CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1957/05/07

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 02063772
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 14
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2019
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2019
• Publication Date: May 7, 1957

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CURRENT
INTELLIGENCE
BULLETIN
7 May 1957
Copy No. 134
DOCUMENT NO.
NO CHANGE IN CLASS. )it
o DECLASSIFIED
CLASS. CHANGED TO: TS
NEXT R5VI4E,W DATE:
AUTH:
DATE. I REVIEWER
OFFICE OF CURRENT INTELLIGENCE
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
TOP SECRET
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CONTENTS
1. JORDAN MAY SEEK ENTRY OP IRAQI TROOP
(page 3).
1/.12 . COLOMBIAN POLITICAL CRISIS
(page 4).
0 t3. SERIOUS FIGHTING STILL POSSIBLE DESPITE HONDURAN-
NICARAGUAN CEASE-FIRE page 5).
04. JAPAN TO DEMAND COMPLETE ABOLITION OF CHINA
DIFFERENTIAL TRADE EMBARGO
(page 6).
K 5. SOVIET OFFICER STATES__USSR_HAS_EXPERIMENTAL
ATOMIC SUBMARINE ',page 7).
�.12-)6. SOVIET MERCHANT SHIP MONITORING US NAVY ELEC-
' TRONIC SIGNALS page 8).
b7. SOVIET EXPERTS ARRIVING IN YEMEN
(page 9).
oK 8. LAOTIAN PARTY LEADER SAYS POLITICAL SITUATION
DETERIORATING (page 10).
0 h 9. CHINESE RIOTING IN SAIGON INTENSIFIE (page 11).
(p)100 RIOT INVOLVING POLISH TROOPS REPORTED
(page 12).
fib 11. SOVIET-EGYPTIAN CO-OPERATION TO "REBUT THE
EISENHOWER PLAN" (page 13).
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1. JORDAN MAY SEEK ENTRY OF IRAQI TROOPS
Reference
Jordan's Deputy Prime Minister Rifai
desires to put pressure on Syria to
withdraw its troops from Jordan by re-
questing entry of Iraqi troops in ac-
cordance with the Iraqi-Jordanian treaty
of 1947. Rifai told Ambassador Mallory
that removal of the Syrian force would be
one of the first steps to break up Syrian
intrigue in Jordan, The Iraqis would be
stationed at Mafraq near the Syrian brigade. Rifai wishes to
bring the Iraqis in prior to the British evacuation of Mafraq
air base scheduled for the end of May. As a further step,
Rifai plans to install an Iraqi representative on the joint com-
mand in Jordan.
Rifai asserted that his government is un-
able to maintain its present position, much less take an active
role in the Arab world, without outside help. He said Jordan
needed assistance most urgently in obtaining funds to meet the
$1,800,000 installment now due to Britain on 1 June for mili-
tary equipment and transferred fixed installations.
In addition, Rifai stressed the importance
of aiding the army, rewarding its loyalty, and restoring its
position to that which prevailed before pay and allowance cuts
by former chief of staff Nuwar. Rifai, according to the Amer-
ican army attache in Amman, has submitted a request for
equipment for an infantry division, an armored division to-
gether with corps artillery, 84 aircraft including 40 jets, and
12 motor torpedo boats. Rifai informed Ambassador Mallory
that, having decided on an anti-Communist line, Jordan was
prepared to take necessary steps, including acceptance of train-
ing missions, to qualify for American aid.
7 May 57
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2. COLOMBIAN POLITICAL CRISIS
Comment on:
Vhdespread student protests against
President Rojas' regime and a police
attack which damaged a Bogota church
on 5 May have maintained the political
tension in Colombia. Although opposition
presidential candidate Guillermo Valencia
was released on 3 May from house arrest--
the occasion for the student demonstra-
tions--students and other opposition ele-
ments may attempt to call a general strike
on or before 8 May, the latest scheduled
date for Rojas' "re-election" by his rump
National Constituent Assembly. The Amer-
ican embassy believes the odds favor Rojas' replacement shortly,
probably by a military junta.
Rojas' re-election plans for the 1958-1962
term have provoked increasing opposition from the two major
political parties, the Catholic Church, and business elements.
The serious discontent reportedly has spread to the military,
Rojags' principal remaining support. This probably caused post-
ponement of his legislative re-election originally set for 1 May.
