CIA · President's Daily Brief · declassified 2015–2016
Romania in the President's Daily Brief: 1968
57 days in 1968 on which the CIA's brief for the US president names Romania: 60 paragraphs, scanned and transcribed, with the withheld passages marked.
about Romania
Rumanian Ambassador's Comments:
The Rumanian ambassador to Paris, who is now leaving his post, commented during his farewell call at the US Embassy that the United States is really winning in Vietnam. The ambassador went on to say that Hanoi's delegation in Paris no longer tries to hide its concern over the pressure Peking has been exerting on Hanoi because of North Vietnam's alleged moves toward peace.
The Rumanian's statement must be tempered by his inclination to be somewhat imaginative when he is expressing his views.
The high-level Rumanian delegation in Hanoi this week had been there on an earlier visit only about a month ago.
This may be part of Premier Maurer's attempt to bring the war to the negotiating table. Shortly after his own return from Hanoi last September, Maurer told Ambassador Davis that Rumania intended to try to push the two sides together. A further Rumanian effort along this line may emerge in high-level talks the Rumanians have scheduled this week with Pope Paul and Harold Wilson and with Soviet leaders.
A still suspicious Rumania has decided to send a delegation to the Budapest meeting of Communist parties later this month. The Rumanians decided to show up only after extensive consultations with other parties, including the Chinese. Peking may regard the presence of a Rumanian delegation as a useful check on the Soviets.
the delegation will oppose criticism of any Communist party as well as attempts to conclude binding agreements. The Rumanians will also try to get a world conference of Communist parties (Moscow's ultimate aim) put off as long as possible.
The "consultative meeting" of Communist parties opening in Budapest on Monday will be the biggest such affair since 1960, but is not likely to come to much. Moscow has had to water down its objectives in order to draw a halfway respectable turnout. Some sixty parties have been dragooned into sending representatives, but none are coming from the Far East. The Rumanians will go
Bucharest has asked for direct talks with the US this week on the nonproliferation treaty. This request is puzzling. We do know that the Soviets have tried and failed to satisfy Rumanian misgivings about the draft treaty and that the Rumanians have been pressing hard for guarantees against nuclear blackmail. It is hard to see how the Rumanians think the US could help them on this.
On balance, this looks like an attempt to bolster the world image of an independent Rumania. It may also involve a little game of psychological warfare against the Soviets. Finally, there is an outside chance that Bucharest wants to use the treaty issue to screen talks with the US on some other topic, such as Vietnam.
The Soviets have adopted a stand at the conference that amounts almost to a demand that the parties present accept Moscow's position on the issues dividing the Communist movement or get out. The Rumanians chose to get out.
The Soviets are ready to press their position knowing full well this will further alienate the Rumanians and others. Suslov, who heads the Soviet delegation, called for the creation of a temporary commission to prepare draft documents for a world conference next November or December. This is the first time Moscow has publicly committed itself to a specific time schedule since Khrushchev's abortive campaign four years ago.
The sharpened split between the Soviets and Rumanians will raise more uncertainties in Eastern Europe and intensify factional differences in East European parties. Moscow's iron-jawed stand, in short, is tending to open, not heal, the sores besetting world Communism.
Wednesday's meeting of pact leaders in Sofia seems likely to produce another collision between the Soviets and the Rumanians, this time over the draft nonproliferation treaty.
The Soviets, whose delegation will be led by Brezhnev, Kosygin, and Defense Minister Grechko, very badly want unanimous endorsement of the draft by pact countries. The Rumanians are still holding out. They criticize the draft's failure to place limitations on nuclear powers or to provide guarantees to non-nuclear countries.
Top leaders of the pact countries sit down today in Sofia; Russian-Rumanian fireworks are expected.
he Rumanians intend to propose some major changes in the pact's command structure which would dilute Moscow's authority. The Rumanians may even threaten to withdraw from the pact.
We doubt the Rumanians will go through with such action, but they will probably use the threat for tactical bargaining.
The Rumanians and Russians also will be crossing swords on the nonproliferation treaty and on relations with West Germany.
Top leaders of the pact countries sit down today in Sofia; Russian-Rumanian fireworks are expected.
the Rumanians intend to propose some major changes in the pact's command structure which would dilute Moscow's authority. The Rumanians may even threaten to withdraw from the pact.
We doubt the Rumanians will go through with such action, but they will probably use the threat for tactical bargaining.
