CHINA MAY TEST NEW MISSILE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000100160099-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 23, 2000
• Sequence Number: 99
• Publication Date: February 4, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

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FEB 4 INS
New Missile
By ROBERT S. ALLEN
and PAUL SCOTT
CPYRGHT
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Red
China apparently is preparing
to test within a year an inter-
mediate range ballistic missile
capable of carrying a sizable
nuclear warhead.
The first IRBM, described as
very similar to the type Russia
shipped to Cuba in 1962, is re-
portedly being assembled at a
closely guarded center in a Chi-
nese - controlled section of In-
ner Mongolia.
The rocket may have a range
of around 1,200 miles, and be
capable of carrying a 20 kiloton
(20,000 tons of TNT) warhead.
Whether the missile "sec-
tions" are being made in China
or come from Russia before be-
?ing transferred to the assembly
plant is conjectural as of now.
These details are in a highly
speculative report a top - level
Johnson administration official,
with access to intelligence
data, gave a small hand-
picked group of publicists for
future use in articles and lec-
tures on the "growing peril of
Communist China."
This group, which did not in-
clude these newsmen, was given
a hush-hush briefing in one of
the State Department's plushiest
conference rooms.
Outstanding among the block,
busters dropped by this official
was the solemn assertion that
"Red China will have a first
strike nuclear capability by 1967
and may be preparing to use it
shortly thereafter."
Other crackling revelations
unfurled at the super - secret
briefing were:
Communist chief Mao Tse-
tung is dying of Parkinson's dis-
ease. In the past two years he
reportedly suffered s e v e r a l
strokes and is now relatively
inactive.
Red China is expected to test
its first H-bomb sometime this
year.
Soviet missiles with "large
nuclear warheads" are zeroed
in on targets on China's main-
land, including the Chinese plu-
tonium plant.
Russian missiles near Komsa-
molsky, in the Amur River
Valley, are reported aimed at
Japan and South Korea.
The Soviet base at Kamchat-
ka, across the Bering Sea from
Alaska, Is believed to have mis-
siles with ranges of "more than
3,500 miles."
Russian rockets at Sverd-
lovsk, where the U-2 spy plane
was downed, and Magnitorgorsk,
in the central part of the coun-
try, are capable of striking
either U.S. or Chinese territory.
Russia now has an estimated
100 missile bases manned by
more than 200,000 technicians and
scientists.
The publicists, including one
who recently told an East Coast
audience "The U.S. is prepar-
ing for a much wider war in
Asia," were told that several
high - ranking Soviet and
American officials favor an al-
liance to curb China's nuclear
capabilities, even if it means
recourse to military action to
destroy Peiping's reputed mis-
sile a n d nuclear producing
plants.
During the briefing, President
Johnson was portrayed as wav-
ering over agreeing to such an
accord. Central Intelligence Di-
rector Raborn was described as
the "big stumbling block" to
winning the President's accep-
tance to joint military action
against Red China.
Sources close to Raborn pic-
ture him as regarding "all in-
formation about Soviet missiles
being pointed at Chinese _ tar-
gets" as highly unreliable, as
the details emanate from either
Russian or other Communist
quarters.
The CIA chief is said to be
opposed to an alliance with Rus-
sia because, "all hard intelli-
gence still shows that Russia is
the No. 1 enemy of the U.S on
the basis of the Soviet's nu-
clear - missile capability and
unswerving determination to
dominate the world."
CIA experts on China are
forecasting that Peiping will
soon explode its third nuclear
device, probably this month.
The other two atomic tests were
on October 16, 1964, and May
14, 1965.
Admiral Raborn is vigorously
opposed to the U.S. letting down
the trade bars with either Rus-
sia or China on the ground this
would help them to concentrate
more manpower and resources
on weapons and nuclear produc-
tion.
In reports to the Presi-
dent Raborn has stressed that
Peiping has received more than
$200,000 worth of instruments
used in fabrication of nuclear
devices from Britain, Francs
and Italy.
CPYRGHT
Approved For Release 2000/09/08: CIA-RDP75-00001 R000100160099-2