THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 22 FEBRUARY 1974

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1969-1977
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0006007681
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 16
• Document Creation Date: August 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2016
• Publication Date: February 22, 1974

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The President's Daily Brief
no
February 22, 1974
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Exempt from general
declassification schedule of ED. 11652
exemption category 5B(1),62).13)
declassified only on approval of
the Director of Central Intelligence
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1_ V 11, .1 .1 1 -La J. 1. J. 1. `I .1- V J.
THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF
February 22, 1974
PRINCIPAL DEVELOPMENTS
In Ethiopia, civil disturbances have broken out.
(Page 2)
Prime Minister Meir is going ahead with her attempt
to form a minority cabinet. (Page 4)
Unusual weather is threatening the Soviet winter
grain crop. (Page 5)
The Cambodian military situation is discussed on
Page 6.
Laotian Prime Minister Souvanna is still confident
that almost all obstacles to the formation of a new
coalition government have been overcome. (Page 7)
Japan(
French
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(Page 9)
Notes on the USSR, Yugoslavia, the UK, and Gromyko
and Jobert to Cairo appear on Page 10.
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ETHIOPIA
Civil disturbances stemming from long-standing
economic and social grievances broke out in several
parts of the country on February 19. The chief
participants are students who are venting frustration
over government policies and are supporting a nation-
wide teachers' strike. Public transportation has
stopped because of attacks on buses, and taxi drivers
are on strike to protest the rising cost of living.
Diplomatic cars, including some US vehicles, have been
among the targets of the demonstrators. Disturbances
in one town had distinctly anti-US overtones.
Police reaction to the demonstrations has varied
from extreme severity to apparent sympathy. So far,
nine students are reported killed.
The Council of Ministers yesterday ordered secu-
rity forces to crack down on all demonstrations. The
ministers refused to compromise with the teachers or
to reduce gasoline prices as demanded by taxi and truck
drivers. Military units have been deployed to protect
fuel supplies, the airport, and other key installations.
A strong show of force will probably result in
an escalation of demonstrations and violence. Senior
officials and much of the urban public doubt that the
government of Prime Minister Aklilu can cope with the
country's problems, and Emperor Haile Selassie may
be forced to appoint a new government more committed
to reform. The 81-year-old Emperor normally does not
make important decisions quickly, but the seriousness
of the situation may prod him to make an early move.
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JORDAN
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ISRAEL
Prime Minister Meir is going ahead with the
formation of a minority cabinet. She is continu-
ing discussions with the National Religious Party
to attempt to get that party to join the cabinet,
but negotiating sessions yesterday appeared to be
fruitless. According to some reports received by
the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, there is no chance that
the National Religious Party will change its stand
at this time.
Mrs. Meir met again with Defense Minister Dayan.
Although Dayan to all appearances still strongly
supports Meir, he apparently is balking at rejoin-
ing her cabinet. Press reports claim he is holding
out for new elections or for a national unity gov-
ernment that would include the rightist Likud. A
likelier explanation is that, before agreeing to
serve again, he wants strong and unequivocal backing
from other Alignment leaders, some of whom, he feels,
have criticized his handling of the October war.
The opposition Likud yesterday attacked Mrs.
Meir's decision to form a minority government. Call-
ing the decision an act of political bankruptcy, the
Likud executive committee announced its intention to
push in the Knesset for the formation of a national
unity government.
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Soviet Winter Grain
ter grain area
Moscow
Vol!).
Ukrainia SSR.
ROMANIA
Rostov
'BULGARIA
TURKEY '
Baku
NAUTICAL NILES
_ . 200
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USSR
Flooding, melting snow, and ice crusts are
threatening key Soviet grain areas, according to a
front-page Izvestia article this week. Although
stating "no special grounds for alarm and concern,"
the article ordered farmers to drain flooded fields
immediately and prepare for the possibility that
severe frosts could kill crops deprived of protec-
tive snow cover.
Unusual weather has already created problems.
A rainy autumn delayed some sowing, and an early
cold spell slowed the development and reduced the
hardiness of the grain in most of the European USSR.
