CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1956/11/24

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 03002997
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: October 25, 2019
• Document Release Date: October 31, 2019
• Publication Date: November 24, 1956

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24 November 1956
SC No. 05756/56
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3.5(c)
3.3(h)(2)
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A.-1L t I 141 Lti-�
CONTENTS
1. USSR TO BEGIN MAJOR NEW ARMS SHIPMENTS TO
SYRIA BY END OF NOVEMBER (page 3)0
2. CHAMOUN APPEALS FOR MILITARY AID
(page 4).
3. SOVIET OFFICIAL SAYS NEW BERLIN TRAVEL CONTROLS
NOT SUBJECT FOR NEGOTIATION (Confidential) (page 5).
4, PRAVDA EDITORIAL JUSTIFIES POSITION AGAINST TITO
(Secret) (page 6).
5. GOMULKA REPORTEDLY PLANS MAJOR CHANGE IN
POLISH COMMUNIST PARTY (Secret Noforn) (page 8).
� 6. POLISH PAPER ATTACKS SOVIET ACTIONS IN HUNGARY
(Confidential) (page 9),
7. 7SSR_R7PORTEDLY OFFERS TO EQUIP LIBYAN ARMY
(page 10).
8. USSR TO LAUNCH CAMPAIGN TO "EXPOSE ISRAEL"
(page 11).
9. CHOU EN-LAPS ARRIVAL IN CAMBODIA (Confidential)
(page 12).
24 Nov 56
Current Intelligence Bulletin Page 2
TOP SECRET EIDER
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1. USSR TO BEGIN MAJOR NEW ARMS SHIPMENTS TO
SYRIA BY END OF NOVEMBER
the USSR had
agreed to make major new arms ship-
ments to Syria which would begin the
last week in November.
The new shipments will include small
'arm's; thecuum ana-heavy mortars, mines, ammunition and
several hundred motor vehicles. Additional quantities of
artillary, communications equipment, and six motor torpedo
oats will also befuriiished shortly. While the Soviet re-
ponse to Syria's request for two squadrons of
van_17 ipt fighters is unknown
Despite Syria's wish to route shipments
through Syrian ports to prevent detection of the new deliveries,
the Soviets recommended that Beirut, with its more adequate
handling facilities, be designated the port to receive the "heavy
pquipment!'
Since 1 November only three Soviet bloc
ships known to be carrying arms have reached Syrian ports.
Two arrived during the first week of November and a third was
unloading cargo on 15 November. No others are known to be
en route.
24 Nov 56
Current Intelligence Bulletin
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2. CHAMOUN APPEALS FOR MILITARY AID
Christian leaciers in Lebanon, alarmed
by recent terrorist bombing attacks in
Beirut and by reports of a Soviet arms
build-up in Syria, have made urgent re-
quests for military aid from Britain,
France, and the United States. Presi-
dent Chamoun told
the
situation was critical and that Syria was
becoming a Communist arsenal. He said
if prompt action was not taken the situation
mieht zet completely out of hand.
Syria was pressing for the en-
try of Syrian troops into southern Lebanon,
and that ChamOun and his minister of de-
fense, General Shehab, are afraid Syria
exert economic pressure to force a change in Lebanese
policy.
Foreign Minister Charles Malik told
that Lebanon must have some
guarantees of outside protection. Malik argued that military
aid alone could not prevent a Syrian military or political vic-
tory, since a large part of the Moslem half of the population
would be a fifth column in the present situation.
the Christians are afraid that Egypt
and Syria may be trying to stir up Christian-Moslem clashes.
Some 3,000 Lebanese security forces, in-
cluding army elements, are on duty in Beirut as a result of
the bombing attacks of 17, 20 and 21 November. Caches of
arms and explosives have been found, and some 20 to 30 ter-
rorists or agents,,including the chauffeur of the assistant Egyp-
y attach�are reported to have been arrested,
24 Nov 56
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SOVIET OFFICIAL SAYS NEW BERLIN TRAVEL
CONTROLS NOT SUBJECT FOR NEGOTIATION
The Soviet acting commandant in Berlin,
Colonel Kotsiuba, told Allied political
advisers on 22 November that, although
Soviet authorities were not challenging
fled c mmunication to Berlin per se, control procedures
n rail travel were entirely a matter for the Soviets to de-
cide, and they had a right to change them as they wished.
