THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 10 AUGUST 1967

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Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
0005973952
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RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
T
Document Page Count: 
6
Document Creation Date: 
September 16, 2015
Document Release Date: 
September 16, 2015
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Publication Date: 
August 10, 1967
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005300400001-4 The President's Daily Brief 10 August 1967 23 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005300400001-4 50X1 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005300400001-4 50x1 DAILY BRIEF 10 AUGUST 1967 1. North Vietnam 2. North Vietnam 3. West Germany A recent article in the North Vietnamese army journal suggests that Hanoi's long-running debate over war policy, is heating up again. The author (the deputy chief of the army's political department) used terms reminiscent of the late General Thanh to argue that the only hope for a Communist victory in South Vietnam lies in armed struggle. He harshly attacked unnamed persons who question the wisdom of waging a purely military struggle without some serious effort to get negotiations going. The bitter language of the article suggests that there may be some wavering within the North Vietnamese military over current military, policy. It is not clear, however, to what extent these doubts are shared by the highest levels of Hanoi's leadership. While Chancellor Kiesinger is the target of a certain amount of domestic press sniping, he has ample backing and will not be handicapped on his Washing- ton visit Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005300400001-4 50X1 50X6 50X1 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005300400001-4 _ o0X1 . Cuba 5. Communist China Fidel will close the conference to- night with a television address that will give him another opportunity to repeat his firebrand thesis and underscore his differences with more orthodox exponents of Lenin. Mao's control over events in China may be slipping. The most recent indica- tion of the leader's faltering hand is the apparent reprieve of three officials who have been under intermittent attack for months. This has all the earmarks of a concession to Chou En-lai, who may have army support. Mao's backing in the army has fallen away markedly in the past few months as one after another the powerful military region commanders have tried to bring some order out of the Cultural Revolution's chaos. But disorder is spreading. Red Guards in Peking recently defied the minister of public security, one of Mao's own men. Yesterday the Guards burned the Mongolian ambassador's car. Similar acts of civil disobedience and lawlessness are reported all over China. In some cities the army has had to use machine guns on wild-eyed mobs of Maoist "revolutionaries." Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005300400001-4 50X1 50X1 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005300400001-4 ? LA KE't Cl/AD DAHOMEY) ()Kaduna .Bauchi ?Maiduguri ;13. ft:( WESTERNIlorin ? elbadan R LAGOS (FecLTerr.) NIGERIA 'BIGHT OF BENIN CAMEROON Port' arcou Mi NJ Bonny. BIGHT OP 81.4 PRA GULF OF GUINEA ? State boundary - Former region boundary ? Road z: Bridge FERNANDO PO States Established by Decree of .Federal Military Government on 27 Moyl967 87462 8-67 CIA Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24: CIA-RDP79T00936A005300400001-4 50X1 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005300400001-4 _ p0X1 6. Congo 7. Nigeria A cocky mercenary leader told Brit- ish newsmen yesterday that Mobutu would have to buy peace with the release of Tshombe and a job for the ex-premier in the Congolese government. Major Jean Schramme, the Belgian expatriate who led 150 white mercenaries and their 1,000 Katangese cohorts into Bukavu, said the mercenaries planned to expand their control in the Bukavu area, but he left open the threat of a march south into Katanga Province if Mobutu re- fused to negotiate. Schramme claimed "the Congolese Army is incapable of de- feating us'." In that, he is about right. Just rumors that the mercenaries might move south have sent the first -chills of panic through the European community in Katanga--not that they fear the mercenaries, but rather the hysteri- cal reaction of the Congolese. About 120 whites who had been travel- ing with the mercenaries were put across the border into Rwanda yesterday. Biafran troops went over to the of- fensive yesterday with an invasion of the Mid-Western state. Led by ,a Colonel Banjo, the Biafrans took Benin City, the state's capital. There apparently was some collusion on the part of local troops. Banjo's Biafrans reportedly plan to move on into the Western state. A Biafran airplane also dropped three bombs in the Lagos area yesterday. On Tuesday, Lieutenant Colonel Gowon, who heads the federal government, called in Ambassador Mathews to express his desire for good relations with the US and to ask if he could send a repre- sentative to explain the Nigerian situa- tion to President Johnson. Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005300400001-4 50X1 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005300400001-4 Top Secret Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2015/07/24 : CIA-RDP79T00936A005300400001-4