The Attack on the Liberty
Page 41
“We clearly do not”: Carl F. Salans memo to Nicholas Katzenbach, March 22, 1968.
“accepted in principle”: Memorandum of conversation about U.S.S. Liberty claims, March 25, 1968.
“redouble efforts”: Dean Rusk telegram 136943 to the American Embassy in Tel Aviv, March 27, 1968.
“We think this proposal”: Leonard C. Meeker memo to Nicholas Katzenbach, May 17, 1968; AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV msg. 201115Z, May 1968.
“public airing”: Ibid.
wrote a check: AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV msg. 271505Z, May 1968; Fabian A. Kwiatek memo to Edward G. Boehm, May 31, 1968; AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV msg. 031100Z, May 1968.
two-paragraph press release: Press Statement: Payment of U.S.S. Liberty Death Claims, May 28, 1968.
the United States billed Israel: Walworth Barbour airgram to the State Department, July 6, 1968.
Haaretz ran an article: Walworth Barbour airgram to the State Department, July 23, 1968.
“was motivated”: AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV msg. 061125Z, August 1968.
“totally unacceptable”: Dean Rusk telegram 219537 to the American Embassy in Tel Aviv, Aug. 12, 1968.
Its Foreign Ministry asked: AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV msg. 031130Z, September 1968.
Israel paid the full $3,566,457: State Department airgram to the American Embassy in Tel Aviv with list of claimants, March 18, 1969; Ernest L. Kerley memo to George H. Aldrich, May 5, 1969; “Israel Pays Com pensation Claimed for Men Injured on U.S.S. Liberty,” Department of State Bulletin 60, no. 1562 (June 2, 1969), p. 473.
“evasive”: H. H. Stackhouse memo to Alfred L. Atherton, Jr., Jan. 12, 1971.
“petulant”: Robert H. Neuman memo to J. J. Sisco, Oct. 9, 1969.
“unresponsive attitude”: State Department telegram to the American Embassy in Tel Aviv, July 28, 1970.
secretly offered: Walworth Barbour letter to Alfred L. Atherton, Jr., Aug. 6, 1971.
“The suggested sum”: H. H. Stackhouse memo to Alfred L. Atherton, Jr., Aug. 25, 1971.
Lawmakers and the press: Peter Constable draft memo to David Newsom, Aug. 20, 1979, Jack Anderson, “USS Liberty: Damages Have Never Been Paid,” The Washington Post, July 17, 1977, p. B7.
negotiations stalled again: Harold H. Saunders draft memo to David Newsom, Aug. 12, 1980.
By 1980: Edmund Muskie telegram 315517 to the American Embassy in Tel Aviv, Nov. 26, 1980.
“Since this ship”: William J. Small, “Probe Planned: Did Israel Intentionally Sink U.S. Ship?,” Seattle Times, Sept. 28, 1980, p. A6.
Israel offered: Edmund Muskie telegram 331156 to the American Embassy in Tel Aviv, Dec. 15, 1980; Edmund Muskie telegram 334352 to the American Embassy in Tel Aviv, Dec. 18, 1980.
“had finally closed the book”: Bernard Gwertzman, “Israeli Payment to Close the Book on ’67 Attack on U.S. Navy Vessel,” New York Times, Dec. 19, 1980, p. A1.
“It was not”: Dean Rusk letter to Jim Ennes, Jr., Sept. 10, 1981.
McGonagle sipped coffee: William McGonagle interview with Tim Frank, Sept. 27, 1997.
government offered: Ibid.; William McGonagle letter to Mike Polston with completed questionaire, Dec. 12, 1994, Box 1, William Loren McGonagle Papers, 1947–99, HIA.
“Command of a new ship”: “Skipper of USS Liberty Promoted to Captain,” Los Angeles Times, Oct. 12, 1967, p. 25.
Johnson presented: “The Proceedings in Washington,” New York Times, Feb. 2, 1968, p. 6; Max Frankel, “President Urges Patience on War,” New York Times, March 13, 1968, p. 1; “Johnson Warns of ‘Phony Peace,’” New York Times, March 21, 1968, p. 5; Nan Robertson, “Two Soldiers in Same Battle Get Medals of Honor in Rare Double Ceremony,” New York Times, May 2, 1968, p. 5; Nan Robertson, “4 Men Awarded Medals of Honor,” New York Times, May 15, 1968, p. 1.
“Due to the nature”: Jim Cross memo to Lyndon Johnson, May 15, 1968, Box 17, White House Central Files, Medals-Awards, LBJL.
The president instead visited: Lyndon Johnson Daily Diary, June 11, 1968.
“backhanded slap”: Thomas H. Moorer, “Memorandum: Attack on the USS Liberty—June 8, 1967,” Link 30, no. 3, (July–August 1997), p. 3.
“They had been trying”: Findley, They Dare to Speak Out, p. 174.
“I do not feel”: William McGonagle letter to Phillip Tourney, Nov. 5, 1985.
