THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 28 SEPTEMBER 1968

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005976381
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: September 28, 1968

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The President's Daily Brief
28 September 1968
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.THE PRESIDENT'S
DAILY BRIEF
28 SEPTEMBER 1968
1. Czechoslovakia -
Soviet Union
2. Soviet Union
Marshal Yakubovsky, the chief of
the Warsaw Pact forces who has been
making the rounds of Eastern Europe in
recent days, finished his tour yester-
day with quick visits to Prague and
Bucharest. In Prague he may have dis-
cussed terms for the withdrawal of some
of the occupying forces and perhaps the
outline of a status-of-forces agreement
as well.
The Soviet populace is having
trouble swallowing the government's word
on Czechoslovakia. Among laborers there
is apparently some support for the inter-
vention, but many people are confused by
shifts in the official line and by hints
in-the.Soviet press about the attitude
of the Czechoslovak people.
There are good indications that the
technocrats who man the upper-middle
levels of the government are dissatis-
fied.r
Despite the unhappiness in quite
high places, we see no major reshuffling
of the present leadership immediately in
prospect.
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3. Poland
. Nigeria
5, Malaysia-Britain
The Polish intelligentsia is also
showing some new life. A leading Po-
lish author has written a moving letter
recounting his own reaction to the
intervention and has released it to the
?Western press. In so doing he may give
new heart to the Polish intellectual
community and encourage the intelligent-
sia in Czechoslovakia and Hungary as
well. His letter will also deepen the
splits which have existed in the Polish
leadership since the riots last spring.
Other Polish authors are writing
similar accounts, according to rumors
in Warsaw.
Ojukwu told his fellow Biafrans
Wednesday that "the war is far from
ending. .In fact, it is just beginning."
Biaf ran forces thereupon retook a hotly
contested town in southeastern Biafra.
.0jukwu also said guerrilla warfare
will continue if the Biafrans can no
longer field a conventional army. His
determination could be undermined, how-
ever, by federal military successes and
the peace efforts of other prominent -
Biafrans.
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6. Communist China
7. North Vietnam
As part of its effort to get the
Red Guards under cOntrol, the Peking
government is shipping students by the
hundreds of thousands to State farms
in remote border regions. Hong Kong
newspapers report more than 200,000
have been rounded up in Peking alone.
So many students are being transferred
that many have gotten only as far as
the suburbs, where they are being held
in hastily constructed detention camps
until there is room on the farms.
An article in the August issue of
the army journal provides the clearest
admission yet -that troops from the
North are fighting in the South. The
article deals with the training of an
infantry unit whose members pledge in
writing "to go kill the American
in-
vaders and liberate the South"
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FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY
1.) Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
2.) North Vietnamese Reflections of U S
Political Attitudes
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_ 16
28 September 1968
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
28 September 1968
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
Truck Traffic Report: Observed truck movements
through southern North Vietnam and to the Laos border
have dropped markedly. For the third consecutive
week pilot reports have indicated a decline in truck
traffic south of the 19th Parallel in North Vietnam.
During the week 16-22 September some 395 trucks were
observed compared with a weekly average of 665 trucks
sighted since 1 April. Weather in the area was gen-
erally favorable during most of last week.
The indicated fall-off in logistic activity may
be due to the lingering effects of last month's severe
storms which washed out bridges and flooded roads in
North Vietnam's southern regions. The bombing of
roads and bridges also is believed to have contributed
to slowing traffic.
Front Offices Elsewhere: The Communists are
still having difficulty opening the Front information
office in Paris. The French Foreign Office has in-
formed the US Embassy that the arrival of the head of
the mission has been again postponed. The holdup this
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time is due to a French desire to give the South
Vietnamese ambassador in Paris a chance to explain
the move to the government in-Saigon. Barring fur-
ther holdups, the French expect that the Front rep-
resentative will be allowed to enter any time after
5 October.
The French also admitted that the Front has al-
ready exceeded its mandate by issuing a fancy an-
nouncement on the establishment of the mission which
implied a degree of diplomatic status. The Foreign
Office says that the Front's current representative
has been taken to task and that the rights, privi-
leges, and limitations of the Front's office will be
carefully spelled out to the head of the mission as
soon as he arrives. He will be reminded that he en-
joys no diplomatic prerogatives of any kind.
* * *
Makarios on Shipping: Yesterday Ambassador Bel-
cher again spoke with Makarios about Cypriot-flag
ships calling at North Vietnamese ports. The ambassa-
dor noted the Council of Ministers could simply de-
clare North Vietnam out of bounds as not in the inter-
est of the republic. Makarios, who apparently was not
aware of this law, said he would try and do just that.
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Ships registered in Cyprus have made eleven voy-
ages to North Vietnam this year. This is second only
to the British in Free World shipping to North Viet-
nam. There are two Cypriot ships in Haiphong now.
Pep Talk on Light Industrial Development: The
July 1968 issue of the party theoretical journal car-
ries an article which describes the difficulties en-
countered in the priority program for developing local
industries to meet the needs for agricultural tools
and for consumer goods. The article complained that
cadres have not understood the importance of the pro-
gram and have taken the attitude that such industries
are uneconomical, have no future, and are designed
only to meet emergency wartime needs. Other cadres
reportedly desire large-scale industrial complexes
with modern technology, Yet others overly rely on
state assistance. The "confusion" which has resulted
in implementation of the program has reportedly left
products "few in number and low in quality."
* * *
II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
On War Opposition: Radio Hanoi played up war
opposition in the United States during an English lan-
guage broadcast yesterday. The North Vietnamese broad-
cast was an account of a statement by the American
Committee of the Professions which according to Hanoi
called .for an end to the bombing and recognition of
the National Liberation Front as a "potent political
force in South Vietnam." The Committee's statement,
Hanoi said, supported North Vietnam's contention that.
the US has actually intensified the bombing.
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