Date

May 10, 1965

Description

The anodyne findings of the U.S. 1965 inspection visit at Dimona led to odd theories within the US intelligence community. For some it was difficult to believe that the Dimona project was indeed in such a general state of slowdown, even disarray in some areas. Acknowledging that the attached report was “highly speculative,” INR staffer James Spain noted that such thoughts “lie behind some of the things that worry us.” In light of Dimona’s current slowdown status, the INR analysts struggled to offer an explanation of the puzzling situation, namely, that Dimona is “not now being used to support a weapons program.” For example, it did not appear “that the Israelis are attempting to maximize plutonium production at the present time.”

One possible explanation for the situation “merits close examination – that the Israelis recognize that Dimona cannot, in fact, support a weapons program of any practical benefit and that some solution to Israel' s security problem other than native weapon development will have to be found.”

The one avenue – totally speculative but conceivable – for a weapons program that was available was “third-party assistance – in this case from France.” While there was no evidence whatsoever of French support – in fact, France’s declaratory position was against providing weapons assistance to any state – its past role in Dimona and the MD-620 missile deal suggested a more nuanced position towards nonproliferation.

INR experts could not say whether France and Israel had a nuclear weapons arrangement or even whether the two countries had ever considered one. Nevertheless, it was “not inconceivable that the French might consider an arrangement whereby French nuclear-warheads for the MD-620 would be supplied in the event that any Arab country obtained nuclear weapons.” For the Israelis such a “contingency agreement …. would appear to be equally advantageous” by insuring Israel against “the worst eventuality, i.e., Arab acquisition of' nuclear weapons.”

That the INR analysts suggested the possibility of French secret assistance is noteworthy, but they did not know how it actually occurred – through Israeli contact with the French company Saint-Gobain Techniques Nouvelles (SGN) that constructed the secret reprocessing facility.

Source

RG 84, U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv, Classified Central Subject Files, 1962-1966, box 4, AE 11-2 Dimona Exdis 1965

Document published in following posting(s):

Duplicity and Self-Deception: Israel, the United States, and the Dimona Inspections, 1964-65

Nov 10, 2020

Letter from James W. Spain, Director, Office of Research and Analysis for the Near East and South Asia, to Stephen E. Palmer, First Secretary, U.S. Embassy Israel, 2 June 1965, enclosing INR Research Memorandum “Implications of the 1965 Dimona Inspection Findings.” 10 May 1965, Secret