---
category: Nuclear Scientists & Programs
summary: Deputy assistant secretary of state for commercial affairs who was pressured
  by Israelis to help the U.S. accept Israel's nuclear weapons.
tags:
- Person
- Nuclear
- Israel
---

Eugene M. Braderman was a deputy assistant secretary of state for commercial affairs. In early 1967, he approached [William N. Dale](/people/william-n-dale/), then deputy chief of mission at the American embassy in [Tel Aviv](/places/tel-aviv/), looking "ashen." Braderman reported that one of the Israelis at a party had told him that his primary duty, as an American Jew, was to help the [United States](/places/united-states/) government accept Israeli nuclear weapons. Braderman, agitated, stated, "I'm an American first, not a Jew first," and told Dale to do whatever was right with the information. Dale, however, understood that Braderman's story had nowhere to go and did nothing with it.[^1]

[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 12.