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Eshkol Denies Jfk Promised Fleet Support if Israel Did Not Produce Nuclear Weapons

July 24, 1968
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Prime Minister Levi Eshkol set the record straight yesterday on one important aspect of United States-Israel relations about which a new historical legend had grown. Responding to a question in the Knesset, the Prime Minister stated categorically that the late President John F. Kennedy had not promised Israel that the U.S. Sixth Fleet would intervene if Israel’s existence were threatened. It had been widely believed that President Kennedy had made this promise in exchange for an Israel promise that Israel would not produce nuclear weapons.

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