Handwritten notes: Notes regarding the Medal of Honor presentations, Box 6, William Loren McGonagle Papers, 1947–99, HIA. Barnum and Marm held these ranks at the time the Medal of Honor was awarded.
“When you”: William McGonagle interview with Tim Frank, Sept. 27, 1997.
“Despite continuous”: William McGonagle Medal of Honor Ceremony Program, June 11, 1968, Box 6, William Loren McGonagle Papers, 1947–99, HIA.
lowered his head: “Liberty Skipper Gets Medal of Honor,” New York Times, June 12, 1968, p. 4; Fred Farrar, “Honor Hero of Ship Hit in Mid-East War,” Chicago Tribune, June 12, 1968, p. 8.
The $162,608: SECSTATE WASHDC msg. 262224Z, November 1980.
The morning breeze: James Harper, “Retiring ‘Liberty,’ But Mostly Her Men, Honored,” Virginian-Pilot, June 15, 1968, p. 17; Meritorious Awards Presentation Program, June 14, 1968.
the Navy awarded: Liberty Citations, Box 6, William Loren McGonagle Papers, 1947–99, HIA.
“The ship looked good”: Harper, “Retiring ‘Liberty,’ But Mostly Her Men, Honored,” p. 17.
“What I have to say”: Ibid.
The men prepared: Dave Lucas’s journal; Richard Brooks interviews with author, Nov. 14, 2007, and April 6, 2008.
The Pentagon dismantled: Julie Alger, “A Review of the Technical Research Program, 1961–1969”, pp. 132–34.
In December 1970: Stephanie L. Carr letter to author, Nov. 30, 2006.
The few remaining officers: Decommissioning of USS Liberty Program, June 28, 1968; “USS Liberty Decommissioned,” Hartford Courant, June 29, 1968, p. 11C.
Brooks departed last: Richard Brooks interviews with author, Nov. 14, 2007, and April 6, 2008.
EPILOGUE
The men were beaten: Bernard Weinraub, “Pueblo Hearing: The Admirals Listen and Look Away,” New York Times, Feb. 23, 1969, p. E7; Bernard Weinraub, “Pueblo Inquiry Is Told the Crew Yearned for Retaliation by U.S.,” New York Times, Feb. 21, 1969, p. 14; Stuart Russell interview with author, Dec. 12, 2007.
“incalculable”: House Committee on Armed Services, Inquiry into the U.S.S. Pueblo and EC-121 Plane Incidents: Report of the Special Subcommittee on the U.S.S. Pueblo, 91st Cong., 1st sess., July 28, 1969 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1969), p. 1674.
In the more than 500 pages: House Committee on Armed Services, Inquiry into the U.S.S. Pueblo and EC-121 Plane Incidents: Hearings Before the Special Subcommittee on the U.S.S. Pueblo, 91st Cong., 1st sess., March 4, 1969 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1969). The exchange between Moorer and Pike can be found on pages 686–87. Some witnesses were interviewed in executive session for reasons of national security. That testimony is not included in the published hearings.
“If the lessons”: L. M. Bucher, “Remember the ‘Liberty,’” Washington Post, May 18, 1980, p. BW5.
When I interviewed Katzenbach: Nicholas Katzenbach interview with author, April 19, 2007. Katzenbach described his sense of the president’s logic: “His thinking on it was that the more generous they were about admitting a mistake and paying reparations—paying off the families—the easier it would be for the United States to ignore the incident.”
“We failed to let”: Lucius Battle interview outtake from the documentary Dead in the Water, Director Christopher Mitchell, Source Films for BBC, 2002.
“Israel’s leaders concluded”: George W. Ball and Douglas B. Ball, The Passionate Attachment: America’s Involvement with Israel, 1947 to the Present (New York: W. W. Norton, 1992), p. 58.
“national disgrace”: Thomas Brooks interview with author, Feb. 21, 2007.
pilots refusing: Greg Myre, “27 Israeli Reserve Pilots Say They Refuse to Bomb
Civilians,” New York Times, Sept. 25, 2003, p. A12.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Writing a book is an arduous process that depends on the cooperation, support, and patience of many. I would first like to thank my father, John Scott, who served as an officer on the U.S.S. Liberty and never realized that this book would take as much out of him as it did me. I am equally grateful to his shipmates and their families, who welcomed me into their homes and shared with me some of the more painful memories of that tragic afternoon. I owe a special thanks to Jim Ennes, Jr., Lloyd and Ingrid Painter, Dave Lucas, Dave Lewis, Richard Kiepfer, Gary Brummett, Dennis Eikleberry, James Halman, Dale Larkins, Bryce Lockwood, Mac Watson, Patrick O’Malley, Richard Brooks, Ronald Kukal, Phillip Tourney, Pat Blue-Roushakes, Jack Beattie, and many more.
