THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 15 NOVEMBER 1975

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1969-1977
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0006014955
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: August 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2016
• Publication Date: November 15, 1975

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The President's Daily Brief
November 15, 1975
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Exempt from general
declassification schedule of E.O. 11652
exemption category 513(
declassified only on approval of
the Director of Central Intelligence
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November 15, 1975
Table of Contents
Portugal: Lisbon was relatively calm yesterday; a
lenist demonstration scheduled for Sunday
will keep pressure on the government to grant
workers' demands. (Page 1)
Spanish Sahara: Spain, Morocco, and Mauritania
have agreed to govern Spanish Sahara in a
joint provisional administration until Spain's
withdrawal at the end of February. (Page 2)
Angola: The National Union for the Total Indepen-
dence of Angola apparently now controls the
railroad from Teixeira de Sousa to the coastal
rail and port complex of Benguela-Lobito.
(Page 3)
Vietnam: A North-South conference on reunification
is now meeting in Saigon. (Page 4)
Notes:
Mexico; Pakistan-Bangladesh (Pages 6 and 7
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_ _
PORTUGAL
Lisbon was relatively calm yesterday
after the government agreed to grant a
temporary wage increase to construction
workers while a permanent scale is being
negotiated. The deadline for the perma-
nent increase is November 27. A demon-
stration scheduled by leftist groups for
Sunday will keep pressure on the govern-
ment to grant the wopkers' demands.
The Socialists and the Popular Democrats were
unable to organize an effective counter-demonstra-
tion in Lisbon and were limited to pressuring Pres-
ident Costa Gomes--with little success--to take
strong action against the leftists. Party activ-
ists at several locations in the north, however,
turned out in large numbers to protest the Lisbon
disturbances.
In the south, farm workers in Beja cheered a
statement by security chief Otelo de Carvalho that
he is "with the people." The main themes of the
Beja rally were the overthrow of the Azevedo gov-
ernment and the restoration of former pro-Communist
prime minister Goncalves.
(
A party statement issued yesterday took the
less radical line, supporting the right of the
workers to demand higher wages. It disapproved re-
stricting the freedom of movement of government of-
ficials.
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SPANISH SAHARA
Spain, Morocco, and Mauritania have
agreed to govern Spanish Sahara in a
joint provisional administration until
Spain's withdrawal. The Spanish informa-
tion minister has stated that Spain will
be out of the Sahara by February 28. He
said that details of the agreement would
not be made public in Spain until the
Spanish parliament has completed the for-
mality?scheduled to start Tuesday--of
"decolonizing" the territory.
Madrid has apparently abandoned its insistence
on a referendum for the area. A Spanish source
who talked to US embassy officials said "consulta-
tions" will be held with local tribal leaders on
the future of the Sahara.
The UN role, if any, in the arrangement is un-
clear.
The agreement is a victory for Morocco's King
Hassan, who has long sought to annex at least part
of the territory. As co-administrators, Morocco
and Mauritania will be able to select Saharan
tribal leaders for consultations.
The outcome would be a "voluntary" decision to
partition the territory, giving Morocco the north-
ern region with its rich phosphate deposits and
granting Mauritania the southern portion which con-
tains iron ore. Both parties will benefit from a
profitable fishing industry.
Algeria, which favors independence for Span-
ish Sahara, can be expected to seek support in the
UN to reverse the trilateral agreement. Algiers
will argue that "consultations" are not in accord
with an advisory opinion of the International Court
of Justice, which upheld the Saharans' right to
self-determination. Algeria would like to return
the Saharan problem to the UN General Assembly.
Algiers will create as many problems for Mo-
rocco as possible. It will continue to provide
arms, training, and possibly some "volunteers" to
the Polisario Front, a pro-independence Saharan
group, and may also renew its support of Moroccan
dissidents.
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NGO
Brazz
16
le
K shasa
Areas controlled by:
? (MPLA) Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola
? (FNLA) National Front for the Liberation of Angola
A (U N I TA ) National Union for the Total Independence of Angola
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CABI
Cabinda
Al RE
LUANDA
uitangando
ucala
Henrique
e Carvalho
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
Lob it
Benguel
ocarnedes
Porto Alexandre
SOU H-WEST AFRICA
(Intern tional Territory)
Miles 20
16 20 BO W 24
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ANGOLA
Forces of the National Union for
the Total Independence of Angola cap-
tured the key rail city of Teixeira de
Sousa on Tuesday
The National Union appar-
ently now controls the entire length
of the railroad, from Teixeira de Sousa
to the coastal rail and port complex of
Benguela-Lobito.
National Union President Jonas Savimbi hopes
to reopen the railroad to Zambian and Zairian traf-
fic by mid-December or whenever several sections of
track have been repaired.
