THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Tet Declassified
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 05974198
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: April 26, 2019
• Document Release Date: April 30, 2019
• Publication Date: December 30, 1967

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The President's Daily Brief
'Thr-S-errrt- 30 December 1967
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DAILY BRIEF
30 DECEMBER 1967
1. Communist China
2. Pakistan
3. United Kingdom
The most serious outbreak of armed
violence since at least last summer
erupted in the important south China
city of Kun-ming earlier this week.
George Brown showed up suddenly
in Rome yesterday for a day of talks
with Foreign Minister Fanfani on the
Common Market problem. He is clearly
wasting no time in following up the
promise he gave Parliament last week
to begin consultations with the Five
about what to do in the wake of the
French veto. /
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4. Czechoslovakia
5. Cyprus
6. Egypt
Party leaders are set to meet
again next week, apparently for another
whack at the divisive question of who
is to run the country in the hard days
ahead. They face a much deeper crisis
than this, however, and it goes to the
very core of the Communist system it-
self. The party's difficulties are
summarized in today's Annex.
New tensions are likely, to arise
from the proclamation yesterday by the
Turkish Cypriots setting up a provi-
sional council to administer their af-
fairs. Greek Cypriots will insist that
this is an attempt to set up a separate
Turkish government on the island.
Makarios has already blasted it as
"flagrantly unlawful."
7. Dominican Santo Domingo is buzzing again
Republic with rumors of an early attempt to over-
throw President Balaguer. J
Balaguer's position,
however, does seem to have deteriorated
in the past two months. The new rumors
themselves will warm up the uneasy
political climate.
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ANNEX
Crisis in the Czechoslovak Party
After 20 years in power, the Czech Communists
have little to show for their efforts but economic
stagnation and growing dissatisfaction among im-
portant segments of the population. The country is
a good candidate for the world's worst case of what
Communism can mean to a people who had developed a
fairly modern economy and were relatively satisfied
with their lot before the Communist takeover. Now
the chickens are coming home to roost.
The party itself is sharply divided between
liberals and conservatives, and the result is con-
fusion and lack of cohesion at the top. The liber-
als are urging further decentralization of the
state apparatus, including greater autonomy for in-
dividual factories and farms. Many also favor some
relaxation in the regime's tight political controls.
The conservatives, on the other hand, fear these
changes would bring dilution of the party's polit-
ical power and a weakening of its ties with Moscow.
President Novotny, who is also party boss, is
basically a conservative. Even he, however, has
seen the need for change. His economic reform
program last year envisaged a loosening up of cen-
tralized controls and was an important concession
to liberal views. Conservatives lower down in the
bureaucracy, however, have thwarted it by insisting
on their old rigid interpretation of the State's
authority.
Unrest is growing both within and outside the
party. The regime's inability to maintain rapport
with the intellectual community was illustrated
last June. The country's leading writers boldly
attacked the premises of the regime's cultural and
political policies and asked for a much more
liberal approach. The party leadership ignored the
demands--but it has been afraid to take action
against the writers.
Czechoslovak youth--with their "happenings,"
miniskirts, and illegal, Western-oriented youth
clubs--have for some years been demonstrating their
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alienation from the regime. Today, Prague students
are demanding equal justice and adherence to the
rule of law. They apparently have the backing of
some party intellectuals and the sympathy--but not
the active support--of the general population.
Soviet party boss Brezhnev made a sudden visit
to Prague on 8 and 9 December, just prior to a
scheduled central committee meeting, to take a
first-hand look at the situation and apparently to
lend Novotny his support. The central committee
subsequently met from 19 to 21 December and the
presidium has been in session almost constantly
since the beginning of the month. No policy or
personnel changes have yet been announced, however.
Novotny's position without doubt has been
weakened in recent months, and there is widespread
dissatisfaction with his stand-still leadership.
This has given rise to speculation that he himself
will be removed from either or both of his govern-
ment and party positions. On the other hand, there
is apparently no individual within the leadership
apparatus who is both acceptable to Moscow and
strong enough politically to replace Novotny as
head of the regime. Thus, if Novotny were forced
out, he would probably be replaced by a weak col-
lective leadership.
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FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY
Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
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30 December 1967
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Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
30 December 1967
I. 'NOTES ON THE SITUATION
* * *
Hanoi Backs Sihanouk: Hanoi radio yesterday
broadcast a Nhan Dan editorial promising strong
support to Cambodian Chief of State Sihanouk. The
editorial, evidently written before Sihanouk's re-
cent interview with the Washington Post reporter,
said US reports of Communist use of sanctuaries in
Cambodia were "brazen slanders." As might be ex-
pected, it went on to claim that it was all a plot
to step up the war and extend it to the whole of
Indochina.
Nhan Dan declared the Vietnamese people were
fully behind the Cambodian people in "their strug-
gle" and took the stock Hanoi line about "volunteers."
The editorial said Cambodia has the "legitimate
right to call when necessary for assistance from
friendly countries to defeat the US."
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II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
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