USS Liberty

Summary

On June 8, 1967, during the third day of the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War, Israeli Air Force aircraft and Navy torpedo boats attacked the USS Liberty — a U.S. Navy signals intelligence vessel operating in international waters in the eastern Mediterranean off the Sinai Peninsula — for approximately two hours. Thirty-four American sailors were killed and 171 were wounded, representing more than two-thirds of the ship’s crew of 294. Israel subsequently claimed the attack was a case of mistaken identity. The U.S. government accepted that explanation publicly. In a signed 2003 affidavit entered into the Congressional Record, the chief attorney for the U.S. Navy’s 1967 Court of Inquiry stated that President Johnson and Secretary of Defense McNamara had ordered the Court to reach that conclusion despite, in his words, “overwhelming evidence to the contrary.” No surviving crew member has ever been permitted to officially and publicly testify before Congress about the attack.

Background

The USS Liberty (AGTR-5) was a converted Victory-class cargo ship outfitted as a technical research vessel — the Navy’s designation for a signals intelligence collection platform. In June 1967 it was operating under the direction of the National Security Agency, monitoring communications in the region as the Six-Day War unfolded between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, and Syria.

The ship was operating in international waters approximately 14 miles off the coast of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. It flew a large American flag. It was clearly marked with its hull designation and the letters “GTR-5” in large numerals on its hull. The weather on June 8 was clear, with good visibility.

Israeli reconnaissance aircraft made multiple passes over the Liberty in the hours before the attack. Survivors and subsequent investigations documented that the ship had been under Israeli aerial observation for several hours prior to the assault.

What Happened

At approximately 2:00 p.m. local time on June 8, 1967, unmarked Israeli Mirage III jet fighters began attacking the Liberty with cannon fire, rockets, and napalm. The aircraft made repeated strafing runs over the course of approximately 25 minutes. The attack was then continued by Israeli torpedo boats, which fired five torpedoes at the ship. One torpedo struck the Liberty’s research spaces, killing 25 men instantly.

The attack lasted approximately two hours. Thirty-four American sailors died and 171 were wounded — more than two-thirds of the Liberty’s crew of 294.

During the attack, Liberty crew members attempted to transmit distress signals. Israeli forces jammed the ship’s radios on both U.S. Navy tactical frequencies and international maritime distress frequencies simultaneously — an act requiring deliberate foreknowledge of the specific frequencies in use.

The torpedo boats also machine-gunned life rafts that crew members had deployed in the water — an act documented in survivor testimony and noted in the Naval Court of Inquiry’s classified annex.

The Rescue Recall

Twice during the attack, the U.S. Sixth Fleet launched rescue aircraft from nearby carriers. Twice, those aircraft were recalled before reaching the Liberty.

Rear Admiral Lawrence Geis, who had launched the attempts, later told the Liberty’s senior Naval Security Group officer, Lieutenant Commander David Lewis, that after Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara ordered the aircraft returned the second time, Geis requested confirmation of the order. President Johnson took the phone and ordered the recall, stating that he did not care if the ship sank, but that he would not embarrass an ally.

Evidence of the recall of rescue aircraft is supported by statements of Captain Joe Tully, Commanding Officer of the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga, and Rear Admiral Lawrence Geis, the Sixth Fleet carrier division commander at the time of the attack. Never before in American naval history had a rescue mission been cancelled when an American ship was under attack.

The first vessel to offer assistance to the stricken Liberty was a Soviet destroyer. The offer was declined.

Key Figures

• Captain William L. McGonagle — Commanding officer of USS Liberty; received the Medal of Honor for his actions during and after the attack; the award was presented by the Secretary of the Navy in a private ceremony rather than by the President at the White House — the only such Medal of Honor presentation in the modern era.
• Admiral Isaac C. Kidd Jr. — President of the Navy’s Court of Inquiry; oversaw the official investigation; the Court’s chief attorney later stated Kidd privately confirmed the findings were ordered falsified.
• Captain Ward Boston, JAGC, USN (ret.) — Chief attorney for the 1967 Navy Court of Inquiry; signed a sworn affidavit in 2003, entered into the Congressional Record, stating that Johnson and McNamara ordered the Court to reach a “mistaken identity” conclusion despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
• Rear Admiral Lawrence Geis — Commander, Sixth Fleet carrier division; twice launched rescue aircraft; personally received McNamara’s recall orders and LBJ’s confirmation of those orders; relayed LBJ’s statement to Liberty intelligence officer David Lewis.
• Admiral John S. McCain Jr. — Commander in Chief, U.S. Naval Forces Europe; father of Senator John McCain; convened the Court of Inquiry and ordered it completed in one week rather than the six months Kidd estimated was needed.
• Admiral Thomas H. Moorer — Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1970–1974); chaired the 2003 Independent Commission of Inquiry whose findings were published in the Congressional Record.
• President Lyndon B. Johnson — Personally confirmed the recall orders for rescue aircraft; whose administration accepted Israel’s “mistaken identity” explanation.
• Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara — Issued the orders recalling rescue aircraft twice during the attack; ordered the crew sequestered after the ship reached Malta.

