Number of Pages: 384
Genre: History
Sub-Genre: Military
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Age Range: Adult
Book theme: Naval
Author: James Scott
Language: English
About the Book
Journalist Scott presents the definitive account of the infamous 1967 attack on the U.S.S. "Liberty" by Israeli forces and the continuing controversy over what really happened.
Book Synopsis
- Notorious incident: In 1967 the spy ship USS Liberty was attacked by Israeli fighter jets and torpedo boats in international waters during the Six-Day War. Thirty-four sailors were killed and more than 170 wounded, many critically. Israel claimed mistaken identity, which a U.S. naval court of inquiry confirmed, but that explanation is contradicted by the facts of the case.
- Based on new revelations: James Scott has interviewed
Liberty survivors, senior U.S. political and intelligence officials, and examined newly declassified documents in Israel and the United States to write this comprehensive, dramatic account. He reveals that officers in Israel's chain of command were aware of the
Liberty' s identity and shows how events in Vietnam prompted the American government to deemphasize the attack despite widespread disbelief of Israel's story.
- The son of an attack survivor: Scott's father, John, was an officer and engineer aboard the
Liberty who was awarded the Silver Star for helping to save the ship from sinking.
Review Quotes
[Scott] didn't simply rely on tales told around the family dining table. He conducted prodigious research to document every aspect of the story...As a former newspaper reporter, Scott knew how to dig for facts, and his book resonates with the results of his relentless search for the truth...It is high time someone drew our attention to this tragedy, and Scott has done it in magnificent fashion. --
The Tampa TribuneCarefully researched, extensively annotated and refreshingly non-polemical... It fully merits a careful reading. --
Foreign Service JournalEngrossing....Scott's book will be the definitive account of the attack. --
The Virginian-PilotJohn Scott, the author's father, received the Silver Star for his valor during the assault and the critical role he played in the ship's survival. His son has now performed a great service to Liberty victims, students of history, and the nation as a whole in casting a new, penetrating light on one of the most disgraceful chapters in modern U.S. naval history. The Attack on the Liberty is a vivid account worthy of a careful reading by anyone interested in ensuring that painful past experience properly illuminates the U.S. government's current and future policy choices and standards of public candor. --
ProceedingsMy book on this subject is often considered the definitive work. Yet I must now proudly yield that spot to author James Scott's meticulously documented and persuasive study. Anyone who can read
The Attack on the Liberty and not agree that this was a deliberate attack on a ship known to be American, and that the facts were then criminally covered up by both countries, is willfully blind or hopelessly biased. -- James Ennes, Jr., author of
Assault on the LibertyNow, 42 years after the event, and with the benefit of stacks of newly declassified documents, author James Scott is able to reveal the shocking truth. While the most senior U.S. intelligence officials were convinced that the attack was deliberate, they agreed to keep quiet as part of a massive White House cover-up to protect U.S.-Israeli relations...The country should be grateful to James Scott for this very courageous book. -- James Bamford, author of
The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA, From 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America and two other books on the NSA
Scott's book is a densely documented, suspenseful narrative that uses declassified U.S. and Israeli documents to give fresh insights into the attack and the aftermath. --
The Seattle TimesThis book is both a tribute and a belated memorial to the officers and men of that ill-fated spy ship...By raising carefully researched questions about the entire process, Scott's fine book has put the Liberty center stage and perhaps given the surviving crewmen an account that truly binds up their wounds. --
Naval History Magazine"Comprehensive and compelling. . . . Few events in modern military history have spawned as many conspiracy theories as Israel's attack on a U.S. Navy spy ship, the
Liberty, during the Six-Day War in June 1967."--John Lancaster "The Washington Post"