THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF - 1968/01/08

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Tet Declassified
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 05974212
• Document Creation Date: July 27, 2018

Approved for Release: 2018/07/26 005974212
The President's Daily Brief
re t 8 January 1968
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DAILY BRIEF
8 JANUARY 1968
1. North Vietnam
2. South Vietnam
3.
The two suspected coastal defense
missile sites south of Thanh Hoa were
struck repeatedly by US aircraft on
5 and 6 January. There is no firm evi-
dence from photography or pilot reports,
however, that either site was occupied
at the time of the attacks.
at a meeting with President
Thieu and
some of the senior generals on 5 Janu-
ary, it was decided not to accept
General Thang's resignation as chief
of the Revolutionary Development cadres
and the Regional and Popular Forces.
Instead the reasons for his discontent
would be investigated.
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Thang has charged privately that
the Revolutionary Development program
is lagging because of foot-dragging by
the corps commanders. Their attempts
to hang on to political power and
patronage are said to be causing Thieu
to delay reorganization of the armed
forces and provincial administrative
reforms.
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FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY
Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
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8 January 1968
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� Special Daily Report on North Vietnam
for the President's Eyes Only
8 January 1968
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
French Views on Hanoi's Negotiating Posture:
Etiene Manac'h, the Director of Asian Affairs for
the French Foreign Ministry, told an embassy officer
in Paris Saturday that Mai Van Bo, Hanoi's represen-
tative in Paris, had confirmed to him on 3 January
the "official nature" of Trinh's statement. Manac'h
claimed Bo intended this confirmation to be passed
to US authorities. Manac'h went on to say that the
Trinh statement in no way changes the French govern-
ment's understanding of Hanoi's position; Paris al-
ready knew that Hanoi was ready to enter into talks'
if bombing were halted unconditionally.
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Reports
on the lying an wor ing con .i ions of the North
Vietnamese people continue to come in
The most recent add to the
growing body of evidence that Hanoi has engaged in
an extensive relocation of industry, particularly
in the heavily bombed areas of the southern prov-
inces.
One report gives details of the organization
of civilian bomb damage crews. The peacetime regu-
lation that each adult donate 25 days of labor to
state projects each year was broadened in 1965 to
a requirement that all adults under 45 respond to
unlimited calls for work anywhere for any length
of time. Only after the first 25 days of such
duty does the state begin to supply the workers'
food.
A medical technician who worked in a hospital
in the northwestern part of the country for ten
years reports that the young Vietnamese-educated
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medical doctors are not nearly as well trained as
the older French-educated ones in his hospital.
He also reports that political considerations
severely hampered the administration of his hospital.
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II. .NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
,ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
There is nothing of significance to report.
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