A Tale of Two Tragedies

By Paul Findley

It is tempting to compare the tragedy of May 17, 1987, in which 37 US sailors were killed when a missile fired by an Iraq jet fighter struck the USS Stark in the Persian Gulf, and the tragedy 20 years earlier, in which 34 US crew members were killed and 171 injured when the USS Liberty was assaulted by air and sea forces of Israel. That assault, in international waters off the coast of Sinai, occurred June 8, 1967, on the fourth day of Israel's victorious Six-Day War against the Arab states.

With more than 30 dead in each tragedy, these rank among the worse peace-time disasters in the history of the United States Navy. There are other similarities: Both ships were plainly marked and easily identified as US naval vessels; both were operating in a peaceful manner in international waters, but adjacent to a war zone; and both were attacked without provocation by military forces of a nation with which the US was at peace. In the aftermath, both governments claimed the assaults were an unfortunate error and apologized.

There are, however, significant differences.

• The Stark, a fighting ship, had a wide range of armament and gear designed to frustrate attack, but these were beyond the vision of the Iraqi pilot.

Except for four light machine guns, the Liberty, an intelligence-gathering ship, was unarmed, a fact well-known to Israel's efficient military command.

• The lone Iraqi fighter plane struck the Stark only once, apparently launching two Exocet missiles within a few seconds of each other from a distance of 10 miles or more without advance surveillance.

In contrast, Israel's forces struck repeatedly over a period of one-half to two hours—first by air, then by sea—after Israeli aircraft made a series of close-in daylight observation flights beginning seven hours before the attack. On one of these surveillance flights before the attack, crew members of a plane bearing the Star of David markings were close enough to wave to sailors on the Liberty deck.

Israeli forces clearly attempted, close in and repeatedly, to sink the Liberty and its entire crew. In initial assaults, Israeli planes strafed the deck of the Liberty and dropped napalm, burning several wounded sailors alive. Later, three Israeli torpedo boats fired at close range, with one torpedo blast tearing a hole in the ship nearly 40 feet long and killing 25 men, leaving the ship dead in the water, on fire, and listing.

The crew of the Liberty was ordered to prepare to abandon ship. As life rafts were lowered into the water, the torpedo boats moved closer and shot them to pieces. One boat concentrated its machine gun fire on rafts still on the deck while crew members there tried to extinguish the napalm fires. Petty Officer Charles Rowley later declared, "They don't want anyone to live."

In all, the Liberty sustained 821 holes in her sides and deck. Clearly it was a remarkably long and sustained case of "mistaken identity."

• Once the Stark was hit, US naval vessels and aircraft rushed immediately to its assistance.

The Liberty was left to struggle on its own. Although two US aircraft carriers received radioed pleas the moment the attack started and were close enough to help, the carrier commanders were denied permission to send rescue planes by Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara.

Ahead for the Liberty survivors were 15 hours of trying to keep the injured alive and the ship afloat. Not until the next morning would they see a US ship or plane.

• Moments after the Stark was hit, news of the tragedy, quite rightly, dominated the news reports, commentaries, and talk shows. President Reagan warned against such attacks in the future, ordered US flags at half-mast, and later attended televised funeral services for those killed.

The aftermath of the Liberty tragedy was different. Instead of a period of national mourning, the US government engaged immediately in a cover-up which has kept knowledge of the tragedy from public awareness even to this day. Many documents are still locked up in secret files. President Johnson immediately accepted Israeli apologies, even though information readily at hand showed key elements of the Israeli account of an erroneous identification to be false.

Liberty survivors were ordered not to talk to reporters. A naval inquiry, in which few questions were asked, few witnesses were called, and many answers by witnesses were omitted from the record, quietly white-washed the whole affair. The attack was only a tiny blip on the news and soon forgotten.

• Immediately after the Stark attack, Iraq apologized and offered to pay indemnification for both the crew members of the Stark and for the ship itself, all within a matter of hours.

By the time Israel finally agreed to compensate the US government for the loss of the Liberty, literally years had passed an American Jewish delegations had made repeated trips to Israel to advise its leaders to accept final responsibility in order to remove this sore point in US-Israeli relations. It is said that the money Israel finally paid to the US government was in fact raised by American Jewish leaders in the United States itself.

Several Liberty crew members were quietly buried at Arlington under a tombstone which read, simply, "Died in the Eastern Mediterranean." No mention that they were killed in action, nor of Israel. Nor was there mention of Israel in the citation to the Liberty's heroic commander, William McGonagle, who stayed on the bridge through the night despite sever injuries.

After first determining that Israel had no objection, the White House authorized a Congressional Medal of Honor for McGonagle, but it was presented, without publicity or the customary presence of the president, at a quiet ceremony at the Navy Yard. Presidential letters of condolence to Liberty next-of-kin were "toned down" to avoid any unpleasant implications for Israel.

• Full-scale hearings to examine every aspect of the attack on the Stark are a certainty.

By contrast, to this day, Congress has refused repeated requests by crewmen, military officials, and others for public hearings on the Israeli attack.

Both Admiral Thomas L. Moorer, a former Chief of Naval Operations who became chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff shortly after the attack on the Liberty, and Dean Rusk, who served Johnson as Secretary of State, reject the Israeli claim that the attack was the result of mistaken identity. Moorer said the attack was "absolutely deliberate," adding, "The American people would be goddam mad if they knew what goes on."

Why the murderous assault by Israel? One explanation is that Israel wanted to destroy the Liberty to prevent it from intercepting messages about Israel's pending attack on Syria's Golan Heights, which occurred the next day.

Why the cover-up? President Johnson, fighting a losing battle for public support of the war in Vietnam, probably did not want to upset pro-Israel US citizens and Israel's ever-vigilant supporters in the US media by making an issue of the Liberty.

Today, Congress is unlikely to end the cover-up with a public investigation. Its members, even more now than 20 years ago, are convinced that Israel's lobby has the power, by channeling election-year political donations either to them or to their political opponents, to determine whether or not they will be re-elected.

Paul Findley served in the US House of Representatives for 22 years. His book, They Dare to Speak Out, includes a chapter devoted to the USS Liberty.