CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1953/03/21

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 02050140
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: July 15, 2019
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2019
• Publication Date: March 21, 1953

Wrepz,o)3..e.ved for Rdlpsies,: 2019/06/26 CO2050140 /31
SEC INFORMATION
"KAI"
21 March 1953
Copy No. 60
CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN
DOCUMENT NO. �
NO CHANGE IN OLAS'j,
DECLASSIFIED
CLASS. CHANGED TO: TS S C
NEXT REVIEW DATE:
AUTH; HR 70-2
DATE: REVIEWER:
Office of Current Intelligence.
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
TOP S RET
SEW INFORMATION
3.5(c)
3.
3.5(c)
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-A
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SECURITY INFORMATION
3.5(c)
SUMMARY
NEAR EAST - AFRICA
1. Egyptian attitudes on defense augur more trouble for MEDO (page 3).
EASTERN EUROPE
I/ Yugoslav Yugoslav officials consider action against Albania untimely (page 3).
WESTERN EUROPE
3 Britain to ask European cooperation in liberalizing global trade
(page 4).
VHigh-level French reports on Indochina expected to be critical
(page 5).
* * * *
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SECURITY INFORMATION
3.5(c)
NEAR EAST - AFRICA
1. Egyptian attitudes on defense augur more trouble for MEDO:
The question of arms from the United States,
as well as British evacuation of the Suez Canal
zone, must be settled before Egypt will con-
sider the problem of Middle East defense,
according to Egyptian Foreign Minister Fawzi,
3.3(h)(2)
3.3(h)(2)
Comment: Egyptian insistence on military
equipment from the United States prior to discussion of Middle East
defense might block present plans for MEDO.
Egypt's interest in a regional defense system
predominantly under local control can also be expected to cause con-
tinued difficulty for the MEDO concept.
EASTERN EUROPE
2. Yugoslav officials consider action against Albania untimely:
3.
Sosef Djerdja, one of the top Yugoslav Foreign3(h)(2)
Office officials, has emphasized to the American
Embassy in Belgrade that there have been no
Yugoslav military movements near the Albanian
border. He stated that Yugoslavia strongly opposed any action which
would lend support to Cominform charges of aggressive intentions toward
Albania.
According to Djerdja, there is no reason to
believe that Hoxha's control over the country has weakened since Stalin's
death. He told the American Charge that while the collapse of the regime
was inevitable because of deteriorating economic conditions and increas-
ing popular discontent, the time for this event "was not in sight."
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Nur
SECRITY INFORMATION
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Comment: There is no reliable evidence
that 'Yugoslavia is Planning any overt actions against Albania.
WESTERN EUROPE
3. Britain to ask European cooperation in liberalizing global trade:
3.3(h)(2)
Foreign Secretary Eden and Chancellor of 3.3(h)(2)
the Exchequer Butler, in addressing the
Organization for European Economic Coopera-
tion on 23 March, plan to ask the European
countries to consider their own problems within the context of a "one
world" economic system aimed at freeing both trade and currencies
as widely as possible.
Butler will propose an immediate study of
the implications of the convertibility of other currencies as well as
sterling with a view to the subsequent relaxation of Britain's restric-
tions on trade with the Continent. He also will recommend considera-
tion of revamping both the European Payments Union and the OEEC to
permit a wider multilateral payments system.
Comment: These statements are aimed at
reassuring the European countries about British trade plans, but Italy
and France in particular are more interested in immediate relief from
the burden of Britain's import restrictions.
In conversations with the Commonwealth,
� European countries and the United States, Britain is evidently seeking
the widest possible exchange of views before committing itself on its
own "new" trade policies.
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SEC ITY INFORMATION
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4. High-level French reports on Indochina expected to be critical:
Reports on Indochina by Marshal Suin and
two French National Assembly deputies who
have recently returned from that area are
expected to be pessimistic and critical of
the French administration there.
Comment:
Juin believes that the Indochina military situation has definitely but
not decisively improved over two years ago. The report by one of
the deputies, Paul Devinat, is expected to be critical not only of the
lack of dynamism of French policy but also of High Commissioner
Letourneau. According to the press, the other deputy involved, Paul
Reynaud, has been highly critical of the Vietnamese attitude toward
the war.
5
3.3(h)(2)
3.3(h)(2)
3.3(h)(2)
TOP ,CR FT
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