CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00975A011000230001-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 8, 2003
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: April 26, 1968
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2003/05/19: CIA-RDP79T00975A011S1-3
25X1
DIRECTORATE OF
INTELLIGENCE
Central Intelligence Bulletin
STATE review(s) completed.
Secret
26 April 1968
Approved For Release 2003/05/19 : CIA-RDP79T00975A011000230001-3
 25X1 Approved For Release 2003/05/19 : CIA-RDP79T00975A011000230001-3
Approved For Release 2003/05/19 : CIA-RDP79T00975A011000230001-3
 Approved For Release 2003/Wt1 1 RDP79T00975A011000230001-3
This is a new Secret daily publication, the Central
Intelligence Bulletin. It replaces the Current Intelligence
Digit, which no longer is being published.
The new publication is prepared in consultation with
the Departments of State and Defense. It should provide the
readership with more timely treatment of relevant intelli-
gence than its predecessor.
Any comments on the new daily will be welcomed at
the Office of Current Intelligence, Central Intelligence
Agency.
Approved For Release 2003/0Jf fI6,DP79T00975A011000230001-3
 Approved For Release 2003/& " RDP79T00975A011000230001-3
No. 0140/68
26 April 1968
South Vietnam: Situation report. (Page 1)
Czechoslovakia-USSR: Governmental relations are
deteriorating. (Page 2)
Poland: Possible new student demonstrations may
result in violence and benefit extremist factions
of the party. (Page 3)
West German : Government leaders are concerned over
t He impact of East German moves on West Berlin but
have not decided how to respond. (Page 4)
CONTENTS
25X6
25X6
Central Intelligence Bulletin
UK: Peking has made minor conces-
to conciliatory gestures by London. (Page 6)
USSR: Crude-oil exchange (Page 7)
Algeria: Assassination attempt (Page 7)
Jordan-Israel: Agriculture damaged (Page 8)
Sierra Leone: Civilian rule (Page 8)
Dominican Republic: Possible disorders (Page 8)
Venezuela: Cabinet reorganization (Page 9)
Approved For Release 2003/a$BO RTA' DP79T00975A011000230001-3
 Approved For Release 2005 TN':T; A-RDP79T00975A011000230001-3
[[ South Vietnam: The Communists are unfolding
the organizational apparatus and program of their new
puppet "National Alliance."
A communique of 24 April broadcast by the Commu-
nist radio named a full slate of central committee
members for the alliance. Included were a number of
semiprominent personalities in Saigon intellectual
circles. Several of the members apparently defected
to the enemy following the Tet offensive, and it is
possible that they had been in contact with the Com-
munists beforehand.
The program of the alliance announced in the
broadcast tries to make the alliance appear distinct
from and independent of the National Liberation Front,
which has long been clearly tagged as a Communist in-
strument. The goals of the alliance, however, closely
parallel those of the front. According to the broad-
cast, the alliance was founded to "overthrow the Thieu-
Ky regime," to set up a national coalition government,
and to struggle against "foreign" aggression.
Various sources continue to report that the Com-
munists will soon resume the offensive. A high-rank-
ing. Viet Cong defector recently stated, for example,
that the enemy will launch another nationwide attack
no later than 1 May. He said that the main thrust of
the offensive will be directed against Saigon.
Although the precise timing of major new Commu-
nist military initiatives is unclear, they may come
soon in an effort to offset the image of allied mo-
mentum built up during the past few weeks. A wave of
mortar and rocket assaults might be the feature of
such actions, perhaps combined with a few selective
ground attacks.
26 Apr 68 1
25X1
Approved For Release 2003SECREIA, RDP79T00975A011000230001-3
 SECRET
Approved For Release 2003/05/19 : CIA-RDP79T00975A011000230001-3
25X1
Poland: Student demonstrations may resume early
next week, resulting in violence and benefiting the
extremist factions of the party.
A youth claiming to be a Warsaw University stu-
dent leader has informed the US Embassy that coordi-
nated demonstrations are planned in all major univer-
sity cities on 29 April. The students say they ex-
pect severe police repression, and hope that the pub-
lic reaction will be one of strong support. Demon-
strations apparently are to continue during the re-
gime's May Day celebrations, which will include a
major speech by party leader Gomulka.
The students hope to gain broadened support
among the workers by shifting the focus of their de-
mands from academic to economic issues.
If they carry out their plans, the students will
encounter strong regime countermeasures. Many of last
month's demonstrators have been drafted, others have
been expelled from their schools, and most of the lead-
ers have been arrested.
The regime may be aware of the students' inten-
tions, as it was during previous demonstrations. The
hard-line faction of the party, which controls the po-
lice, is likely to seize on any new unrest as an op-
portunity to strike against moderate elements in the
party. The latter have been attempting to restore a
measure of stability by deliberately paced changes at
the top. F77 I
26 Apr 68 3
Approved For Release 2003/g RJ RDP79T00975A011000230001-3
 Approved For Release 2003/'9-9"&rk-RDP79T00975A011000230001-3
West Germany: Government leaders are studying
possible countermeasures to the East German ban on.
the travel of West German officials to and from West
Berlin.
West German officials are seriously concerned
over the impact of the East German moves on West Ber-
lin, but are uncertain as to the appropriate response.
Foreign Ministry officials warn that nothing should. be
done that might "escalate" the situation. This re-..
flects their caution about actions that might under-
mine efforts to improve relations with Eastern Europe
and the USSR.
