CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1956/03/14

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 03161852
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: October 25, 2019
• Document Release Date: October 31, 2019
• Publication Date: March 14, 1956

Approved for Release: 2019/10/21 C03161852
CURRENT
INTELLIGENCE
BULLETIN
TOP SECRET
DOCUMENT NO. If G)
NO CHANGE IN CLASS dtcl
U DECLASSIFIED
CLASS. CHANGED TO: TS S C
NEXT REVIEW DATE. 2 010
AUTH: HR 70-2
DATE: 11.774,4 86
REVIEWER
14 March 1956
Copy No. 03
OFFICE OF CURRENT INTELLIGENCE
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
TOP SECRET
C03161852
)
3.5(c)
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mirk Amiga
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1....11 .._.71��....111.11-4 1 _JO
CONTENTS
1. STALIN'S "CRIMES" REPORTEDLY AIRED AT SECRET
SESSION OF 20TH PARTY CONGRESS (
(page 3).
2, GREECE SEEKS TO ENLIST ARAB STATES IN ANTI-
BRITISH CAMPAIGN (page 4).
3. NEW LEBANESE GOVERNMENT EXPECTED SOON
(page 5).
4. EGYPT, SYRIA AND SAUDI ARABIA OFFER TO REPLACE
WESTERN AID TO LIBYA (page 6).
5. USSR REPORTEDLY HAS OFFERED ECONOMIC AID TO
THE SUDAN (page 7).
6. FRANCE TO EXPAND CONTACTS WITH COMMUNIST
CHINA (page 8).
7. DEATH OF POLISH FIRST SECRETARY BIERUT
(page 9).
8. LAOTIAN GOVERNMENT CRISIS
* * * *
14 Mar 56
(page 10).
THE ARAB-ISRAELI SITUATION
(page 11)
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CVIVI /AL
1. STALIN'S "CRIMES" REPORTEDLY AIRED AT SECRET
SESSION OF 20TH PARTY CONGRESS
Ambassador Bohlen reports that he
has heard from two different sources,
and has received indirect confirma-
tion from others, that Khrushchev
delivered a lengthy speech on Stalin's
losed session of the 20th Party Congress
at which no foreign representatives were allowed.
In order to justify the attitude of the
present leadership, Khrushchev discussed in considerable
detail Stalin's actions during the purge period, charging
him with having decimated the party and executed many
of its outstanding leaders without cause. He said Stalin
"murdered" 5,000 of the best Soviet military officers, thus
undermining the defensive capacity of the country, and dis-
regarded repeated warnings, including some from Churchill,
of the imminence of Nazi attack.
Khrushchev is said to have announced
that statues and other signs of the glorification of Stalin
will be gradually eliminated, and Bohlen comments that
there is some confirmation that statues of Stalin are begin-
ning to be removed in Moscow.
Bohlen believes the reports are probably
accurate in substance and thinks it logical that the party elite
would receive more convincing justification for the attacks
on Stalin than were contained in the formal speeches at the
congress.
Comment It now appears that Stalin's entire career
will eventually come under critical re-
view. Thus far, however, official public criticism of Stalin
since the party congress in both the Soviet Union and the
Satellites has been aimed primarily at the tyranny of his
later years. Only in the Soviet republic of Georgia, where
the people took great nationalist pride in Stalin, did the party
newspaper mention the anniversary of his death. On 9 March
the Georgian radio announced that a new monument to Stalin
would shortly be erected in a Georgian village.
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F./11_441_41_1UL!
2. GREECE SEEKS TO ENLIST ARAB STATES IN ANTI-
BRITISH CAMPAIGN
Greek prime minister Karamanlis has
ordered Minister without Portfolio
ICassimatis to start on an official tour
of the Middle East within a week
7ICassimatis reportedly will discuss future relations with
the Arab states on the basis of a "proposal as already re-
ceived from them."
cultivation
of relations with the Arab countries was proposed at a
meeting of the Greek cabinet as an additional
means of "supporting the fight against Britain."
Comment Athens apparently believes London can
be forced by such pressure to reconsider
its position regarding Cyprus. Greece traditionally has had
close ties with Egypt and Jordan, which both have large
Greek communities and Orthodox patriarchates. Egypt has
already begun relaying Greek broadcasts to Cyprus, at least
temporarily defeating British efforts to jam Radio Athens.
