CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1954/01/24
Document Type:
Collection:
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):
02993965
Release Decision:
RIPPUB
Original Classification:
U
Document Page Count:
6
Document Creation Date:
August 20, 2019
Document Release Date:
August 30, 2019
Sequence Number:
Case Number:
Publication Date:
January 24, 1954
File:
Attachment | Size |
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CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULL[15689430].pdf | 213.84 KB |
Body:
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CLASS. CHANGED TO: TS S C
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AUTH: HR 70-2,
DATE:
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24 January 1954
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CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN
Office of Current Intelligence
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
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SUMMARY
SOVIET UNION
1. USSR prepares for withdrawals from strategic state reserves to
increase consumer goods production (page 3).
2. Further integration of Orbit planning scheduled (page 3).
FAR EAST
3. Chinese Communist imports from the West declined in 1953
(page 4).
SOUTHEAST ASIA
4. The French landing on the coast of southern Annam (page 5).
NEAR EAST - AFRICA
5. Comment on Soviet veto of Western resolution on Syrian-Israeli
dispute (page 5).
WESTERN EUROPE
6. Bonn coalition members oppose Adenauer on powers of all-German
regime (page 6).
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A.
*
WA
SOVIET UNION
1. USSR prepares for withdrawals from strategic state reserves to
increase consumer goods production:
the Ministry of the Aircraft In-
dustry ordered the plant to "select urgently"
from state reserves a list of materials re-
quired for the fourth quarter program of con-
sumer good's and basic production. The materials were to be returned
to state reserves by the end of 1953 from allocations for current pro-
duction, except for "white rolled metal, " the return of which could be
delayed until 1 May 1954.
Comment: This procedure still required final
approval by the Council of Ministers. However, the fact that the govern-
ment had already arranged details for borrowing from state reserves
as strategic a material as "white rolled metal, " believed to refer to
aluminum or aluminum alloys, underscores the importance being given
to the immediate expansion of consumer goods output. In addition, the
extra time permitted for returning the aluminum to state reserves
suggests that the availability of this metal was not expected to keep
pace with rising demands.
This arrangement coincided with a conference
convened in Moscow on 8 October by the First Chief Directorate of
Aircraft Production to discuss "questions relating to assuring the out-
put of high quality of consumer goods. "
2. Further integration of Orbit planning scheduled:
Josef Pucik, chairman of the State Planning
Office in Czechoslovakia, stated in the National
Assembly on 20 January that during the period
1956-1960 parts of the economies of the USSR
and the majority of the People's Democracies will be coordinated, and
long-term mutual trading agreements will be concluded.
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Comment: This is the first public announcement
that the 1956-1960 Five-Year Plans of Orbit nations will be coordinated
beyond the general directives set forth by Moscow, and indicates an
important step in the trend toward greater integration of Orbit economic
affairs. Orbit leaders apparently hope that by 1956 present imbalances
can be corrected and a new and more closely coordinated phase of
economic growth can begin.
FAR EAST
3. Chinese Communist imports from the West declined in 1953:
Communist China's recorded imports from
the West in 1953 dropped from an estimated $165,000,000 in the first
half of the year to about $120,000,000 in the second half, according
to US Department of Commerce trade statistics. Increasing Western
restrictions on strategic industrial imports and Peiping's slackening
interest in non-strategic items will probably continue to depress the
level of this trade in 1954.
The proportion of China's total imports
supplied by the West declined to less than 30 percent in 1953.
Although the West sold China substantial quantities of drugs and
industrial raw materials, almost all of the highly strategic machinery
and transportation equipment used in Pei in ive-year construction
program came from the Soviet bloc.
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TOP SECRET
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SOUTHEAST ASIA
4. The French landing on the coast of southern Annam:
The occupation on 20 January of the Viet Minh
port of Tuy Hoa, in southern Annam, by approximately 2,000 French
commandos was part of a larger operation launched five days earlier.
This is a step toward the final clearing of southern Vietnam which
General Navarre planned to accomplish during this campaigning season.
In addition to the commandos, the French have committed three mobile
groups, or about 10,000 troops, drawn from bases in Annam.
The scene of the present activity has been
under Viet Minh control since the start of the war, but there are no
more than seven regular enemy battalions nearby.
The French should be able to occupy this part
of Annam with little difficulty and thus give a boost to morale in both
France and Vietnam. It is less probable that Vietnamese civil and
military authorities will be able to prevent the re-entry of enemy
guerrilla forces if and when the French regular fOrces' return to their
bases.
NEAR EAST - AFRICA
5. Comment on Soviet veto of Western resolution on Syrian-Israeli
dispute:
The Soviet veto of the Western plan for
dealing with Syria's complaint over Israeli efforts to divert the upper
Jordan river eliminates any prospect for a speedy settlement of the
problem. It may even encourage Israel to resume its construction
activities, despite the UN directive to the contrary. In voting with
Lebanon against the Security Council resolution, the USSR encourages
Arab charges that the West supports Israel on all PMestine questions.
Despite recent gestures toward Syria, the
Soviet action seems designed more to hamper such Western regional
efforts as the Unified Plan for developing the Jordan river, than to
represent any new policy toward the Arab States. Indirectly the
Soviet action seems likely to encourage neutralist tendencies, par-
ticularly in Syria and Egypt.
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TOP RET
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The Soviet veto may have the effect of
encouraging Arab and Israeli stubbornness on the Unified Plan, which
each side has hoped would be rejected by the other. The Arab states
have opposed it on political grounds, and Israel because it hoped to
gain more from its own project.
WESTERN EUROPE
6. Bonn coalition members oppose Adenauer on powers of all-German
regime:
Most leaders of the West German coalition
parties oppose Chancellor Adenauer's
acceptance of the joint Western position that
authority should be only gradually transferred
om an German governments to a unified German regime.
Instead, they want an all-German government to have complete authority
from the outset.
They have told American officials in Bonn,
however, that they will not oppose Adenauer publicly so long as the
issue remains "theoretical. "
Comment: The issue would not remain
"theoretical" if the Allies should obtain Soviet agreement to the
principle of free all-German elections, since the nature and powers
of a unified German regime would then come under discussion. In
that case, Adenauer would be under considerable pressure from' his
own government to abandon the present Western position of keeping
both West and East German governments in existence until such
time as a unified regime can clearly maintain itself.
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