THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Tet Declassified
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 05974179
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 14
• Document Creation Date: April 26, 2019
• Document Release Date: April 30, 2019
• Publication Date: December 19, 1967

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The President's Daily Brief
cret 19 December 1967
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DAILY BRIEF
19 DECEMBER 1967
1. South Vietnam
2. Eastern Europe
3. Soviet Union
A captured enemy document suggests
that the North Vietnamese will under-
take a major military effort this winter
in the heavily populated coastal areas
of I and II Corps. The document also
points to diversionary attacks around
Con Thien. The main thrust, however,
will come farther south in the enemy's
Military Region 5 and the Tri-Thien-Hue
military region.
The intent here would be to bring
the war closer to South Vietnam's popu-
lation centers and to create yet another
battle sector in which to pin down al-
lied forces and disrupt pacification
efforts.
The meeting of European Communist
foreign ministers in Warsaw today is
the fourth such try at getting unified
Communist support for the Arabs since
the June war. Moscow undoubtedly hopes
to stiffen the resolve of some of these
countries which have been only lukewarm
toward backing the Arabs, particularly
with material support.
* * *
Brezhnev will begin his visit to
Egypt on 7 January, according to a Cairo
newspaper. The formal announcement of
the trip last month had said only that
it would take place in "early 1968."
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4. Soviet Union
5. Communist China
6. Yemen
Peking's efforts to get its "black-
board jungle" under control have largely
failed; the school system is still not
really functioning.
(Schools at all levels were shut
down last June so that the students
could participate in the Cultural Revo-
lution. By fall, some of the cooler
heads in the leadership had decided it
was time to try to get all concerned back
to their books.)
Some major institutions, such as
Peking University, have not even at-
tempted to resume classes. /
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zz' Many other schools which did
try to reopen were soon forced to close
because of fighting among Red Guard fac-
tions.
In sum, the chances are slim that
the leaders can get the schools operating
again until they can set their own poli-
tical house in order.
There is little change in the mili-
tary situation. Sporadic royalist pres-
sure on a number of republican positions
continues.
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7. Greece
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Stylianos Pattakos, Papadopoulos'
right-hand man, sought out Ambassador
Talbot at home Sunday night in an effort
to persuade the US that the time is
ripe to pick up working relations with
the Athens regime. In essence, the
Pattakos message is that the revolution
is now completely in charge, that the
King is still "loved" but the revolution
is in no hurry to have him back, that re-
vision of the constitution will go for-
ward expeditiously, and that elections
are likely within a year or two, with
the leaders of the revolution probably
heading the government party.
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FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY
Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
19 December 1967
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
Front Spokesman Takes Tough Line: Nguyen Van
Dong, a Liberation Front representative currently
touring Scandinavia, brusquely dismissed any compro-
mise solution in Vietnam during a televised interview
in Oslo on 14 December. According to our embassy's
account of the interview, Dong seemed unconcerned
with bolstering the Front's political appeal, and
devoted himself solely to insisting that the hard-
line Communist position is correct. Dong stressed
that only "our own terms" are acceptable as conditions
for peace. He ruled out any role for the United Na-
tions in bringing about a settlement because the UN
is "under American domination." He denied being aware
of any recent Front overtures to the UN.
Dong said the Liberation Front's terms for
peace require "recognition of the Front's program
and the withdrawal of all US forces from the South."
He asserted the Communists were "on the way to vic-
tory" and that the US could not win the war. When
asked about the likely duration of the war, Dong said
the Communists will fight until "ultimate victory."
Dong agreed with his interviewer that the terms he
demanded amounted to an ultimatum.
* * *
Reaction to Bombing: The French news agency
correspondent in Hanoi reports that recent bombings
around the capital have "failed to affect the city's
morale." He says the city appears calm and disciplined
and attributes this to people becoming accustomed to
the bombings as well as to the evacuation of large
numbers of women, children, and the elderly. The cor-
respondent also claims that people are resigned to a
continuation of the bombings and that they anticipate
greater destruction in and around Hanoi itself. Hanoi
officialdom, he says, believes that recent discussions
in the US about the need to attack antiaircraft de-
fenses, even in cities, is the prelude to attacks on
cities, using the antiaircraft targets as a pretense.
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Liberation Front Anniversary: Both Hanoi and the
Liberation Front have begun to issue the annual flood
of propaganda connected with the 20 December anni-
versary of the founding of the Liberation Front. This
year, much of the propaganda is focusing on the "Week
of Solidarity with Vietnam" being held in many bloc
and free world countries and timed to coincide with
the Front anniversary. Several broadcasts have re-
ported the activities of groups in the USSR, Poland,
Cuba, Burma, Hungary, Australia, Finland, Denmark and
other nations and have pointed to the worldwide nature
of the movement as a demonstration of the "bankruptcy
of US policy" and the support the Vietnamese people
enjoy.
* * *
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Attitude of North Vietnamese Veterans: A
refugee who recently left North Vietnam has provi e
one of the few reports on the attitudes of North Viet-
namese who have fought in South Vietnam and lived to
return North. The refugee told of one soldier who had
been wounded in the South and who, after returning to
the North, escaped from a local hospital. The soldier
said he would not return to the South and claimed that
the only things waiting for North Vietnamese soldiers
there were "hunger, sickness, and misery."
other soldiers who had returned from the
South talked about the "terrible bombing" from B-52s.
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Food Rations and Prices in Hanoi:
the
rice ration ranges from 13 and one-half to 24 kilo-
grams a month for adults, and is determined largely
e amount of physical labor they perform.
40 percent of this ration must be taken in wheat
flour. The black market price for rice is three to
five times higher than the state store price. Fresh
meat is rationed and although precooked meat, fish,
and poultry is unratianed, it is scarce and expensive.
Fresh fruit and vegetables are not rationed and are
plentiful, but people are encouraged to make maximum
use of their own gardens and plots.
* * *
Viet Cong Comment on Truce Periods: The Viet
Cong is continuing to propagandize the truce periods
it has called for over the forthcoming holidays,
contrasting them with the shorter truces called for
by the allies. The Front has also warned the people
to be on guard against allied violations during the
truce periods. A 16 December broadcast, for example,
told the Viet Cong forces that "the US aggressors and
their henchmen in the past used to sabotage the sus-
pension of military attacks by sending planes for
spying and bombing liberated areas, shelling these
regions, conducting nibbling attacks against the
areas controlled by the Liberation Front, or carry-
ing out provocative acts."
II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
US Using the Mentally Deficient in Vietnam:
Hanoi in a 16 December English language broadcast
has claimed that the US is sending men who are suf-
fering from mental or physical deficiencies as "cannon-
fodder" for the war in Vietnam. The broadcast claimed
that this policy was adopted to alleviate the "heavy
casualties" the US is facing in Vietnam and the man-
power shortage at home. Quoting US News and World Re-
port, the broadcast reported that the US plans to
draft 100,000 men once deemed unfit for military serv-
ice, and claimed that this group included the mentally
�and physically deficient.
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Hanoi on Senator Percy: Hanoi in its domestic
broadcast has reported without comment Senator Percy's
narrow escape at Dak Son. The broadcast quoted
Percy as saying afterward that "I can assure you that
I never had to take such a prone position as I have
this time" and that "if the enemy desires it, every-
where can become a front line."
* * *
�Messages from Captured US Pilots: North Viet-
nam has announced that starting on 18 December,
Hanoi radio will broadcast in English to US service-
men on a daily basis messages from captured US pilots
to their families. Three such messages were broad-
cast on the 18th.
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