The Attack on the Liberty

by James Scott

  Petty Officer 2nd Class James Halman: James Halman interviews with author, Jan. 21, 2008, and Aug. 15, 2008; Wayne Smith and Carl Lamkin testimonies, Liberty court of inquiry.

  “Any station”: Liberty rough and smooth radio logs as contained in the court of inquiry. I consulted both logs to create this scene. James Halman, who helped prepare the logs, told me that he felt the rough log was a more accurate reflection of the communications that day. For the purposes of this scene, I translated the abbreviated radio codes recorded in the logs into actual speech and fixed puncuation accordingly.

  The U.S.S. Saratoga was steaming: U.S.S. Saratoga Deck Log, June 8, 1967, Box 813, RG 24, Logs of U.S. Naval Ships and Stations, NARA. Details of the Saratoga are drawn from Raymond V. B. Blackman, ed., Jane’s Fighting Ships, 1967–68 (London: Sampson Low, Marston, 1967), p. 347; Roger Hall interview with author, Sept. 2, 2008.

  Ensign Dave Lucas: Dave Lucas testimony, Liberty court of inquiry; Dave Lucas interviews with author, April 25, 2007, and Aug. 13–14, 2008.

  “firefly-like pieces”: William McGonagle letter to Mike Polston with completed questionaire, Dec. 12, 1994, Box 1, William Loren McGonagle Papers, 1947–1999, HIA.

  Fifteen miles: William McGonagle testimony, Liberty court of inquiry.

  CHAPTER 5

  You are authorized: JCS msg. 081416Z, June 1967, Report of the JCS Fact Finding Team, USS Liberty Incident, June 8, 1967.

  McGonagle studied: William McGonagle testimony, Liberty court of inquiry.

  Dale Larkins climbed: Dale Larkins interviews with author, Sept. 10, 2007, and Aug. 24, 2008.

  Up on the bridge: William McGonagle and Dave Lucas testimonies, Liberty court of inquiry.

  McGonagle and his signalmen: NAVCOMMUNIT NAPLES msg. 061222Z, July 1967, Box 111, Liberty Briefing Book, Immediate Office Files of the CNO, Operational Archives Branch, NHC; Dale Larkins interview with author, Sept. 10, 2007.

  On the forecastle: Dale Larkins interviews with author, Sept. 10, 2007, and Aug. 24, 2008.

  The starboard machine gun: William McGonagle and Dave Lucas testimonies, Liberty court of inquiry.

  The torpedo boats: Details of the torpedo boat come from Blackman, Jane’s Fighting Ships, 1967–68, p. 147.

  Down in the engine room: Gary Brummett interview with author, June 26, 2007; Dennis Eikleberry interview with author, March 22, 2007; Jeff Carpenter interview with author, Feb. 5, 2008.

  Even if he survived: John Scott interview with author, April 1, 2007; James Halman interview with author, Jan. 21, 2008; Richard Kiepfer interview with author, Aug. 13, 2008; George Wilson interview with author, Feb. 1, 2008.

  Up on the bridge: William McGonagle testimony, Liberty court of inquiry; Liberty Deck Log, June 8, 1967.

  Eikleberry never heard: Dennis Eikleberry interview with author, March 22, 2007.

  Jeff Carpenter who had been: Jeff Carpenter interview with author, Feb. 5, 2008.

  When the torpedo exploded: Robert Schnell interview with author, Feb. 1, 2008.

  Bryce Lockwood fumbled: Bryce Lockwood interviews with author, April 4, 2007, Aug. 22, 2008, and Aug. 28, 2008; Phillip Tourney interview with author, Aug. 21, 2008.

  The torpedo’s explosion: John Scott interviews with author, April 1, 2007, and Aug. 7, 2008.

  Chief Petty Officer Brooks: Richard Brooks interviews with author, Nov. 14, 2007, and Aug. 8, 2008; Gary Brummett interview with author, Aug. 30, 2008.

