The CIA Declassified Reports on The French Nuclear Weapons Program (1959)
For the CIA, the success of the French nuclear program is the development of nuclear energy for the civil sector On 19 November 1959, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) published a scientific intelligence report on “ The French Nuclear Weapons Program ” (CIA/SI 47-59) analyzing the state of progress of the French research in this specific field. The secret report describes France’s capabilities in plutonium production, extraction, isotope separation and the development of nuclear weapons as...