Report: Nixon feared Israeli nukes would spur arms race

[Scurrilous]

Source: Haaretz

<snip>

"Israel's alleged possession of nuclear weapons and its potential to set off an arms race in the Middle East were a source of concern to the Nixon administration in 1969, The New York Times reported Thursday, citing newly released documents.

"The Israelis, who are one of the few peoples whose survival is genuinely threatened, are probably more likely than almost any other country to actually use their nuclear weapons," Henry Kissinger, who served as President Richard Nixon's national security adviser, warned in a July 19, 1969 memorandum.

The U.S. National Archives on Wednesday released documents from the Nixon Presidential Library, according to the Times report. By law, classified documents are to be reviewed for possible release after 25 years. The memoranda reveal the dilemmas with which the administration wrestled vis-a-vis Israel's nuclear weapons program, long considered to be a sore point in the U.S.-Israel alliance.

Moreover, it showed concern on the part of Kissinger that Israel may have systematically stolen material from the U.S. for its nuclear development."



Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/929494.html

[Selatius]

1. The problem went back further to the Kennedy years.

Kennedy was applying a lot of pressure on Ben-Gurion not to pursue an atomic weapons program. After Kennedy was gone, LBJ took the pressure off. He had a different foreign policy stance than JFK. Kennedy was still going by the Tripartite Declaration signed in 1950 that sought to achieve a balance of power, which a nuke program would ruin. The fear was that it would spark an eventual nuclear arms race in the region.

[bemildred]

2. Yeah, I found this story a bit questionable.

But the bullshit gets very deep about the whole subject, and I don't care enough at this point to try to sort it out. I have read elsewhere that the US Gov't, or at least parts of it, helped the Israeli effort along back in the 60s.

[Selatius]

3. At this point, it's too late to do much. It seems now that Iran wants its own bomb.

And I'm actually thinking that maybe if both sides had the bomb, then nobody would want to go to war for fear of mutually assured destruction. A sort of balance of power would be re-established.

[bemildred]

4. Yeah, you can kiss non-proliferation goodbye, for now anyway. nt

[goforit]

5. Espionage.... Just like Bush Sr. trading Nuclear knowlege with Iran in the 80s