THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 29 OCTOBER 1975

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1969-1977
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0006014940
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: August 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2016
• Publication Date: October 29, 1975

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The President's Daily Brief
October 29, 1975
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Exempt from general
declassification schedule of E.O. 11652
exemption category 58(1),(2)(3)
declassified only on approval of
the Director of Central Intelligence
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October 29, 1975
Table of Contents
Turkey: The draft document, presented by Turkish
representatives at the negotiations for a re-
vised US-Turkish defense cooperation agreement,
has been characterized by our embassy in Ankara
as "uniquely and unacceptably one-sided."
(Page 1)
Portugal: The government has taken further steps
to assert its authority following Prime Minis-
ter Azevedo's successful trip to Porto last
weekend. (Page 2)
Lebanon: Prime Minister Karami has announced the
formation of a "security committee" to imple-
ment the cease-fire called last Sunday. (Page 4)
Spanish Sahara: Moroccan Foreign Minister Laraki,
accompanied this time by his Mauritanian coun-
terpart, returned to Madrid yesterday for an-
other round of talks on Spanish Sahara. (Page 6)
Notes: Israel-Syria; Egypt-Israel; Laos-Thailand
(Pages 7 and 8)
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TURKEY
The draft document, presented by
Turkish representatives at the nego-
tiations for a revised US-Turkish de-
fense cooperation agreement, has been
characterized by our embassy in Ankara
as "uniquely and unacceptably one-
sided."
Reflecting the anticipated obdurate Turkish
position, the Turkish negotiator:
--Expressed again Ankara's contention that the
US Congress had wrongly linked the Cyprus sit-
uation to the arms embargo.
--Warned that the new agreement must be designed
to prevent another arms embargo.
--Suggested that the US might want to consider
streamlining its operations in Turkey because,
under the new agreement, Ankara would expect
compensation of $1.5 billion annually if the
US retained use of all the facilities it oper-
ated prior to the suspension of activities in
July.
Turkey's negotiator struck a more positive
note by confirming earlier indications that the US
request for a partial resumption of operations at
the bases had been referred to the government.
Turkish officials had previously insisted that no
activities would be allowed to resume until at
least the essentials of a new accord had been agreed
upon.
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PORTUGAL
The government has taken further
steps to assert its authority following
Prime Minister Azevedo's successful
trip to Porto last weekend.
The first crackdown by the military on Commu-
nist-backed seizures of privately owned farms oc-
curred north of Lisbon on Monday, when a cavalry
unit arrested ten farm workers' union squatters.
The action by the military is significant in light
of the Communist-inspired seizure of over 500,000
acres of prime farmland in southern Portugal since
summer. Because much of the expropriated land lies
fallow and large numbers of livestock have been
slaughtered, the takeovers could cause serious
agricultural shortages by next year.
Left-wing demonstrators were ousted on Monday
from the civil governor's offices in Faro, in the
southern Algarve resort area. The leftists had
occupied the offices to protest the recent removal
of the pro-Communist governor. Soldiers rushed to
the scene, after a combined assault on the offices
by the Socialists and Popular Democrats resulted
in a brawl.
The Portuguese army, and particularly Chief
of Staff Fabiao, has come in for harsh criticism
because of lax discipline and failure to ensure
public order. An army spokesman said Monday that
18 percent of the army will be demobilized while
Fabiao is away this week on a visit to West Germany.
The cutback will add to the country's unemployment
problem, already estimated to be ten percent of
the work force. It also will give military author-
ities an opportunity to remove troublemakers from
the armed forces.
The approaching end of the government-sponsored
airlift of Angolan refugees could spell additional
problems for the government this week. Nearly
200,000 returnees will have reached Portugal by
Friday. These increasingly embittered and frus-
trated refugees have refrained from taking direct
political action, reportedly for fear of reprisals
(continued)
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against friends and relatives still in Angola.
Last weekend, however, a group believed to be as-
sociated with the refugees claimed responsibility
for a bomb attack on a left-wing cultural center.
The group, which blamed the government refugee
agency for the plight of the returnees, said it
had decided to "answer force with force and vio-
lence with violence." Another refugee group sent
a delegation to our embassy last week to ask for
arms, money, and organizational support.
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LEBANON
Prime Minister Karami yesterday
announced the formation of a ten-member
security committee" to implement the
cease-fire called last Sunday. Karami
said that the group, which includes the
country's major political leaders, will
meet continuously in his office until
the fighting stops.
Prospects for the committee's success are
poor. Most members have been unable to reach the
Prime Minister's office because of continued fight-
ing, and one, Socialist leader Kamal Jumblatt, has
said he will not participate. According to press
reports from Beirut, Jumblatt dismissed the new
committee as an outdated attempt at "tribal recon-
ciliation," and insisted that Lebanon's problems
must be solved through fundamental reforms initi-
ated by the 20-member national dialogue committee.
