vault backup: 2026-05-13 21:30:09

10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Henry A. Kissinger.md

@@ -1,20 +1,15 @@
 ---
+category: "Nuclear Scientists & Programs"
 tags:
   - Person
-  - Diplomat
-  - Politician
-  - USA
-  - Secretary of State
-  - National Security Advisor
-  - Nuclear Policy
+  - Nuclear
   - Israel
-  - Nixon Administration
-  - Harvard University
-  - Cold War
+summary: "Kissinger approached inauguration day on January 20, 1969, convinced that Israel's nuclear ambitions were justified and understandable."
 ---
+
 Henry A. Kissinger was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under Presidents [[Richard Nixon]] and [[Gerald R. Ford]]. In the fall of 1967, while a [[Harvard University]] professor and consultant on [[Vietnam]] to the [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson]] administration, Kissinger visited [[Tel Aviv]] to teach for a week at the Israeli Defense College. At the end of his course, he went to [[William N. Dale]]'s office in the embassy and sent an urgent, top-secret message to the White House, warning about [[Dimona]] and concluding that [[Israel]] was making nuclear warheads.[^1]
 
-Kissinger approached inauguration day on January 20, 1969, convinced that [[Israel]]'s nuclear ambitions were justified and understandable. Once in office, he and [[Richard M. Nixon|Nixon]] endorsed [[Israel]]'s nuclear ambitions and shared a contempt for the 1968 [[Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty|Nonproliferation Treaty]]. Kissinger told his staff in the first months of 1969 that [[Japan]], as well as [[Israel]], would be better off with the bomb than without it, believing that nuclear weapons were essential to the national security of both nations. His view was pragmatic: most major powers would eventually obtain nuclear weapons, and the [[United States]] could benefit most by helping them do so rather than engaging in futile exercises in morality.[^2]
+Kissinger approached inauguration day on January 20, 1969, convinced that [[Israel]]'s nuclear ambitions were justified and understandable. Once in office, he and [[Richard Nixon|Nixon]] endorsed [[Israel]]'s nuclear ambitions and shared a contempt for the 1968 [[Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty|Nonproliferation Treaty]]. Kissinger told his staff in the first months of 1969 that [[Japan]], as well as [[Israel]], would be better off with the bomb than without it, believing that nuclear weapons were essential to the national security of both nations. His view was pragmatic: most major powers would eventually obtain nuclear weapons, and the [[United States]] could benefit most by helping them do so rather than engaging in futile exercises in morality.[^2]
 
 Kissinger's support for [[Israel]]'s nuclear weapons program was widely known to the Israeli leadership. This was overtly signaled by the decision in 1969 to end the [[Floyd L. Culler, Jr.|Floyd Culler]] inspections of [[Dimona]], a move that became American policy for the next two decades, signifying that [[Israel]] had gone nuclear and the [[United States]] would not intervene.[^2]