In 1979, the Carter administration had strong legal reasons to avoid confirming that a nuclear test had occurred in the South Atlantic. Two specific amendments to the Foreign Assistance Act — the Symington and Glenn Amendments — were directly relevant. Without knowing the exact text of those amendments, a senior analyst can reconstruct the political logic from first principles. What automatic legal consequence would confirmation of a nuclear test have triggered, and against which parties — and why would those consequences have been politically catastrophic for the Carter administration specifically in late 1979?