The Rumanians and Russians also will be crossing swords on the nonproliferation treaty and on relations with West Germany.
The two-day pact meeting ended in Sofia yesterday without any sign of a new Soviet-Rumanian confrontation. There are no reports yet on what was discussed, and a final communiqué has not been released.
The meeting of the pact's Political Consultative Committee in Sofia failed, as expected, to agree on the draft nonproliferation treaty. Rumania was the holdout. This is the first time the committee has had to publicize a failure to reach agreement--a sign of the pact's dwindling effectiveness as a unifying force.
An unusually tight curtain of secrecy surrounds the East German city of Dresden as top Communist leaders from six countries gather for their weekend conclave. Even the fact that the meeting is taking place is unknown to the public.
The meeting was clearly arranged on short notice and on an urgent basis. Events in Poland and Czechoslovakia, as well as Rumania's recent defiance of bloc solidarity, are likely to be at the heart of the discussions.
The government appears to be bracing for some kind of political or economic pressure from its Warsaw Pact allies. Its fears may be justified, and could explain the efforts it has been making in recent days to strengthen ties with Yugoslavia. This may also be behind the sudden call for Ambassador Bogdan to come home from Washington for consultations.
Rumania is evidently the one pact member not represented in Dresden this weekend.
Brezhnev and Kosygin worked hard in Dresden over the weekend to head off further deterioration in bloc solidarity. It was hard going at times, and the results are sure to be less than they had hoped for.
Difficulty in reaching a consensus, especially on economic matters, is evident in several portions of the communiqué where it says simply that "views were exchanged" on certain questions.
The communiqué does say that the participants agreed to take "immediate" measures to "consolidate the Warsaw Pact and its armed forces," and that agreement was reached to hold a top-level economic conference in the near future.
What these plans may come to in a practical way remains to be seen. The Rumanians have already set the precedent that attendance is no longer mandatory at these meetings.
Two North Vietnamese Diplomats in Eastern Europe Have Left Their Posts, Perhaps for Home:
US Embassy officers in Bucharest and Sofia reported on 1 April that North Vietnamese ambassadors in these cities are absent. In Rumania, the Polish ambassador reported that his North Vietnamese counterpart left for Hanoi "hurriedly last week" without the usual notification to his diplomatic colleagues. In Bulgaria, the local press reported that Hanoi's ambassador was not in the country. Both of these absences appear to predate President Johnson's 31 March speech.
Large amounts of Soviet-made armor which the Israelis captured last summer have been bought by Rumania. Moscow has been reluctant to supply hardware to the unreliable Rumanians recently. That Bucharest has found a way around the problem is going to be especially irritating to the Russians.
Bucharest's acceptance of a US invitation to send a high-level scientific delegation to Washington early next month is another sign of its strong desire to expand relations with the West. The delegation is to be headed by Alexandru Birladeanu, a deputy premier whose special job is the direction of scientific research.
Some 70 party delegations convene today in Budapest to begin work on the agenda for the full-scale international conference late this year. Signs are that the Rumanians and Yugoslavs will be among the missing. The Czechs are reluctant, but at this delicate juncture in their relations with Moscow, they probably feel they have no real alternative but to go.
Party bosses from four East European countries suddenly converged on Moscow yesterday. Rumania and--more significantly--Czechoslovakia were excluded. This looks very much like an urgent conclave over what to do about Czechoslovakia.
Moscow's patience has been wearing thin these past two days over the growing liberal and nationalist trends in Czechoslovakia. The men in the Kremlin have been especially shocked and angered by recent stories in the Czechoslovak press which flatly accuse Soviet agents of involvement in the Prague purges of the 1950s--and in the 1948 death of Jan Masaryk.
Soviet sensitivity to these charges prompted an angry rebuttal in Pravda yesterday. Moscow clearly does not accept at face value Dubcek's assurances that he can control the pace and scope of democratization in the country.
So far, the Czechoslovaks have faced up to Soviet pressures. We know , however, that the leaders in Prague were worried late last month that the Soviets may feel obliged to intervene more forcibly in Czechoslovakia. Yesterday's news of the gathering in Moscow will surely heighten these fears.
The domestic crisis is getting worse as student and labor disturbances spread outside Paris. Premier Pompidou's stern public warning on Thursday has been met only with defiance. The workers in a number of key factories have joined in the struggle, calling strikes of "unlimited duration" and in some cases seizing the plants.
has it on good authority that the regular army has been alerted to move in should the reinforced police and gendarmes be unable to handle the situation.
