O Programa Nuclear Sul-Africano e a Cooperação com Israel e Alemanha Ocidental

Abstract

The objective is to write about South Africa’s nuclear program throughout the 1970s and its cooperation with countries such as Israel and what was at the time West Germany. South Africa was criticized not only because of its segregationist regime, Apartheid, but also due to its nuclear program. One might say that both things were intimately connected, because leaders of the segregationist government in South Africa judged that a nuclear arsenal was a matter of survival for the regime. This essay was based on documental research in US archives, which form the bulk of the piece, in addition to the bibliographical review of the specialized literature on the subject. We conclude that the decision to develop or not develop nuclear weapons is inextricably related to the decision-making of internal players in each country. South Africa went ahead with its nuclear program and the development of nuclear weapons, even facing increasing international isolation and economic sanctions.