Charles Lucet

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 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