Richard M. Helms served as the Director of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] from 1966 to 1973. He was known for his bureaucratic approach and his willingness to suppress intelligence that might displease his superiors. Helms obeyed President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]'s order to bury a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] estimate concluding that [[Israel]] had manufactured at least four nuclear warheads. Johnson did not want to know this information, as it would compel him to act on it, and he had no intention of stopping the Israeli bomb.[^1] Helms also came to a personal conclusion that [[Israel]] was funneling American satellite information to the [[Soviet Union]], repeatedly telling his deputies and aides that he was convinced [[Israel]] was an "open pipeline for pumping intelligence to [[Moscow]]."[^1] ### Footnotes [^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 14, 16.