CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1958/01/04

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 03015190
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: January 27, 2020
• Document Release Date: January 30, 2020
• Publication Date: January 4, 1958

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CURRENT
INTELLIGENCE
BULLETIN
4 January 1958
Copy No.
DOCUMENT NO
NO CHANGE IN CLASS. IX
, DECL AS:SIRED
CU...S.* CHANGED TO: log
NEXT FIEVIEVi DATE:
AUTH: 111-3 70-2
0ATE1 4/14 REVIEWER
1 3
-411
OFFICE OF CURRENT INTELLIGENCE
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
TOP SECRET
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01.1S
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CONTENTS
1. STRUGGLE BETWEEN SYRIAN COMMUNISTS AND LEFTISTS
BREAKS INTO OPE$ (page 3).
7fr� 2. SAUDIS SEEK LEGAL BASIS TO EXCLUDE ISRAEL FROM
GULF OF AQABA (page 4).
3. NEW SAUDI FINANCIAL AID MAY HELP YEMEN MEET COM-
MITMENTS TO SOVIET BLOC (page 5).
Cede- 4. TURKISH MILITARY ARRESTS MAY FORESHADOW MAJOR
POLITICAL REPRESSION (page 6).
Ole
5. MODERATE INDONESIAN ARMY ELEMENTS PLAN PROGRAM
OF GRADUAL CHANGE (page 7).
s:/j, )Ld 6. SOUTH KOREAN DEFENSE MINISTER MAY BE OUSTED OVER
TROOP REDUCTION ISSUE ( (page 8).
tie-- 7. PEIPING INCREASINGLY BOASTFUL OVER ECONOMIC
PROSPECTS (page 9).
afe___, 8. CHINESE COMMUNISTS EXTEND PURGE OF RIGHTIST OFFI-
CIALS IN PROVINCES (page 10).
>7_4.) 9. HIGH-LEVEL CHINESE COMMUNIST VISITS TO EGYPT
(page 11).
4 Jan. 58
Current Intelligence Bulletin
Page 2
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1. STRUGGLE BETWEEN SYRIAN COMMUNISTS AND
LEFTISTS BREAKS INTO OPEN
Syrian Baathist party fears that pro-
Soviet Deputy Prime Minister Azm
will seize power with Communist
support have resulted in an open clash.
With Syrian army intelligence support,
the Baathist press is criticizing Azm's
handling of the Soviet and Czech eco-
nomic agreements. He has also been
attacked for using these agreements to
divert public attention from the Baathist
plan for union with Egypt. This Baathist
concern with growing Communist strength
is reflected in a relaxation of army cen-
sorship of anti-Communist books. In turn, the pro-Soviet
press pointedly has criticized the Baathists for mistrusting
Azm and the "important agreements" signed between Syria
and Czechoslovakia and has accused the party of "working
for imperialism."
This struggle has triggered a Baath search
for allies among the conservative parties. The Communists
may counter by calling on the Baathists to close ranks against
the "imperialists" in an effort to forestall Baathist and Egyp-
tian attempts to oust Communist and pro-Communist elements
in the government, including Chief of Staff Bizri.
4 Jan 58
Current Intelligence Bulletin Page 3
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2. SAUDIS SEEK LEGAL BASIS TO EXCLUDE ISRAEL
FROM GULF OF AQABA
Comment on:
Saudi Arabia has proposed that all Arab
League states proclaim the extension of
their territorial waters to 12 miles off-
shore prior to the February international
conference on maritime law in Geneva.
The Saudis thereby seek to establish the claim of Saudi Arabia
and Egypt to sovereignty over the waters of the Gulf of Aqaba,
"so as to leave no opening for Israel to claim right of passage
In the gulf." Saudi Arabia and Egypt already claim territorial
limits six miles offshore, which more than covers the en-
trance to the gulf. At its widest point, the gulf is less than
20 miles across.
4 Jan 58
Current Intelligence Bulletin Page 4
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VS
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3. NEW SAUDI FINANCIAL AID MAY HELP YEMEN MEET
COMMITMENTS TO SOVIET BLOC
Comment on:
King Saud has agreed to advance the
Imam of Yemen another $2,500,000 un-
der a credit of $10,000,000 agreed on
In 19569 despite a serious shortage of
foreign exchange and his belief that
Yemen had used an initial $3,000,000 advance largely to pur-
chase Soviet bloc arms. Saudi Finance Minister Sarur told
the US Embassy on 10 December that he had advised King
Saud against meeting the Imam's request at this stage, and
that the Imam had not fulfilled his agreement to provide in-
formation as to how the funds were used.
Yemen is now being pressed to begin
payment for bloc economic aid, and is also about to assume
further obligations to bloc countries for aid materials and
military and civilian specialists.
4 Jan 58
Current Intelligence Bulletin Page 5
Tr1P CPC!? T'T
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4. TURKISH MILITARY ARRESTS MAY FORESHADOW
MAJOR POLITICAL REPRESSION
Comment on:
An unspecified number of Turkish army
officers--perhaps as many as 30--were
arrested and interrogated in late Decem-
ber for alleged political activities involv-
ing the opposition Republican People's
Party (RPP). Participation of Turkish military personnel in
partisan politics is forbidden by law. The investigation is
continuing.
Efforts to link those arrested to the polit-
ically strong RPP and the fact that the key figure is a former
staff colonel who resigned from the army to run on the RPP
ticket last October suggest that Prime Minister Menderes may
be taking this means of discrediting and possibly eliminating
his major political opposition.
