US helped France go nuclear to keep Europe divided, documents show

[kpete]

US helped France go nuclear to keep Europe divided, documents show
Posted on June 29, 2011 by intelNews| Leave a comment

Henry Kissinger
By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |

The government of the United States secretly helped France expand its nuclear arsenal, in order to promote its rivalry with Britain, according to newly declassified documents. The clandestine assistance to France, which tested its first nuclear bomb in Africa in 1960, began during the Richard Nixon administration, and was actively directed by Henry Kissinger, Nixon’s senior National Security Advisor. The documents, which were obtained by researchers at the George Washington University and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, include a 1973 memorandum authored by Kissinger, in which he writes: “We want to keep Europe from developing their unity as a bloc against us. If we keep the French hoping they can get ahead of the British, this would accomplish our objective”. Toward that goal, the US ought to provide the French with information that will make them “drool but doesn’t give anything but something to study for a while”. By doing so, Washington would be able to force Britain to stop “behaving shitty” and conform to American foreign policy objectives: “if they know we have another option, they might buck up”, writes Kissinger. Prior to Nixon’s ascendancy to the presidency, the United States had been actively opposed to France’s nuclear ambitions, because it feared that it would set off a dangerous nuclear arms race between West and East Germany. But Washington’s longstanding policy was abandoned by President Nixon who, under Kissinger’s advice, concluded that the US should exploit France’s nuclear arsenal to keep Europe politically and militarily divided.

MORE:

http:/http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=643248&fuseaction=topics.publications&doc_id=699661&group_id=643510/www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=643248&fuseaction=topics.item&news_id=700258
http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=133927

[jpak]

1. Kissinger is a World Class Asshole

yup

:thumbsdown:

[Octafish]

7. World Class War Criminal, too.

The guy's also no defender of democracy.

[leveymg]

2. I have an alternative take on this: France was a blind for nuclear weapons tech transfer to Israel

Most historical sources state that Israel got most of its technical assistance for its (still unacknowledged) bomb program from France. What help it got from the U.S. was covert, because it was a violation of US and int'l law at the time.

Israel reportedly had its first operational prototype A-bomb developed just before the 1973 War and received a batch of F-4 Phantoms wired up to deliver tactical nukes at the same time as part of Kissinger and Haig's emergency arms shipments.

When Poppa Bush gave the Saudis the okay to fund the secret Pakistani "Islamic atomic bomb" program as part of the Safari Club deal in '75-'76, this was justified as an effort to "even up" the two sides.

[provis99]

3. America has no friends or allies.

Only enemies and rivals.

[DavidDvorkin]

4. "Nations have no permanent friends and no permanent enemies. Only permanent interests."

-- Lord Palmerston

(I just looked that quote up to check it, and turns out that Palmerston's original version is less succinct and catchy than that. Oh, well. It's still a good line.)

[provis99]

5. that's how things work in international politics.

Just like a prison yard.

[DavidDvorkin]

6. That's a good comparison.