John A. McCone
McCone's leak was his parting shot as AEC commissioner, as he announced his resignation shortly after.
John A. McCone was a wealthy Republican businessman from California who served as chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and later as Director of the CIA. In December 1960, he leaked information to New York Times reporter John W. Finney about Israel's secret nuclear reactor at Dimona, expressing anger that Israel and France had "lied to us" about its purpose.1
McCone's leak was his parting shot as AEC commissioner, as he announced his resignation shortly after. He was committed to nuclear nonproliferation and was aware that the Eisenhower administration was nearing its end, making it an opportune time to act. He was also frustrated by the constant Israeli lying about Dimona.1
McCone was regularly briefed on the Israeli nuclear program after replacing Lewis L. Strauss as AEC commissioner in July 1958. As AEC chairman, he was a member of the U.S. Intelligence Advisory Committee, the top-level group at the time. He was labeled by some as anti-Semitic due to his actions, but there was no known basis for such allegations; he was simply dead set against any nuclear proliferation and offended by the Israeli and French deception.1
Sources
- Hersh, Seymour M. The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy. Random House, 1991. Chapter 6, 7. ↩
Local network
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