The Day Liberty Died

On June 8, 1967, the USS Liberty, an unarmed intelligence ship, was positioned in international waters off the coast of Egypt when it was attacked by unmarked IDF jet planes firing rockets and machine guns and throwing napalm onto its deck.

This ambush was followed by a torpedo strike that blew a forty-foot hole in the starboard side of the ship. Lacking the capacity to defend themselves, thirty-four sailors were killed and 174 wounded, many for life.

So intense and sustained was the attack—it lasted for nearly an hour and a half—so specific was the aiming for the antennae and satellite dish on deck, that it was scarcely credible that Israel's aggression was not deliberate; such was the view of Marshall Carter, the director of the NSA, and Richard Helms, the Director of Central Intelligence.

"If it was an accident, it was the best planned accident I've ever heard of." — USS Liberty survivor