  Scott bypassed: John Scott interview with author, April 1, 2007.

  Robert Schnell had climbed: Robert Schnell interviews with author, Feb. 1, 2008, and Aug. 23, 2008; Dave Lewis interview with author, April 10, 2007; Phillip Tourney interview with author, Aug. 21, 2008.

  Up on the bridge: William McGonagle and Dave Lucas testimonies, Liberty court of inquiry; Liberty Deck Log, June 8, 1967.

  Brown stepped back: Dave Lucas testimony, Liberty court of inquiry; Charles Cocnavitch interviews with author, Dec. 10, 2007, and Aug. 28, 2008.

  If the Liberty were: William McGonagle, John Scott, and Richard Kiepfer testimonies, Liberty court of inquiry; James Halman interview with author, Jan. 21, 2008; Lloyd Painter interview with author, March 1, 2007; Charles Cocnavitch interview with author, Dec. 10, 2007.

  The torpedo boats soon: William McGonagle and Harold Thompson testimonies, Liberty court of inquiry; Liberty Deck Log, June 8, 1967.

  The torpedo boats had not: William McGonagle testimony, Liberty court of inquiry; court of inquiry findings of fact; Liberty Deck Log, June 8, 1967.

  The only functioning transmitter: James Halman interview with author, Jan. 21, 2008.

  An officer jotted: handwritten distress message, Box 2, William Loren McGonagle Papers, 1947–99, HIA. This message also is reflected in the Liberty’s radio log that is contained in the court of inquiry. There are slight differences between the handwritten draft of the message and the radio log, so I have used my best judgment to reconstruct the message to what I believe is accurate.

  In the mess deck: John Scott interviews with author, April 1, 2007, and Aug. 31, 2008; Lloyd Painter interview with author, March 1 2007; Lloyd Painter e-mails to author, Aug. 31, 2008.

  Another helicopter: Liberty Deck Log, June 8, 1967; William McGonagle testimony, Liberty court of inquiry; Ernest Castle interview with author, March 28, 2007.

  Miles above: Michael Prostinak interviews with author, Sept. 23, 2007, and Aug. 14, 2008; Charles Tiffany interview with author, Feb. 14, 2007; Charles Tiffany e-mails to author, Aug. 1–2, 2008; Marvin Nowicki e-mail to James Bamford, March 3, 2000.

  Before the war: William D. Gerhard and Henry W. Millington, Attack on a Sigint Collector, the U.S.S. Liberty, National Security Agency/Central Security Service, 1981, pp. 11–12. Details of the EC-121 are drawn from Martin Streetly, World Electronic Warfare Aircraft (London: Jane’s, 1983), pp. 75–76.

  Strapped in the back: Marvin Nowicki e-mail to James Bamford, March 3, 2000; Michael Prostinak interview with author, Sept. 23, 2007.

  “Hey, Chief”: Marvin Nowicki e-mail to James Bamford, March 3, 2000.

  “Following received”: USS SARATOGA msg. 081235Z, June 1967, Liberty Incident Message File, NHC.

  “3 unidentified gunboats”: USS SARATOGA msg. 081237Z, June 1967, Liberty Incident Message File, NHC.

  “Under attack”: USS SARATOGA msg. 081245Z, June 1967, Liberty court of inquiry.

  “Hit by torpedo”: USS SARATOGA msg. 081254Z, June 1967, Liberty Incident Message File, NHC.

  Soviet warships: Neil Sheehan, “Russians Continue to Harass 6th Fleet,” New York Times, June 9, 1967, p. 1.

  Martin heard: William Martin undated letter to James Ramage, Box 18.25, James D. Ramage Papers, Emil Buehler Naval Aviation Library, Pensacola, Fla.

  “America launch”: COMSIXTHFLT msg. 081250Z, June 1967, Liberty Incident Message File, NHC.

  “Your flash traffic”: COMSIXTHFLT msg. 081305Z, June 1967, Liberty Incident Message File, NHC.

