McNair Paper Number 41, Radical Responses to Radical Regimes: Evaluating Preemptive Counter-Proliferation, May 1995

There are just a handful of cases since the inception of WWII (Note 22) that can shed light on the subject of PCP:

• Nazi A-Bomb Blocked: Allied efforts to deny Hitler the atomic bomb were successful when a Norwegian saboteur sunk a ferry carrying most of the German heavy water. Allied air attacks on German nuclear laboratories also hampered their progress.
• Tokyo Atomic Labs Destroyed: U.S. bombings of Tokyo destroyed the most advanced Japanese nuclear weapons research laboratory on April 13, 1945.
• Osirak I: Iranians launched an unsuccessful attack on the Iraqi Osirak nuclear reactor, September 30, 1980 in the Iran-Iraq War.
• Osirak II: On June 7, 1981 Israel initiated an air attack on the same Iraqi Osirak reactor, destroying it.
• Kahuta Attack Plan: Israeli interest in destroying Pakistan Kahuta reactor to scuttle the "Islamic bomb" was blocked by India's refusal to grant landing and refueling rights to Israeli warplanes in 1982.
• Bushehr: Attacks on an Iranian Reactor: Iraq launched seven air attacks on the Iranian nuclear reactor at Bushehr between 1984 and 1988 during the Iran-Iraq War, ultimately destroying the facility.
• Gulf War NBC/Scud Targeting: The American-led Coalition air offensive in January 1991 only partially destroyed the Iraqi nuclear, biological, chemical and Scud assets in the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War, largely due to lack of information about their location and numbers.