U.S. Defense Policy Toward Israel: A Cold War History

This book examines U.S. defense policy toward Israel during the Cold War, emphasizing arms sales, intelligence sharing, and other security cooperation. It argues that strategic interests drove American policy with other considerations, such as domestic politics and shared liberal values, mattering far less. It begins with the presidency of John F. Kennedy and ends with the presidency of George H. W. Bush with a particular focus on government officials: presidents, secretaries of state, secretaries of defense, national security advisors, other administration officials, and senators and Congressmen. The book explores the primacy of security as American officials feared nuclear proliferation, regional war, and a cut-off of oil supplies. All the while, tensions and often bitter disagreements in the U.S.-Israel relationship abounded over what to do about threats in the Middle East. This volume will be of interest to those studying American relations with the rest of the Middle East and U.S. security partnerships around the world.

Daniel J. Samet is the George P. Shultz Fellow at the Ronald Reagan Institute. He previously was an America in the World Consortium Pre-Doctoral Fellow at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins SAIS. He received his Ph.D. in History from the University of Texas at Austin.