The following report reveals the history of Israel’s Dimona nuclear project in the Negev Desert, citing a special collection of recently declassified documents published by the U.S. National Security Archive, the Nuclear Proliferation International History Project, and the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. It traces the foundation of Israel’s nuclear program to secret agreements with France and Norway in the late 1950s, and analyzes U.S. efforts to downplay the project upon its belated discovery in 1960 under President Eisenhower.
Presented below are excerpts from the report. The full report is accessible at www.politico.com, and all documents in the National Security Archive’s Israeli Nuclear History special collection are available at nsarchive.gwu.edu.