|
 
In the view of the LIBERTY crewmen, there are two major questions relating to the attack on their ship. First, was the attack accidental or deliberate? Secondly, did President Johnson and Secretary of Defense McNamara delay rescue flights from the Sixth Fleet so that US forces would not clash with Israel?
These are two separate questions, and it would be possible for any observer to conclude that the attack was accidental, and also that the White House delayed the rescue flights. In fact, the crewmen are convinced that the answer is positive in both cases; the attack was deliberate, and LBJ delayed the rescue flights.
When Ennes wrote his book ASSAULT in 1980, he made an effort to find out about the recall of the rescue flights. The investigation is difficult because the US Government has provided almost no information concerning these flights. It has said only that the planes were recalled because Israel had announced that it had attacked the ship.
The US has never admitted that there was more than one flight of planes. There has been no investigation of any kind in this matter, as there was a Naval Court to explore some aspects of the attack. There have been no questions on the matter from Congress or the press; the issue was lost in the flurry of statements in the days after the attack.
Ennes found in 1980, after talking to crewmen and pilots of the Sixth Fleet that there were many confusing and erratic reports concerning the rescue flights , and that there were serious discrepancies between official documents and records on the one hand, and the testimony of reliable witnesses on the other. He concluded, tenatatively, that there had been two rescue flights. The first, at 1450 on June 8, was recalled almost immediately because the planes were carrying nuclear weapons. The second, at 1630 on that same afternoon, was recalled at 1715 because Israel had notified the US at 1700 that it had accidentally attacked the ship.
After Ennes wrote this in 1980, he learned more on the subject from two men who contacted him. The first was Captain Joe Tully, commander of the carrier SARATOGA , which was part of the Sixth Fleet stationed near Crete on June 8, 1967. Tully said that the radio message from LIBERTY, saying that the ship was under attack, was heard by SARATOGA at 1432. Tully notified his superior officer, RADM Geis, who was on a cruiser nearby, that he was turning into the wind and launching his ready group of planes to go to LIBERTY, unless he was given orders to the contrary. Geis approved and told Tully that he (Geis) was also ordering AMERICA, the other carrier in the unit of the Sixth Fleet at the time, to launch rescue planes. (The fleet unit, off Crete on that day, consisted of two carriers with a total of 160 planes, a command cruiser and eight destroyers. LIBERTY was only an hour's flight away at top speed of the planes).
Tully launched his ready group of planes. He noticed that AMERICA had launched no planes, and he signaled "WTH" ("what the hell?") to AMERICA but received no answer. (He did not know then that AMERICA was in the midst of complicated weapons exercises, and was not capable for some time of launching planes).
A moment later, with SARATOGA planes still not over the horizon, Tully received word from Geis that the planes should be recalled. Either VADM Martin, commander of the Sixth Fleet, or Geis, (Tully's memory is not exact) then sent a message to both carriers that a rescue flight should leave in 90 minutes. Tully protested that his planes were ready to leave at once, but he received no reply.
At 1630 planes were launched from both carriers. From this point on there are two confllicting stories. As Tully remembers it, the planes were once again recalled before they had cleared the horizon. However, another account (related in A.Jay Cristol's LIBERTY INCIDENT, and backed by other evidence) says that the planes were not recalled until 1715, after the Israelis had stated that they had accidentally attacked the ship.
Ennes also received new information from LCDR David Lewis, an officer on the ship, who told the following story: Lewis, wounded in the torpedo attack, was transferred to the hospital of AMERICA and RADM Geis sent for him. Geis told him that the first rescue flight had been cancelled on direct orders from Secretary McNamara, who ordered a 90 minute delay before further flights. When the second flight took off at 1630, Geis notified McNamara, who again ordered the recall of the flight. Any officer who doubts the wisdom of an order has the prerogative to go over the head of the officer giving the order, and in this case the only officer superior to McNamara was President Johnson. LBJ came on the phone, and told Geis "I don't care if the ship sinks and every man on board drowns; we are n ot going to fight against our allies (Israel)."
Geis made Lewis promise not to tell about this conversation as long as he, Geis, was alive. After Geis's death, Lewis revealed this.
This is an astounding and shocking statement by President Johnson. The accuracy of Tully's account and of Geis's account, as related by Lewis, are questions eto be explored at greater length in the next section of this history.
|
