From the New JFK Files: CIA Said Israeli Nukes Could 'Trigger Grave Trouble in the Middle East'

In a newly declassified document, America's spy chief suggested that JFK should impose economic sanctions on Israel for its nuclear secrecy

Left: John McCone (1902-1991), sixth director of the CIA (Credit: CIA/Wikimedia Commons). Right: David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973), first and third prime minister of the State of Israel (Credit: David Hadani/National Library of Israel)

In 1963, CIA Director John McCone expressed deep concern about Israel’s nascent nuclear energy program and its potential “development of a nuclear weapon capability,” suggesting the U.S. use economic leverage to force Israel to abide by international safeguards, a newly declassified document reveals.

The previously secret sections of this “Memorandum for the File” of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB) portray a simmering policy conflict between the United States and the State of Israel.