38. Editorial Note
At the 281st meeting of the National Security Council on April 5, Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles made the following comments during his briefing on significant world developments affecting United States security:
“The Director of Central Intelligence said he would comment first on the campaign to downgrade STALIN, which he said was continuing briskly. He referred to editorials published in Pravda, in the publications of the Soviet armed forces, and in Kommunist. Mr. Dulles speculated that, thanks to the play in the foreign press, the anti-STALIN campaign was receiving more impetus than its instigators had originally intended it to have.
“Mr. Dulles said that only yesterday had the Chinese Communists finally made known their views on the anti-STALIN campaign, in the shape of a long statement which had reached us last night. It was evident from this statement that the Chinese Communists were in some difficulty because they do not fully accept the new Soviet insistence on collective leadership. Incidentally, said Mr. Dulles, he personally believed that the Soviet leaders had their tongues in their cheeks when they professed to believe in the practice of collective leadership.
“At this point Mr. Dulles went on to comment on the various satellite reactions to the downgrading of STALIN, to the wholesale rehabilitation of individuals who had been purged, and finally to point out that in some of the satellites political difficulties were bound to emerge from this campaign.
[Page 88]“In concluding his remarks concerning the downgrading of STALIN, Mr. Dulles reported the comments of the British Ambassador in Moscow, Sir William Hayter. The Ambassador believed that the anti-STALIN campaign was basically directed toward internal Soviet objectives rather than to foreign relations.” (Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, NSC Records)
The views of the Chinese Communist Government on the anti-STALIN campaign, as expressed in an article in the official party newspaper Peoples Daily of April 5, were transmitted to the Department and analyzed in telegram 1969 from Hong Kong, April 6. (Department of State, Central Files, 761.00/4–656)