CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1956/09/27

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 03178377
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: October 25, 2019
• Document Release Date: October 31, 2019
• Publication Date: September 27, 1956

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CURRENT
INTELLIGENCE
BULLETIN
27 September 1956
Copy No.
DOCUMENT NO.
NO CHANGE IN CLASS. tag,
0 DECLASSIFIED
CLASS. CHANGED TO: TS
NEXT FIEVIEW DATE:
AUTH: " 70-2
REVIEWER:
DAT
OFFICE OF CURRENT INTELLIGENCE
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
TOP SECRET
0
? /4/
.4/
7 1
/74
3.5(c)
3.3(h)(2)
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CONTENTS
1. 1. ISRAELI-JORDANIAN INCIDENTS
(page 3).
2. SUEZ DEVELOPMENTSrCAUSEt NTI-AMERICAN
REACTION IN FRANCE (page 4).
3. YUGOSLAV REMARKS ON KHRUSHCHEV VISIT
(page 5).
4. JAPANESE CONSEPVATWES ORGANIZE TO OUST PRIME
MINISTER (page 6).
5. PATHET LAO POSITION OUTLINED AS SETTLEMENT
TALKS OPEN IN LAOS (page 7).
6. LOUIS FISCHER REPORTS ON MOSCOW VISIT
(page 8).
7. POLISH TRADE UNION PAPER CALLS FOR WIDER CHOICE
IN ELECTIONS
27 Sept 56
(page 9).
* * * *
THE ARAB-ISRAELI SITUATION
) (page 10)
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Nue vivie
la ISRAELI-JORDANIAN INCIDENTS
Jordan's immediate reaction to the
Israeli attack on Jordanian army posi-
tions south of Jerusalem on the night
of 25-26 September has consisted pri-
marily of diplomatic action to deter
further Israeli attacks. Jordan's moves
have made it clear Amman does not de-
sire to expand the incident into a general
conflict with Israel.
While appealing to Western ambassadors
and to the UN to bring a halt to Israeli
aggression, Jordan also has appealed to
raq for immediate military assistance. Iraq has stalled in
response to other recent Jordanian appeals for aid. Although
token shipments of rifles and some small-arms ammunition
have been delivered, Iraq has hesitated to send troops into
Jordan for fear of provoking Israel. Partly in response to a
Jordanian request which followed serious Arab-Israeli ten-
sion in April, Iraq moved elements of a brigade, possibly
3,000 men, to the H-3 pumping station about 40 miles from
the Jordanian border.
Talk of invoking military action against
Israel by the Arab Joint Command has been conspicuously
absent. As long as Egypt remains embroiled in the Suez
dispute, Arab support for Jordan is unlikely to consist of
more than verbiage, financial aid, and some arms shipments.
The most immediate result of the Israeli attacks may be to
strain the Amman government's ability to maintain control
over the embittered Palestine Arabs in West Jordan. who
constitute the majority of the country's population.
27.Sept 56
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Niarpo'
2. SUEZ DEVELOPMENTS CAUSE ANTI-AMERICAN
REACTION IN FRANCE
� Premier Mollet told Ambassador Dillon
in Paris on 24 September that the second
London conference on the Suez problem
had caused a violent anti-American re-
�tioninFr�� public opinion and had shaken his cabinet.
The French believe that the users' association as finally
proposed represents an abandonment of the original 18-
power position. They assume that the United States con-
siders the association a final rather than a temporary
solution.
A leading industrialist who is also pub-
lisher of an influential morning paper in Paris told Dillon
that he had informed Monet that the results of the London
talks meant the end of the Atlantic alliance, a typical vio-
lent reaction, according to Dillon.
Comment The attitude of the French press toward
the United States has fluctuated since the
start of the Suez crisis, but the issue has begun to evoke
condemnatory articles from commentators heretofore re-
garded as strongly pro-American. In the coming National
Assembly debate on the issue, the Mollet government will
probably try to blame France's allies for its retreat from
forceful action.