These officials have concluded that some of the
measures considered during the 1958-63 crisis are no
longer feasible. For example, they tend to rule out
any action against interzonal West-East German trade,
because this trade is already declining. They favor,
however, tightening Allied controls over the travel
of East Germans to NATO countries. They also have
specifically urged a demarche in Moscow emphasizing
the USSR's responsibility to assure access.
US officials in West Germany believe that fail-
ure to respond would encourage the East Germans to
undertake further moves curtailing Berlin access.
26 Apr 68 4
Approved For Release 2003/051 RDP79T00975A011000230001-3
'SE
 25X6 Approved For Release 2003/05/19 : CIA-RDP79T00975A011000230001-3
Approved For Release 2003/05/19 : CIA-RDP79T00975A011000230001-3
 Approved For Release 2003/0? Ji DP79T00975A011000230001-3
Communist China - UK: Peking has made some
minor concessions in response to conciliatory ges-
tures by London.
On 22 April, the Chinese allowed the British
charge in Peking to visit Anthony Grey, a British
Reuters correspondent who has been held under house
arrest since July 1967.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry official also in-
formed the charge on 21 April that the Chinese hence-
forth "would do their best" to expedite visas. He
granted six visas for new UK personnel due to ar-
rive in Peking.
These developments follow British attempts to
ease an impasse caused mainly by Peking's insistence
on including Hong Kong issues in any discussion of
"normalization" of relations.
Colonial authorities in Hong Kong have allowed
representatives of the local NCNA office to visit
Communist newspaper employees detained in prison.
The British Foreign Office also has relaxed all re-
strictions on travel and exit visas for members of
the Chinese diplomatic mission in London.
Peking's latest moves also underscore Commu-
nist China's concern over the situation in Hong
Kong. Protracted strikes, which have resulted in
the dismissal of many Communist workers, have dam-
aged the morale of the local Communist trade organi-
zations there. Peking may feel that its shift will
induce the colonial authorities to be more forth-
comin in working for reinstatement of the strikers.
26 Apr 68
Approved For Release 2003/05/19 SE RE'T RDP79TOO975AO1
 Approved For Release 200v6II-RDP79T00975A011000230001-3
USSR: Moscow, in its first crude oil exchange
with a Western oil company, will exhort to Japan Mid-
dle East crude supplied by British Petroleum and will
deliver Black Sea crude to the Western firm's customers
in Europe. The deliveries to Japan, which will total
one-half to one-million tons.over an 8- to 12- month
period, are scheduled to start in July. Additional
swaps under discussion would bolster the USSR's lag-
ging petroleum sales east of Suez.
Algeria: Premier Boumediene escaped an assas-
sination attempt yesterday afternoon virtually un-
scathed. Early reports have not linked the would-be
assassins with any of the opposition leaders. Last
January, the Algerian security service arrested sev-
eral persons allegedly involved in a plot instigated
by opposition leader Belkacem Krim to assassinate top
Algerian officials.
(continued)
26 Apr 68 7
25X1
25X1
Approved For Release 2003/05/19 : CI~DP79T00975A011000230001-3
 Approved For Release 2003/0?I7C9'":A-RDP79T00975A011000230001-3
Jordan-Israel: Recent Israeli artillery attacks
could have serious consequences for Jordanian agricul-
ture. The shelling in one of Jordan's most important
agricultural areas has damaged a key segment of the
East Ghor irrigation canal and has discouraged farmers
from working their fields. If water from the canal is
withheld for more than three weeks, crops in the area
could be lost and the banana and citrus groves perma-
nently destroyed. This would place an additional
strain on Jordan's already depressed economy, F
Sierra Leone: Under a procedural compromise
hammered out between the country's two tribally based
political factions and the new military junta, the
parliamentarians elected last year will convene in
Freetown today to begin consultations aimed at re-
storing civilian rule. Efforts are apparently being
made to form a coalition government, but tribal ten-
sions remain high and neither power group now appears
willing to accept second place. If a workable solu-
tion is not found fairly quickly, the prospect of
intertribal violence will increase, especially as the
army is itself deeply divided along lines of tribe
and rank.
Dominican Republic: The third anniversary of the
"constitutionalist" uprising on 24 April passed with
only minor clashes between leftist demonstrators and
the heavily reinforced security forces.
Although the left-of-center Dominican Revolution-
ary Party has accepted the government's proscription of
the rally it planned for 28 April to protest the land-
ing of US troops in 1965, disorders are still possible.
Party Secretary General Pena used the occasion of the
government ban to reiterate his warning that if Pres-
ident Balaguer continues to "disrespect" political
freedon, the party "will be forced" to consn e against
his government. F7 i
(continued)
26 Apr 68 8
25X1
Approved For Release 200' J j -RDP79T00975A011000230001-3
 Approved For Release 2003/Ok4cE'F,4 FCDP79T00975A011000230001-3
Venezuela: President Leoni has reorganized his
cabinet following the withdrawal of the Democratic
Republican Union from the government to prepare for
the presidential candidacy of its leader, Jovito
Villalba. The new appointees, including Venezuela's
first woman cabinet member, are technocrats rather
than political leaders. The cabinet now appears to
be a caretaker body that probably will make few
changes in government policies until after the pres-
idential election in December.
26 Apr 68 9
Approved For Release 2003/099URET DP79T00975A011000230001-3
25X1