---
category: "Political Figure"
tags:
  - Person
  - Nuclear
  - Israel
summary: "Conservative Republican Senator who accused Israel of lying about its secret nuclear reactor at Dimona during a closed 1961 Senate session."
born: 1896-07-21
died: 1971-09-04
location: "Blockton, Iowa"
---

Bourke B. Hickenlooper was a conservative Republican Senator from [[Iowa]]. He was also chairman of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy. In a closed session of the [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]] on January 6, 1961, he testily interrupted [[Christian A. Herter]], then Secretary of State, stating, "I think the Israelis have just lied to us like horse thieves on this thing." He accused [[Israel]] of consistently distorting, misrepresenting, and falsifying facts regarding their secret nuclear reactor facility at [[Dimona]].[^1]

### Footnotes

[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 6.