Search | Wilson Center Digital Archive

Switch to Visualization

Israel--Foreign relations--United States Clear All

Related Resources

Photograph of the Port of Jaffa in Israel.

Middle East

Israel

Israeli Nuclear History

Aerial view of National Mall

North America

United States

Photograph of the Hands of Victory Monument in Baghdad.

Middle East

Iraq

Photograph of Tripoli, Lebanon

Middle East

Lebanon

The Osirak Air Raid

Placeholder image for when a portrait image is not available

Ben-Gurion, David

1886- 1973

Placeholder image for when a portrait image is not available

Harman, Avraham

-

Photograph of John F. Kennedy in 1963

Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald)

1917- 1963

Soviet soldier taking a photograph of another soldier in Red Square, Moscow, 1959

Eastern Europe

Soviet Union

Photograph of Dean Rusk

Rusk, Dean

1909- 1994

Aerial photograph of CIA headquarters

United States. Central Intelligence Agency

-

Placeholder image for when a portrait image is not available

Jones, G. Lewis

-

George H.W. Bush and Lech Walesa

CIA Reports on the Collapse of Communism in Europe

Japan and the U.S. Hostage Crisis in Lebanon

Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

Placeholder image for when a Topics image is not available

Cambodian-Vietnamese War, 1977-1991

Results:

121 - 127 of 127

Display:

Sort By:

Documents

June 11, 1964	Cable from the US Embassy in France to the Department of State, 'Franco-Israeli Nuclear Relations' Peter Ramsbotham, chief of the chancery at the British Embassy in France, passed along information to the US Embassy about his meeting with George Soutou, a senior official at the French Foreign Ministry. While the French by then did not want Israel to acquire nuclear weapons, they believed that the Israelis were seeking them.
March 26, 1964	Cable from the US Embassy in France to the Department of State According Jacques Martin, a French Foreign Ministry expert, the Israelis were demanding to know why the French were holding up uranium shipments. The French replied that until Israel was ready to purchase only from France, allowing France “some control over the situation” [in Dimona], the restrictions would continue.
January 8, 1964	Cable from the US Embassy in France to the Department of State This telegram, sent through the special “Roger channel” used for intelligence subjects, refers to an earlier embassy message, number 2319, dated November 12, 1963, which has yet to be found at the US at the National Archives. That telegram may refer to French actions to halt the supply of uranium to Israel which were alluded to indirectly in this message. Jacques Martin, a French Foreign Ministry expert on nuclear matters, told US embassy officials that the Israelis, who had refused to sign an agreement to purchase uranium exclusively from France, were looking for other sources, most likely Belgium and Argentina.
March 18, 1964	Memorandum, Executive Secretary Benjamin Read, US Department of State, 'Israel's Assurances Concerning Use of Atomic Energy' This memorandum from Executive Secretary Benjamin Read of the Department of State to National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy provides a valuable chronology of the US discovery of the nuclear reactor project at Dimona and the pledges made by the Israelis in response to requests from the United States. Included in the chronology is an item about a meeting on 25 May 1963 where senior French diplomat Charles Lucet told CIA director John McCone that even though the French had helped build the Dimona reactor, “there might be a nuclear complex not known the French.” Lucet further stated that the Israelis had tried to purchase “safeguard-free” uranium from Gabon but that the French government stopped the sale through preemptive purchases.
January 20, 1994	Phone Interview with Edwin Kintner by Avner Cohen and Marvin Miller Transcript of a phone interview with Edwin Kintner by Avner Cohen and Marvin Miller. Edwin Kintner (1920-2010) was a distinguished nuclear engineer and senior staff member of the US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) through the 1960s and 70s who participated in at least two US inspection teams sent to the Dimona nuclear facility. Kintner recounts how thoroughly he and his partners searched the Dimona site for evidence of plutonium reprocessing activities and expresses shock upon learning that he and his team had been fooled all along.
July 20, 1960	Letter from South African Ambassador A.G. Dunn to South African Department for Foreign Affairs Official M.I. Botha on the Sale of Uranium to Israel South African Ambassador to the United States A.G. Dunn states that the United States would not approve of South Africa selling uranium to Israel even if the contract specified that they would obey IAEA safeguards once they were implemented worldwide.
April 9, 1981	Special Assistant for NPI, NFAC, CIA, to Resource Management Staff, Office of Program Assessment et al, 'Request for Review of Draft Paper on the Security Dimension of Non-Proliferation' Just a few months into President Reagan’s first term his administration wanted to make its own mark on nonproliferation policy. The report suggests building “broader bilateral relationship[s]” and offering political and security incentives could persuade states considering developing nuclear weapons to cease these efforts.