Charles Lucet was a senior French foreign ministry official who served as deputy ambassador in [[Washington D.C.]] in the late 1950s and later became ambassador in 1965. At a 1962 Washington dinner party, he was publicly reprimanded by [[John A. McCone]], then [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] director, for [[France]]'s role in the Israeli bomb. When McCone asked if [[France]] was building a reprocessing plant for the Israelis, Lucet replied with [[France]]'s public position: "No, we are building a reactor." McCone then turned his back on Lucet and did not speak to him for the rest of the evening, a pointed rebuff given [[France]]'s high standing with President [[John F. Kennedy]] and his wife.[^1] ### Footnotes [^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 9.