Late press reports say De Gaulle has cut short his trip to Rumania by one day and will return to Paris today to take personal command.
In the face of growing protests throughout the country, De Gaulle is sticking to his guns. He apparently does not plan, at least for now, to replace those cabinet ministers who are being roundly criticized for their handling of student and labor unrest.
Gaullist leaders in the National Assembly are confident that the Pompidou cabinet will survive the censure motion being voted on today or tomorrow.
There is speculation that De Gaulle may be thinking of putting his money where his mouth is by calling a popular referendum. He would certainly think twice about this, however, given the demonstrated depth of opposition to his economic and social policies.
the government, confronted with the unforeseen events of recent weeks, is punchy and no longer acting as a government. All depends on De Gaulle. He can save the situation, but some believe that he is better at handling the generals' revolt, acting against American hegemony, and preaching nationalism in Bucharest than he is at proposing a new social contract to the nation's workers.
Bloc Arms: East European arms delivered to North Vietnam are showing up in South Vietnam. Rumanian and Bulgarian antitank bazookas, Bulgarian recoilless rifles, and Polish assault rifles are being captured by US forces. The bazookas and assault rifles captured were manufactured as recently as 1967.
Le Thanh Nghi, Hanoi's traveling economic emissary, continues his aid-seeking swing through Eastern Europe. Agreements on aid for 1969 now have been signed with Hungary, Bulgaria, and Poland. The pact with Poland, signed on 8 June, in addition to covering the usual manufactured goods and equipment, states that "installations for complete plants" will be supplied. This may refer to the Polish effort to provide miscellaneous small factories, a program which has been dormant during the bombing of areas in North Vietnam where industrialization was taking place. During the past two years, large numbers of North Vietnamese have continued to undergo technical training in Poland and other East European countries.
After his stop in Poland, Nghi traveled on to Bucharest, where agreements similar to those reached with the other East European countries will probably be signed in the next few days.
Nghi's aid-seeking mission has moved on from Rumania to Czechoslovakia. In addition to standard pacts on supplementary "nonrefundable" aid for 1968 and "nonrefundable" aid for 1969, Rumania announced it had cancelled payments of "certain sums" due under previous credits extended to North Vietnam. Bucharest is the first Communist capital to cancel debts, although none of Hanoi's aid suppliers expects to be paid. Since 1967 most Communist countries have described their aid as "nonrefundable."
Nghi has now concluded agreements for East European assistance in the coming year with Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, and Rumania.
A Czech transport delegation signed an agreement in Hanoi on 12 June to help restore North Vietnam's transport network free of charge. The Czechs will supply rails and "framework"--presumably iron and steel structures--for rail and highway bridges.
members of the Soviet party's Central Committee have been summoned to Moscow for a meeting today. The apparent haste in calling the gathering suggests that exceptionally important matters are to be considered. At the least, Brezhnev would have the opportunity to report on last weekend's Warsaw meeting and to obtain a committee resolution that could serve as another element of pressure on the Czechs.
Prague meanwhile is standing its ground. In an outspoken press conference on 15 July, Dubcek's man in charge of security and defense pointedly suggested that changes be made in the Warsaw Pact organization in order to emphasize the equality of Pact members. The Czech party leadership met yesterday to prepare a reply to the still unpublished letter sent to them by the five Warsaw conferees.
A top Czech party spokesman has said that the French and Italian Communist parties have urged the Soviets not to intervene in Czech affairs. The British and Belgian parties apparently have taken a similar line. The Yugoslavs and Rumanians are continuing to give vocal support to the Czechs.
The split among European Communists over Czechoslovakia is sharper than ever. The French Communist Party, badly shaken over the prospect of heavier Soviet intervention, is now calling for a European Communist conference to take up the Czech problem. Several parties have already responded favorably.
There are reports that Tito will arrive in Prague today to give his support to Dubcek. Rumania's Ceausescu may arrive at about the same time.
The letter sent to the Czechs by the participants of the Soviet-sponsored meeting in Warsaw has now been published. It demands that the Czechs get their party back into orthodox line, but there is still no mention of what action will be taken if this is not done.
The meeting of the Soviet central committee yesterday was evidently called essentially to endorse the Warsaw letter.
