Documents / FOIA release
The CIA's Directorate of Intelligence issued this Weekly Summary, No. 0369/70, on 8 May 1970. It covers events through noon on 7 May. The Far East section deals with the allied operations into Cambodia, Hanoi's cautious response and the government in exile Sihanouk formed in Peking. Other items cover Soviet military aid, the Sino-Soviet talks, Jordan, Dahomey, Guatemala and Brazil, and a special report looks at Cuban support for subversion in Latin America. Many pages are withheld, and the summary contains no UFO material.
Approved for Release: 2023/03/28 C03154550 ?EeR_E1 Indochinese summit conference and his announcement on 5 May of the official formation of his government—in—exile. Predictably, the Chinese loudly acclaimed the conference, declaring at the same time that the Chinese "resolutely oppose" efforts to utilize the UN or "any other international organization or conference" to settle the Cambodian problem. The Chinese also blasted the Soviets for UN Ambassador Malik's encouragement of new Geneva—type consultations on Indochina and wrote off Indonesia's planned Asian conference on Indochina. The Chinese role in the Indochina summit conference was almost certainly far larger than public disclosures suggest. Pre- mier Chou En—lai himself was probably in attendance, and may have urged a more militant line than that finally adopted by the publicly identified conferees. Peking obviously is attempting to play the "people's war" card with respect to the Indochinese situation; its negative attitude toward any sort of negotiations on the issue may have made it more difficult for Hanoi to con— sider such a ploy. The Chinese have probably pledged increased materiel support to the actual combatants in Indochina, but there is no indication that Peking plans to intervene in the conflict itself. Peking wasted little time in formally recognizing Sihanouk's newly formed Royal Government of National Union. In making the announcement, Premier Chou En—lai declared that Peking had officially severed diplomatic relations with Phnom Penh and was withdrawing "all staff of the Chinese Embassy and Chinese experts." The Chinese ambassador in Phnom Penh subse- quently met with Cambodian lead- ers and an arrangement was appar- ently worked out for reciprocal withdrawal of Cambodian diplomatic personnel from Peking. This is the first time Peking has taken the initiative in breaking rela- tions with another state. The move probably was in train for some time and flows logically from previous Communist actions and pronouncements. Peking's initial reaction to President Nixon's speech on 30 April and to US bombing raids in North Vietnam on l and 2 May has been relatively restrained. The official government statement contained a "stern warning" against US provocations and reiterated China's amorphous pledge to pro- vide "powerful backing" for the Indochinese people in their war against the US. Peking, however, did not commit itself to a direct role in Indochina, but instead it seemed to imply that the Indo- chinese could handle the situa- tion by themselves. Peking saved its best punches for personal assaults on President Nixon. The Chinese described him as a "god of plague and war" and an "executioner whose hands are dripping with the blood of the Indochinese people." The Presi- dent was also described as a "ma- licious war criminal" and the US as being "unscrupulous, truculent, and treacherous." These attacks represent China's most virulent commentary against the US in sev- eral months, and suggest that Pe- king may use the forum of the Sino—US Warsaw talks later this month to further castigate US pol- (b) (3 icy in Indochina. Page 8 WEEKLY SUMMARY 8 May 1970 Approved for Release: 2023/03/28 C03154550
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 78 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.