Rojas has indicated he may resign after his
"re-election" in favor of a substitute acceptable to the armed
forces, according to the Colombian government press. Such a
declaration may be mere temporizing by Rojas to gain time to
rebuild support, but in any case would probably not satisfy the
opposition at this point in its campaign to oust him.
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3. SERIOUS FIGHTING STILL POSSIBLE DESPITE
HONDURAN -NICARAGUAN CEASE- FIRE
Reference:
Public opinion is highly inflamed in
both Honduras and Nicaragua, and some
hotheaded action by one of the disputants
might result in serious fighting at any
moment. This opinion was expressed
by Ambassador Dreier, American member of the five-nation
special committee of the Organization of American States set
up to investigate and help settle the border dispute, shortly
after a temporary cease-fire had been negotiated by the com-
mittee. The cease-fire agreement, which became effective
late on 5 May, gives the committee the difficult task of work-
ing out within four days a mutually acceptable plan for the
withdrawal of troops of both sides from a zone in the disputed
border area.
The committee was favorably impressed
with the attitude of Nicaraguan officials who, it feels, recog-
nize the futility of the drift toward war and appear to be exer-
cising a restraining influence on the public. The Honduran
government also seems to Ambassador Dreier to be desirous
of avoiding war. The ambassador feels, however, that the
Honduran government has created a situation over which it
could lose control.
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4. JAPAN TO DEMAND COMPLETE ABOLITION OF CHINA
DIFFERENTIAL TRADE EMBARGO
the Japanese delegate to the China
Committee deliberations beginning on
7 May to give full support to the French
proposal for elimination of the China
e controls.
Japan is prepared to follow
France, Great Britain and other countries in declaring that
they will take appropriate measures of their own if the "un-
reasonable China differential is going to be continued."
Comment Japan has rejected recent American
proposals for revision of the China dif-
ferential on the grounds that they strengthen rather than re-
lax controls in the areas where Sino-Japanese trade thus far
has proved most lucrative. The French proposals call for a
phased reduction leading to complete abolition of the differ-
ential within one year.
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5. SOVIET OFFICER STATES USSR HAS EXPERIMENTAL
ATOMIC SUBMARINE
years ago,
Comment
The Soviet assistant army attach�n
Stockholm recently informed the Amer-
ican naval attach�here that the USSR
has one experimental atomic-powered
submarine, built between one and two
which is operating with the Northern Fleet.
The existence of a Soviet nuclear-
powered submarine has not been veri-
fied. Intelligence concerning the development of the USSR's
nuclear energy program has indicated that such a submarine
would not be in operation until late 1958 or 1959.
The Soviet Union's first identified nuclear-
powered ship is the widely publicized icebreaker Lenin, sched-
uled to be launched in Leningrad by 7 November.
Because Northern and Pacific Fleet bases
afford unrestricted access to the open seas, it is likely that
the USSR would test its first nuclear submarine in one of these
areas.
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6. SOVIET MERCHANT SHIP MONITORING US NAVY
ELECTRONIC SIGNALS
American naval sources reported on
3 May that the Soviet merchant ship
Kolkhoznik, equipped with an unusual
number and variety of radio antennae
for a merchant vessel, had obviously delayed departure
from the vicinity of the major US naval base at Guantanamo,
in southeast Cuba, for the purpose of monitoring electronic
emissions. The Kolkhoznik entered the port of Boqueron on
19 April to load sugar and had been scheduled to depart on
30 April.
The ship's antenna array includes one
ultra-high or very-high-frequency antenna, two very-high-
frequency dipoles, five medium-high and high-frequency
antennae, one high-frequency sleeve antenna, three horizon-
tal wire antennae, and a radio direction-finder loop.
Comment
The USSR has never before attempted
in such an open manner to collect com-
munications and electronic intelligence on US naval opera-
tions and equipment.
aval officers are placed on merchant vessels solely
e purpose of collecting intelligence.
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7. SOVIET EXPERTS ARRIVING IN YEMEN
A Soviet ship en route to South Asia
was scheduled to call in Yemen on 5 or
6 May with "experts to prepare the port
for what has been requested,"
These technicians may be involved in preparing
the port to receive two shiploads of "heavy arms" which the
Soviet bloc agreed in January to send following the reopening
of the Suez Canal.
