LIMITED OFFICIAL USE
(Classification)
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
INR BRIEFING NOTE
TO: The Director, INR
GIST: First Word Out of Prague that North Vietnamese Economic Delegation to visit in "very near future"
DATE: June 12, 1968
TIME: 15:00
COMMENTS CONTAINED IN INR BRIEFING NOTES ARE INITIAL AND TENTATIVE.
SOURCE(S)
FBIS
CTK Int'l. Service in English
June 10, 1968
CLASS./CONTROL(S)
In a brief announcement the Czechoslovaks stated that the North Vietnamese economic delegation headed by Le Thanh Nghi would "arrive in the very near future to discuss Czechoslovak assistance to the DRV and cooperation between the two countries in 1969."
INR/RSB COMMENT
The Prague announcement is the first we have seen, either from Czechoslovakia or North Vietnam, that Le Thanh Nghi would include Czechoslovakia on his current swing through Eastern Europe.
The announcement avoids any reference to "military" assistance, and perhaps its timing, several days before the North Vietnamese arrive, is designed to forestall the now customary announcements from Hanoi that the economic delegation is coming to conclude both economic and military aid agreements.
INR OFFICE
RSB/BE
BRIEFER
Evans
EXTENSION
4832
FORM 810978 DocId:33061196 Page 4
(Classification)