We cannot confirm reports--attributed to East
European diplomatic sources--that some 400 Soviet
"troops" arrived in Luanda on Thursday. Some So-
viet military advisers and civilian technicians may
well appear at any time, however, in view of the
materiel Moscow is providing the Popular Movement
for the Liberation of Angola.
It seems likely that Cubans rather than Soviets
will pilot any MIGs that the Soviet Union may send
to Angola. The Soviets have been using Cubans to
support the Popular Movement in the field in order
to avoid direct Soviet involvement.
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VIETNAM
A North-South conference on reunifi-
cation is now meeting in Saigon. The
decision to convene this conference in-
dicates that Hanoi is now ready to pro-
ceed with a formal merger of the two
countries. The process could be com-
pleted as early as next spring.
The joint conference will be a cosmetic exer-
cise, giving the appearance of mutual agreement, to
what has been a political reality since the collapse
of the former government last spring. Vietnam has
already experienced de facto reunification under a
single party and military structure with Hanoi es-
sentially making all the important decisions. Head-
ing each of the delegations to the conference are
ranking members of the North Vietnamese politburo.
According to the official announcement, the
conference will formulate plans for a new national
assembly and new "common" state organs. The an-
nouncement gives the impression that countrywide
elections will be held soon for the assembly.
Southerners will undoubtedly be appointed to posi-
tions in executive ministries and commissions.
Following Saigon's fall, most early indications
were that a gradual process of reunification would
take place over several years. The communists them-
selves added to speculation by pressing foreign gov-
ernments for diplomatic recognition of the southern
Provisional Revolutionary Government, by maintaining
that economic aid would have to be provided separ-
ately for each state, and by trying last summer to
gain separate membership in the UN for both Vietnams.
By late summer these signs of a "gradualist"
approach to reunification were disappearing. Public
statements by Vietnamese leaders began to avoid any
suggestion of an independent southern regime of in-
definite duration. A promised civilian adminis-
tration never materialized, and no foreign state,
including North Vietnam's closest allies, was per-
mitted to establish diplomatic representation in
Saigon.
(continued)
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Hanoi apparently decided that any diplomatic or
economic benefits to be derived from two Vietnams
would be outweighed by the problems flowing from such
a strategy. The most fundamental concern to Hanoi,
however, is the problem of control of the political
process in the south.
With the end of the war, the question of the
political role to be played by southern elements,
heretofore relegated to front groups or the manage-
ment of local problems, became a pressing issue for
Hanoi. Although Hanoi firmly controls the southern
segment of the Lao Dong party, a separate southern
regime could, over time, only encourage independent
southern tendencies. Hanoi's desire to limit the
potential for such growth must have been a major
factor behind its decision to move ahead on reuni-
fication.
There are tentative signs that the North Viet-
namese will convene their first party congress in
over 15 years sometime early next year in order to
put the capstone on the reunification process. The
congress will probably be held shortly after the
elections for a joint national assembly and after
formal reunification has been announced.
The congress will probably deal with the question
of southern political equities. It seems likely to
expand the Politburo and central committee by adding
members identified with the southern party apparatus.
Such a step will hardly do away with the problem
of southern resentment. The absorption of southern
cadre into the northern party and government struc-
ture is bound to remain a sensitive political issue
for years to come.
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NOTES
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(continued)
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The Mexican government will use herbicides to
destroy opium and marijuana crops for the first
time in an eradication campaign that begins today
and will last through March 1976.
The Mexicans have long declined to use herbi-
cides for ecological and political reasons. The
decision to go ahead with them reflects Mexico's
growing concern over recent criticism in the US
Congress and press of its anti-narcotics efforts.
This year's destruction campaign is starting early
in the hope of destroying the plants before they
can be harvested; in some areas, however, growers
had planted early, and harvesting has already begun.
The Pakistani government appears pleased by
General Zia ur-Rahman's overthrow of General
Musharraf's four-day-old regime in Bangladesh last
week, according to the US embassy in Islamabad.
Pakistani officials had viewed Musharraf, who
was killed in Zia's countercoup, as sharing the pro-
Indian orientation of the late president Mujib,
rather than the more pro-Pakistani, pro-Chinese,
and pro-West outlook generally attributed to Gen-
eral Zia and to former president Mushtaque.
The Pakistanis are not being has-Cy, however, in
seeking close ties with the new government. At pres-
ent, they are waiting to see whether the new regime
will send an ambassador to Islamabad. Pakistani offi-
cials do not expect India to intervene militarily
in Bangladesh in the immediate future. They think
India would make such a move only if there is an
outbreak of Muslim-Hindu strife in Bangladesh and
a flight of Hindus to India.
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Top Secret
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