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3. NEW LEBANESE GOVERNMENT EXPECTED SOON
Lebanon's President Chamoun has
"given the green light" for parlia-
mentary attacks to begin on the gov-
ernment of Prime Minister Rashid
Ka,rame,
The govern-
ment is expected to fall soon.
The president reportedly intends to
ask ex-prime minister Abdullah Yafi to form the next
cabinet in order to keep Egypt and Saudi Arabia from be-
coming "too excited."
Chamoun
has assured Solh he will be summoned to form the new
government.
The American embassy regards Solh
as the only Moslem leader in Lebanon who could with-
stand the increasing Egyptian-Syrian-Saudi pressures.
It considers Yafi, a regular recipient of Saudi money,
weak and vacillating, and unlikely to give Lebanon the
kind of resolute leadership it needs in the difficult months
ahead.
Comment Lebanon, though preferring to main-
tain its traditional neutrality, may
be forced toward the Egyptian-SyriAn-Saudi bloc.
The director of Lebanon's security
service stated on 6 March that Egypt and Saudi Arabia
were conducting a campaign to take over the country
through a puppet government.
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1.
%so
4. EGYPT, SYRIA AND SAUDI ARABIA OFFER TO
REPLACE WESTERN AID TO LIBYA
Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia have
offered to provide economic aid to
Libya to replace American and Brit-
ish assistance, according to the
ish em assy in Tripoli. The Libyan ambassador
to Britain returned to London on 12 March to discuss
this offer and the Soviet aid offer with British Foreign
Office officials.
Libyan prime minister Ben Halim's prin-
cipal concern at present is to obtain secret assurances of
continued British and American support. British prime
minister Eden has inquired whether the United States could
give the assurance the Libyans seek.
Comment An Egyptian-Syrian-Saudi offer could
be intended to complement earlier re-
ported Soviet offers of aid to Libya, to exclude both Soviet
and Western aid, or to help Ben Halim get what he wants
from the West.
When Ben Halim was seeking Western
arms aid last fall, he asserted that Egypt had offered
Libya all the arms it needed. After Western aid was as-
sured, the Cairo press claimed Ben Halim had obtained
Egypt's permission to use an Egyptian arms offer to spur
Western agreement to his requests.
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5. USSR REPORTEDLY HAS OFFERED ECONOMIC AID
TO THE SUDAN
The Czech ambassador in Cairo,
during a visit to the Sudan in Janu-
ary, told Prime Minister Azhari
that the USSR was willing to loan
the Sudan enough money to construct the Roseires and
Atbara dams or other desirable Droiects.
Representatives of East Germany,
Hungary, and Czechoslovakia reportedly called on the
Sudanese minister of defense in February and indicated
general willingness to furnish whatever equipment is
needed.
Comment Following the Sudanese announcement
of independence on 1 January, several
bloc countries made overtures for diplomatic relations.
The USSR was reported last fall to have consulted Egyptian
prime minister Nasr regarding a Sudanese request for arms,
Prime Minister Azhari stated publicly on 22 January that
the Sudan had sent delegations to Czechoslovakia and other
Eastern and Western European countries to shop for arms.
The Sudan is seeking financial aid from
Western sources for water projects which depend in large
part on Sudanese-Egyptian agreement on division of the
Nile waters.
In the last few days, Prime Minister
Azhari has denied rumors that the USSR is offering the
Sudan a long-term loan which can be paid back in cotton
or other products.
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6a FRANCE TO EXPAND CONTACTS WITH
COMMUNIST CHINA
France has decided to set up a
commercial agency in Peiping,
and Communist China may estab-
lish one in Paris, Foreign Minis-
ter Pineau informed Secretary of
State Dulles on 7 March in Karachi.
Pinea,u affirmed that France would
not recognize Communist China
"under present circumstances."
Peiping has agreed "to receive an
engineering mission which is to study on a long-term
basis French participation in the construction of indus-
trial complexes,"
Comment Such missions would be the first of
their type to be sent to Communist
China by a non-Communist industrial country. The only
permanent non-Communist trade mission now in Peiping
is that of Egypt.
