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+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Politics
+  - USA
+---
+[[Zbigniew Brzezinski]] was the [[USA|U.S.]] National Security Adviser during the [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] administration, playing a key role in foreign policy decisions during a period of significant Middle Eastern upheaval.
+
+### Iran Policy
+
+Brzezinski dismissed suggestions from [[Menachem Begin|Prime Minister Begin]] that the [[USA|U.S.]] should support [[Mehdi Bazargan|Mehdi Bazargan's]] government in [[Iran]] against the growing [[Iraq|Iraqi]] threat. Instead, Brzezinski and the [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] administration believed [[Iran]] should be allowed to disintegrate until a [[USA|U.S.]]-supported leader emerged.[^1]
+
+### VELA Satellite Nuclear Incident
+
+On September 22, 1979, a [[VELA Satellite]] recorded two distinctive bright flashes of light over the South Indian Ocean, probable evidence of a nuclear explosion. This event, suspected to be a joint Israeli-South African nuclear test, was reported to Brzezinski and President [[Jimmy Carter]]. [[Gerald G. Oplinger]], Brzezinski's aide for global issues, recalled that Brzezinski was present at an urgent meeting in the White House situation room where the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] and [[Defense Intelligence Agency|DIA]] stated that the odds were at least ninety percent that it had been a nuclear explosion. Brzezinski had little to say during this meeting.[^2]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. _Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network_. TrineDay, 1992. (Hereafter, "Profits of War") 
+[^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. _The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy_. Random House, 1991. Chapter 20.