This is the secret memo by South Africa‘s military chief of staff, General RF Armstrong, asking for nukes on the Jericho missiles. It has been revealed before, but its context was not understood. We now know the memo was the direct result of a meeting between PW Botha and Shimon Peres, and the basis of Botha’s demand for nukes. This memo was uncovered by Peter Liberman and published in the Nonproliferation Review.
• Declassified memo from General RF Armstrong
This cover page of an ISSA (ISrael-South Africa agreement) meeting in Pretoria between Israeli and South African officials on 30 June 1975 establishes the presence of General Armstrong, who wrote the nuclear memo.
• Minutes of third ISSA meeting, 30/6/1975
This document details the another ISSA meeting during which Botha says he needs the ‘right payload’ and Peres offers it in ‘three sizes’ (paragraph 10).
