Ben-Gurion's Reply Regarding Dimona Visits
(May 29, 1963)
Mr. Komer has requested comment on Prime Minister Ben-Gurion's reply to
the President's letter of May 19,/2/ which pressed hard our case for semi-annual
visits by American scientists, commencing in May.
On the debit side, the Prime Minister's reply assents to annual not
semi-annual visits, commencing not this month but late this year or
early in 1964. The conditions for the once-a-year permission are to
be such as those for the visits which have already taken place. (This
is potentially unsatisfactory since both previous visits were short
and resulted in less than complete access.) The Prime Minister keeps
a door open to the inauguration of other than peaceful programs in Israel
when he states that, "we should have to follow developments in
the Middle East" and "we in Israel cannot be blind to the
more actual danger now confronting us". Finally, the Prime Minister
would appear to be backtracking from the position he took with the President
in May 1961 when he assented to visits by neutrals as well as Americans.
In the present letter, he apparently seeks to make this "either-or"
not both.
As to the pluses, the Prime Minister reiterates Israel's peaceful intentions
regarding Dimona "as absolutely binding".
Our first objective in considering the matter of our response to the
Prime Minister's less than fully satisfactory reply is to determine
from the scientific and intelligence communities whether a single visit
annually, supplemented by our other means of intelligence, would be
adequate to keep ourselves informed of Israel's programs. We have requested
such an evaluation urgently. If it is concluded that one visit a year
is not adequate, we would have the alternatives of (1) a further Presidential
letter pressing for more frequent visits on grounds of the technical
considerations involved, not of questioning Israel's good faith, or
(2) asking our emissary on disarmament to take this up in connection
with his forthcoming trip.
Sources: Foreign
Relations of the United States, 1961-1963: Near East, 1962-1963, V.
XVIII. |