And an October 26, 1989 NBC News report revealed a
20-year arms sales and joint weapons research and development
program between Israel...and South Africa.
Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir was seen in the
report saying the arms sales ended "two years ago," but the
NBC investigation cited a present-day joint ballistic
missile development program continuing.
While South Africa continues to deny it has plans to build
nuclear arms (while in 1988 it admitted it has the capabilities
to do so), it hasn't signed "the Non-Proliferation
Treaty"--neither has Israel, Argentina, Brazil, India, or
Pakistan of the countries with evident nuclear capabilities.
Colonel Norm Hoye (retired) of Canada's "Veterans Against
Nuclear Arms" in 1989 explained to me that the "final review" of
that treaty comes up in 1990, with renewal of it to arise in
1995 i explained to him
"The Nuclear Case Book" (edited by Michael
Stephenson & Roger Hearn, copyright 1983 by Hearn
Stephenson Publishing Ltd.), states the following:
"Lip service has been paid to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, but in essence the treaty has failed: it may have impeded but it has not halted the spread of nuclear weapons. Quite legitimately, by supplying only part of a nuclear weapons capability, designating it for peaceful uses only and swearing the purchaser to confine himself to non-military applications, many countries have combined to build up an apparently peaceful international nuclear industry. The Non-Proliferation Treaty has not been flagrantly contravened, but it has been circumvented. With a clear conscience, nuclear-capable countries have helped others towards a nuclear capability.
...Consider the example of South Africa, which had a weapon ready for test in 1977. The United States provided South Africa with a pilot plant along with enriched uranium and scientific help; France provided two further reactors; West Germany supplied uranium enrichment equipment; Israel supplied scientists and Iran provided some of the funding for the development of South Africa's nuclear (power) programme. If ever there was a clear case of Western allies getting together to help a friend into the nuclear club, this was it. The test in fact did not go ahead as preparations for it were spotted by a Soviet spy satellite; the Russians complained to the Americans, who threw up their hands in horror at the idea of South Africa possessing nuclear weapons and persuaded the South Africans not to proceed with the test."
Case closed if Pretoria says it has no plans to build a nuclear arsenal?
Well, in beginning a preliminary review of my report files for the book in 1989, i found that i had included in a report on January 31, 1983 to Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter (with copies to go to Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon) as a term of reference a copy of the December 30, 1982 Vancouver Sun article, "Missiles 'aim at global targets'", which reports on a then-new study by John Baker and Robert Berman (published by the Brookings Institution) that disputes previous Western intelligence re Soviet nuclear arms deployments.