  On the bridge: Donald D. Engen, Wings and Warriors: My Life as a Naval Aviator (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997), pp. 318–22; Donald D. Engen oral history interview with Paul Stillwell, Nov. 7, 1994, U.S. Naval Institute, Annapolis, Md. Details of the America come from Blackman, Jane’s Fighting Ships, 1967–68, p. 346.

  Tully would later write: Joseph Tully, Jr., letter to Jim Ennes, Jr., May 6, 1981.

  Commander Max Morris: Max K. Morris letter to Joseph Tully, Jr., June 19, 1981.

  The Saratoga had been ordered: Details of the aircraft come from John C. Fredriksen, Warbirds: An Illustrated Guide to U.S. Military Aircraft, 1915–2000 (Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 1999), pp. 102, 105.

  Intelligence officers: Brad Knickerbocker, “A Former Navy Pilot Recalls the Liberty Incident,” Christian Science Monitor. June 4, 1982, p. 4; Roger Hall interview with author, Dec. 27, 2007.

  The Saratoga messaged: USS SARATOGA msg. 081322Z, June 1967, Liberty Incident Message File, NHC.

  “We are on the way”: Engen, Wings and
Warriors, p. 320.

  “Not too large”: Ibid. Also, information on American disbelief that the Soviets had attacked comes from J. C. Wylie, Jr., Q&A with Joseph F. Bouchard, March 28, 1988, and Horacio Rivero, Jr., Q&A with Joseph F. Bouchard, March 10, 1988.

  “Defense of”: CTF SIX ZERO msg. 081316Z msg., June 1967, Liberty Incident Message File, NHC.

  “Ensure pilots”: COMSIXTHFLT msg. 081336Z, June 1967, Liberty Incident Message File, NHC.

  The admiral: COMSIXTHFLT msg. 081337Z, June 1967, www.libertyincident.com.

  “You are authorized”: COMSIXTHFLT msg. 081339Z, June 1967, Liberty Incident Message File, NHC.

  The Saratoga had estimated: USS SARATOGA msg. 081322Z, June 1967, Liberty Incident Message File, NHC; COMSIXTHFLT msg. 081320Z, June 1967, Liberty Incident Message File, NHC.

  “Israeli aircraft”: USDAO TEL AVIV ISRAEL msg. 081414Z, June 1967, Liberty Incident Message File, NHC.

  “Recall all strikes”: COMSIXTHFLT msg. 081440Z, June 1967, Liberty Incident Message File, NHC.

  CHAPTER 6

  I just don’t believe: Dean Rusk undated oral history interview XXX with Richard Geary Rusk and Thomas J. Schoenbaum, Dean Rusk Oral History Collection, Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies, University of Georgia, Athens.

  President Lyndon Johnson woke: Lyndon Johnson Daily Diary, June 8, 1967.

  Johnson had weathered: Lyndon Johnson Daily Diary, June 7, 1967.

  The morning papers: “Aqaba Gulf Open,” New York Times, June 8, 1967, p. 1; Terence Smith, “Israelis Weep and Pray Beside the Wailing Wall,” New York Times, June 8, 1967, p. 1; Drew Middleton, “Eban Sees Thant,” New York Times, June 8, 1967, p. 1.

  Most mornings: McNamara’s routine and description of his office comes from Henry L. Trewhitt, McNamara (New York: Harper & Row, 1971), pp. 14–16; James Carroll, House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006), p. 227.

  Elsewhere, Secretary of State: Dean Rusk Appointment Book, June 8, 1967, Box 4, Papers of Dean Rusk, Secretary of State, 1961–69, LBJL.

  In the wooded suburbs: Kahn, The Codebreakers, p. 688.

  “You are getting”: Ruth Scott letter to John Scott, June 8, 1967.

  At 9:11 A.M.: Charles M. Gettys Memorandum for the Record, June 8, 1967, Box 107 [2 of 2], National Security File, Country File, Middle East, LBJL.