The minister of defense is reported to have
said "off the ,record" that the government would be justified
and "even compelled for the sake of national security" to ban
the RPP if there is tangible evidence of complicity between mem-
bers of the military and the party.
The extreme sensitivity of this development
is underlined by the complete news blackout in Turkey concern-
ing the arrests.
4 Jan 58
Current Intelligence Bulletin Page 6
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JL-3./L4.1.
Nov
5. MODERATE INDONESIAN ARMY ELEMENTS PLAN
PROGRAM OF GRADUAL CHANGE
Reference!
the
American Embassy in Djakarta that
Sukarno's forthcoming "health tour"
is largely the result of pressure from
a group of army colonels in Java who desire greater mod-
eration in the campaign against the Dutch and who also wish
to check Indonesia's drift toward Communism. These offi-
cers plan to commence a program of gradual change leading
within about six months to a new cabinet which would prob-
ably exclude Indonesian Communist party (PKI) influence.
The colonels' reluctance to move quickly
results from fear of precipitating a severe political crisis
and uncertainty as to their ability to contain any Communist
counteraction. Unless the Communists provoke a showdown,
the colonels are not sure they can move against the PKI with
an army in which a large proportion of enlisted men--In
Central Java, 40 percent--voted for it in the 1957 provincial
elections.
As yet there is no agreement on the com-
position of a revised cabinet, and only minor political changes
are expected during Sukarno's absence. According to the US
Embassy's sources, however, Sukarno's departure in itself is
a good indication that the forces of moderation will prevail.
They feel that the Communists, believing the situation is de-
veloping in their favor, will not undertake any rash action but
will await general elections in 1959 or 1960.
4 Jan 58
Current Intelligence Bulletin Page 7
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6. SOUTH KOREAN DEFENSE MINISTER MAY BE OUSTED
OVER TROOP REDUCTION ISSUE
Comment on:
otification that US military aid in the
uture will be sufficient only to support
outh Korean armed forces at a level of
20,000 men-100,000 men below what
ou now sets s as s authorized strength�evoked the first
violent anti-American outburst by President Rhee in months.
The size of the reduction may cause him to oust the moderate
pro-US Defense Minister "Mike" Kim. Rhee had counted on
Kim's influence with US officials to keep the projected reduc-
tion at a minimum. Kim's position appears to have been fur-
ther weakened by his recommendation that the South Korean
Marine Corps, a favorite of Rhee, absorb 3,000 of the planned
cut.
South Korean officials have been studying
troop reductions since last July when they were officially in-
formed that US military aid was to be reduced. Since then
army strength has steadily dropped through attrition. The
discharge of approximately 20,000 additional troops would
robabl suffice to meet the new 620,000-man ceiling.
4 Jan 58
Current Intelligence Bulletin Page 8
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7. PEIPING INCREASINGLY BOASTFUL OVER
ECONOMIC PROSPECTS
Comment o
Peiping, riding a wave of confidence
brought on by the Soviet bloc's scientific
d military progress and by its own in-
iternal successes, has now set itself the
goal of "catching up with and surpassing
the United States economically" in 35 to 45 years. Last
month Peiping set a goal of surpassing Great Britain in the
production of steel and certain other industrial items in 15
years. The official People's Daily compares the prevalent
optimism of the country with that existing at the end of 1955
and early in 1956.
Excessive optimism over economic pros-
pects two years ago lead Peiping to underestimate its prob-
lems and push ahead too rapidly with economic development.
Now, after a year of retrenchment, Chinese planners are
again forcing the pace;they have already raised targets for
the Second Five-Year Plan (1958-1962) and for the 1958 an-
nual plan prepared last summer.
4 Jan 58
Current Intelligence Bulletin Page 9
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8. CHINESE COMMUNISTS EXTEND PURGE OF RIGHTIST
OFFICIALS IN PROVINCES
Comment on:
Peiping is announcing new ousters of
government officials in its "rectifica-
tion," campaign. The latest victim is a
deputy governor of Hunan Province,
whose dismissal follows by a few days
the removal from office of the governor and deputy governor
of Chekiang.
Four other officials in Hunan were also
removed from their posts as deputies to the National People's
Congress. Two of them have been particular targets of Pei-
ping's vituperation in its recent denunciations of "rightists."
One incurred the regime's wrath for predicting that students
would join with the general populace in creating a Hungarian-
type revolt.
Purges of officials in other provinces
are expected during the "rectification" campaign, which the
munists indicate will last until May.
4 Jan 58
Current Intelligence Bulletin Page 10
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9. HIGH-LEVEL CHINESE COMMUNIST VISITS TO EGYPT
Comment on:
Ties between Peiping and Cairo will
be strengthened by visits of high Chi-
nese Communist officials to Egypt this
year. Chinese Communist Minister of
Defense Peng Teh-huai has informed
the Egyptian ambassador to Peiping that he would accept an
invitation to visit Egypt,
The ambassador
has requested that an official invitation be sent Peng imme-
diately.
The Cairo press has reported that Chi-
nese Communist Premier Chou En-lai is also expected to
visit Egypt soon. A previous plan to include Egypt on his
Asian tour a year ago was postponed when Chou was called
back to Peiping from India to proceed to Moscow, Poland,
and Hungary.
Contacts between the two countries have
increased since Egypt recognized the Peiping government in
May 1956. During December alone, one Chinese trade group, four
cultural missiopp, and the Chinese delegation to the Afro-Asian
Solidarity Conference led by Kuo Mo-jo, president of the Chi-
nese Academy of Science, were in Egypt.
4 Jan 58
Current Intelligence Bulletin Page 11
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