CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1957/05/05

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 03178391
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2019
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2019
• Publication Date: May 5, 1957

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CURRENT
INTELLIGENCE
BULLETIN
3.3(h)(2)
5 May 1957
3.5(c)
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Copy No.
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OFFICE OF CURRENT INTELLIGENCE
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
TOP SECRET
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CONTENTS
. NEW SOVIET PLANNING CHIEF APPOINTED
(page 3).
FIGHTING NOT RESUMED IN HONDUIAN-NICARAGUAN
BORDER DISPUTE (page 5).
6 yl 3. ATOMIC WEAPONS ISSUE REPORTEDLY SPLITS BONN
CABINET (page 6).
I) 4, SYRIAN BY-ELECTIONS
D
(page 7).
6)) 5. SARAGAT SOCIALISTS REPORTED WITHDRAWING FROM
ITALIAN CABINET (page 8).
66 6. GHANA PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATION MAY VISIT MOSCOW
(page 9).
5 May 57
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Now
1. NEW SOVIET PLANNING CHIEF APPOINTED
By appointing I. I. Kuzmin, a behind-
the-scenes party administrator expe-
rienced in day-to-day control over
industry, to the key post of chief of
the USSR State Planning Commission
(Gosplan) the Soviet leaders are apparently attempting to
solve the problem of maintaining tight party control over
industry after decentralization of the economic administra-
tion.
The selection of a relatively obscure
person for the position may reflect some disagreement
among the top leaders over the appointment. However,
the fact that Kuzmin was brought in from the party appara-
tus--the administrative organization within the central com-
mittee secretariat under Khrushchev, suggests that Khru-
shchev has again manipulated key personnel appointments
in order to strengthen his influence over the reorganized
economic system. Khrushchev's prestige is intimately tied
up with the success of the economic reorganization.
Kuzmin has been serving in the central
apparatus of the party since at least 1945. In September
1953 he was head of the Industry and Transport Department
of the party central committee and has recently been head
of the Machine Building Department of the party apparatus.
Kuzmin was not made a member of the party central com-
mittee at the 20th party congress, however, but instead was
placed on the less important and essentially honorific Cen-
tral Auditing Commission.
Kuzmin's new appointment reflects the
fastest rise to prominence of any Soviet official in recent
history. As head of the new planning organization under the
forthcoming economic reorganization, he will have wide
responsibilities and powers, not only in national planning,
5 May 57
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but also in co-ordinating and supervising the activities of
the 80-100 National Economic Councils to be organized
throughout the country. The importance of Kuzmin's new
post is emphasized by his appointment as a first deputy
premier--a rank held by only five other leading figures in
the Soviet hierarchy, all of whom are full members of the
party presidium.
Moscow also announced that the pre-
vious USSR Gosplan chief, N. K. Baibakov, has been ap-
pointed to the important positions of first deputy premier
In the Russian Republic (RSFSR) and chairman of the RSFSR
Gosplan. His removal from the central planning post, there-
fore, does not suggest that the Soviet leaders were dissatis-
fied with his past performance.
(Concurred in by ORR)
5 May 57
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NtiO
2. FIGHTING NOT RESUMED IN HONDURAN-NICARAGUAN
BORDER DISPUTE (Information as of 2100, 5 May)
Comment on:
Fighting between Honduran and Nic-
araguan forces is still confined to
limited skirmishes and apparently some
minor air action in the disputed area.
Both sides have promised to co-operate
with the special committee of the Organ-
ization of American States (OAS) named
on 2 May to investigate and help settle
the dispute. The American ambassador
in Honduras, however, believes that
Honduran forces may be continuing to
move in the disputed area despite ambig-
uous instructions from the Honduran
government to do nothing which might
further aggravate the situation. The OAS
committee, which conferred with Hondu-
ran authorities in Tegucigalpa on 4 May,
flew to Nicaragua the next day.
Feeling is running high in both countries
and each government has threatened drastic action if further
provoked by the other. The danger of full-scale hostilities is
lessened, however, by the presence on the scene of the OAS
committee.
An indication of the stand Nicaragua
will probably take before the OAS came in a 2 May message
sent to all OAS members. The Nicaraguan foreign minister
declared that the 1 May Honduran attack on the Nicaraguan
garrison in the disputed area was "treacherous" and "deceit-
ful" and occurred after Honduras had requested OAS interven-
tion to settle the dispute. He said this was "an unspeakable
travesty...of the lofty aims of the OAS which, if not dealt with
by sanctions, could undermine" the peoples' and governments'
faith in the OAS.
