005976339
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: September 4, 1968

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The President's Daily Brief
cret 4 September 1968
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THE PRESIDENT'S
DAILY .BRIEF
4
SEPTEMBER 1968
1.
Czechoslovakia
Tensions in Czechoslovakia con-
Soviet Union
tinue to subside slowly.
reports that some Polish,
The press
Hungarian,
2..Poland
,and Bulgarian troops have left for
home. Soviet soldiers have withdrawn
from some important buildings in
Prague.
Deputy. Premier Sik, a liberal who
has long been anathema to Moscow, re-
signed yesterday shortly after being
vilified in Izvestia. Izvestia also
criticized Foreign Minister Hajek in
terms which suggest it expects him to
follow suit.
There is still no indication that
the Soviets or their associates are
getting ready to move against Rumania
or Yugoslavia.
Gomulka probably secured, his posi-
tion over the short run by following
the Soviet line on Czechoslovakia, but
he also increased his isolation within
the faction-ridden.Polish leadership.
The central committee met. again last
week, and this time Gomulka's most
prominent critics simply stayed away.
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New Skrunda Radar Covers Additional Missile Approach Routes to Moscow
SKRI11\111A RAI LISTIC MISS!! F FARI Y WARNINIIANfl TRArKINn FAN' ITY
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3. South Vietnam
4. Soviet Union
5. Communist China
along with his chief
aides, at any cost this month. A 50X1
North Vietnamese dele?ate to the Paris
talks remarked, is really hurt- 50X1
ing us."
terrorists in South Vietnam have
also been told to attack US Embassy per-
sonnel and in general increase their
disruptive efforts.
Satellite photography discloses
that the Soviets are at work in Latvia
building another radar installation
for detecting and tracking US inter-
continental missiles. This giant in-
stallation, which should be operational
in 1970, will cover part of the North
Atlantic and western Europe. It will
also fill some of the gaps in Soviet
coverage of the Arctic Ocean.
Two other radars of this type
probably are already operational. An-
other installation near Moscow, which
uses a different type of radar, has
been undergoing checkout tests for
over a year.
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, 6. Congo
(Brazzaville)
Brazzaville, where the situation
has teetered for years between confusion
and chaos, seems to be outdoing itself
at the moment. Not even the local in-
habitants are really sure what is going
on, but we believe we can discern the
following developments:
--The army has moved to take over
the government and has made a figure-
head of President Massamba-Debat. The
soldiers are deeply split by tribal and
other loyalties, however, and they have
little concept of how to run a govern-
ment.
--Goon squads recruited from the
single party's youth wing have retained
their arms and engage in frequent shoot-
ups with the army.
--Large numbers of civilian extrem-
ists, most of them espousing some kind
of cloudy Maoist or Castroite ideology,
are still at large.
--Agents from Mobutu's government
across the river in Kinshasa are trying
to bring Brazzaville into Kinshasa's
sphere of influence.
At the moment heavily armed para-
troopers are guarding the presidential
palace in Brazzaville while the army
tries to decide what to do with Massamba-
Debat. Even the French, who in the past
have been willing to shore up Massamba,
seem to be holding back this time until
the dust settles.
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? .
Top Secret
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Top Secret
FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY
.) Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
.) North Vietnamese Reflections of U S
Political Attitudes
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16
4 September 1968
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
4 September 1968
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
Premier's Statement on Liberation Front: Pham
Van Dong used his national day speech on 2 September
to make some more semantic changes in the standard
formulation of Hanoi's demands for the Liberation
Front. This is the second time in as many months
that Hanoi has made an effort at an authoritative
level to indicate that there is some flexibility in
its political position on the Front. The Premier said
that the US has to "recognize and talk" with the Front
about problems in South Vietnam. By omitting earlier
demands that any postwar settlement must be in accord-
ance with the program of the Front, or that the South
Vietnamese had to be left alone to settle their own
affairs, the North Vietnamese Premier implied that
Hanoi was no longer setting any conditions on talks
between the US and the Viet Cong.
These same hints of flexibility appeared in mid-
July in a Foreign Ministry statement which paraphrased
Hanoi's original Four Points, dropped the exclusive
role of the Front, and called for a settlement on the
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basis of self-determination. The Foreign Ministry
statement was accompanied by official comments both
in Paris and back in Hanoi that the restatement was
not a change in Hanoi's position, and Pham Van Dong
in his national day speech quickly followed up his
paraphrasing of the issue by saying that his restate-
ment "was in conformity with the main content of Hanoi's
original Four Point stand."
As might be expected from a major speech on a Com-
munist national day, Pham Van Dong's address exuded
confidence in ultimate victory, urged the people on to
greater military efforts, and exaggerated US military
problems as well as US political intentions. He put
special emphasis on the national character of the
present war, calling it the "second Vietnamese patri-
otic war of independence." He also dramatized popular
US opposition to the Vietnamese war, claiming at one
point that Vietnam had become "the number one question
in US political life, the key issue in the present
presidential election campaign."
* * *
National Day Celebration in Paris: The North
Vietnamese delegation in Paris celebrated their anni-
versary with a small reception attended by Communist
diplomats, newsmen, and representatives of French left-
ist circles. The party was marred by the same Sino-
Soviet polemics which characterized other Vietnamese
celebrations around the world. According to Western
press representatives in attendance, the Chinese
charg?while standing within a few feet of Ambassa-
dor Zorin, denounced the Soviet intervention in Czecho-
slovakia. Zorin asserted the Soviet troops would stay
until "the threat" to the Soviet Union had subsided.
The party was also the occasion for the social
debut of the Liberation Front representative in Paris.
He told newsmen that the Front information office will
officially open soon with the arrival of its new di-
rector from Prague, Pham Van Ba./
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Conference in Cairo: Hanoi is sending middle-
level officials from both the North and the Liberation
Front to an Afro-Asian solidarity meeting in Cairo
scheduled to open on 7 September. The conference is
to be focused on Vietnam in an attempt to drum up sup-
port for Hanoi. Some of the Vietnamese speakers have
already arrived/
The Vietnamese apparently intend
also to tour several countries in this area after the
conference.
* * *
Air Activity: Since 27 August, Communist MIG
fighters have continued to range south of the 19th
parallel from Hanoi bases. There have been no recent
engagements with US aircraft, however.
* * *
The North Vietnamese Air Force apparently cele-
brated the national day by staging a fly-by over the
heart of the capital. At least eight MIG-21 aircraft,
in a tight formation in groups of four, made three
passes each as part of the air show.
* * *
* * *
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II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
day.
There is nothing of significance to report t
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Top Secret
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