The French hold little hope that the UN
can resolve the question, and the government will probably
attempt to obtain assembly backing for a strong plea for
economic sanctions against Egypt.
27 Sept 56
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NSW'
3. YUGOSLAV REMARKS ON KEIRUSHCHEV VISIT
Statements by Yugoslav officials tend
to confirm that the question of Satellite
developments is being discussed by
Khrushchev and Tito during Khrushchev's
visit to Yugoslavia.
Foreign Under Secretary Prica has told
American charg�ooker that, while the
Yugoslays tnemseives think the liberalization process has
gone too fast in certain Satellites, they nevertheless feel that
the Soviet Union has reverted to certain "old attitudes" in its
attempts to slow the process. Prica noted specifically the
Soviet attitude that the Poznan riots were instigated by the
West.
In response to the conjecture that Khrushchev
might be seeking Yugoslav help because of differences in Mos-
cow over the Satellites and the growing evidence of Yugoslav in-
dependent activity there, Prica replied, "We are not interested
in helping him on account of his beautiful face:' Prica did im-
ply, however, that Yugoslavia's continuing failure to obtain
needed wheat from the United States would oblige it to turn to
the USSR and put Yugoslavia in a very difficult position to resist
Khrushchev's pressure. The Yugoslav ambassador in Warsaw
told a Western correspondent there that Tito had recently told
him of difficulties with the USSR and that the Yugoslays would
be obliged to compromise and "swallow some of the Russian
line."
The possibility of compromise would seem
to depend largely on whether Moscow and Belgrade can agree
on the extent of eventual Satellite independence. The Yugoslays
might accept a slower pace if assured that the liberalization
process will continue.
27 Sept 56
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Noe Nor*
4. JAPANESE CONSERVATIVES ORGANIZE TO OUST
PRIME MINISTER
Opponents of Japanese prime minister
Hatoyama within the ruling Liberal-
Democratic Party on 25 September
created a "Situation Discussion Council"
aimed at preventing Hatoyama's trip to
Moscow and forcing his retirement.
The council reportedly has the support
of 224 of 423 Liberal-Democratic Diet
members and confronts Hatoyama with
the possibility of an open break in the government party.
Anti-Hatoyama elements are consolidat-
ing their position in the internal competition for power which
has prevented the formulation of a firm official position on
the negotiations with the Soviet Union. The new group, fear-
ful that Hatoyama might sacrifice Japanese territorial claims
at Moscow, is seeking public support by calling for the im-
mediate return of Shikotan and the Habomai Islands and con-
tinued discussion with the USSR of the status of the Southern
Kurils after relations are restored.
The Yoshida-Ikeda faction of the party
is unlikely to carry out its threat to bolt the party simply
on the issue of Hatoyama's trip to Moscow. Therefore, a
party split appears improbable unless the prime minister
agrees to a settlement unreasonably adverse to Japan.
There is general agreement among Japanese political and
business leaders that their ailing and inept prime minister
should retire, but continued failure to agree on 14
remains the major obstacle to his replacement.
27 Sept 56
or
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5. PATHET LAO POSITION OUTLINED AS SETTLEMENT
TALKS OPEN IN LAOS
The political commission seeking to
arrange a final settlement between the
royal Laotian government and the
Pathet_Lao opened discussions on 25
September. The Pathets asked for assur-
s would adopt an "Indian or Cambodian type
of neutrality!' They also demanded the right to operate as
a legal political party throughout Laos, amnesty for all held
�as political criminals by the government, and representa-
tion in the cabinet.
Comment The Pathets' action suggests that they
are dissatisfied with Prime Minister
Souvanna Phouma's declaration of a "Swiss type of neutrality"
for Laos.
the Pathets intend in the current negotiations on
details to press for other concessions that go beyond the sub-
stance of the 5 and 10 August agreements on principles.
the Pathets "will demand specifically that
the royalists must have relations" with Peiping and Hanoi.