Colonel Kotsiuba emphasized that the purpose of the stricter
controls was to limit travel to members of the Allied mili-
tary garrisons in Berlin and their dependents, and that this
limit would apply to both rail and autobahn traffic. He claimed
that persons unconnected with the Berlin military garrisons
have been traveling on military trains or under military or-
ders on the autobahn.
Kotsiuba expressed satisfaction with the
American and French willingness to provide Soviet authori-
ties with individual travel orders and Russian translations.
The British authorities have now decided to follow this prac-
tice also. The Allied officials rejected Soviet demands for
permission to board trains to inspect passengers' documents
and decide whether individuals had a right to such documenta-
tion. Kotsiuba was not entirely clear about what criteria
should be used for determining what individuals had a right
to travel documentation.
Comment Soviet authorities started demanding more
detailed documentation for rail travel on
the night of 20-21 November. Kotsiuba's statement is the first
indication that the Soviets might seek to prevent individuals �
under Allied military orders from traveling to Berlin on the
autobahn as well as by rail. The USSR may hope to force more
Allied nationals, if no longer covered by travel orders, to ap-
ply for East German visas for travel to Berlin.
24 Nov 56
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4. PRAVDA EDITORIAL JUSTIFIES POSITION
AGAINST TITO
A Pravda editorial of 23 November
strongly denies Tito's charges that
Stalinist principles continue in Moscow.
Pravda attempts at great length to prove
that Soviet relations with other socialist
states are being conducted on a basis of
absolute equality. It accuses Tito of
disrupting socialist international unity
and trying to interfere in other parties,
particularly the Albanian and French. However, it calls for
a clarification of controversial problems in "a comradelike
exchange of views:1 Moscow is obviously trying to keep the
present dispute from erupting into an absolute split.
Pravda calls Tito's independent road a
poor example, since Yugoslavia has had to rely on extensive
economic aid from the "imperialists." It concedes that the
Yugoslav workers' councils have "some positive elements,"
but criticizes Yugoslavia's decentralization of econbmic planning
and failure to socialize agriculture, specifically calling atten-
tion to its chronic grain shortages. Pravda boasts that the
Chinese Communists have made a "huge contribution" to the
construction of a socialist society without trying to impose
their ideas on others.
In an absolute denial of Tito's charge
that Soviet-imposed Stalinist policies had caused the Hun-
garian problem, the editorial claims that the excesses of the
earlier period in Hungary were the result of too slavish imi-
tation of Soviet methods by Rakosi and Gero, against the ad-
vice given by the Soviet leaders themselves.
The Soviet Union has now put the next
move up to the Yugoslays. On 20 November Yugoslav acting
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foreign secretary Prica told Ambassador Riddleberger that
he felt the Soviet leaders did not want to break completely�
However, the Yugoslays apparently feel that it is time to in-
dicate to Moscow by such gestures as their latest initiative
to revitalize the Balkan pact that they are maintaining their
relations with the West.
24 Nov 56
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5, GOMULKA REPORTEDLY PLANS MAJOR CHANGE IN
POLISH COMMUNIST PARTY
Polish party first secretary Wladyslaw
Gomulka greatly distrusts the pre-World
War II members of the Polish Communist
-Party, now in positions of authority,
He is promoting former so-
cialists, Spanish Civil War veterans, and members of the
wartime Communist underground army. He also is reported
to be placing great emphasis on a revival of the Peasant
Party, and intends it to play a role in the new government,
which will eventually become similar to a Western socialist
democracy, Gomulka's attitude toward the Communist Party
is very hostile, who believes that
the party is being destroyed. (NOFORN)
Comment Gomulka has already made one Peasant
Party leader a deputy premier and has
named nonparty men to lead the ministries of health and ship-
ping. There is no indication, however, that he plans to change
the Communist Party to the extent necessary to make Poland
a socialist democracy. He probably does intend to broaden
the composition of the party and strengthen his control by ad-
vancing people who are in sympathy with his ideas.