Prague is sticking to its guns. The Czechs, in Dubcek's TV address yesterday and in a statement earlier in the day from the party presidium, made it clear in calm, measured tones that they do not plan to yield on any of the important points at issue. This stand presumably will get the endorsement of the party's central committee at its meeting today. The regime has already received a flood of protestations of support from around the country.
Tito, Rumanian party chief Ceausescu, and representatives of the French and Italian Communist parties will be arriving in Prague today, according to the Czech press agency.
Moscow has not yet had time to react to the latest statements from Prague, and we do not expect a considered reply until after the Czech central committee makes known its position today. Meanwhile, Soviet media are keeping up the flow of critical propaganda.
There still has been no substantial change in the Soviet military posture in and around Czechoslovakia.
Liberation Front Sending Out More Representatives:
Hanoi's international service announced in English on Sunday that the Liberation Front had named envoys to Albania, Bulgaria, and Rumania, and had accredited its man in Moscow to Mongolia. With these appointments, the Front has a quasi-diplomatic representative accredited to every Communist country.
Ulbricht made yesterday's trip to Czechoslovakia as short as possible, but much of it must have been painful to him even so. He ventured only as far as a Czech spa 12 miles from his East German sanctuary. His plane was met by a small, silent crowd. ("One person forgot himself and clapped," noted a US Embassy officer.) The people in town followed him with cries of "Long live Dubcek!" Dubcek and his lieutenants went out of their way to make sure Ulbricht was aware of the enthusiastic support the Czechs have been giving their leaders.
The East German and Czech delegations talked for seven hours yesterday, but we cannot conceive that they have anything useful to say to each other.
Ulbricht goes home today. A more congenial guest, Rumania's Ceausescu, is due in Prague on Thursday.
Rumanian Embassy officials in Bonn and Washington have expressed fears of a possible Soviet invasion of their country. Ceausescu is reported to have announced yesterday that "we are now in a state of full mobilization." The previous day he announced the establishment of "armed guards of workers, peasants, and intellectuals" to defend national independence.
Relations between Eastern Europe's independent-minded and orthodox Communist regimes have been severely damaged by the invasion of Czechoslovakia. Tito told Ambassador Elbrick on 23 August that Yugoslav-Soviet relations from now on would be devoid of the trust and confidence that had been slowly building up.
Rumanian leader Ceausescu has for the first time been attacked by name by the Soviet and Hungarian press. Mostly low-level Soviet bloc types showed up for Rumanian National Day celebrations at various diplomatic posts last Friday.
Tito and Ceausescu met Saturday at a Yugoslav border town, presumably to coordinate contingency plans concerning the Czech crisis. They will probably not risk provoking the Soviets by overdramatizing their position. Rumanian Premier Maurer does not see any "immediate" danger of Soviet armed intervention. There is, in fact, still no hard evidence that the Soviets intend to carry their intervention in Eastern Europe beyond Czechoslovakia.
the movement of some Soviet forces toward the Rumanian border. It is too early to say whether this is meant as a pressure tactic or in fact indicates an intent to move into the country.
The situation remains unchanged with no abnormal Soviet or Bulgarian military moves Bucharest is calm. Yesterday Associated Press carried a story alleging that Ceausescu had proposed a series of concessions to the Soviets including a formal declaration of loyalty to the Warsaw Pact and increased trade with Eastern Europe. We have seen nothing as yet to confirm it.
Moscow has not reacted publicly to the President's statement. The Polish party paper, however, said yesterday any suggestion that further intervention in Eastern Europe might be contemplated was "completely fabricated."
The situation is quiet. have not been able to find any evidence of troop concentrations near the Rumanian border. Military activity in northeast Bulgaria is limited to a training exercise. The Rumanians, with their most recent careful commentary on Czechoslovakia, seem to be trying to avoid provoking the Soviets.
Tensions in Czechoslovakia continue to subside slowly. The press reports that some Polish, Hungarian, and Bulgarian troops have left for home. Soviet soldiers have withdrawn from some important buildings in Prague.
Deputy Premier Sik, a liberal who has long been anathema to Moscow, resigned yesterday shortly after being vilified in Izvestia. Izvestia also criticized Foreign Minister Hajek in terms which suggest it expects him to follow suit.
There is still no indication that the Soviets or their associates are getting ready to move against Rumania or Yugoslavia.
