CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1957/12/27

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 02988538
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2019
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2019
• Publication Date: December 27, 1957

Appr"ed for Release: 2019/12/10
CURRENT
INTELLIGENCE
BULLETIN
cg7
3.5(c) /'
27 December 1957
/
Copy No. 13
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3.3(h)(2) //
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NO CHANGE CLASS. frt,
DECLASSIFIED
CLASS. CHANGED TO: TS C
NEXT REVIEW DATE:
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0
DATE.
REVIEWER:
OFFICE OF CURRENT INTELLIGENCE
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
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TOP SECRET
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CONTENTS
ogTWO SOVIET PARTY SECRETARIES RELINQUISH LOCAL
POSTS (page 3).
2. SOVIET PARTY SHAKE-UP IN KAZAKHSTAN
(page 4).
3. INDONESIA (page 5).
�,� 6" 4. THAI LEADER FACING PROLONGED PERIOD OF INCAPACI-
TATION (page 6).
5. AFRO-ASIAN SOLIDARITY CONFERENCE OPENS IN CAIRO
(page 7).
do 6. BRUSSELS COOL TOWARD EARLY ACCEPTANCE OF MISSILE
BASES age 8).
7. BRITISH LABOR PARTY'S CRITICISM OF US BASE AGREE-
MENT (page 9).
ANNEX--Conclusions of the Watch Report of the Intelligence
Advisory Committee
(page 10).
27 Dec 57
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1. TWO SOVIET PARTY SECRETARIES RELINQUISH
LOCAL POSTS
Comment on:
Release of Yekaterina Furtseva and Alexei
ICirichenko from their local party posts in
Moscow and the Ukrainian Republic respec-
tively, to free them for their duties in the
central party secretariat, is not a demotion
for either. It is a further indication of the increased responsibil-
ities being assumed by the central party secretariat under First
Secretary Khrushchev.
At an extraordinary 26 December plenary
meeting of the Ukrainian central committee, attended by the
visiting Khrushchev, Kirichenko was replaced as local first
secretary by his former second in command, Nikolai Podgorny.
Podgorny served during World War II as a USSR Deputy Commis-
sar for the Food Industry and after 1950 as party first secretary
in Kharkov Oblast. In June 1953 he became second secretary of
the Ukrainian party organization and was elected to the all-union
centr41 committee at the 20th party congress in February 1956.
Furtsevais replacement in Moscow, 50-year-
old Vladimir Ustinov, is a comparative unknown. He is appar-
ently a mechanical engineer and World War II production chief
who became increasingly active in party affairs in postwar years,
and from 1950 until January 1954 was a district party chief in
Moscow. In 1952 he was a delegate to the 19th party congress.
Since then he may have attended the Higher Party School in Mos-
cow where promising party executives are trained.
Ustinov was elevated to his present post over
the heads of two prominent Moscow city party secretaries, Ivan
Marchenko, a full member of the central committee, and Sergei
Butusov, a candidate member of the central committee. His back-
ground as an engineer may have been a factor in his assignment to
head the industrial Moscow area which, as a result of Khrushchevis
industrial reorganization, constitutes a separate economic region.
27 Dec 57
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2. SOVIET PARTY pHAKE-UP IN KAZAKHSTAN
Party presidium meniber Nikolai Belyayev
has replaced Ivan Yakovlev as party boss
in the central Asian republic of Kazakhstan.
The shift, presumably decided upon at the
party central committee plenum in Moscow
on 16-17 December, received pro forma approval at a Kazakh
party meeting on 26 December.
Belyayev has had many years' experience
in the agricultural field and may have been assigned to the
Kazakh post to help boost production in the Kazakh part of the
new lands area. He has presumably been relieved as central
party secretary (in charge of agriculture)--a post he held since
July 1955--and as deputy chairman of the central committee's
"Buro for the RSFSR"--to which he was assigned in February
1956.
during the debate on Zhukov in the October central committee
plenum, a group of extremists led by Belyayev took a position
contrary to that of Khrushchev and wanted to extend the purge
to all party and government officials guilty of the "cult of per-
sonality." Belyayev was considered a
rising star, and in his view would be Ithrushchev's eventual suc-
cessor. Belyayev has been retained on the party presidium, but
he has lost a direct voice in Moscow affairs and may have suf-
fered a decline in political stature.
In addition to Yakolev, the Kazakh party's
second secretary, Nikolai Zhurin, was fired. No reason was
given for the changes, but the absence from the announcement
of the usual phrase, "in connection with his transfer to other
work," suggests that both Yakovlev, a full member of the cen-
tral committee, and Zhurin, a candidate member of the central
committee, were dropped in disfavor.
27 Dec 57 Current Intelligence Bulletin
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3. INDONESIA
Comment on:
the Indonesian Communist party
need only capitalize on the natural forces
of economic crisis, internecine army
squabbles, and demoralization of right-
wing leaders to pave the way for a rela-
tively effortless take-over of the island
of Java. President Sukarno is vital to
this process only insofar as his presence
will tend to stabilize the masses and keep
them neutraL in-
creasing numbers of right-wing Sumatrans
who have been active in Djakarta are leaving Java under var-
ious pretenses for indefinite visits to Sumatra. Presumably,
they anticipate growing political pressure from left-wing forces
and may feel they can work more effectively against the Com-
munists outside Java.
A strong indication of renewed Djakarta
action against non-Javanese elements and possibly against
all Western interests appeared in a 23 December statement
by the pro-Communist deputy commander in Djakarta, Major
Marsudi. In an address to Djakarta military units, Marsucli
asserted that the 30 November attempt on President Sukarno's
life could not be viewed independently from the regional "sep-
aratist movements." He said subversive elements which have
long been planted in Indonesia by "a foreign power" are now be-
coming more obvious.
