The idea of expanding our naval system to become more powerful came to be around the turn of the 20th century. Alfred Thayer Mahan’s book, The Influence of Sea Power upon History told us the benefits of having a stronger and a more engaged navy on the world scene. The U.S. followed Mahan’s advice and began to create a strong Navy that could travel all over the world. After World War II, the U.S. was in a Cold War with Russia and wanted to use its Navy to gather any information it could to help the U.S. have the upper hand against any enemy. However, on June 8th, 1967 an “accidental” attack occurred on the U.S.S. Liberty while it was in international waters gathering intelligence on other countries. The Liberty was said to have been “accidentally” …show more content…
Liberty was because they were either plotting or performing acts that the U.S. would disapprove of and in turn lose the U.S.’ support. During the time of the Liberty’s time at sea, Israel had been involved in events that would be seen by the U.S. as aggressive and wrong. The Israelis planned an attack on Golan Heights near Syria while the U.S.S. Liberty was nearby. The attack was planned for June 8th, the same day the U.S.S. Liberty came into warzone waters where it was attacked. However, the invasion did not happen that day and it was delayed 24 hours and occurred the next day after the U.S.S. Liberty was “accidentally” attacked by Israeli torpedoes. Another incident that the Israelis were taking part in that the U.S. would disapprove of was the execution of Egyptian war prisoners in the city of El Arish. The U.S.S. Liberty was only 13 miles off the coast of El Arish when it was attacked which could mean the Liberty was going to gain intelligence on this incident and notify the U.S. of the Israelis wrongdoing. “Historian Gabby Bron wrote in the Yediot Ahronot in Israel that he witnessed Israeli troops executing Egyptian prisoners on the morning of June 8, 1967, in the Sinai town of El Arish”. If anyone was in the Israelis shoes, it’s a safe bet that they would not want the U.S.S. Liberty to report that they were executing prisoners of war because then they would lose U.S. support in this war with its surrounding Arab nations. …show more content…
Liberty by the Israelis, the U.S. devised a way to cover up what really happened during the attack. The U.S. government covered up the fact the Liberty was a spy ship by saying that the “Liberty served as a relay to offset the communications overload associated with pulling Americans out of the war”. If the U.S. would have told the press that the U.S.S. Liberty was an intelligence ship on a reconnaissance mission in the waters of Egypt and Israel, the press would immediately brand the Liberty as a spy ship. If it leaked to the press and the public that the Liberty was a spy ship, it would create hostile consequences for the whole seaborne intelligence program. It would be known that there are many more spy ships out there like the Liberty and then enemy nations would be on the lookout for them and would destroy them and create even more American casualties. Due to this knowledge, it was much safer and easier to say that the Liberty was just another ship helping in the evacuation of Americans from the Middle East. Especially during this time, if the Soviets were to gain knowledge of the U.S. having spy ships around the globe, the Soviets would destroy any U.S. ship they thought was a spy ship because they were at war with us. They would see this act of sending spy ships to the Soviet Union as an act of war and would not hesitate to act upon it. Another reason the U.S. decided to cover up the attack on the Liberty was to