THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 7 JULY 1969

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1969-1977
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005976865
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: August 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2016
• Publication Date: July 7, 1969

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2016/04/27 : CIA-RDP79T00936A007300060001-0
The President's Daily Brief
7 July 1969
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
L MAJOR PROBLEMS
VIETNAM
The shelling attacks which stepped up over the weekend,
interrupting a lull in enemy activity, decreased again last
night. Ground activity has remained light. These shellings
may be a Probing action before the start of' the predicted
final offensive--the July campaign.
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SOVIET AFFAIRS
One result of the President's plans to visit Romania has
apparently been the cancellation or at least postponement of
a projected visit to Bucharest by Soviet leaders. Lower-level
officials in Moscow now are saying that Brezhnev and company
will not go to Romania this month to sign a new friendship
treaty e and a Soviet Embassy counselor in Bucharest hinted
that the Romanians might have to travel to Md-scow for the
signing. Romanian First Deputy 'Foreign Minister Macovescu,
who had hinted earlier that the Soviet visit was still sched-
uled, said Friday that nothing had been decided.
Further Soviet countermoves to the Presidential trip are
probably still under review in Moscow. The Soviet ambassador
to Romania failed to return to Bucharest last week as expected,
and the lack of direct editorial comment on the trip in the
Soviet press will probably continue until a decision on fur-
ther moves is reached.
FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
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Meanwhile, the Romanian party daily published a long
editorial yesterday?,clearly with top-level approval?pledg-
ing Romania to continue to:develop relations with all states
regardless of their politics. This would appear to be a de-
fense of Bucharest.'s. invitation to the President, although
his name was not specifically mentioned, and is the govern-
ment's first official reference to state visits since the
President announced he was making the trip.
EUROPE
The resignation of Prime Minister Rumor's government
Saturday will result in a major realignment of Italian polit-
ical forces. The Socialist Party (PSI), which only became
unified in 1966, split into two Separate parties again fol-
lowing the defeat of a conciliation document submitted by
party leader Nenni. Nenni, who has headed the PSI since the
end of World, War II, resigned as party president and the fu-
ture Of Italian socialism is uncertain.
The Christian Democratic party (DC), the other member
of the coalition, is also rent with factionalism. At its
recent meeting, the party appointed a National Council which
is 'to meet on Wednesday to reach a decision on the future
leadership of the party. The incumbent leadership is faced
with demands to take on a More prolabor orientation. This
problem will be accentuated by the prospect of increasing
labor unrest during contract negotiations scheduled later
this year in several vital industries involving one fifth of
the labor force.
FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
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Rumor will continue to head a. caretaker government until
discussions, which President Saragat plans to hold with poten-
tial premiers beginning Thursday, are completed. Several DC
leaders had previously estimated that a Socialist split would
result in .a centrist leadership group, excluding extremists
on both left and right, which would attempt to establish a
minority one-party DC government. Such a government might
last until autumn, in the view of the US Embassy, and a likely
candidate for Premier would be Forlani, chief lieutenant of
Senate president Fanfani. While the Italian Communist Party
will attempt to profit from the present confused situation,
it is not likely that it will be asked to enter any coalition
in the near future despite its 'increasing independence from
Moscow.
Brandt's visit to Paris Friday was apparently a consid-
erable success. He saw Pompidou for 70 minutes (the first
foreign visitor to be received by the new President) as well
as Prime Minister Chaban-Delmas and Foreign Minister Schumann.
Brandt told journalists that EEC questions were discussed ex-
haustively, including enlargement, and that they would be use-
ful for his talks with other. EEC leaders. He was sure, Brandt
said, that in coming weeks the Six would be able to agree on
"means of bringing about a pre-arrangement on enlargement"
among themselves and then with others.
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
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There is nothing significant to report on the Middle East.
II, OTHER IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS
KENYA
The competence and broad appeal of murdered Tom Mboya
will be missed more in the long-term than immediately. Presi-
dent Kenyatta's government is able to cope with any violence
that may be stirred up by Mboya's followers, and the weak
pro-Communist opposition party has only limited prospects of
turning the assassination to its own advantage.
As the time for the general parliamentary elections ap-
proaches--Kenyatta has promised they will be held before June
1970--Mboya's absence will be more keenly noted. Kenyatta
had assigned to Mboya the responsibility for managing the
campaign, and the party has no one else approaching his com-
petence in this sphere. In addition, Mboya's successful
direction of the Ministry of Economic Development had offered
hopeful prospects for mitigating popular discontent. The
successor to the post, as yet unnamed, almost certainly will
lack Mboya's administrative skills and national rather than
tribal concepts.
Mboya was one of the few government figures with nation-
wide appeal, and had been expected to exert a moderating in-
fluence during the inevitable contest for succession when
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
the unifying presence of 76-year-old Kenyatta is gone. At
age 38, Mboya would have been able to provide a link between
the departing and the oncoming generations of political leaders.
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Top Secret
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