EASTERN EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79B00864A000800010030-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 16, 2010
• Sequence Number: 30
• Publication Date: May 24, 1968
• Content Type: REPORT

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24 May 1968
Poles Taking the Heat off the Czechs
Several recent developments indicate that the Poles now
wish to downplay recent tensions with the Czechoslovak
regime, while stressing the hope that Prague's liberalizing
trend will be kept within "socialist" bounds.
In a 23 May conversation on a different subject with
the British ambassador in Warsaw, acting Foreign Minister
Winiewicz blurted out that "Poland's concern over the
Czechoslovak affair is over." This statement tends to
confirm earlier reports that within the past few days the
Polish Embassy in Prague has been taking a less alarmist
view of Czechoslovak developments. A friendly atmosphere
was said to have prevailed during a 23 May meeting between
Gomulka, Cyrankiewicz and Czechoslovak Ambassador Gregor
when the latter handed them a reply to the 6 May Polish
protest over "distortions of Polish events" in the Czecho-
slovak press. As far as we can tell, however, Prague has
not promised to curb its press.
Polish tourism to Czechoslovakia, severely curtailed
by the Poles in recent weeks, may also resume soon.
According to the Polish press, agreement has been reached
between the travel agencies of the two countries to
facilitate the travel of Poles to two major Czechoslovak
fairs in July and August.
At the same time, the Polish regime seems to be
sending unofficial emissaries to Prague to influence the
Czechoslovaks toward keeping the liberalization trend
there under control. For example, two officials of the
pro-regime Catholic organization, PAX held talks in
Prague recently with representatives of the Peoples (Catholic
Party and with Prague's apostolic administrator Bishop
Tomasek. As a pro-regime group, PAX has no standing whatever 25X1
with the Polish episcopate, but the Polish regime probably 25X1
hopes to use it as a channel to those Czechoslovak elements
with which it could otherwise have no contact.
De Gaulle's Visit to Rumania Cooly Treated by Most Russian
Media
Soviet media generally treated De Gaulle's visit to
Rumania as a non-event by limiting their coverage to small
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items about; his program. This limited coverage of the visit
may in part; reflect Soviet uneasiness--Especially against
the background of the Czechoslovak situation--about the
development of Franco-Rumanian relations. The restricted
coverage may also reflect what appears t;o be a deliberate
Russian policy of ignoring Rumania in. Soviet media. This
policy has been particularly noticeable since the April
plenum of the Rumanian party's central committee at which
party and state chief Ceausescu further consolidated his
position at the expense of the "old guard." By ousting
Alexandru Draghici, an arch "old guard" type, and calling
for further investigations, Ceausescu. set in motion forces
which could expose additional Stalinist skeletons in the
Rumanian closet.
Poles Reveal "New Statistics" on Jewish Victims of Nazism
The director of the Polish commission on Nazi wartime
crimes accused "Zionists" on 23 May of falsely claiming that
5.6 million out of 5.7 million of those killed in Nazi
extermination camps were Jews.
Writing in the party daily Trybuna Ludu, he declared
that this claim overstates the figure of Jewish victims
by more than 2.5 million. According to the Pole's "re-
confirmed statistics," 7.23 million persons perished in
the camps, including 3 million Jews from all European
countries. In addition, 2.1 million more Jews were murdered
by the Nazis in various ways outside the camps, bringing
the total of Jewish victims to 5.1. million.
Part of the regime's anti-Semitic propaganda since
March has been the claim that "Zionists?" have sought to
denigrate the importance of non-Jewish victims of the
Nazi occupation in Poland and elsewhere. This latest
example of cold blooded exploitation of a numbers game
is designed to underscore the martyrdom of non-Jewish Poles,
but almost certainly it will be counterproductive among
the people in general.
Yugoslav-.Bulgar:Lan Macedonian Feud Continues
Bitter differences between Yugoslav and Bulgarian
literary circles over the cultural heritage of Macedonia
has led the Yugoslav authors' organization. to cancel
sending its delegation to the current Bulgarian writers'
congress i.n Sofia. The official. reason Yugoslavia gave for
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its boycott was the failure of Bulgaria to fulfill its pledge
to send a delegation to Yugoslavia to discuss sensitive
Macedonian. cultural issues earlier this year.
The action follows complaints in the hypersensitive
Belgrade press about an article which appeared recently in
the Bulgarian periodical, Narodna Kultura. According
to the Yugoslavs, the articmpl.ied tbat Macedonians and
their language were still Bulgarian and that they have
remained in slavery in Yugoslavia.
Indonesia to Establish Trade Office in East Berlin
Indonesia plans to open a trade office in East Berlin
in the near future, according to a West German Foreign
Office official in Bonn.
The West Germans have agreed to the idea provided
the office has "no official character." The Indonesians
have assured Bonn that the office will meet this requirement
and the West Germans have agreed not to curtail economic
assistance or publicly criticize the Indonesian decision.
In fact, a parliamentary delegation currently in
Djakarta is expected to recommend doubling the amount of
assistance that the FRG gives to Indonesia this year and
next. This congenial attitude may have prompted Indonesian
Foreign Minister Malik's statement to the delegation that
Indonesia would not establish a consulate or consulate
ppnpral in East Berlin as long as he was Foreign Minister.
Yugoslavia May Join Intelsat
Yugoslavia will join. Intelsat, the US-sponsored satellite
communications system, as soon as financial and technical
terms for financing a station in Yugoslavia can be arranged.
Belgrade hopes that the ground station will attract enough
Rumanian and Hungarian traffic to make membership a paying
proposition. The Yugoslavs' previously stated that they
had no interest in.,narticibating in the Soviet Molniya
satellite system.
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NOTE: THE VIEWS EXPRESSED ABOVE REPRESENT
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