or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
•
"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
June 23, 2009
More Boring Old History
One interesting part of the newest batch of Nixonalia is a National Security Council memo about the Israeli nuclear program. Here you see both (1) the U.S. government talking to itself honestly about Israeli nukes in private, rather than the desperate avoidance of the topic in public, and (2) part of the U.S. government not knowing what other parts were doing, since Nixon and Kissinger had already decided it was fine if Israel (and others) built nuclear weapons.
It's unclear exactly when this was written, but it appears (pdf) to be from late 1969-early 1970:
The importance to the U.S. of Israeli adherence to the NPT lies not only in the very great effect of its adherence to the prospects for the general success of the Treaty, but also because, unlike other hold-outs, we believe Israel is actively working to give itself the capability to build a bomb...Should it become generally accepted that Israel possesses nuclear weapons (even if Israel has not conducted a test), it would reduce even further the prospects for a settlement of the Arab-Israeli problem, and it could well cause so many hold-outs to the Treaty throughout the world as to seriously vitiate the effectiveness of the Treaty...
Thank god none of that came to pass!
If the U.S. decides that Israeli adherence to the NPT is of major importance to its policy objectives, we must be prepared to make this a crunch issue with Israel and to make it clear that if Israel elects to go the nuclear route it would cause a fundamental change in the US-Israeli relationship, including our long-standing concern for Israel's security. To make the Israelis believe in our determination, we would have to show that we are prepared to have the issue become public and to defend our position in the face of domestic pressure.
Domestic pressure!?!?!? Who knew John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt were working on the NSC back then?
—Jonathan Schwarz
Posted at June 23, 2009 10:22 PMMr Schwarz, this PDF was written bet April 69 and March 1970.
"Memo on Israeli Nuclear Capability and Non-Proliferation Treaty"
Folder Subject Files - Non-Proliferation Treaty April 1969-March 1970 [2 of 2] Box 366; National Security Council Files; Richard Nixon Presidential Library. 2) . Israel: Tsrael has not signed the NPT) even thoLlgh all ArfLb coL1Gtries E;xcept 1:lgeri_a and Saudi Arabia have no~v signed. Officially the GOI
http://www.nixonlibrary.gov/virtuallibrary/documents/dec08.php (then search Israel and NPT )
However, the following document is even more interesting, a memo to the President from Kissinger!
http://www.nixonlibrary.gov/virtuallibrary/documents/mr/071969_israel.pdf
There are more documents and they only confirm what we Americans have always known but kept secret by the govt.
Posted by: Rupa Shah at June 23, 2009 11:24 PMmy favorite item from the released info was nixon's reaction to roe v. wade. Nixon's first reaction was that abortion makes perfect sense in the case of the offspring of interractial couples.
Ehrlichman (I think): "Or rape."
Nixon: "Rape too, of course, sbsolutely. Rape definitely. I said rape. You must not have been listening." [paraphrase]
as for your numbered point two, most of the u.s. government doesn't know even a tiny fraction of what some of the u.s. government knows, even stuff you would think some people in very responsible positions should know. For example, a person would think the President and Secretary of State/National Security Adviser would have told at lesat some high-ranking people what they have already decided about important issues, like nuclear proliferation in enormously conflicted regions, but then most people maybe wouldn't think the Joint Chiefs would spy on the President, which was reported in some detail by that "conspiracy crazy" periodical Time Magazine on March 4, 1974. (The Moorer-Radford affair.)
(http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944765,00.html)
There sure was a lot of strange and fishy business going on in the "dark corridors of power" in the midst of the opening of detente, just as former Naval Intelligence Officer Bob Woodward started his journalistic career with such a whopping big bang at the Post, after serving for just a few months in training at the distinguished Montgomery Gazette. That Bob Woodward, he sure was a natural talent!
anyway, enough of that boring old history, i couldn't tell if there was anything juicier from nixon on "the jews" in this latest released batch. "domestic opposition" isn't very catchy language from such a master of sensitivity. i'm kind of surprised the "domestic opposition" didn't also come up in the abortion discussion.
Posted by: Not Exactly at June 24, 2009 01:58 AMmy favorite item from the released info was nixon's reaction to roe v. wade. Nixon's first reaction was that abortion makes perfect sense in the case of the offspring of interractial couples.
Ehrlichman (I think): "Or rape."
Nixon: "Rape too, of course, sbsolutely. Rape definitely. I said rape. You must not have been listening." [paraphrase]
as for your numbered point two, most of the u.s. government doesn't know even a tiny fraction of what some of the u.s. government knows, even stuff you would think some people in very responsible positions should know. For example, a person would think the President and Secretary of State/National Security Adviser would have told at lesat some high-ranking people what they have already decided about important issues, like nuclear proliferation in enormously conflicted regions, but then most people maybe wouldn't think the Joint Chiefs would spy on the President, which was reported in some detail by that "conspiracy crazy" periodical Time Magazine on March 4, 1974. (The Moorer-Radford affair.)
(http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944765,00.html)
There sure was a lot of strange and fishy business going on in the "dark corridors of power" in the midst of the opening of detente, just as former Naval Intelligence Officer Bob Woodward started his journalistic career with such a whopping big bang at the Post, after serving for just a few months in training at the distinguished Montgomery Gazette. That Bob Woodward, he sure was a natural talent!
anyway, enough of that boring old history, i couldn't tell if there was anything juicier from nixon on "the jews" in this latest released batch. "domestic opposition" isn't very catchy language from such a master of sensitivity. i'm kind of surprised the "domestic opposition" didn't also come up in the abortion discussion.
Posted by: Not Exactly at June 24, 2009 02:01 AMhey, i got a message telling me to post again and now i look like a nut who posts the same thing twice. (Actually, i guess i look like a nut who points out that he looks like a nut who posts things twice.)
No fair, i protest.
Posted by: Not Exactly at June 24, 2009 02:06 AMI always like "Not Exactly's" comments, double or not.
Posted by: Rosemary Molloy at June 24, 2009 06:32 AMWhat does a fetus call its mother, intent on abortion?
Domestic opposition.
Posted by: Oarwell at June 24, 2009 09:50 AM