Many others shared invaluable insight into the Navy, State Department, White House, and intelligence community as well as provided me with important introductions. Along those lines, I would like to thank Paul Tobin, Jerome King, Jr., Roger Hall, Glenn Cella, Gerard Burke, and John Hadden. Gideon Kleiman proved an indispensable assistant in Israel, doggedly hunting down records, arranging interviews, and answering my constant queries. Closer to home, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation graciously awarded me a Moody Grant to assist in my research. Regina Greenwell and the courteous staff at the Johnson Library made my trips to Texas a pleasure and tracked down answers to all my questions, both while in Austin and from afar.
I am indebted to Bob Giles and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism for the wonderful opportunity to spend a year at Harvard and work on this project. The foundation’s incredible staff—as well as the terrific fellows I shared my year with—made Cambridge home. I am grateful to Chris Cousins for his great ideas and careful reading of the manuscript. I also want to offer a special thanks to Craig Welch, not only for his innumerable readings, suggestions, and edits, but also for his weekly—and sometimes daily—pep talks. Wendy Strothman and Dan O’Connell at the Strothman Agency in Boston believed in this project from the start, as did Bob Bender, my wise and patient editor at Simon & Schuster, who gambled on an untested, first-time writer.
Though welders cut down the Liberty for scrap decades ago, I know at times my family must have felt as though we all still somehow sailed aboard it. I want to thank my mother, Sue Scott, and brother, John Scott, Jr., for the encouragement and readings over the years as I researched and wrote Dad’s story. Most important is the thanks I owe my wife, Carmen Scott. She never wavered in her support, dedication, and patience as I traveled on research trips and spent countless weekends locked in an office at home even though I know it came at great sacrifice to her and our amazing daughter. Without her, this book never would have been finished.
PHOTOGRAPHIC INSERT
An Israeli torpedo boat zooms past the Liberty during the attack. (NATIONAL ARCHIVES)
Firefighters extinguish the last of the blazes soon after the attack. (LLOYD PAINTER)
The forward machine gun tubs took direct fire during the air attack. (DENNIS EIKLEBERRY)
Blood from the dead gunners still stains the forecastle the morning after the attack. (DENNIS EIKLEBERRY)
The Liberty’s medical staff converted the mess deck into a makeshift hospital, covering tables with mattresses to serve as beds. (NATIONAL ARCHIVES)
Shell holes riddle the bridge and smokestack. (DENNIS EIKLEBERRY)
Commander William McGonagle displays an armor-piercing machine gun round fired at the Liberty during the attack. Note the shell hole on the wall behind him. (NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY)
Commander William McGonagle on the bridge at daybreak the morning after the attack. His right pant leg is gone, exposing his bloodstained leg. (FRANK MCINTURFF)
Dr. Peter Flynn, a surgeon from the aircraft carrier America, examines a patient on board the Liberty the morning after the attack. Dr. Richard Kiepfer, the Liberty’s only doctor, sits at the injured sailor’s feet. (NATIONAL ARCHIVES)
President Lyndon Johnson and his advisers gather in the Situation Room the day of the attack. From left to right: Clark Clifford, Robert McNamara, McGeorge Bundy, Dean Rusk, Johnson (back to camera), Nicholas Katzenbach, Llewellyn Thompson, and Walt Rostow. (YOICHI OKAMOTO/ LYNDON B. JOHNSON LIBRARY)
Sailors race the injured off a helicopter on board the aircraft carrier America the day after the attack. (NATIONAL ARCHIVES)
Injured Liberty crewmembers are escorted to a memorial service on the deck of the aircraft carrier America on June 10, 1967. (NATIONAL ARCHIVES)
President Johnson and his advisers gather in the Cabinet Room for a meeting of the Special Committee of the National Security Council the day after the attack. The Liberty is the focus of heated discussion. Clockwise from left: Robert McNamara, Clark Clifford, Harold Saunders, Walt Rostow, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Joseph Clark, Francis Bator, Nicholas Katzenbach, Dean Rusk, Lyndon Johnson (both with back to the camera). (YOICHI OKAMOTO/LYNDON B. JOHNSON LIBRARY)
The Liberty arrives in Malta on June 14, 1967. Only the top of the torpedo hole is visible above the waterline. (NATIONAL ARCHIVES)
Men haul caskets on board the Liberty in Malta. (U. S. NAVY)
The full scope of the torpedo’s damage is revealed as the ship sits on keel blocks in a Malta drydock. (DENNIS EIKLEBERRY)
Liberty Ensign Dave Lucas, center. (NATIONAL ARCHIVES)
Ensign John Scott inspects the shoring done by damage control crews to prevent the bulkhead from rupturing. (NATIONAL ARCHIVES)
Israeli Ambassador Yitzhak Rabin shakes hands with President Johnson at the door of the Oval Office. Rabin, who served as chief of staff during the Six-Day War, helped negotiate some of Israel’s reparations for the attack on the Liberty. (YOICHI OKAMOTO/LYNDON B. JOHNSON LIBRARY)
Families greet the Liberty on its return to Virginia on July 29, 1967. (NATIONAL ARCHIVES)