  “The Liberty’s been”: John A. Connell oral history interview with Henry Millington and Bob Farley, Sept. 15, 1980, www.nsa.gov; Eugene Scheck oral history interview with Robert D. Farley and Henry Millington, Aug. 11, 1980, www.nsa.gov.

  “USS Liberty has been reportedly”: DIRNSA msg. 081328Z, June 1967, www.nsa.gov.

  Next the men focused: Louis W. Tordella Memorandum for the Record, June 8, 1967, www.nsa.gov; USS Liberty Chronology of Events, June 8, 1967, www.nsa.gov.

  Thirty-eight minutes after: Lyndon Johnson Daily Diary, June 8, 1967.

  “We have a flash report”: Walt Rostow memo to Lyndon Johnson, June 8, 1967, Box 18, National Security File, National Security Council Histories, Middle East Crisis, LBJL.

  The president phoned Robert McNamara: Lyndon Johnson Daily Diary, June 8, 1967; Harriet Dashiell Schwar, ed., Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, vol. 19, Arab-Israeli Crisis and War, 1967 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2004), p. 362.

  “Get me in twenty minutes”: Lyndon Johnson Daily Diary, June 8, 1967.

  By 10:15 A.M.: unsigned memo, June 8, 1967, Box 18, National Security File, National Security Council Histories, Middle East Crisis, LBJL.

  “The Liberty is listing”: Walt Rostow memo to Lyndon Johnson, June 8, 1967, Box 18, National Security File, National Security Council Histories, Middle East Crisis, LBJL.

  “An American ship”: Memo of telephone conversations, June 8, 1967, in Schwar, ed., Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, pp. 366–67.

  Nearly six thousand miles away: USDAO TEL AVIV ISRAEL msg. 081414Z, June 1967, Liberty Incident Message File; USDAO TEL AVIV ISRAEL msg. 151615Z June 1967, Liberty court of inquiry; Ernest Castle interview with the author, Feb. 20, 2002.

  “Our Defense Attaché”: unsigned memo, June 8, 1967, Box 18, National Security File, National Security Council Histories, Middle East Crisis, LBJL; Charles M. Gettys Memorandum for the Record, June 8, 1967, Box 107 [2 of 2], National Security File, Country File, Middle East, LBJL.

  The president ordered: Lyndon Johnson telegram to Alexei Kosygin, June 8, 1967, Box 19, National Security File, National Security Council Histories, Middle East Crisis, LBJL.

  “in connection with”: Memo of telephone conversations, June 8, 1967, in Schwar, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, p. 367.

  At 11:04 A.M.: Lyndon Johnson Daily Diary, June 8, 1967.

  Tensions soared: Nicholas Katzenbach interviews with author, April 19, 2007, and Feb. 17, 2009. Clark Clifford with Richard Holbrooke, Counsel to the President: A Memoir (New York: Random House, 1991), pp. 445–46; Rusk, As I Saw It, p. 388; Dean Rusk undated oral history interview XXX with Richard Geary Rusk and Thomas J. Schoenbaum, Dean Rusk Oral History Collection, Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies, University of Georgia, Athens; Johnson, The Vantage Point, pp. 300–1; Dean Rusk letter to Jim Ennes, Jr., Aug. 12, 1981; Phil G. Goulding, Confirm or Deny: Informing the People on National Security (New York: Harper & Row, 1970), pp. 96–98. Rusk and Clifford both write that the president was in the Situation Room when the message arrived that Israel had attacked the Liberty. The hotline message Johnson sent to Kosygin, informing the Soviet premier of the attack and Israel’s culpability, shows that the president approved it at 11 A.M., six minutes before he arrived in the Situation Room.

  At approximately 11:25 A.M.: Dean Rusk telegram 209218 to the American Embassy in Moscow, June 8, 1967, Box 107 [1 of 2], National Security File, Country File, Middle East, LBJL.