Official Response

The U.S. government accepted Israel’s “mistaken identity” explanation within days of the attack, without any independent investigation of the attack’s circumstances.

A Naval Court of Inquiry was convened by Admiral McCain and assigned to Admiral Kidd. Although Kidd and Navy Captain Ward Boston had estimated that a thorough inquiry would take six months, McCain gave them only one week to complete the investigation. Participants claim the court was charged only to determine whether any shortcomings on the part of the Liberty’s crew had contributed to the injuries and deaths, not to assign culpability for the attack, and that Navy investigators refused to allow testimony showing that the attack was deliberate.

In a signed affidavit released at a Capitol Hill news conference in 2003, retired Captain Ward Boston stated that Johnson and McNamara told those heading the Navy’s inquiry to “conclude that the attack was a case of ‘mistaken identity’ despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.” Boston was senior legal counsel to the Navy’s original 1967 review of the attack.

Boston’s affidavit further stated: “Admiral Kidd and I believed with certainty that this attack, which killed 34 American sailors and injured 172 others, was a deliberate effort to sink an American ship and murder its entire crew. I am certain that the Israeli pilots that undertook the attack, as well as their superiors who had ordered the attack, were aware that the ship was American.”

Boston also disclosed that the Court of Inquiry transcript was altered: “I know that the Court of Inquiry transcript that has been released to the public is not the same one that I certified and sent off to Washington. I know this because it was necessary, due to the exigencies of time, to hand correct and initial a substantial number of pages. I have examined the released version of the transcript and I did not see any pages that bore my hand corrections and initials.”

Surviving crew members were later threatened with “court-martial, imprisonment or worse” if they exposed the truth, and were abandoned by their own government.

Admiral Thomas Moorer, as chairman of the 2003 Independent Commission of Inquiry, wrote: “Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara’s cancellation of the Navy’s attempt to rescue the Liberty, which I personally confirmed from the commanders of the aircraft carriers America and Saratoga, was the most disgraceful act I witnessed in my entire military career. To add insult to injury, Congress, to this day, has failed to hold formal hearings on Israel’s attack on this American ship. No official investigation of Israel’s attack has ever permitted the testimony of the surviving crew members.”

Consequences

Israel paid reparations totaling approximately $12 million across three separate settlements covering crew casualties, the ship itself, and personal property. No Israeli military or government official was ever charged or court-martialed in connection with the attack.

No U.S. congressional investigation was ever conducted. No surviving crew member was ever permitted to officially testify before Congress.

Nearly six decades after the attack, a lawsuit is attempting to force the release of a still-secret congressional report about the incident. According to research by the journalist who filed the suit, the report may contain testimony suggesting Israeli officials threatened to attack the Liberty the day before the strike occurred.

Captain McGonagle’s Medal of Honor — the highest U.S. military decoration — was presented by the Secretary of the Navy in a low-key ceremony at the Washington Navy Yard rather than by the President at the White House. The citation omitted any reference to who had attacked the ship.

Significance

The USS Liberty case is unique in this archive because the primary source for the cover-up allegation is not a journalist, a foreign intelligence officer, or an anonymous source — it is the chief attorney of the U.S. Navy’s own Court of Inquiry, providing sworn testimony, entered into the Congressional Record, that the President of the United States and his Secretary of Defense ordered the Court to falsify its findings. The rescue recall — the decision to leave American sailors under attack rather than embarrass an ally — is corroborated by the names and ranks of the officers who received and transmitted those orders. The attack itself combined elements that make accidental misidentification extremely difficult to sustain: two hours of sustained assault, clear weather, a visible American flag, prior reconnaissance passes, radio jamming on specific U.S. military frequencies, and the machine-gunning of life rafts. The case has never received a congressional hearing in which crew members were permitted to testify. A classified congressional report on the incident remains unreleased as of 2026, the subject of an active federal lawsuit. Fifty-nine years later, no official U.S. government body has acknowledged what the Navy’s own chief attorney swore under oath had occurred.

Sources

• Captain Ward Boston, JAGC, USN (ret.), Sworn Affidavit, October 9, 2003 — published in Congressional Record; reported by Associated Press (Jennifer C. Kerr, October 23, 2003)
• Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, USN (ret.), “A Legacy of Betrayal,” 2004 — Moorer served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 1970–1974
• USS Liberty Veterans Association, “Facts Presented by the United States of America,” ussliberty.org — compiles sworn statements from crew members and officials
• NSA, “Attack on a Sigint Collector, the USS Liberty” (1981 Cryptologic History, declassified 2003/2007) — released via FOIA lawsuit by A. Jay Cristol
• State Department Foreign Relations Series (FRUS), Volume XIX — Arab-Israeli Crisis and War, 1967, history.state.gov
• U.S. Army War College, Strategy Research Project: “Attack on the USS Liberty: A Stab at the Truth” — apps.dtic.mil
• Military.com, “The USS Liberty FOIA Lawsuit and the Fight Over a Secret 1967 Report,” March 11, 2026