Sadly, there is more heat than light in this polemic. On the U.S.S. Liberty Imbroglio, Admiral McCain was NOT the Sixth Fleet Commander, but Commander in Chief Naval Forces, Europe. Vice Admiral William I. Martin was Sixth Fleet Commander. Martin on his own initiative ordered the planes launched to protect the ship and Martin, on his own intitiative, ordered the planes recalled when he received a radio message from the U.S. Naval Attache at the Embassy in Israel that the Israelis had informed him of the attack and that they now realized that the ship was U.S. Since the ship was no longer in danger and there was no longer a compelling reason to insert neutral warplanes into a war zone, Vice Admiral Martin prudently ordered the planes recalled. Only then did he receive a signal from Secretary of Defense McNamara ordering a recall, which Martin replied had already been initiated. No further attacks occurred upon the ship after the planes were recalled. Indeed, since the attacks only lasted 42 minutes and the Sixth Fleet was 400 miles away, it would have been impossible for them to render any aid during the attacks.

Within months of this fiasco the Israelis lost two of their own warships with their entire crews due to gross stupidity–the destroyer Elat and the submarine Dakar. Since the Israeli Navy desperately needed to book an accomplishment during the Six Day War, and the Arab Navies were unwilling to leave port due to Israeli air supremacy, it’s entirely plausible that they mistakenly attacked the Liberty because they were unwilling to look a gift horse in the mouth. It must be admitted that their failure to sink such a slow and marginally armed target displayed a remarkable degree of incompetence. If the attack itself was incompetent, then it stands to reason that the decision to attack was as well.