On June 8, 1967, Israel’s military aircraft and torpedo boats attacked the USS Liberty, a U.S. Navy signals-intelligence ship which operated in international waters off the Sinai Peninsula. Thirty-four crewmen were killed and 171 were wounded. The USS Liberty incident remains the only military attack against the U.S. that has not led to any retaliation.
The Liberty began as the civilian steamer SS Simmons Victory before being acquired by the U.S. Navy in 1963. It was outfitted with dozens of antennas for signal collection. The National Security Agency requested its deployment to the eastern Mediterranean in late May 1967 to monitor Arab communications amid escalating tensions.
These tensions would ultimately lead to the Six-Day War, which erupted on June 5 when Israel launched preemptive strikes against Egypt. This allowed Israel to effectively seize air superiority for the remainder of the conflict. Although the United States declared neutrality, the Liberty was ordered to patrol about 13 nautical miles north of the Sinai coast to intercept transmissions. The ship was clearly marked with a large U.S. flag and its hull number “GTR-5” at both bow and stern.
Israel attacks the USS Liberty in international waters
On June 8 at 3:05 pm, two Israeli Mirage fighter-bombers opened fire with 30 mm cannons, severely damaging the Liberty’s deck and superstructure. The vessel’s only armament, which was four .50-caliber machine guns, was quickly disabled, along with its communication antennas.
Following the attack, Israeli Super Mystère jets dropped napalm, igniting fires aboard the ship.About fifteen minutes later, three Israeli torpedo boats approached and attacked with deck guns and torpedoes, one torpedo blast alone reportedly killing 25 U.S. sailors. The attack stopped around 4:30 pm when Israeli commanders realized the vessel was American.
President Johnson accepted Israel’s explanation and the US did not exert retaliation
When President Lyndon B. Johnson first learned of the attack, he suspected Soviet involvement. Despite this suspicion, Israel soon admitted responsibility, claiming the Liberty had been mistaken for an enemy vessel.
After the incident, an Israeli government investigation acknowledged that naval headquarters had known the ship was American hours before the attack but did not communicate this information to the forces engaged in the attack. The Johnson administration publicly accepted Israel’s version of the events and, despite doubts amongst senior U.S. officials, the United States took no military or diplomatic retaliation.
Decades later, critics challenged the explanation for the attack
Most senior U.S. officials privately suspected the attack was deliberate. NSA director Marshall Carter later saying the attack “couldn’t be anything else but deliberate.”Survivors and families have repeatedly called for a full congressional investigation, but a full probe into the USS Liberty has never happened.
Israeli American scholar Michael Oren published a 2000 article titled “The ‘USS Liberty’: Case Closed,” defending the accidental explanation. Still, there’s debate as former military personnel insist communications showed the ship’s identity was known. To date, the USS Liberty incident remains the only case in which an ally attacked American forces without provoking any U.S. military retaliation.