A thaw in late December, followed by a sudden cold
spell in mid-January, damaged sowings in the north-
eastern Ukraine, the Central Black Earth Region, and
the Lower Volga. The snow cover needed to insulate
the plants from killing air temperatures was thin or
absent over most of the area through January. Now,
above-normal temperatures for February have com-
pletely melted the snow cover in key areas. Standing
water and ice crusts can suffocate seedlings in some
places, but even more threatening to all regions is
the warm weather which reduces plant resistance to
extreme cold, still likely to occur.
Although the winter grain area lost to winter-
kill could exceed the long-run average of 20 percent,
a large planting last fall and the reseeding of dam-
aged areas with spring grain could still produce a
normal or above normal 1974 grain crop. Reseeding
is usually done with feed grains, however, so that
winterkill tends to reduce the breadgrain harvest.
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Phnom Penh
Communists withaw
Abandoned
Communist
artillery sites
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CAMBODIA
Cambodian Army operations south of Phnom Penh
apparently have forced the Khmer Communists to pull
their artillery in this sector out of range of the
capital. Advancing government troops yesterday dis-
covered two abandoned artillery positions and over
400 expended 105-mm. howitzer casings near Route 201
some seven miles from the city. Communist units at
the center of the southern defense line have withdrawn
to the south bank of the Prek Thnaot River, leaving
behind significant quantities of ammunition.
Government gains on the southern front follow
closely successful government operations northwest
of Phnom Penh, which resulted in heavy Communist
losses in men and materiel. These setbacks may cause
Communist leaders to delay a series of coordinated
moves against the capital that were to begin around
February 25. An intercept of February 19 indicated
that the timetable for Communist attacks along Route
1 southeast of the capital has already slipped, appar-
ently because of logistics problems unrelated to the
fighting on other fronts.
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LAOS
Despite his failure to form a new coalition govern-
ment by February 21--the first anniversary of the Laos
peace agreement--Prime Minister Souvanna is still con-
fident that virtually all of the obstacles have been
overcome.
Souvanna has been busy meeting with his Council
of Ministers and with chief Pathet Lao negotiator
Phoun Sipraseuth on the list of candidates for the
coalition cabinet and the Joint National Political
Council. He hopes to announce their membership with-
in the next few days.
Souvanna's efforts have received a welcome boost
from his chief political opponents on the right, the
Vientiane-based Sananikone family. In a press con-
ference on February 20, family spokesmen endorsed
"without reservation" the Prime Minister's efforts to
achieve national reconciliation. They also indicated
that they expected the government would be directly
invested by the King without prior ratification by
the assembly--precisely the scheme that Souvanna has
been lobbying for.
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NOTES
USSR: The Soviets are rotating some of their
warships in the Indian Ocean. A Sverdlov-class com-
mand cruiser and a frigate are leaving, and a Kresta
II class guided-missile cruiser is en route by way
of the Cape of Good Hope. The Kresta II, which has
an admiral aboard, probably will make several port
calls in the littoral countries and may remain in
the Indian Ocean from two to five months. The rota-
tion will reduce the number of Soviet surface war-
ships in the Indian Ocean to seven.
Yugoslavia: After canceling his trip to Hun-
gary last week for unspecified reasons, Tito yes-
terday failed to attend ceremonies proclaiming Yu-
goslavia's new constitution. Yugoslav sources have
confirmed to Western journalists that Tito is ill,
but claim that he has only a cold which is "not
serious."
UK: The government probably will announce a
$1-billion trade deficit for January, Britain's
worst monthly deficit ever, just three days before
national elections on February 28. Britain's rec-
ord deficit was caused by an almost two-fold in-
crease in crude oil prices and by the impact of the
three-day workweek and other energy-related restric-
tions. Government officials expect a record current
account deficit for 1974 and will try to fill the
gap with loans from foreign capital markets and in-
ternational financial organizations.
USSR-France-Egypt: An Egyptian official told
Ambassador Eilts yesterday that Soviet Foreign Min-
ister Gromyko will visit Cairo on March 1, a day
after Secretary Kissinger's stopover there. The
official also disclosed that French Foreign Minis-
ter Jobert will arrive in Cairo on March 6.
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