From the Reagan Diaries:
Tuesday, June 16 [1981]
Today was Press Conference. I don’t think I was very scintillating. […]
It’s lonely. Nancy is in N.Y. for the Royal Ballet. I don’t like it here by myself.
We have just learned that Israel & the previous Admin. did communicate about Iraq & the nuclear threat & the U.S. agreed it was a threat. There was never a mention of this to us by the outgoing Admin. Amb. Lewis cabled word to us after the Israeli attack on Iraq & now we find that there was a stack of cables & memos tucked away in St. Dept. files.
–Ronald Reagan
This shows at least two points: One, that even Jimmy Carter’s Administration considered Saddam Hussein a threat and a potential nuclear power. Two, that Carter’s people were, at best, sloppy in providing vital intelligence to the incoming Reagan people. At worst… well, I imagine some precursor of today’s frothy barking moonbats among Carter’s appointees deliberately burying the files while savoring the prospect of Reagan, the Left’s supposed “nuclear cowboy,” having to deal with a Middle East nuclear war in his first year in office. Had Hussein actually developed nukes by that point, a nuclear conflagration would have resulted — and considering the fabled “Samson Option,” potentially a subsequent U.S. – Soviet nuclear exchange.
Thirdly, I suppose, this shows the State Dept. is neither efficient nor trustworthy.
“…Thirdly…”.
And for the most part still isn’t.