Gerald R. Ford was the 38th President of the [[United States]], serving from 1974 to 1977. His administration, along with that of [[Richard M. Nixon|Richard Nixon]], maintained a warm relationship with [[Israel]], a stark contrast to the later approach of the [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] administration. Ford's precedent was to tightly restrict access to high-quality [[KH-11]] imagery, even to close allies like [[Great Britain]].[^1] In late 1976, at the end of his tenure as President, [[Henry A. Kissinger]] casually mentioned to [[Hermann F. Eilts]], the American ambassador to [[Egypt]], a concern that the Israelis might go nuclear if they didn't receive military equipment quickly. This occurred during a final meeting where Kissinger brought up the 1973 [[Yom Kippur War]] again.[^2] ### Footnotes [^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 1. [^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 17.