5 May 57
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TL_A -ff. IL A-.1
3. ATOMIC WEAPONS ISSUE REPORTEDLY SPLITS
BONN CABINET
SC definite split between the views of
Defense Minister Strauss and Foreign
Minister Brentano developed at a heated
cabinet session on 30 April which had
been called in preparation for the 10 May Bundestag debate on
atomic weapons,
A umteci government position
on equipping the West German army with atomic weapons was
not reached.
While Chancellor Adenauer and Brentano
agreed that the Federal Republic should take no initiative to ac-
quire atomic weapons, Strauss violently defended his own con-
cept that an army must have atomic weapons to survive and
Bonn must therefore acquire them. Strauss, whose own ex-
tensive political ambitions are tied to this issue, has shown no
signs of bowing to the chancellor's instructions to tone down
his demands. He had predicted that if the Adenauer-Brentano
view prevails the Bundestag debate will be a fiasco, with seri-
ous effects on the Christian Democratic Union's prospects in
the September elections.
The 10 May Bundestag debate has been
called by the opposition in an effort to exploit the differences
in the government on the atomic weapons issue and the shift-
ing positions taken by Adenauer since his 5 April statement
that West Germany must have parity in such weapons. The
government's fears of prolonged distusgion of this emo-
tionally charged issue have been increased by a recent unpub-
lished public opinion poll which shows 57 percent of those re-
sponding as opposed to the equipping of West Germany's forces
with atomic weapons or the stationing of such weapons onWest
German territory.
5 May 57
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--- � ����������� -,�-������
4, SYRIAN BY-ELECTIONS
Reference:
According to unofficial returns, leftist
candidates have won three out of four
contests in the Syrian parliamentary by-
elections held on 4-5 May. The elections
were held to fill the posts of four con-
servative deputies convicted of conspir-
acy with Iraq.
In the important Damascus constituency,
leftist Riad Malki won over his conservative opponent Mustafa
Sibai, Moslem Brotherhood leader. At Homs and at Suwayda,
in the Jebal Druze region, leftist candidates are reported to
have comfortable margins. The fourth seat,which Went to the�
kightist candidate, is in the Hauran tribal area, where ideology
played almost no role.
The turnout of voters was about the same
as in the 1954 parliamentary elections. The outcome apparently
resulted from the leftists' domination of the government and,
hence, of the voting machinery.
5 May 57
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5. SARAGAT SOCIALISTS REPORTED WITHDRAWING
FROM ITALIAN CABINET
Comment on:
Speculation of an early overthrow of
Italian premier Segni's coalition govern-
ment has followed press reports on 5 May
that Vice Premier Saragat has announced
that his Democratic Socialist Party will withdraw from the
cabinet. The reports do not agree on how soon this move
might take place. Refusal by the 19 Democratic Socialist
deputies to support the government would erase Segni's slim
majority in the 590-man lower house, reducing his assured
support to his own 265 Christian Democratic deputies and 14
Liberals.
Strong pressure within the Democratic So-
cialist Party for withdrawal from the government has been
evident for some months, stemming partly from a general
party belief that the Segni government is not radical enough
in its reform program, and partly from a belief on the part
of many party members that withdrawal would facilitate re-
union with the Nenni Socialists.
The most likely countermove by the Chris-
tian Democrats would be the formation of a single-party gov-
ernment, relying on the left for parliamentary support on some
issues and on other occasions on the Liberals and most of the
40 Monarchist deputies. Too close an association with the
right, however, would antagonize the reform-minded Chris-
tian Democratic left wing and might lead to its breaking away.
If it is decided to hold new national elections,
it is unlikely that they would take place before September.
5 May 57
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CONFIDEN7711,
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6. GHANA PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATION MAY
VISIT MOSCOW
Comment on:
The American embassy in Accra be-
lieves there is a distinct possibility
that a Ghana parliamentary delega-
tion will be sent to Moscow in response
to a Soviet invitation. The permanent secretary of external
affairs says he will try to have a "sensible" delegation chosen
with no ministers included who could commit the government.
A trip by a parliamentary delegation
to Moscow would probably be the beginning of increasing so-
cial, political and economic contacts between Ghana and the
Soviet bloc. Both the British Foreign Office and the Amer-
ican charge at Accra believe that Ghana will exchange diplo-
matic representation with the USSR within a year.
5 May 57
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CONFIDENTIAL
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