A Preliminary Study On The U.S.S. Liberty Incident

In May 1967,the U.S.S.Liberty,an auxiliary general technical research ship(AGTR)was operating under the control of the Director,National Security Agency via direct communication to the ships or through the Director,Naval Security Group.By the end of May1967,the U.S.S.Liberty was assigned to the Mideast.The unit had moved from its normal station off west Africa to provide additional SIGINT coverage of the Middle East crisis.With the outbreak of the third Arab-Israel war(the Six Day War)on 5 June,the Israeli destroyed more than 150 Egyptian tanks in the Sinai and captured the West Bank of the Jordan River and East Jerusalem from Jordan.On 7 June,the JRC(Joint Reconnaissance Center)request that liberty change its operating area,patrolling no closer than 12.5 miles of the UAR coast and 6.5 miles of the Israeli coast.This message was delayed in transmission in part because of a misunderstanding of responsibilities for delivery;which would not reach the ship prior to the attack.The Liberty reported on 8 June that it had been orbited by two unidentified aircrafts delta-wing jet fighters,on the afternoon,the U.S.S.Liberty while in international waters in the Eastern Mediterranean suffered an attack by Israeli aircrafts and motor torpedo boats.One torpedo passed astern,and the other struck the starboard side of the ship in the spaces occupied by the SIGINT collectors.The ship suffered heavy material and personnel casualties,with 34 U.S.servicemen and intelligence technicians dead and 171 wounded aboard.After the attack,the Israel claimed that the aircraft mistook the gray-colored Liberty for an Egyptian vessel,and apologized for its mistake.During the half century,American only got limited compensation,claims against the government of Israel for compensation concerning deaths and injuries of U.S.personnel and damage to the liberty were initiated by the Liberty’s survivors.This dissertation applies a good deal of documents declassified by American government,other research agencies and scholar’s works on the Liberty incident,making a full review objectively and exploring the settlement about this incident from the two country.By comparing the costs and results for the intelligence collection in the Cold War time,this work also reveals the complicated international relations and the practical diplomatic ideas of theU.S.government.This dissertation consists four parts which concludes introduction,main body,conclusion and reference.The introduction mainly reviews the U.S.and Chinese scholar’s works on the liberty incident,and also makes a brief introduction of the research theory,suggestions,materials and methods.The main body includes three parts.The first part traces the background of the liberty incident and reveals the reason for liberty’s patrol.By analyzing the middle-east policy of the America and the Soviet Union,comparing their profits in this area,and dating back the situation of the “Six-Day War”,this part present the international situation.The second part exploring the motivation of the mission of the liberty in detail,describing the equipment about the intelligence collection and military defense;and then introduce the full process of how the liberty was reconnaissced and attacked.The third part mainly emphasizes the survey and settlement of the two countries which including the White House and the National Security Agency and the Israel government,attempting to reveal the reason why the ship was attacked.The conclusion summarizes the lessons from the liberty incident,exploring the multi-lateral relations.The last part will review the final compensation plan and will also pay attention to the reason why the U.S.government solve it quietly.