---
category: "Intelligence & Government"
tags:
  - Person
  - Nuclear
  - Israel
summary: "Deputy general counsel of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency who believed Israel was the Achilles heel of U.S. nonproliferation policy."
---

Charles N. Van Doren was the deputy general counsel of the [[Arms Control and Disarmament Agency]] in the [[Richard Nixon|Nixon]] administration. He was convinced that [[Israel]] was the "Achilles heel" of [[America]]'s [[Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty|NPT]] policy, stating, "We were winking at it." Van Doren repeatedly tried to get the NPT on the agenda for talks on the [[Middle East]], but was told there was "too much on the table." He understood the underlying reason: an order had gone out that no nuclear information on Israeli proliferation was to be put out, which he found very frustrating.[^1]

### Footnotes

[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 16.