THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 14 APRIL 1972

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1969-1977
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005993246
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: August 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2016
• Publication Date: April 14, 1972

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The President's Daily Brief
14 April 1972
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THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF
14 April 1972
PRINCIPAL DEVELOPMENTS
We report the latest military developments in South
Vietnam on Page 1.
Moscow has apparently decided to demonstrate more
open support for the North Vietnamese. (Page 2)
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? Sudanese President: Numayki faces ?a threat from pro-
? Egyptian exiles, including the defense minister he
ousted in February. (Page 4)
Chancellor Brandt is expressing confidence over the
prospects for ratification of the Eastern treaties.
(Page 5)
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BINH LONG
0
5 ? 10Mile's
10 Kilometers.
? Corritntkiist Division :Hq.
COmttruhii hegii-ngnt Fig.
Government relief
forces stalled
165th
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SOUTH VIETNAM
Heavy allied air strikes appear to have stalled
the Communist push at An Loc, but the situation re-
mains critical. Yesterday the Communists occupied
most of the northern part of the Binh Long provin-
cial capital. Government troops still hold the
southern part, and reinforcements from the South
Vietnamese 21st Infantry Division are being flown
in by helicopter. A relief force that includes
other elements of the 21st is still stalled on Route
13, some ten miles to the south.
Intercepts suggest the Communists are willing
to commit virtually all their available main forces
in northern MR-3. Two infantry division headquarters
and six regiments have been detected in Binh Long,
and two other regiments and another division head-
quarters could also be present. The infantry is be-
ing supported by large concentrations of artillery
and armor, apparently including T-54 tanks--North
Vietnam's heaviest armored weapon.
In the delta province of Kien Tuong, the North
Vietnamese 88th Regiment is increasing the pressure
on outposts. Clandestine sources indicate that four
such outposts have been abandoned, four more are un-
der siege, and many of the Viet Cong units in the
delta are under orders to go on the offensive. Ele-
ments of the 88th, augmented by a Viet Cong unit,
have moved within 12 miles of the provincial capital.
Military Region 1 remains relatively quiet.
Allied air and artillery strikes are causing some
enemy morale problems, and Communist anti-aircraft
units in northern Quang Tri Province are suffering
from localized shortages of ammunition. Captured
documents and intercepts nevertheless suggest that
further attacks are imminent.
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USSR-VIETNAM
Moscow has apparently decided to demonstrate
more open support for the North Vietnamese. TASS
has announced that Soviet Defense Minister Grechko
received North Vietnamese Ambassador Vo Thuc Dong
yesterday to "exchange opinions on questions of .So-
viet -North Vietnamese cooperation." In talks .
which are described as having taken place in an at-
mosphere of "friendship and unanimity," Grechko is
said to have conveyed to the Vietnamese Soviet wishes
for "new successes in defending the freedom and in-
dependence of their motherland." TASS gives no in-
dication that Grechko said anything about the offen-
sive, the intensified US bombing raids over North
Vietnam, or Hanoi's recent request for more support.
The publicly announced meeting was highly
unusual and the North Vietnamese are un-
doubtedly pleased. The North Vietnamese
probably also welcome Moscow's decision
to put its propaganda apparatus into high
gear in support of Vietnam. According to
Radio Moscow, "massive rallies" were held
yesterday in Moscow, Kiev, Minsk, and tens
of other Soviet cities to "condemn the
current expansion of American aggression
in Vietnam" and demand its "immediate"
cessation.
The North Vietnamese, for their part, reacted
sharply to yesterday's strikes by B-52s and other
aircraft on Bai Thuong airfield in the northerni
part of the North Vietnamese panhandle. According
to Hanoi Radio, a? Foreign Ministry spokesman charged
that the use of the aircraft "to pour bombs and
shells wantonly onto populated areas" had proved
that "the US aggressors are even more barbarous
than the Hitlerite fascists in the past."
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SUDAN
President Numayri is making a good start on
carrying out last month's agreement to end the 17-
year-old southern rebellion, but he still faces a
threat from erstwhile domestic allies. Former de-
fense minister Khalid Hassan Abbas, regarded as
Egypt's man in Khartoum and once the second most
powerful man in the regime, has been cooling his
heels in Cairo since his ouster in mid-February.
At this point, the danger to Numayri does
not seem acute. If, however, Numayri
continues to shrug off Egyptian advice
and appears to be taking the Sudan too
far outside the Arab nationalist main-
stream--or, should, he become more openly
anti-Soviet--President Sadat will try
to press him back in line.
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NOTES
West Germany: Chancellor Brandt is now express-
ing confidence that parliament will ratify the East-
ern treaties
Following a month-
long effort to reassert discipline in the two coali-
tion parties, which have a nominal edge of 250-246
in the lower house, the government believes that
only one parliamentarian is still wavering. The fa-
vorable public impact of the Easter visits to East
Berlin and East Germany, along with other small con-
cessions by Moscow and Pankow, may also have been a
factor in reassuring waverers and contributing to
the current optimism in Bonn.
Chile: The huge turnout for a peaceful opposi-
tion march on Wednesday exceeded the expectations
of the four sponsoring political parties. The "de-
mocracy march," called to protest government encroach-
ment on individual and economic liberties, drew mostly
middle- and upper-class Chileans who strongly applauded
former president Eduardo Frei's surprise appearance.
The success of the demonstration should reinforce op-
position efforts to take advantage of rising dissatis-
faction with President Allende's Popular Unity gov-
ernment. Allende's supporters may be hard put to
match the size of the crowd, as he has promised, in
their own march next week.
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Top Secret
Secret
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