The nine-day truce in Soviet press attacks on Rumania was broken Wednesday when Pravda let it be known Moscow is still displeased with Bucharest's criticism. There are no new military developments relating to Rumania, however. The Bulgarians continue a military exercise; Yugoslav and Rumanian troops remain on alert.
During a recent talk with Ambassador Davis, Foreign Minister Manescu said the "danger is not entirely over," but his remarks and manner suggested a calmer view of the situation. Manescu stressed the point that Rumania's leaders considered President Johnson's 30 August statement as having had a "cooling" effect on a dangerous trend.
The Bulgarian military exercise near the Rumanian border ended last Friday. Rumania and Yugoslavia, however, apparently have not reduced the alert status of their armed forces.
The Warsaw Pact commander, Soviet Marshal Yakubovsky, arrived in Sofia Thursday ostensibly to discuss the strengthening of the pact with Bulgarian officials. The visit will probably cause nail-biting in Rumania, Yugoslavia, and even in Austria, but there is no evidence that the Soviets are about to take any military action.
The Rumanians may, however, come under greater pressure in the near future to fulfill their obligations under the Warsaw Pact, perhaps even to permit joint maneuvers to take place on their territory.
Meanwhile, the Soviet propaganda machine keeps grinding away at Berlin and West Germany.
Satellite photography of mid-September shows that an army in the Odessa Military District, near the Rumanian border, has been mobilized. At least one of the army's three divisions has been brought to full combat strength and deployed to a training area near its home garrison. Signs of mobilization were also apparent at other places in the district.
Austrian Foreign Minister Waldheim has told Ambassador MacArthur that he and his cabinet strongly disagree with certain "alarmist views of some of the Austrian military establishment" that Rumania, Yugoslavia, and Austria will probably be invaded by the Soviets in the next few weeks.
The Rumanians may be learning to live with the Soviet forces mobilized near their border. Sharp anti-Soviet polemics issued from Bucharest immediately after the invasion of Czechoslovakia, but having gotten on record, the Rumanians have since refrained from criticism of the Warsaw Five. Some Rumanian officials have remarked that as each day passed they were becoming less apprehensive.
At the same time, Rumanian leaders periodically put out explicit reminders that the threat from Moscow still exists. This obviously is true, but Bucharest would not be above emphasizing the threat as a way of using the crisis in the Communist world to advance its own interests. The Rumanians may in fact believe that focusing world attention on the danger of Soviet intervention is a good way of keeping the Soviets from moving in.
Marshal Yakubovsky, the chief of the Warsaw Pact forces who has been making the rounds of Eastern Europe in recent days, finished his tour yesterday with quick visits to Prague and Bucharest. In Prague he may have discussed terms for the withdrawal of some of the occupying forces and perhaps the outline of a status-of-forces agreement as well.
The Vietnamese Communists are steadily building their case for presenting the National Liberation Front as a functioning political entity with some of the trappings of a legitimate government. Growing Communist claims about the extent of the Front's "governing" role in South Vietnam have been accompanied by an accelerated effort to expand the Front's diplomatic representation. In the past two months the Communists have implemented or moved to implement virtually all the agreements they have been able to obtain for setting up permanent Front missions abroad.
Last August, Front missions were set up almost simultaneously in Albania, Bulgaria, Mongolia, and Rumania--the only Communist countries where Front offices had not been established previously. Last week two representatives arrived in Paris to head up a new Front office there, and this week two other officials arrived in Stockholm to open a similar mission in Sweden.
The Communists appear to be marshaling all the assets they can to enhance the status of the Front and to be ready to put it forward as a principal party to negotiations involving South Vietnam.
Rumanian authorities have evidently accepted in principle a Soviet proposal to hold joint maneuvers in Rumania sometime next year. Bucharest is obviously worried about this kind of involvement and says it will demand a formal government-to-government accord spelling out the number of Soviet troops and when they will enter and leave. This is hardly adequate insurance.
The Rumanians and the Soviets continue to cooperate on some military matters.
Defense ministers from all the Warsaw Pact states, including Czechoslovakia and Rumania, met in Moscow on Tuesday and Wednesday. We do not know what they discussed, but their press release says they achieved an "identity of views." Whatever the substance of the talks, the Soviets doubtless regard this show of unity as a political plus.
We do not at the moment have any good sign of a link between the military caucus and a meeting of the Soviet party Central Committee which was also in progress in Moscow yesterday. The party people were said to be talking mainly about Soviet agricultural policy and, while this may be true, there was bound to be discussion of the Czechoslovak problem as well.
