CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1957/02/23

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Keywords: 2018 Sanitization
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 03150407
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2019
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2019
• Publication Date: February 23, 1957

Approved for Release: 2019/12/04
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23 February 1957
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Copy No. .131
DOCUIVIENINO.
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DATE. REVIEWER:
OFFICE OF CURRENT INTELLIGENCE
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
//,/,:ifozofffyATOF SECRET
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CONTENTS
I. FIRST INDICATIONS OF CALL-- UP OF ISRAELI RESERVES
(page 3).
2. ISRAELI LEADERS IN PARIS
(page 4).
. KISH' TO BECOME NEW JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER
(page 5).
4. INDIA PLANS TO USE THREAT OF "WESTERN IMPERIALISM"
VENT UN ACTION ON KASHMII
(page 6).
5. THAI UNDERGROUND CADRES RETURNING FROM TRAIN-
ING IN COMMUNIST CHINA (page 7).
23 Feb 57
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1� FIRST INDICATIONS OF CALL-UP OF ISRAELI RESERVES
Comment on:
First signs of a call-up of Israeli re-
serves were observed on the night of
21 February,
Jordan army intelligence reported
limited Israeli mobilization, particu-
larly in the Jerusalem corridor, as
early as 17 February, but no substan-
tiating evidence had been noted pre-
viously by attaches.
Arab nervousness over Israeli inten-
tions has been encouraged by the Soviet military attache
in Damascus who advised the Egyptian military attache
there on 19 February of the alleged arrival in Israel in
early February of large shipments of tanks and aircraft
from Italy.
A limited mobilization from the
relatively low level of 55,000 army personnel maintained
since December would be consistent with Israel's present
unyielding diplomatic posture, and with its interest in the
current critical situation in Jordan. The number of inci-
dents along Israel's border with Jordan have recently in-
creased, according to reports from Tel Aviv. Most of the
mobilization measures are reported to have occurred at
night; similar procedures were followed in previous covert
mobilizations.
23 Feb 57
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2. ISRAELI LEADERS IN PARIS
The American ambassador in Paris
reports that Mehahem Begin, ex-Stern
gang leader, member of the Knesset,
and head of the Herut Party, is now in
Paris where he is meeting with various
political figures, including DeGaulle.
The American air attache in Israel
reports that Col. Weizmann,' the nephew
of Israel's first president and a top Israeli air force com-
mander, will depart for Paris on 24 February for a three-
week stay.
Comment These visits are indicative of the exten-
sive efforts being made to broaden the
basis of French-Israeli political and military collaboration.
Both Begin and Weizmann visited France last summer, and
Begin has been given credit for helping promote French sup-
port for the Israeli invasion of Sinai. The present contacts
are part of the larger effort and do not necessarily suggest
that a new military venture is being planned.
Premier Mollet said on 22 February that
France will continue to give Israel "all the aid we can!'
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HI TO BECOME NEW JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER
Comment on:
Japan's Prime Minister Tanzan Ishibashi
was to submit his resignation on 23 Feb-
ruary. He will be replaced by his foreign
minister, Nobusuke Kishi. The new govern-
ment, which is expected to win easy Diet approval, almost cer-
tainly will continue its co-operation with the United States, but
Kishi, like his predecessor, believes strongly in increasing the
Independent position of Japan.
Ishibashi's resignation followed an announce-
ment on 22 February that illness would prevent his resumption
of duties for two months. Government and Liberal-Democratic
Party leaders, under heavy criticism from the Socialists and
from dissidents within conservative ranks because of the execu-
tive and legislative standstill since Ishibashi's illness, decided
to form a new cabinet. All ministers reportedly will retain
their posts in the new government.
Kishi, a bureaucrat turned politician, is 61
and is comparatively young for a Japanese prime minister. He
was the principal planner in Japan's pre-war economic develop-
ment of Manchuria, a member of the wartime Tojo cabinet, and
in recent years one of the conservatives' principal political or-
ganizers. He enjoys wide support within the Liberal Democratic
Party, and should be able to give Japan a greater degree of sta-
bility and more effective government than his two predecessors.
23 Feb 57
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4. INDIA PLANS TO USE THREAT OF "WESTERN IMPERIALISM"
TO PREVENT UN ACTION ON KASHMIR
Comment on:
India apparently feels
that its only hope of preventing Pakistan
from obtaining a two-thirds vote on Kashmir in the General As-
sembly lies in raising the spectre of a new Western imperialism
before the Asian-African nations.
The foreign ministry instructed its missions
to stress that the Anglo-American resolution on Kashmir is de-
signed "to create permanent differences among the Asian-African
nations and to destroy their solidarity and strength:' The "colo-
nial and imperialistic powers and their friends" were described
as using the Kashmir issue to "safeguard their colonial inter-
ests and their imperial domination in the African-Asian region."
The willingness of the Indian government to
resort to such arguments indicates how serious it regards the
threat of General Assembly action to its position in Kashmir.
If the General Assembly should support Pakistan on. Kashmir--as
seems likely�India would be forced to agree to a plebiscite in
Kashmir or lose prestige with reference to its role as a world
mediator, either of which would be a major defeat for Indian foreign
policy.
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5. THAI UNDERGROUND CADRES RETURNING FROM
TRAINING IN COMMUNIST CHINA
Thai cadres who have been undergoing
training in Communist China have com-
pleted their course and are prepared to
return to Thailand by a clandestine route
throug nort ern aos,
Communist authorities
in Laos, stated that the cadres have reported to the "men re-
sponsible for the communications lines between Upper Laos
and Thailand;' and gave instructions to maintain utmost se-
crecy concerning their trip.
Comment the long-standing
suspicion that Peiping is training Thais--
and probably other Southeast Asians--for clandestine Commu-
nist activities in their homelands. This training is probably
being conducted in the Thai Autonomous Area which was es-
tablished in southwestern Yunnan in 1953.
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