LOSS OF LIBERTY: THE 1976 ISRAELI WAR 3 OF 4

LOSS OF LIBERTY-1976 ISRAELI WAR DOCUMENTARY PART 3 OF 4

When word eventually reached the White House, President Lyndon Baines Johnson assumed that it was the Egyptians attacking our ship, so he immediately dispatched air support which would have reached the Liberty in 40 minutes. But then, when LBJ discovered that it was, in fact, the Israeli’s who were attacking our vessel, he immediately called off the rescue.

In other words, Phantom jets already en route from the Sixth Fleet were ordered to turn around and return to their point of origin. Try to let the seriousness of this situation sink in for a moment. Navy fighters launched from the aircraft carriers U.S.S. Saratoga and U.S.S. America were recalled by the White House!

But the blame doesn’t stop there. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and National Security Advisor Walt Rostow at first ordered instantaneous retaliation, but upon discovering that the attack originated from Israel’s Haifa Base, McNamara called off the exercise. In fact, it was reported later that Robert McNamara was so irate when discovering that Liberty radio men contacted the U.S.S. America that he barked, “Tell the Sixth Fleet to get those aircraft back immediately.” Due to this traitorous behavior, the U.S.S. Liberty had to wait 16 hours after the attacks stopped before they were rescued by our military forces. It is the ONLY instance in American naval history that a rescue mission was aborted while an American ship was under attack.

In all, the Israeli attack on America’s U.S.S. Liberty – a ship that sat almost motionless in the water with NO offensive weaponry while sailors sunbathed on its deck – lasted for two full hours, equaling the length of Japan’s infamous attack on Pearl Harbor. 821 holes were found in the ship resulting from aircraft rockets, cannon fire, and torpedo blasts, while over 3,000 holes from Israel’s machine gun fire were also counted.