THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF - 1967/12/07

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Tet Declassified
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 05974159
• Document Creation Date: July 27, 2018

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The President's Daily Brief
To ecret 7 December 1967
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FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY
.Special Daily Report on North Vietnam.
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7 December 1967
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
7 December 1967
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
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Economic Claims: Hanoi's latest attempt to show
that bombings have not disrupted its economy is a
claim of increasing output by regional industries.
According to Reuters, the North Vietnamese news
agency on 5 December said that regional industries
under central control increased their output of some
commodities by 1 to 13 percent during the first nine
months of 1967. The report said that many "important
industrial branches" have gradually increased in size
despite the bombings.
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The industries cited are probably the local
plants which were to be built or expanded in dis-
persed locations throughout the country, according
to the 1966-67 plan drafted in response to the bomb-
ing. Hanoi gave high priority to these plants in
order to enable regions to be economically self-
sufficient and to guard against disruption of output
by central plants.
Regional plants may have improved their per-
formance during 1967, but the implication that all
is well in industry is almost certainly false. The
central plants--including the handful of modern
plants--have been severely disrupted by the bombings.
Even if the regional plants have performed up to
plan, which seems highly unlikely, they apparently
have been unable to make up the drop in the supply
of nonmilitary industrial goods from prebombing
levels. Imports of such goods have been increasing
steadily since the bombings began.
* * *
New Peace Proposal: The World Federation of
United Nations Associations has announced a new pro-
posal aimed at bringing peace to Vietnam. The pro-
posal calls for the establishment of a date to end
the war, the ending of the bombing of North Vietnam
on the same date, and five-power talks to organize
negotiations or a peace conference. Copies of the
proposal dated 28 November have been sent by the
association's president, Ales Bebler, to the US,
North Vietnam, and the five countries named for the
talks, Britain, Russia, India, Canada, and Poland.
Several months ago, Bebler called on the same
five powers simply to hold consultations aimed at
bridging the gap between the peace conditions de-
manded by Hanoi and Washington. Little response
to that proposal was generated and it apparently
was dropped after the Soviets voiced their objec-
tion to such a meeting. There is, moreover, nothing
which would indicate that Bebler's latest effort
will be any more successful.
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* * *
II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
Appeal to Senator Fulbright: Hanoi in a broad-
cast on 5 December to American servicemen in South
Vietnam carried what was alleged to be a letter
from a captured pilot to Senator Fulbright. After
recounting his capture, the pilot appealed to the
senator, claiming that "many prisoners here rely
upon your good will, prestige, and high position
in our government to try to find a suitable solu-
tion to quickly end this problem."
* * *
More Hanoi Thoughts on "War Crimes Tribunal":
In a broadcast on 6 December, Hanoi issued a lengthy
report on the outcome of the recently concluded
second session of the Bertrand Russell War Crimes
Tribunal. The broadcast reported statements by
Americans who had attended or participated in the
trial. Stokely Carmichael, called "a leader of
the black people's movement in the US and a member
of the tribunal," was quoted as condemning the US
"for forcing black Americans to go to South Viet-
nam to be used as cannon fodder," He pointed out
that the American leaders had committed "double
genocide, that is, the murder of the Vietnamese
people as well as the black people."
Dave Dellinger, another American member of the
tribunal, also appealed to the world's people and
the people of America "to unite their actions so
as to step up their struggle against the war of
aggression and the crimes of genocide committed
by the US ruling circles in Vietnam."
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