The French trade group came back
with orders for $2,000,000 worth of iron and steel prod-
ucts which the government plans to license as an exception
to the CHINCOM embargo. The mission also had "defi-
nite requests--for cement works, refineries, sugar re-
fineries, etc." The French Foreign Ministry has subse-
quently disclosed that a contract is in prospect for a cement
plant and that about 10 percent of the equipment for the
plant is machinery, valued at $100,000, of types which are
on Western control lists. (Prepared jointly with ORR)
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7. DEATH OF POLISH FIRST SECRETARY BIE RUT
The death of Boleslaw Bierut, first
secretary of the Polish United
Workers (Communist) Party� in
Moscow on 12 March is unlikely to
have any significant effect on the
stability of the party, whose present leaders have co-
operated smoothly since World War II. There does not
appear to be any strife or factionalism within the party
important enough to prevent an orderly transfer of au-
thority to a new first secretary.
The principal power in Poland has
been concentrated largely in the hands of Bierut and polit-
buro members Jakub Berman and Hilary Mine. The fact
that both of the latter are Jewish may make it undesirable
for either to succeed Bierut in the light of Poland's anti-
Semitism. Berman may continued to wield his power from
behind the scenes and Mine is concerned chiefly with eco-
nomic, rather than political, matters. Logical candidates
for first secretary are Edward Ochab and Franciszek
Mazur. Both were active in the prewar Communist Party,
and both have been prominent members of the politburo
and secretariat for several years.
Bierut was 64 years old at the time of
his death and had reportedly been in poor health for some
time. There is no evidence that he was in disfavor in
Moscow.
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8. LAOTIAN GOVERNMENT CRISIS
Prospects for establishing a stable
government in Laos have diminished
as a result of Premier &tars sec-
ond failure to form a cabinet, nearly
mon a er e resigned following the installation of a
ewly elected assembly. Personal enmities among the
ajor party leaders in the 39-man national assembly have
een skillfully exploited by Bong Souvannouvong--a minority
deputy who is sympathetic to the Pathet Lao--to engineer
ICatay's defeat. Bong has accomplished this despite Katay's
superior strength as leader of the largest pro-Western
party.
Bong, who refers to the Pathets as
"our compatriots who wish to work with us for the good
of the nation," seeks the premiership on the pledge that
he will solve the Pathet Lao issue within three ,months or
resign. Although he is not likely to become premier, his
activities have tended to stimulate a latent neutralism in
the assembly.
Meanwhile, general impatience over the
unresolved Pathet Lao situation is moving toward the point
where overtures from Peiping or Hanoi to arrange a settle-
ment might appear more attractive to the assembly.
14 Mar 56
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I Ui L,C4.1:, I
THE ARAB-ISRAELI SITUATION
(Information as of 1700, 13 March)
Jordan has accused Israeli forces of
killing one woman and injuring three members of the Jordan
national guard in the 13 March clash at the border village of
Barth,. Israel claimed Jordan troops had fired the day before
killing a policeman and injuring two others. Israel also
charged that Jordanians fired on vehicle traffic near Magal,
25 miles northeast of Tel Aviv. Firing was also reported
between Egyptian and Israeli patrols near the Gaza strip.
(Press)
An Israeli army maneuver in the Negev
area reportedly was to start on 12 March,
some
troop movements, probably in connection with this maneuver.
Israeli men and women of the class of 1938 have been ordered
to report for registration and examination between 14 and 21
March. Other persons previously found eligible who have not
yet entered military service have b7en ordered to renort
diir-
ing the same period for active duty.
Eleven tanks, probably mediums, and
numerous vehicles on flatcars crossed the Suez Canal to the
Sinai Peninsula on 5 March,
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4rnsie
Egyptian-Soviet bloc arms negotiations
are continuing in Prague. the Egyptian arms pur-
chasing mission notified Cairo that antitank mines, oil for
motor torpedo boats and towing vehicles for an jaireraft and
antitank guns would be delivered by 20 March.
Cairo furnished the Egyptian mission in Prague with a list of
prices, presumably those which Egypt is willing to pay, for
various types of artillery ammunition. The prices inclue
delivery to the Egyptian port of Alexandria. the
mission in Prague informed Cairo that the tank experts would
leave on 13 March by KLM. It added that the air force tactical
training program would be discussed in Cairo, and also re-
quested proposals for training in the use of heavy antiaircraft
guns.
The Soviet freighter Kronshtadt, which
had passed Istanbul coming out of the Black Sea on 6 March,
arrived at Alexandria on 9 March and began unloading in the
port's security area. Its deck cargo reportedly consisted of
16 heavy tanks. This makes 17 arms cargoes which have been
transported by Soviet freighters from Black Sea ports to Egypt
since deliveries began in late October.
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