THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 2 FEBRUARY 1966

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1961-1969
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005968131
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: September 16, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2015
• Publication Date: February 2, 1966

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/23 : CIA-RDP79T00936A004300060001-3
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
THE PRESIDENT'S
DAILY BRIEF
2 FEBRUARY 1966
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DAILY BRIEF
2 FEBRUARY 1966
1. Vietnam
Hanoi's defense minister, Vo Nguyen
Giap, asserts that the Vietnamese Commu-
nists can win even if more than 700,000
American troops are sent into South Viet-
nam. Giap was the author of similar as-
surances published in July of 1964 and
1965.
In the present analysis, Giap ac-
knowledges that the US has shifted to a
"new strategic stage" in which US forces
do the "core", of the fighting. He ad-
mits that the US has great material
strength. His prediction of victory is
based on the idea that this strength can-
not be brought to bear fully on the situ-
ation in Vietnam.
He argues that the number of troops
Washington can send is limited by a va-
riety of factors. Also, he says, the
morale of the troops already deployed
is low, and they are neither organized
nor trained to deal successfully with a
peoples' war.
Giap finds backing for this. analysis
in the fact that the pace of Viet Cong
activity has mounted in the face of in-
creased US participation. 'To Giap's way
of thinking, the Viet Cong still hold the
initiative and can now fight large-scale
actions as well as small ones. Stepped-
up air raids cannot isolate the "south-
ern battlefield."
Giap has made almost all of these
points before, and Hanoi probably does
not overestimate them in its own mili-
tary planning. The regime does find
their restatement by the conqueror of
the French useful in bucking up Commu-
nist forces both in North and South Viet-
nam.
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2. Vietnam
3. COmmunist China
4. Nationalist China
Satellite photography taken 20-24
January turned up 63 MIG fighters at
two previously unoccupied fields, Yun?
nani and Pei?tun in southwest China
(see map).
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54 Soviet Union
6. Cyprus
7. Cuba
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The latest satellite photography
shows that some of the single silo
launchers for intercontinental ballis-
tic missiles are at least externally
complete. They have been under construc-
tion for about two years.
Greek Cypriots are filling their
newspapers with stories aimed at show-
ing that morale is slipping badly among
the Turkish Cypriots and that the latter
are on the point of surrendering on Greek
terms. The government in Nicosia is ob-
viously coaching this psychological effort.
Though the picture of crumbling
Turkish resolve is highly overdrawn,
there are some signs that the Turkish
minority is becoming somewhat less in-
transigent.
If the Turkish community could be
given some sort of guarantee against a
Cypriot union with Greece, it is just
conceivable that a new mediation effort
might succeed.
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8. West Germany
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9. Dominican Republic
The military leaders are, if any-
thing, even more rigid this week against
accepting the command changes ordered by
the president nearly a month ago. Garcia
Godoy and Ambassador Bunker agree that
action to force the issue may soon be re-
quired.
The use of Inter-American troops to
force Rivera Caminero out may be the only
way, but efforts to reach a less drastic
solution will still be tried for another
day or two.
Garcia Godoy is offering additional
concessions to the military in what may
prove to be his last effort to bring
about Rivera Caminero's voluntary depar-
ture. The president says he would now
be willing to retain the service chiefs
and allow Rivera Caminero to designate
his own successor as defense minister.
There is as yet no word on reaction to
this concession.
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