They also intend to demand that five to seven of the 21 new
parliamentary seats to be contested in supplementary elec-
tions be guaranteed to the Pathet Lao. This demand is prob-
ably designed to provide justification for the Pathets' demands
for inclusion in the cabinet.
27 Sept 56
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. LOUIS FISCHER REPORTS ON MOSCOW VISIT
e sues ance o
Anastas Mikoyan.
ouis Fische i, American expert on
oviet affairs, has given the American
mbassy in London his impressions of
recent 24-day visit to Moscow and
is conversation with top Soviet leader
Mikoyan said he had "faced destruc-
tion" toward the end of Stalin's regime, and left no doubt
he was a violent anti-Stalinist. Fischer reported that
everybody with whom he talked had read Khrushchev's
secret speech, which they referred to as a "letter," but
when queried as to when the speech would be published
for the general public, Mikoyan told Fischer that it was
"still too early to do this!"
Among old friends from prewar days,
Fischer found great respect for Malenkov, who they thought
was "not finished as a top leader."
Fischer was struck by the freedom with
which ordinary people talked as compared with the Stalinist
era, and with the diminished fear of the police.
Comment In his secret speech, Khrushchev hinted
that Stalin was preparing a new purge on
the eve of his death and that both Mikoyan and Molotov were
likely victims.
The letter referred to by Fischer's
friends is probably the central committee circular--an ab-
breviated version of the Khrushchev speech--which was
widely distributed through party channels after the February
party congress.
27Sept 56
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Noe
rV POLISH TRADE UNION PAPER CALLS FOR WIDER
CHOICE IN ELECTIONS
An attack of 25 September on the single-
list electoral system in Glos Pracy, or-
gan of the Polish Trade Union Federation,
suggests that the government may have
decided to give the voters a'choice between
candidates in the Sejm (parliament) elections scheduled for
16 December.
The article may have been prompted by
the government, since the trade union paper has not been a
leading critic of the regime in the past. The former am-
bassador to Rumania recently told the American minister in
Bucharest that the December elections will be on a completely
new and democratic basis.
The nomination of at least twice as many
candidates as there are seats in the Sejm, as called for by
Glos Pracy, would not necessarily imply loss of control by
the regime, since the candidates would still be selected by the
Communist-controlled National Front. The voters would, how-
ever, be able to reject those they regarded as least capable of
representing their interests. The principal effect would be to
stimulate demands for further electoral reforms.
27 Sept 56
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4411r,
THE ARAB-ISRAELI SITUATION
(Information as of 1700, 26 September)
"Rather large Israeli troop movements"
from the Central Command toward the south were reported by
the American army attach�n the afternoon of 25 September.
Israeli reserve military police were called up on the same day.
In the event of a major mobilization, military police would be
among the first to be called because of their function in carry-
ing out mobilization procedures. These movements do not ap-
pear to have been in preparation for the attack in the Jerusalem
area, although they may have been connected with a reported
diversionary attack in the Hebron area.
Apparently reflecting uneasiness over in-
creased tension on Jordan's border with Israel, Syria has moved
two battalions of regular infantry to Dera near the Jordan border
on the main road from Damascus to Amman. These regular units
are reported to have replaced a force of Palestinian Arabs in this
area, which is on the southern invasion route into Syria.
Israeli government circles consider the
Canadian decision to sell them 24 F-86 jet fighters an indication
that the Israeli policy of reprisal raids, although censured by UN
organs, has not caused deterioration in relations between Israel
and the Western powers.
Israeli advocates of preventive war against Egypt--
who exist not only in the Herut Party but also, according to Ben-
Gurion, among the best officers in the army--will not give up
their plans. several Israeli ob-
servers, who had been worried lately by the anti-Israeli tone of
the Soviet press and radio, are afraid that the Canadian ship-
ments will bring about a "further deterioration in the relations
between Israel and the USSR susceptible of compromising not only
Jewish emigration from the eastern bloc, but also the execution
of the recent oil agreement" (
27 Sept 56
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