In Fact...

The article discusses the role of the United States in the development of Iran's nuclear program. Amid the blare of the President George W. Bush Administration's alarms about Iran's alleged nuclear weapons capabilities, few remember that the United States played a major role in the development of Iran's nuclear program. The United States not only provided Iran with technical assistance but supplied the country with its first experimental nuclear reactor, complete with enriched uranium and plutonium with fissile isotopes. Despite the refusal of the Shah to rule out the possibility of Iran's developing nuclear weapons, the former President Gerald Ford Administration in 1975 approved the sale of up to eight nuclear reactors with fuel to Iran and, in 1976, approved the sale of lasers believed to be capable of enriching uranium. Ford's Defense Secretary was Donald Rumsfeld, his Chief of Staff was Dick Cheney and his man in charge of nonproliferation efforts at the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency was Paul Wolfowitz.