President Sukarno's forthcoming trip will
include visits not only to India, but also, to Egypt, Pakistan, Ceylon,
Burma, Thailand, and Japan.
he hopes to use his tour to elicit support for Indonesia's drive to
"regain" Netherlands New Guinea. He apparently believes that
if anti-Dutch demonstrations can be staged in the various Afro-
Asian countries, sufficient international pressure will be created
to compel the Netherlands to cede that area to Indonesia.
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4. THAI LEADER FACING PROLONGED PERIOD
OF INCAPACITATION
Comment on:
Marshal Sarit, the leader of Thailand's
ruling military group, suffered a severe
internal hemorrhage on 24. Dedember
and his doctors state he must have a major
operation. Sarit's aide approached the American Embassy on
26 December for assistance in arranging medical treatment in
the United States.
Sarit's incapacitation
comes at a time when the military group and associated civil-
ian politicians are heavily engaged in organizing a new govern-
ment in the wake of the 15 December parliamentary elections.
During his absence from the scene, Premier-designate Thanom,
who ranks just below Sarit in the military group hierarchy,
will probably be Thailand's principal leader. Thanom may have
greater difficulty than his chief, however, in keeping the more
ambitious of his colleagues within the military group in line.
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5. AFRO-ASIAN SOLIDARITY CONFERENCE OPENS
IN CAIRO
Comment on:
The Communist-inspired Afro-Asian
Solidarity Conference, which opened
in Cairo on 26 December, has adopted
a nine-point agenda embracing the sub-
jects of imperialism, colonialism,
economic cooperation, and the Algerian
war. Anwar al-Sadat, chairman of the
conference and one of Nasir's close ad-
visers, maintained a moderate tone in
his opening speech, cautioning the members to avoid ex-
tremism in reaching solutions to Afro-Asian problems.
Although the conference acknowledged a
message of greeting from Mao Tse-tung, it received no mes-
sage from Premier Bulganin--giving some weight to an earlier
report that Nasir had discouraged such a message when it was
proposed by the Soviet ambassador to Egypt. However, a po-
litical coloration was given the Soviet delegation by the appoint-
ment of Sh. R. Rashidov, chairman of the Presidium of the
Uzbek Supreme Soviet, as head of the delegation.
The Egyptian delegation will reportedly
recommend to the conference formation of an Afro-Asian
Chamber of Commerce, a Workers' Federation, and a com-
mon market. Ambassador Hare believes that the European
Common Market, which is intended to include African terri-
tories, has become increasingly an overt target in pre-con-
ference propaganda. Egyptian and Chinese Communist labor
leaders have from time to time reiterated the need for a
regional trade union organization.
Both Soviet and left-wing Egyptian news-
papers have called the conference "an extension of the Bandung
Conference" in an apparent attempt to blur its nongovernmental
nature and thus increase its propaganda impact. Izvestia char-
acterized the conference as "one of the year's most remarkable
and significant events."
27 Dec 57 Current Intelligence Bulletin
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6, BRUSSELS COOL TOWARD EARLY ACCEPTANCE
OF MISSILE BASES
Comment on:
Strong opposition to missile bases
among all three major Belgian polit-
ical parties has evidently convinced
the coalition government that it would
be unwise at this time to volunteer for early acceptance
of NATO IRBM's. While a high defense official remains
hopeful that Belgium--if pressed--would eventually follow
the Dutch example in accepting missiles, Foreign Minister
Larock has promised that no decision will be taken without
parliamentary consultation. The American Embassy is in-
clined to believe it will be easier for the government to face
up to its NATO responsibilities alter the present "excitement"
has subsided.
The government will try to avoid the mis-
sile base issue prior to the national elections to be held next
spring. The Social Christian party campaign for a reduction
in the military conscription term also prevents the government--
which is operating under a strict defense budget ceiling�from
supporting a larger defense commitment. Within the govern-
ing coalition, there are several prominent "neutralists" who,
while not very influential within their parties, are a factor in
shaping Belgian public opinion. There has been some public
agitation that a country with Belgium's population density .should
not accept missile bases.
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7. BRITISH LABOR PARTY'S CRITICISM OF
US BASE AGREEMENT
Comment on:
The British Labor party's parliamentary
attacks on present arrangements for the
United States' use of its air bases in
Britain have laid the groundwork for a
possible reopening of this question should Labor return to
power in the next general election. In the 20 December de-
bate, Labor's "shadow" defense minister George Brown
charged that the British government lacked "anything like
sufficient control" over its own destiny. Attacks centered
on the disclosure that the British government is not specific-
ally notified each time an American plane armed with nuclear
weapons takes off from a British base.
In the meantime, the Macmillan govern-
ment itself may move to strengthen its public position on the
terms of American use of the bases to deflect further Labor
attacks after Parliament reconvenes on 21 January.
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ANNEX
Watch Report 386, 26 December 1957
of the
Intelligence Advisory Committee
Conclusions on Indications of Hostilities
On the basis of findings by its Watch Committee, the
Intelligence Advisory Committee concludes that:
A. No Sino-Soviet bloc country intends to initiate hostilities
against the continental US or its possessions in the imme-
diate future.
B. No Sino-Soviet bloc country intends to initiate hostilities
against US forces abroad, US allies or areas peripheral
to the orbit in the immediate future.
C. 1. A deliberate initiation of hostilities in the Middle
East is unlikely in the immediate future. However,
tensions in the Middle East continue to create possi-
bilities for serious incidents.
2. There is no evidence of Sino-Soviet intention to become
militarily involved in the Indonesian situation. However,
the Communists are exploiting political instability, grow-
ing economic chaos, and prospective food shortages. Devel-
oping conditions continue to provide opportunities for a
Communist take-over of government on Java.
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