Rumania appears to be coming under renewed pressure from Moscow to permit early Warsaw Pact military exercises on its soil. The Rumanians themselves have denied this, though they acknowledged that Warsaw Pact staff officers have been meeting in Rumania to plan a "future" exercise. Intensive efforts by the US and NATO intelligence apparatuses have been focused on the matter, producing fragmentary indications of unusual military activity by various Warsaw Pact forces, but nothing like what we would expect to see if major joint exercises--or an outright invasion of Rumania--were imminent. A special Watch Committee meeting of the United States Intelligence Board last night reviewed the evidence then available and concluded that:
--An invasion is unlikely, though the necessary military deployments could be carried out without our observing them.
--A Warsaw Pact exercise with Rumanian participation is equally unlikely, since there have been no preparations by Rumania for such an exercise.
--Warsaw Pact exercises in areas adjacent to Rumania look like the best explanation of what has been seen so far. The purpose of such activity might be to coerce the Rumanians into scheduling a major joint exercise in Rumania in the near future and, possibly, into agreeing to the establishment of a long-term Soviet military presence there.
The political and military situation remains quiet. report no evidence of unusual military moves in Hungary and Bulgaria; no unusual activity in areas next to Rumania.
Yesterday a confused British correspondent triggered concern with a London Observer story stating Yugoslav troops had gone on emergency alert because of an impending showdown with the Russians. Yugoslav troops are not on alert. The correspondent apparently was mixed up over public discussion of a proposed national defense law.
Bucharest's newspapers and radio-broadcasts this morning announced the opening "according to plan" of a Warsaw Pact staff officers' conference in the city under the direction of pact commander Yakubovsky. Though billed as an annual consultation on "problems related to combat training," the conference underscores Rumania's obligations to the pact. The military situation on Rumania's borders remains normal.
Ceausescu has struck back publicly against the pressures Moscow and the Warsaw Pact powers have been putting on Rumania. Even as senior Pact officers were meeting in Bucharest, Ceausescu in two published speeches stoutly defended Rumania's political and economic rights against the "supra-national" concepts of the Warsaw Pact and the Council for Economic Mutual Assistance.
In almost belligerent terms, he spelled out Rumania's interpretation of its responsibilities and rights under the Warsaw Pact, refused to go along with any tightening of East European economic integration, and implicitly rejected the Soviet-proclaimed right of intervention to preserve the status quo in socialist states.
Meanwhile, Rumanian officials are being wrung through the rumor mill, and some of the wilder reports they have heard suggest that Moscow's disinformation specialists are doing the cranking. Among their genuine concerns is the possibility that Soviet troops will remain in their country after the projected joint exercises, and they are doing their best to determine the circumstances under which this might occur.
A Pact summit meeting is planned to settle details of military exercises to be held in Rumania next year. The Rumanian first deputy foreign minister who passed on this information said Pact staff officers reached no decisions on maneuvers when they met recently in Bucharest. No firm date has been set for the summit, although it may be soon.
The Rumanians have been sticky about the whole subject of maneuvers on their territory, and, while their leverage is not great, this may explain why the question has to be handled by chiefs of state. We anticipate the Pact leaders would also use this meeting as a forum from which to answer recent NATO statements on Eastern Europe.
All the states in Eastern Europe still want to get along with each other, notwithstanding the differences which crystallized after the invasion of Czechoslovakia. In a classic example of this instinct, the Rumanian foreign minister turned up yesterday in East Germany on a fence-mending official visit.
International Conference on Vietnam Off to Slow Start in Sweden:
Press reports from Stockholm indicate the international conference, "Vietnam 1969--International Mobilization," sponsored by the Swedish Vietnam Committee and scheduled to run from 13-15 December, has attracted only about half the 300 delegates originally expected. Principal figures at the kickoff press conference on 12 December, at which nothing of significance developed, were the North Vietnamese Minister of Culture and the National Liberation Front representative in Rumania. The Swedish press has tended to ignore the meeting thus far. One of the major problems faced by the conference organizers is the continuing disagreement on tactics among various radical left and Vietnam peace groups in Stockholm.
The junta in Peru has recently established relations with Rumania and has announced its intention to open diplomatic ties with Yugoslavia. Lima has commercial relations with Czechoslovakia and has proposed reopening diplomatic contacts with Prague and Warsaw.
