CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00975A012000050001-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 11, 2003
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: August 31, 1968
• Content Type: REPORT

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DIRECTORATE OF
INTELLIGENCE
Central Intelligence Bulletin
Secret
50
25X1
31 August 1968
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No. 0249/68
31 August 1968
Central Intelligence Bulletin
CONTENTS
Czechoslovakia: Situation report. (Page 1)
South Vietnam: Situation report. (Page 5)
Guatemala: Despite the threat of more terrorism the
government apparently will not give in to the Commu-
nists. (Page 6)
Mexico: Planned student demonstrations may spark
new serious disorders. (Page 7)
Turkey: Anti-US demonstrations (Page 8)
Somalia-Ethiopia: Talks scheduled (Page 8)
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C Czechoslovakia: The Soviets and their allies
are more openly asserting their influence as the
Dubcek regime continues to implement restrictions
called for in the Moscow agreement.
Far from abstaining in Czechoslovak domestic
affairs, the Soviets seem to be on the verge of
making new arrests. Pravda today called for the
liquidation of 40,000 "counterrevolutionaries" in
Czechoslovakia, warning that the struggle is far
from over. This follows reports that on 30 August,
Prime Minister Cernik, in a private briefing for
journalists, advised the nation's intellectuals to
"get out while they can," as he can guarantee the
safety of no one, not even himself. In Belgrade,
Deputy Prime Minister Sik, out of fear of arrest,
will reportedly await clarification of the situation
in Prague before returning home. The associate
editor of Literarni Listy fled to West Germany after
his journal ceased to publish rather than bow to
censorship.
Soviet security forces, meanwhile, are contin-
uing to take over key posts in important ministries.
Several liberal ministers, including the minister
of interior, are said to be ready to resign.
The Czechoslovak Government announced on 30
August the establishment of an office to control
the press, radio, television, and the news service
CTK, while formal legislation on information con-
trol is being drawn up. The press already has
begun to exercise restraint. In Brno, Mlada
Fronta, the press organ of the youth organization,
appeared on Friday with two blank columns.
Dubcek has called for a meeting today of the
pre-invasion Czechoslovak party central committee
to elect a new presidium, according to unconfirmed
Western press reports. Dubcek's action implicitly
repudiates the progressive central committee elected
31 Aug 68
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C by the extraordinary 14th party congress last week.
The Soviet Union has denounced the extraordinary
congress as illegal. There are reports the congress
will be reconvened on 9 September, the original date
set prior to the intervention.
Radio Czechoslovakia on Friday broadcast a
statement of the Central Committee of the National
Front asking the government to negotiate an agree-
ment to ensure the departure of foreign armed forces
so that "the full sovereignty of our state is re-
stored." In tacit recognition that the occupation
may last indefinitely, however, the National Front
also "insisted unconditionally" on noninterference
in Czechoslovak internal affairs by occupying forces.
The Council of the Central Trade Union Organization
passed a resolution on Friday expressing the worker
support for Dubcek's reformist Action Program and
insisting on the quickest possible withdrawal of
foreign armies from the country.
There has been no substantial change detected
in the status of the occupation troops in Czecho-
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C South Vietnam: A variety of indicators point
to 2 September as the target date for enemy military
actions, perhaps on a countrywide scale.
Communist forces in the III Corps area continued
to be very active on 30 August, launching numerous
mortar and artillery attacks on allied positions and
conducting occasional small-scale ground probes.
these actions ar"e-
designed to mask the movement o sizable enemy
forces toward Saigon.
The enemy also is still trying to place his
forces around allied positions in northern I Corps
and along the coast in the Da Nang area. Several
sharp clashes occurred on 30 August in southern I
Corps as allied forces maneuvered to interrupt enemy
moves.
Most of the latest fighting was centered in the
Da Nang and Quang Ngai city areas. US Marines and
ARVN units operating some ten miles southwest of Da
Nang reported killing 111 Communists while the al-
lies lost 10 killed and 73 wounded. Some 12 miles
west of Quang Ngai city an allied special forces
camp was attacked by elements of the North Vietnam-
ese 3rd Division. The camp's defenders have report-
edly taken some 29 casualties in the initial stages
of the battle. (Map) 7
31 Aug 68 Central Intelligence Bulletin
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Guatemala: The threat of further terrorist
action hangs over the country, but the government
apparently will not bow to Communist demands.
Colonel Mendez Montenegro, brother of the presi-
dent and military chief of the presidential staff,
fears that the pro-Cuban Rebel Armed Forces (FAR)
may follow up its murder of the US ambassador with
further attacks on US personnel or on other diplo-
mats and government officials. The FAR has pub-
licly threatened a series of reprisals if the gov-
ernment does not bring to public trial one of its
leaders who was captured last week.
During a meeting of government leaders on 28
August, a police official responded to a suggestion
that the FAR chieftain be freed by angrily assert-
ing that the prisoner would not be released even if
the FAR "abducted every minister in the cabinet."
Meanwhile, the government's intensive search
for the ambassador's killers continued through the
nights of 29 and 30 August. The police have an
arrest list of 150 names and an unidentified gov-
ernment eyewitness to the slaying is reported to
have tentatively identified some of the terrorists
who took part in the murder. None of those iden-
tified has as yet been arrested.
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Mexico: Student plans to stage demonstrations
Sunday during the president's annual state of the
union address could spark additional serious dis-
orders.
The explosion of a small bomb at the US ambas-
sador's residence yesterday indicates that violence
may begin even earlier. The government appears de-
termined, however, to deal firmly with the protest-
ers and end the student strike before the presiden-
tial address. Strikers--especially the extremist
leaders--also appear bent on violence, and are pre-
paring "to defend" the university campus with arms
and molotov cocktails. Many students reportedly be-
lieve that a dialogue with the government over their
demands is no longer possible.
The students may have overplayed their hand
when they occupied the capital's main square and
the national cathedral on 27 August and raised the
black and red flag of anarchy in place of the flag
of Mexico. Mexicans who were sympathetic to many
of the student demands have been offended by these
actions and by the vulgar attacks on the president.
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Turkey: Turkish officials appear determined
to prevent any serious trouble during the current
visit to Izmir of the US Sixth Fleet. A protest
demonstration on 29 August by a few hundred leftists,
mostly students, ended in a brief donnybrook between
the leftists and a much larger rightist group. Sev-
eral leftists were injured. No Americans were in-
volved. Given the tougher attitude being taken by
Turkish authorities, the political left may soon
shift to a strategy of passive resistance and neu-
tralist propaganda. 25X1
Somalia-Ethiopia: Somali Prime Minister Egal
is due in Addis Ababa on 1 September for talks on
improving relations between the two countries. The
visit, which is in response to a belated Ethiopian
offer of concessions to Egal and his detente policy,
may help end the current stalemate between the two
countries. Although the specific details of the of-
fer are not known, the concessions were apparently
sufficient for Egal to accept the invitation, even
in the face of growing criticism in Mogadiscio that
his conciliation policy has produced no favorable
results.
31 Aug 68 Central Intelligence Bulletin
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Secret
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