05-05-2019, 03:02 AM
In reading The Bomb In The Basement by Michael Karpin, I did not get the impression from Karpin that JFK was strongly against the Israeli bomb. As I remember, by 1963 the Isreali atomic bomb was already in existence or rather, the Dimona reactor was built which made the Israeli bomb a fait accompli. They only officially had a bomb in 1967. A technician named Mordechai Vanunu had worked on the Isreali bomb inside Dimona and (relying on my recollections from the 1960's or 1970's when he went public), I seem to remember that he claimed the Israeli a-bomb production was in the thousands of bombs.
(I could have an inaccurate memory on that. I know he claimed that it was a large number, much larger than had been estimated).
Israel and France were working together on atomic bomb development, so being against the Israeli bomb meant you had to be against the French bomb. According to Wikipedia, France halted uranium sales to Israel in 1963. But the Dimona reactor was built from 1958 forward and there was really no way for JFK to stop the Israeli atomic bomb. Nor did JFK really try to do so. I'm pretty sure that US "Zionists" (as well as US Jews generally), supported JFK to a large extent. In contrast the Catholic clerical establishment supported Nixon in 1960.
JFK's arms control advisor was John J. McCloy. (Good luck with that, JFK).
JFK seemed to have good relations both with De Gaulle and Israel. It was West Germany with whom he had very bad relations and to some degree with the UK over the cancellation of the Skybolt missile.
As for turning toward Nasser, I question that theory only because Nasser was considered to be a quasi-Communist during the 1950's and, of course, you had the Soviets building his High Aswan Dam and the UK, France and Israel attacked Nasser in the Suez Crisis of 1962.
The French OAS considered Algerian independence from France to be a quasi-Communist effort which was fomented by Nasser. It actually had nothing to do with Communism and (as far as I know), there has never been an Islamic majority country that has gone Communist nor even got close to being Communist. So the opinion of various world-wide groups about Nasser was wildly inaccurate and not based on reality.
Also inaccurate was the belief that Nasser was successfully employing Nazi scientists in building top-quality rockets, planes, technology, etc. Like Argentina, Egypt tried but they obviously were too backward of a society to match the likes of the US, France, UK, China (and for that matter Nazi Germany).
James Lateer
(I could have an inaccurate memory on that. I know he claimed that it was a large number, much larger than had been estimated).
Israel and France were working together on atomic bomb development, so being against the Israeli bomb meant you had to be against the French bomb. According to Wikipedia, France halted uranium sales to Israel in 1963. But the Dimona reactor was built from 1958 forward and there was really no way for JFK to stop the Israeli atomic bomb. Nor did JFK really try to do so. I'm pretty sure that US "Zionists" (as well as US Jews generally), supported JFK to a large extent. In contrast the Catholic clerical establishment supported Nixon in 1960.
JFK's arms control advisor was John J. McCloy. (Good luck with that, JFK).
JFK seemed to have good relations both with De Gaulle and Israel. It was West Germany with whom he had very bad relations and to some degree with the UK over the cancellation of the Skybolt missile.
As for turning toward Nasser, I question that theory only because Nasser was considered to be a quasi-Communist during the 1950's and, of course, you had the Soviets building his High Aswan Dam and the UK, France and Israel attacked Nasser in the Suez Crisis of 1962.
The French OAS considered Algerian independence from France to be a quasi-Communist effort which was fomented by Nasser. It actually had nothing to do with Communism and (as far as I know), there has never been an Islamic majority country that has gone Communist nor even got close to being Communist. So the opinion of various world-wide groups about Nasser was wildly inaccurate and not based on reality.
Also inaccurate was the belief that Nasser was successfully employing Nazi scientists in building top-quality rockets, planes, technology, etc. Like Argentina, Egypt tried but they obviously were too backward of a society to match the likes of the US, France, UK, China (and for that matter Nazi Germany).
James Lateer