CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1955/03/05

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 03003283
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: September 20, 2019
• Document Release Date: September 26, 2019
• Publication Date: March 5, 1955

Approved for Release: 2019/09/17 C03003283,-
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5 March 1955
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Copy No, 88
CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN
DOCUMENT NO Lk�
NO CHANGE IN CLASS
0 DECLASSIFIED
CLASS. CHANGED TO: TS S C
NEXT REVIEW DATE: _2-010
AUTH: HR 70-2
DATE: y SOREVIEVVER;
Office of Current Intelligence
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
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SUMMARY
GENERAL
1. Burmese official reports on trade agreements with the Satellites
(page 3).
SOVIET UNION
2. Soviet flight operations indicative of atomic debris sampling
program (page 4).
NEAR EAST - AFRICA
3. Egypt failing to counter Turkish-Iraqi pact (page 4).
EASTERN EUROPE
IL-28 jet light bombers possibly delivered to Czechoslovakia
(page 5).
WESTERN EUROPE
5. Churchill's new defense policy wins strong support in Britain
(page 6).
* * * *
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GENERAL
1. Burmese official reports on trade agreements with the Satellites:
Comment: Burma has also signed a trade
agreement with Czechoslovakia, the terms of which are not yet
available.
If Moscow agrees to buy 200,000 tons of
rice, the Orbit--including Communist China--will be committed
to take almost one third of Burma's 1955 export surplus, which
should exceed 1,500,000 tons. Since Rangoon's ambitious develop-
ment plan is largely financed by rice exports, full implementation
of these agreements will provide the Orbit with important leverage
over Burma's economy, which has heretofore been oriented to the
West. (Concurred in by ORR)
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SOVIET UNION
2. Soviet flight operations indicative of atomic debris sampling
program:
Analysis of the flight operations of a
Soviet air division equipped with TU-4 me-
dium bombers and based at Poltava in the
Ukraine reveals that this unit conducted
daily roundtrip flights to the Leningrad
area during he U nuclear test series in the spring of 1954, and
possibly again beginning in late February 1955 during the current
series. During the 1954 US tests, this division also sent six TU-4's
temporarily to China.
During the Soviet nuclear tests in the fall
of 1954, the Poltava division conducted similar flights to the Lenin-
grad area, and deployed aircraft temporarily to southern Turkestan
and to the Saratov area, north of the Caspian.
Comment The coincidence of this unusual
pattern of flight operations by Pa-Cava division TU-4's with Ameri-
can and Soviet nuclear weapons tests indicates that the USSR initiated
an atomic debris sampling program during the spring of 1954.
NEAR EAST - AFRICA
3. Egypt failing to counter Turkish-Iraqi pact:
Egypt's attempt to get quick agreement to
a new Arab defense arrangement, aimed at
countering the Turkish-Iraqi pact, appears
to have failed,
one of these countries is now prepared
to en er such an arrangement, although the neutralist Syrian cabinet
apparently has agreed in principle with the Egyptian proposals.
Egyptian minister of national guidance Salah
Salim, accompanied by Syrian foreign minister Azm, left Jordan on
4 March for Saudi Arabia instead of for Lebanon as originally planned.
� They are to consult with the Saudi Arabian government, which is al-
most certainly supporting Egypt's overtures to the other Arabs.
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While Egyptian and Saudi maneuvering
toward a new agreement will probably continue for some time,
nothing stronger than the present ineffectual Arab League Collec-
tive Security Pact is likely to result.
EASTERN EUROPE
4. IL-28 jet light bombers possibly delivered to Czechoslovakia:
Comment: This is the first indication of
delivery flights of IL-28's to Czechoslovakia. Poland, the only
Satellite equipped with IL-28's, has received approximately 70 since
early 1953. There are no bomber units in the Czechoslovak air force.
The air forces of Rumania, Hungary and Bulgaria have bomber units
equipped with TU-2 piston light bombers.
The airfield at Prerov is the site of final
pre-operational training of Czech jet fighter pilots. It is quite possi-
ble that transition training in the jet light bomber will take place here.
Malacky has been reported as a bombing and gunnery training base,
but no air force unit is known to be assigned there.
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WESTERN EUROPE
5. Churchill's new defense policy wins strong support in Britain:
The Conservative government's strong
presentation of Britain's new defense
policy in "Churchill's best prose" has
been persuasive in parliament. The
American embassy in London believes that the concept that Brit-
ish possession of nuclear weapons will act as a deterrent to
general war will probably be supported by the majority of the
British public.
In the parliamentary debate on defense
on 1 and 2 March, Labor Party criticism focused on failures in
the government's performance thus far on such details as aircraft
production. Attlee's closing speech, however, placed him close
to the government's basic position. There was little opposition,
except from pacifists, to the government's decision to make the
H-bomb.
Most of the 56 Laborites who joined
Bevan in abstaining on the opposition's censure motion did so in
order to express their disapproval of the suggestion that nuclear
weapons might be used to repel a "conventional" attack. The
American embassy regards this as marking the renewal of a
serious challenge to the official Labor Party leadership.
Comment: The responsible British
press generally regards Churchill's 1 March speech as "an ur-
gent call to diplomatic action" while the West still enjoys nuclear
superiority. Many commentators now see diplomacy as the only
alternative to what Churchill describes as "the peace of mutual
terror."
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