CIA report warned of nuclear-armed Spain in 1974
The CIA feared that Spain's military dictator Francisco Franco planned to develop nuclear weapons in the 1970s, according to a recently declassified report. But only in an unlikely set of circumstances, including the policies of a post-Franco government, would the country acquire nuclear weapons capability, the CIA report from 1974 concluded. The Spanish newspaper El Pais said Friday the report on the CIA's website, entitled "Prospects for Further Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons", was declassified on Monday under the US Freedom of Information Act. "Spain is one country that is deserving of some attention as a possible proliferator in the years ahead," the CIA said. "It has indigenous uranium reserves of moderate size, an extensive long-range nuclear power programme ... and a pilot chemical separation plant." It noted that Spain had refused to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), which 19 countries had signed by that time. But the CIA analysts said the country was linked to the United States by a bilateral military agreement which Madrid was "likely to view as offering better security than any independent Spanish nuclear capability." "Only an unlikely combination of circumstances, growing out of Spain's location with respect to Gibraltar, Portugal and North Africa -- coupled with loss of security ties to the US or NATO, and perhaps a post-Franco government unsure of itself -- seems in any way plausible as a reason for Spain to develop a nuclear capability..." The Spanish government of Socialist Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez signed the NPT in 1986, 11 years after Franco's death ended the 26-year dictatorship.
