Current Intelligence Weekly Summary

Approved for Release: 2026/03/06 C03176167
/spear!’
CURRENT INTELLIGENCE WEEKLY SUMMARY
underground test with a US del-
egation officer. He cited the
US announcement of the test as
evidence that "national systems
are improving all the time." Al-
though they are not yet perfect,
he remarked, each nation must
assume some risks and not ex-
pect perfection.
Khrushchev did not mention
in his formal speech the latest
Soviet launching of an earth
satellite, although he had ear-1
lier interrupted another speaker
to report the launching. He did
claim in his speech, however,
that the USSR has developed a
"global rocket" which cannot
be detected and is invulnerable
to "anti-missile weapons." He
said the new global rocket "can
fly around the world in any di-
rection and deal a blow at any
set target" and cited the flights
of space vehicles Vostok I and
II as "proof" of the accuracy
of Soviet calculations. The
timing of the launching of the
latest Soviet earth satellite
suggests that Khrushchev ex-
pected that it would be con-
sidered abroad as a prototype
of the "new" weapon. The timing
was also probably linked with
the opening of the disarmament
conference. Soviet propaganda
promptly pointed out that the
new "invulnerable" weapon would
be destroyed if the Soviet dis-
armament proposals were accepted.
Khrushchev used his speech
to reply to Communist critics
of the Soviet disarmament posi-
tion. Obviously pointing to his
Peiping and Tirana adversaries,
he noted that "there are people .
who either incorrectly explain
or deliberately distort" the S0-
viet proposals on disarmament.
In an awkward attempt to rebut
their "allegations" that Soviet
championing of disarmament is
"harmful and even dangerous" to
peoples struggling for libera-
tion, Khrushchev asserted that
the Soviet Union renders substan-
tial economic assistance "includ-
ing assistance in armaments" to
states which ask for support
"in the struggle against the
imperialists and colonizers."
Mikoyan's pre-election speech
two days before Khrushchev's,
while making the same points,
specifically took issue with
"Albanian theoreticians who
have a confused knowledge of
Marxism."
Peiping has given consid-
erable publicity to the Geneva
disarmament conference; Gromyko's
15 March speech has been re-
ported, and the full text of
the Soviet draft treaty has been
published in People's Daily.
Outer Space
Moscow on 21 March re-
leased Khrushchev's response
to President Kennedy's letter
of 7 March urging joint US-
Soviet cooperation in outer
space projects. Khrushchev
welcomed the President's
attitude toward his proposal
to pool the efforts of the
Soviet Union and the US in
space exploration--a proposal
contained in Khrushchev's 21
February letter to the President
congratulating the US on the
success of Glenn's space flight.
The 21 March letter, however,
revived a standard point—-
omitted on the earlier occasion-—
linking outer space cooperation
with agreement on disarmament.
Khrushchev said it was "obvious"
that the "scope of our coopera-
tion" in the peaceful explora-
tion of space depends "in some
degree" on solution of the dis-
armament problem. He concluded
that "much greater prospects"
for cooperation and the pooling
of scientific and technical
achievements "up to and includ-
ing joint creation of space-
ships for reaching other plan-
ets-—the moon, Venus, Hars--
will appear only when agreement
on disarmament is achieved."
Following Ambassador Plimp-
ton's presentation of the US
outer space statement at the l9
March meeting of the UN outer
space committee, bloc spokesmen
praised his speech. Czech del-
egates went out of the way to
state to an Australian delegate
that they were pleased with the
speech. A Moscow radio correspond-
ent said privately that the Soviet
attitude in the outer space com-
mittee will be "much more construc-
tive than in Geneva." K:::::;::::]bX3)
(Concurred in by OSI)
23 ‘Mar 52 WEEKLY REVIEW Page 5 of22
Approved for Release: 2026/03/06 C03176167