THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF - 1968/01/18

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Tet Declassified
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 05974230
• Document Creation Date: July 27, 2018

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The President's Daily Brief
-Sect 18 January 1968
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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
18 January 1968
I. NOTES ON THE SITUATION
Hanoi's Man in Paris Tries to Heighten World
Interest in Trinh's Of er: Mai Van Bo ii.
no cut
any important new ground in his interview in Paris
on Tuesday, but he did expand a little on Foreign
Minister Trinh's 29 December "will talk" statement.
He said negotiations could begin "a suitable time"
after a bombing halt.* He also indicated that both
the level of talks and the agenda were negotiable
and could be discussed during a preliminary meeting
between the two parties. US acceptance of the Trinh
offer could be relayed to Hanoi either by means of a
US statement or "any other procedure" demonstrating
US sincerity, he said. Bo, however, underscored
Hanoi's contention that there will be no reciprocal
gesture to a US bombing halt.
Bo's purpose was clearly to reinforce the im-
pression that Hanoi has made a significant initia-
tive and that now it is up to the US to respond
without asking anything more of the Communists.
Bo, who is one of Hanoi's most authoritative
spokesmen, went out of his way to secure immediate
release of his interview. When he found that the
French TV program which was to carry it was post-
poned, he had his material released through the
French News Agency and simultaneously offered it to
other Western news services.
A cable from the US Embassy, Paris, reports that
Bo gave another interview yesterday and was some-
what more specific. He said talks could begin
in "a matter of days" after a bombing halt. This
interview is the one reported in this morning's
Washington Post and sourced to "North Vietnamese
officials."
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More on a Hanoi Trade Mission to Singapore:
Singapore will permit a visit by a trade mission
from Hanoi in the near future but a government
spokesman states that the mission will not be
granted permanent status. Singapore's trade with
Hanoi totaled only $3.5 million in 1966, less than
one-tenth of one percent of total trade. Primarily,
North Vietnam ships coffee to Singapore in ex-
change for Malaysian crude rubber and coconut oil.
Singapore is a major transshipment port for Far
Eastern trade, and Soviet ships bound for Haiphong
from the Black Sea stop at the port regularly.
* * *
Belgian Communists Plan Big Antiwar Show: Bel-
gian Communists have overcome some factional diffi-
culties in the national Vietnam committee and are
now clearing the decks for what they expect to be
the biggest anti-Vietnam war demonstration in Belgian
history. It is planned for 2 March and five or six
other groups have promised to join the Communists in
the effort.
II. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL
ATTITUDES ON THE WAR
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More Hanoi Reports on US and other Western Anti-
war Activities: Hanoi radio's international service
carried a broadcast in English on 17 January report-
ing what it implied was an upsurge of antiwar senti-
ment in the US labor movement. It claimed that over
500 members of 50 US labor unions in 38 of the 50
states had recently issued a statement in Chicago
saying that "nothing can justify the sacrifice of
countless precious lives of Americans and Vietnamese."
The group, according to the broadcast, went on to
demand an end to the bombing and the opening of ne-
gotiations with the Liberation Front.
The same Hanoi broadcast also carried accounts
of recent anti-Vietnam war meetings in New Zealand,
the Netherlands, France, and Tunisia.
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