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Translation of the official Communist Party, Soviet Union (CPSU) report on the 4/9-4/10/68 Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Contents include: problems in the international Communist movement; problems in other socialist countries, namely China, Cuba, Rumania, Czechoslovakia, and Poland; the Vietnamese conflict; U.S. domestic problems and the presidential election; the PUEBLO incident; the nuclear nonproliferation treaty; the situation in West Germany and the Middle East. Report. Central Intelligence Agency. TOP SECRET. Issue Date: Jun 28, 1968. Date Declassified: May 28, 2003. Complete. 52 page(s).
TOP SECRET
NO FOREIGN DISSEM/NO DISSEM ABROAD/CONTROLLED DISSEM/BACKGROUND USE ONLY
-17-
79. How should such a step taken by President Johnson
be evaluated?
80. Approaching the question from the narrow point
of view of prospects for the election campaign in the
United States, it could be said that quite possibly this
was a deliberate political step. The calculation was
evidently that the leaders of the Democratic Party and
some part of public opinion would begin persistently to
persuade Johnson to change his decision and agree again
to become a candidate for President. If it had turned out
that way, then this evidently would have strengthened significantly
his political position in the election campaign.
Of course, Johnson may have miscalculated, affording great
advantage to his opponents, including the Republican Nixon,
with his decision not to run.
81. But this is not the most important thing. In
the big political picture, the step taken by Johnson without
doubt represents one of the symptoms of the critical situation
in which American Imperialism and its policies finds
itself at the present time. Such steps are not taken
lightly.
82. In actuality, the policies of the Government
of the United States are undergoing a crisis in many ways
the impasse in Vietnam, the failure of the political calculations
of Americans in the Near East, and the unprecedentedly
sharp financial crisis and racial conflicts
which continue to disturb public life in America.
83. At one time, when he was beginning his Presidential
activity, Johnson tried to entice the American
people with a beautiful picture of a flourishing and just
"Great Society" which he, Johnson, claimed to have started
in the United States. Today, everyone sees that this radiant
fairy tale has burst like a soap bubble and turns out
in practice to be covered with the notorious ulcers and
vices of capitalist society, featuring the serious failures
of imperialist policies. And now the main author of false
promises publicly announces his intention to get out while
the getting is good, leaving to others the pleasure of [Illegible text]
the mess he has made.
84. What has happened in recent weeks in the United
States impressively confirms the correctness of the evaluation
of the situation in America which was given by the
TS#197339 Copy No.
NO FOREIGN DISSEM/NO DISSEM ABROAD/CONTROLLED DISSEM/BACKGROUND USE ONLY
TOP SECRET
COPY LBJ LIBRARY
Translation of the official Communist Party, Soviet Union (CPSU) report on the 4/9-4/10/68 Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Contents include: problems in the international Communist movement; problems in other socialist countries, namely China, Cuba, Rumania, Czechoslovakia, and Poland; the Vietnamese conflict; U.S. domestic problems and the presidential election; the PUEBLO incident; the nuclear nonproliferation treaty; the situation in West Germany and the Middle East. Report. Central Intelligence Agency. TOP SECRET. Issue Date: Jun 28, 1968. Date Declassified: May 28, 2003. Complete. 52 page(s). Reproduced in Declassified Documents Reference System. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008.
Document Number: CK3100534095
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