Michael Piper and Final Judgment

[Mark Stapleton]

while the Middle East is a powder keg - the US president asks an ally to cooperate... NOT TO STOP DEVELOPING... but to be honest about the situation.

It is up to the reader themselves to determine if this "information" supports the conclusion.
I for one, am not convinced...
I for one, see a secretive and uncooperative ALLY who is lying to our faces while jeapardizing the Middle East
The USA not only didn't want Israel to have nukes, they didn't want ALL OF the MIDDLE EAST to have nukes...

Some of us can read and see the difference... others, not so much.
DJ

What rubbish.

Of course JFK wanted Israel to stop developing nuclear weapons. He was prepared to risk a major confrontation with Israel on this matter. Why else would he keep hounding Ben-Gurion, demanding inspections? Why else would he issue NSAM 231?

It reads in part, ...in view of his great concern over the destabilising impact of any Israeli or UAR program looking toward the development of nuclear weapons, the President also wishes the Department of State to develop proposals for forestalling such programs

http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/nsam-jfk/nsam231.gif

Although NSAM 231 mentions both Israel and the UAR, it was aimed squarely at Israel. Why? Because the UAR, and in fact no other Middle Eastern country had any nuclear program underway in 1963.

Cohen writes in Israel and the Bomb (p.118) that on 25 March 1963, Kennedy, after receiving the CIA's estimate of the consequences of Israel's nuclearization, asked Bundy to issue a presidential directive to Rusk, requesting him to look for "some form of international or bilateral US safeguards" to curb the Israeli program. NSAM 231 was issued the following day.

Your smug dismissal of the gravity of this issue to both Kennedy and Ben-Gurion doesn't square with the historical record.

Your assertion that Kennedy was merely asking an ally to co-operate, but not to stop, is ridiculous.