In addition, an aide to Phalangist leader
Jumayyil was killed yesterday in the continuing
fighting around the parliament building. His death
will lead to Phalangist calls for revenge against
the far left, and will reinforce Jumayyil's extreme
reluctance to make political concessions.
The fighting in Beirut's commercial area was
heavy throughout the day yesterday and remained so
early today. The Phalangist militia seems to be
on the defensive and is withdrawing from the luxury
hotel district it had seized over the weekend. The
Christian seizure was opposed initially by Lebanese
Nasirists and radical Palestinians, but by yester-
day morning some units of the major fedayeen groups--
Fatah and Saiqa--were also involved.
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Syrian army troops with tanks and armored per-
sonnel carriers are assembling on the Syrian-Lebanese
border in the north. A show of force would be de-
signed to impress on the Lebanese that Damascus is
serious about restoring order.
Damascus did take such action during
the last major Lebanese crisis in the spring of 1973.
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SPANISH SAHARA
Moroccan Foreign Minister Laraki,
accompanied this time by his Mauritanian
counterpart, returned to Madrid yester-
day for another round of talks on Span-
ish Sahara.
The quickening pace of diplomatic contacts and
the inclusion of Mauritania, which is aligned with
Morocco on the Spanish Sahara dispute, suggest that
negotiations with Spain are making progress. An
understanding may be near that would partition Span-
ish Sahara between Morocco and Mauritania and grant
Madrid military bases and various economic conces-
sions.
The three countries have reason to settle the
Sahara dispute quickly. Morocco and Mauritania
would like a negotiated fait accompli in hopes of
heading off a UN debate this fall on self-determina-
tion for the disputed territory. Spain would like
to settle the issue before Juan Carlos assumes power
in order to spare his new government an additional
burden. The three governments may seek a UN Secu-
rity Council resolution endorsing whatever arrange-
ments they are able to work out.
Algeria, which opposes a turnover of the ter-
ritory to Morocco and Mauritania, remains the chief
stumbling block to an early resolution of the dis-
pute. According to an Algiers radio broadcast,
Foreign Minister Bouteflika, who is still at the UN,
sent a message to Secretary General Waldheim last
weekend endorsing his consultative mission to Mo-
rocco, Mauritania, Algeria, and Spain, which ended
yesterday.
Bouteflika made clear, however, that Waldheim
should confine himself to seeking a reduction of
tensions in the area, and that the adoption of ap-
propriate measures for decolonization should be
left to the General Assembly. He added that these
measures must be in accord with the recent report
by a UN fact-finding group and an advisory opinion
by the International Court of Justice, which had
the effect of weakening Morocco's claim to the ter-
ritory.
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NOTES
The Israelis say seven fedayeen infiltrators
with sabotage equipment crossed the UN buffer zone
from Syria early yesterday; two were killed and
five captured.
The Israelis appear to be resigned to a lim-
ited US military aid program for Egypt, despite
predictable public warnings that such aid will have
an unsettling effect on the Middle East.
The Israeli government press office distributed
an interview with Foreign Minister Allon the day
President Sadat arrived in Washington in which Allon
cautioned that any "new scheme of rearmament" in the
Middle East could only lead to a new arms race there.
Israeli press commentators, however, admit that
Sadat cannot come home empty-handed and anticipate
that the US will give him "non-lethal" equipment,
such as vehicles, radars, and other electronic gear.
Nevertheless, they are worried that Sadat may be
able to extract assurances that Washington will
favorably consider Egyptian requests for such items
as US fighter aircraft, tanks, missiles, or armored
personnel carriers after next year's presidential
election.
(continued)
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The Lao are taking an increasingly harsh Zine
toward Thailand and are refusing to cooperate in
reducing tensions along their Mekong border.
Vientiane last week rejected a Thai proposal
for joint Mekong river patrols to assist in prevent-
ing clashes along the river. Commenting on the Thai
proposal, Radio Pathet Lao asserted that progress on
relations could not be made because Bangkok had
failed to return former Lao military equipment now
in Thailand, allowed Lao non-communist exiles "to
carry out activities in Thailand," and helped the US
to "create disturbances in Laos." Vientiane's posi-
tion almost certainly reflects Hanoi's influence.
The North Vietnamese have been citing the Thai re-
fusal to return South Vietnamese military equipment
as a major stumbling block to improved relations with
Bangkok. Progress on Lao-Thai relations probably
will have to await resolution of the impasse between
Hanoi and Bangkok.
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