CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1953/08/18

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 02872259
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: July 15, 2019
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2019
• Publication Date: August 18, 1953

proved for Release: 2019/07/10 CO2872259
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18 August 1953
Copy No. 67
CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN
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Office of Current Intelligence
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
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SEC NFORMATION
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ECURITY INFORMATION
3.5(c)
1.
SUMMARY
SOVIET UNION
FAR EAST
2. Top anti-Rhee leader believes further opposition impossible
(page 3).
3. Peiping announces increase in Sino-Satellite trade for 1953
(page 4).
SOUTHEAST ASIA.
4.
NEAR EAST - AFRICA
5.
WESTERN EUROPE
teof Comment on Soviet note of 16 August (page 6).
7. Comment on prospects for Pella's new Italian cabinet (page 7).
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SECURITY INFORMATION
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1.
SOVIET UNION
FAR EAST
2. Top anti-Rhee leader believes further opposition impossible:
Chough Pyong-ok, leader of the opposi-
tion Democratic National Party and
chief opponent of President Rhee, is
convinced that further overt opposition
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SECURITY INFORMATION
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to the president is hopeless and would only lead to persecution
and political suicide. He believes it is wiser to cooperate with
Rhee and attempt to guide him away from the "dangerous elements"
who are now advising him.
Chough's strategy is to form a new political
party, without the anti-Rhee emphasis, and build it up as a counter-
balance to Rhee's Liberal Party and particularly to the influence of
Yi Pom-sok, Rhee's most likely successor.
Comment Chough's decision follows
press reports that at least 23 Democratic National Party legislators
have or will soon join Rhee's party, reducing the Democratic Nationals'
strength below the minimum required for an assembly opposition
group.
With the disappearance of this party, Rhee
will have systematically shattered the last remaining effective opposi-
tion. Reports indicate that he may foster a "democratic national
front," using as an excuse the problem of unification.
3. Peiping announces increase in Sino-Satellite trade for 1953
Trade between Communist China and the
six East European Satellites in 1953 will
be about one third more than last year,
according to Peiping's vice minister of
foreign trade. The volume of machinery
and vehicles imported from Eastern Europe this year will be three
times greater than in 1952, and will account for one half of Peiping's
1953 imports from that area.
Comment A substantial increase in
shipping between Communist China and the European Satellites
was apparent early this year.
China's total foreign trade is also expected
to be higher this year than last, as estimated imports from non-
Communist countries in the first half of 1953 have reached 65 per-
cent of last year's total and China's trade with the USSR is not be-
lieved to be declining.
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SOUTHEAST ASIA.
NEAR EAST - AFRICA
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SECURITY INFORMATION
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WESTERN EUROPE
6. Comment on Soviet note of 16 August:
The Soviet note of 16 August addresses
itself specifically to the German problem in an attempt to upset
Chancellor Adenauer's chance for re-election in September. The
note will momentarily intensify West German speculation on unity
but is not likely to have any significant effect on the outcome of the
6 September elections. Chancellor Adenauer has declared that the
terms are completely unacceptable, stating that their fulfillment
would be tantamount to national suicide. The independent West
German press thus far tends to be critical.
The proposal repeats past Soviet terms
for a German peace treaty. Its only new point is that calling for
the elimination of reparations payments. This loses its effective-
ness, however, in face of Western suspension of such payments
from internal assets two years ago. The USSR does not compromise
on the crucial issue of free all-German elections prior to peace
treaty discussions or international supervision of those elections.
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SECURITY INFORMATION
7.
Comment on prospects for Pella's new Italian cabinet:
Prospects are reasonably good for
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parliamentary
approval
of the new all-Christian Democratic
cabinet of Italian premier Giuseppe Pella. Even without a
vote of confidence, however, Pella would remain as head of
a caretaker government until his special powers expire on
31 August, and could probably obtain parliament's extension
of the provisional budget beyond that date.
The new premier has made substantial
concessions to his party's reform-minded left wing by appointing
its leaders to head the Ministries of Defense, Interior, and Pub-
lic Instruction. Elimination from the cabinet of both right-wing
Christian Democrat Giuseppe Togni and former premier De
Gasperi, together with the urgency of the budgetary situation,
should ensure for Pella the necessary votes of the Minor demo-
cratic parties and the abstention, if not the support, of the ex-
treme right.
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