  “We were baffled”: Clifford, Counsel to the President, p. 446.

  “Israelis do not”: AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV msg. 081510Z, June 1967, Box 114, National Security File, Country File, Middle East, LBJL.

  “We had better”: AMEMBASSY CAIRO msg. 081545Z, June 1967, Box 107 [1 of 2], National Security File, Country File, Middle East, LBJL.

  “Captain Vineyard”: Louis W. Tordella Memorandum for the Record, June 8, 1967. In an interview with the author on Nov. 26, 2007, Merriwell Vineyard said he shared Tordella’s outrage over the discussed plan to sink the Liberty to protect Israel, a proposal he described as “absolutely preposterous.” He summed up the handling of the entire Liberty attack and aftermath with the same description. “When I look back and realize the politics of the situation,” he said, “I don’t know why I would expect anything else.”

  Reporters for major: Jack Valenti, A Very Human President (New York: Norton, 1975), pp. 260–61; George Christian, The President Steps Down: A Personal Memoir of the Transfer of Power (New York: Macmillan, 1970), p. 190.

  “prisoner in the dock”: George E. Christian oral history interview with Joe B. Frantz, Dec. 4, 1969, LBJL.

  A former reporter: David Stout, “George Christian, 75, Aide to President, Dies,” New York Times, Nov. 29, 2002, p. C6.

  He started his briefing: White House news conference transcript 866-A, June 8, 1967, Box 19, National Security File, National Security Council Histories, Middle East Crisis, LBJL. News conference transcripts normally do not include the names of the reporters.

  Across the river: Goulding, Confirm or Deny, pp. 96–106.

  Since he learned: Louis W. Tordella Memorandum for the Record, June 8, 1967; USS Liberty Chronology of Events, June 8, 1967, www.nsa.gov.

  “Vance states”: CINCUSNAVEUR msg. 081517Z, June 1967, Liberty Incident Message File, NHC.

  Like his: Phil G. Goulding oral history interview with Dorothy Pierce, Jan. 3, 1969, LBJL.

  “A U.S. Navy”: Goulding, Confirm or Deny, pp. 102–3.

  “What attacked it?”: Ibid., pp
. 105–6. Goulding’s book does not include the names of the reporters.

  CHAPTER 7

  You can come out: A. J. Liverman telegram to Lyndon Johnson, June 7, 1967, Box 194, White House Central Files, National Security–Defense, LBJL.

  Rusk found it: Rusk, As I Saw It, p. 388; Dean Rusk undated oral history interview XXX with Richard Geary Rusk and Thomas J. Schoenbaum, Dean Rusk Oral History Collection, Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies, University of Georgia, Athens.

  “To Dean Rusk”: “The String Runs Out,” Time, Feb. 4, 1966, pp. 21–26.

  Like Rusk, Harman was: Marvine Howe, “Avraham Harman Is Dead at 77; Head of University and Diplomat,” New York Times, Feb. 25, 1992, p. D22.

  Rusk told Harman: Dean Rusk telegram 209253 to the American Embassy in Tel Aviv, June 8, 1967, Box 107 [2 of 2], National Security File, Country File, Middle East, LBJL; Avraham Harman telegram 92 to the Foreign Ministry, June 8, 1967, 4079/HZ-26, Israel State Archives, Jerusalem; William D. Wolle interview with author, Dec. 18, 2007; Dean Rusk Appointment Book, June 8, 1967, Box 4, Papers of Dean Rusk, Secretary of State, 1961–69, LBJL.

  “Well, there must”: William D. Wolle oral history interview with Charles Stuart Kennedy, March 6, 1991, Front Diplomacy: The Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

  “The implication was clear”: Avraham Harman telegram 92 to the Foreign Ministry, June 8, 1967, 4079/HZ-26, ISA.

  Moments after Harman left: Lyndon Johnson Daily Diary, June 8, 1967.

  “Hit him hard”: Schwar, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, p. 371.