Soviet assistance to Yemen is intended to
increase pressure on the British position in Aden. Moscow is
presently urging a four-power declaration against arms ship-
ments to, and foreign military bases in, the Middle East.
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8. LAOTIAN PARTY LEADER SAYS POLITICAL
SITUATION DETERIORATING
Phoui Sananikone, head of the second
largest party in the National Assembly,
reportedly believes the political situation
in Laos has deteriorated to such an ex-
tent that remedial action must be taken immediately. He
charges that dissension and lack of authority impede the func-
tioning of the government and that the country is further weak-
ened by the unhindered subversive maneuvering of the Pathet
Lao. Phoui recommends that an extensive social welfare and
economic development program be launched to improve condi-
tions at the village level. Without such action, he believes
Laos will be "eaten away" and sooner or later "absorbed by
Communist brigands,"
Comment Phoui would be a leading contender for
the prime ministership, if, as recent re-
ports indicate, Souvanna Phouma should resign or be over-
thrown after the National Assembly opens on 11 May. This
report presumably reflects the program that Phoui would
present to the assembly if called on to form a new govern-
ment.
Phouivs concern with Pathet Lao subver-
sion may also indicate a shift in the prevailing sentiment
among Laotian politicians, who generally held six months ago
that the Pathets were simply "misguided" nationalists.
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9. CHINESE RIOTING IN SAIGON INTENSIFIES
Comment on:
the building,
Rioting by Chinese in Saigon has in-
tensified in protest against Taipei's
inability to protect them from the man-
datory naturalization decreed by the
Vietnamese government. On 6 May,
following two violent demonstrations
at the Chinese Nationalist legation dur-
ing the preceding week, some 300 Chi-
nese broke through police lines to seize
and are now threatening a sitdown hunger strike.
President Ngo Dinh Diem has attributed
the demonstrations to a small minority of Communists among
the nearly 1,000,000 Overseas Chinese in South Vietnam. The
American embassy in Saigon, which has warned of the danger
of Communist exploitation of the citizenship issue, also re-
ports certain aspects that suggest Communist involvement.
In particular, the embassy notes that the crowd-handling tech-
niques of leaders of these. purportedly spontaneous demon-
strations appear to be of the "Communist-cadre variety."
In Taipei, Chiang Kai-shek has called a
meeting of top government leaders at which a decision may
be made to break off relations with Saigon. The Nationalists
have offered to aid those Overseas Chinese subject to Viet-
namese naturalization who desire to come to Taiwan, and, on
1 May, Chiang informed Ambassador Rankin that the next
step "might well be" to withdraw representation from Saigon.
7 May 57
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10, RIOT INVOLVING POLISH TROOPS REPORTED
A Warsaw newspaper report suggests
that the recent riot at Jaroslaw, an
agricultural community in southeast-
ern Poland, when the populace and
some troops intervened to halt the arrest by police of a
young soldier, is one of the most serious of recent out-
bursts against Communist state authority. The rioters
were dispersed only after more than 1,000 police and troops
intervened and drove off the demonstrators with tear gas.
A military investigation has reportedly been launched to de-
termine responsibility for the incident.
Comment Although no other riots have been re-
ported involving Polish troops, a num-
ber of minor strikes and demonstrations have recently oc-
curred throughout the country. Most of these disturbances
have taken place in industrial towns where some worker-
management friction has existed.
Official concern over such incidents,
reflected in government and party statements, doubtless
stems in part from the realization that failure to maintain
public order might furnish Moscow with a pretext to inter-
vene more directly in Polish affairs,
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11. SOVIET-EGYPTIAN CO-OPERATION TO "REBUT THE
EISENHOWER PLAN"
Comment on:
Soviet uommunist Party secretary
Shepilov promised the Egyptian am-
bassador full Soviet support to "un-
dermine the aims of the Westerners,"
He warned that America seeks to
isolate Egypt. "The decisive, important factor," accord-
ing to Shepilov, "is the firmness of Egypt and its unity with
Syria."
Shepilov charged that Saud sought an
understanding with Washington because of the dependence
of the Saudi economy on "American capital," an oblique cau-
tion to Egypt against similar dependence.
Shepilov's commentary was related to a
request, presumably from Nasr's political aide, Ali Sabri,
for a Soviet "rebuttal to the Eisenhower plan!' The Soviet
Foreign Ministry statement on 29 April censuring the United
States for Jordanian "intrigues" was evidently in answer to
this request.
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