The pre-World War II Communists Gomulka
reportedly distrusts are those who spent the war years in the
USSR and have generally been strongly pro-Soviet.
24 Nov 56
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6, POLISH PAPER ATTACKS SOVIET ACTIONS
IN HUNGARY
The Polish newspaper Zycie Warszawv
on 23 November rejected as "nonsensical"
Soviet charges that the Hungarian revolu-
tion was started by Western agehts and
American dollars. It called this version "too churlish and
primitive to deserve argument" and criticized "Russian com-
rades" for a "zigzagging lack of consistency and return to
Stalinist methods!'
The paper compared the Hungarian revolu-
tion with the Poznan uprising, and said the "heroic" Hungar-
ians were fighting for the same thing as the Poles�sovereignty.
Comment Zycie Warszavyy has been in the forefront
of the campaign for democratization and
national independence, and it is probable that the extreme na-
ture of this criticism was not approved by the regime.� Al--
though Polish leaders have been unhappy over Soviet actions
in Hungary, they have attempted to avoid antagonizing the
USSR by criticizing it openly. The Polish abstention on the
Asian-sponsored United Nations resolution on Hungary and the
vagueness of the section of the Soviet-Polish communiqu�n
18 November which dealt with Hungary, however, may indi-
cate that the regime intends to follow a semi-independent for-
eign policy. (CONFIDENTIAL)
24 Nov 56
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A-11.- 41... N.1-a
Offers _
eral economic aid and "unlimited free arms!'
24 Nov 56
7. USSR REPORTEDLY OFFERS TO EQUIP LIBYAN ARMY
The USSR recently offered to equip and
maintain the Libyan army at a level of
10 000 men.
rently numbers about 2,000.
sufficient concern in
frce to begin aiscussions on
procedures for'carrying out British rnmmitments for expan-
sion of the Libyan armed forces, it
is unlikely that the Libyan zovernment would seriously con-
sider any, Soviet offers, it almost inevitable,
however, that the question will be raised in the next session
of the Libyan parliament to embarrass the government and
the West,
The Libyan army cur-
Earlier this year, the USSR attempted un-
successfully on several occasions to gain influence in Libya.
included lib-
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Nro.
8. USSR TO LAUNCH CAMPAIGN TO "EXPOSE ISRAEL"
the USSR will soon begin a campaign
to "expose Israel" and would be grate-
ful if Egypt has "facts and information
to help in this respect!'
the USSR had not
yet "used all that it has in its bag against Israel!'
Comment
This is the latest of many indications that
the USSR intends to develop an anti-Israeli
campaign, which it hopes will perpetuate unrest in the Near
East and serve to drive a wedge between the Arab states and
the United States.
24 Nov 56
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Ths S- e RET
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9. CHOU EN-LAPS ARRIVAL IN CAMBODIA
The "hero's welcome" accorded Chou
En-lai on his arrival in neutralist
Cambodia on 22 November was a ma-
jor Chinese Communist propaganda
victory made possible by the all-out
efforts of the Cambodian government.
Chou was greeted by Prince Sihanouk,
"a red carpet several hundred yards
lone thousands of school children, and large numbers of
Overseas Chinese waving Chinese Communist flags.
The embassy comments that Sihanouk,
apparently for prestige reasons, wished to give Chou a
reception up to Communist standards of regimented enthu-
siasm. The Cambodian chief of staff personally supervised
security arrangements at the Phnom Penh airfield. The
Cambodians were particularly anxious to forestall demon-
strations by Nationalist-oriented Chinese, and prominent
Chinese Nationalists had been placed under house detention.
Chou's reception, which was in marked
contrast to the perfunctory attention given the visit of Chi-
nese Nationalist foreign minister George Yeh last June, will
probably accelerate the drift of Cambodia's Chinese community
to allegiance to Peiping.
24 Nov 56
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CONFIDENTIAL
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