1.1 KiB
| tags | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Ronald Reagan was the 40th President of the United States, serving from 1981 to 1989. His administration's first Middle East crisis involved the Israeli bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak in June 1981. Upon being informed of the bombing by his national security adviser, Richard V. Allen, Reagan privately expressed delight, remarking, "Well. Boys will be boys."1
Despite public condemnation from the State Department and proposals from some of his high command, including Caspar Weinberger, to sanction Israel by canceling F-16 aircraft sales, Reagan had no intention of taking such steps. The suspension of F-16 deliveries was lifted two months later.1
In September 1981, Menachem Begin 1 and Ariel Sharon visited Washington D.C. to lobby Reagan's administration for a U.S.-Israeli strategic cooperation against the Soviet Union.1
Footnotes
-
Hersh, Seymour M. The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy. Random House, 1991. ↩︎