THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Tet Declassified
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 05974185
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: April 26, 2019
• Document Release Date: April 30, 2019
• Publication Date: December 22, 1967

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Th Presi Daily Brief
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DAILY BRIEF
22 DECEMBER 1967
1. Communist China
2. Yemen
3. United Kingdom
4. Cuba
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Some cryptic Yemeni messages inter-
cepted on Wednesday suggest that the re-
publicans were pressing then for new
Soviet air strikes, but that the Soviets
were stalling. There are other signs
that the republican position in Sana is
again becoming precarious.
The latest Gallup Poll, published
in London on Wednesday, looks bad for
Wilson. It concludes that only, 32 per-
cent of the voters would now vote
Labor, while 49 percent would support
the Conservatives. This is a postwar
low for Labor.
Reports from Havana continue to
tell of a new purge of Castro's oppon-
ents. Those arrested seem to have been
pressing for more moderate policies,
both at home and abroad. Some of the
victims are old-line prerevolutionary
Communists, presumably friends of Mos-
cow. Others seem to be "moderates" from
the middle echelon of the bureaucracy.
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5. Chile-Argentina
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President Frei has asked for US
help in persuading Argentina to ac-
cept arbitration of an old territorial
dispute between the two countries.
The argument, over navigation rights
through a channel near Cape Horn, has
recently flared up again. Frei thinks
it could even result in armed conflict
unless something is done quickly to
get the ball rolling toward peaceful
settlement.
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FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY
Special Daily 1Report on North Vietnam
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22 December 1967
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
22 December 1967
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
:The Liberation Front Abroad: Some Communist
capitals are publicizing the reception of Front
representatives as diplomats. .For example, when
the new Front representative in Peking presented
his "letter of appointment" to Chou En-lai early
this month, Hanoi radio quoted Chou as saying
that Peking regards the Front mission .as "an offi-
cial diplomatic mission enjoying the same status
as foreign embassies in the diplomatic corps in
Peking."
:Similarly, a new Front representative arrived
in Berlin last week and received high-level treat-
ment from the East German Government. .Ulbricht
described the representative's office as a "diplo-
matic mission."
There is as yet no evidence that other Commu-
nist countries intend to change the status of the
Front representative. In the Soviet Union, for ex-
ample, the Front representative is officially ac-
credited to the Afro-Asian Solidarity Committee,
although he frequently sees high-level Soviet lead-
ers and attends diplomatic functions.
Accrediting the.Front�representative to a
foreign government with the rank of ambassador is
not a new moveby Communist or leftist governments.
Front delegations in Pyongyang, Havana, and Phnom
Penh have enjoyed this status for some time--in the
case of Pyongyang for more than a year.
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.Rural Food Situation: refu-
gees who recently left North Vietnam have reported
that the food situation in the rural area was gener-
ally unsatisfactory to the-people. The rural rice
ration, as in the cities, was sometimes adulterated
with wheat And:other.unpopular substitutes'. Most
other foods were in short supply and expensive; black
market prices for all foods were much higher than
state prices. Common consumer items such as Matches,
shoes, pants, shirts, hats, raincoats, umbrellas,
charcoal, and kerosene were very scarce.
French Delegation: The US Embassy in Paris
has been informed by an associate of Waldeck Rochet,
Secretary General of the French Communist Party,
that Rochet will head a delegation to North Vietnam
sometime in January. The purpose of the trip is to
repay the visits of prominent North Vietnamese to
France over the past two years. The embassy source
expects the delegation to receive red carpet treat-
ment in Hanoi and to have several "working sessions"
with the North Vietnamese Party Politburo and indi-
vidual meetings with members of the leadership. The
source speculated that the war, and Hanoi's attitude
toward next year's meeting of Communist parties in
Budapest, will be discussed. The source also claimed
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�that the delegation intended to probe the Hanoi
leaders on their precise position on talks follow-
ing a bombing halt, and their conditions for ne-
gotiations.
NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR'
,Antiwar Protests: �Hanoi, in an English lan-
guage broadcast on 20 December, reported a series
of recent statements and activities in the US which
have been critical of the administration's Vietnam
policy. The broadcast reported that some 1,000
Americans in Torrance, California, held a mile-long
march on 17 December to protest the war, and that
on the same day in New York, Senator Vance Hartke
"condemned the US war in Vietnam and demanded the
immediate withdrawal of US troops from the South."
Protests by American Quaker groups and Negroes,
as well as disruptive activities at draft induction
centers around the country, were also reported with-
out comment.
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Other Antiwar Activities: A similar broadcast
on 19 December reported numerous antiwar activities
taking place around the world. Demonstrations
against US policy and involvement in Vietnam were
reported in West Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Mali,
Yemen, and Australia. All this again was carried
without comment by Hanoi.
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