Category

Poster - Textual or Investigative

Description

My research examines the events surrounding the 1967 USS Liberty incident. In short, The USS Liberty incident was an attack by Israeli forces on a United States Navy technical research ship, USS Liberty, in international waters during the Six-Day War in 1967, leading to significant American casualties and controversy over the nature and motives of the attack. This incident has become rather controversial as many of the survivors of the Liberty, and US senior government officials involved share a differing view of the attack than the official explanation. When I first heard the story of the USS Liberty, I became extremely interested in learning more about the events that transpired and began reading about the incident in my free time. Thus, when I registered for Modern American Military History with Dr. David Snead, I was already eager to research this topic. After obtaining a general understanding of the incident I formed my research question, which is, “What are there differing accounts of the USS Liberty incident and what actually happened? In my research, I utilized both primary sources such as government documents and various statements from senior government officials involved. I also utilized many secondary sources, many of which disagree with survivors’ assessments. I was able to get in touch with multiple Liberty survivors including Philip Tourney and Ron Kukal. In the last year, Phil and I have been able to build a close friendship and we have communicated with one another often. In my research, I do not attempt to conclude a possible motive for the attack rather I describe the details of what happened and allow readers to draw their conclusions. My research is meant to showcase differing views of the incident while also providing an unbiased account of what transpired. In the future, I hope to continue to write more on the topic.

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Undergraduate

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Apr 15th, 12:00 PM

The USS Liberty Incident: Accident or Intentional Attack

Poster - Textual or Investigative

My research examines the events surrounding the 1967 USS Liberty incident. In short, The USS Liberty incident was an attack by Israeli forces on a United States Navy technical research ship, USS Liberty, in international waters during the Six-Day War in 1967, leading to significant American casualties and controversy over the nature and motives of the attack. This incident has become rather controversial as many of the survivors of the Liberty, and US senior government officials involved share a differing view of the attack than the official explanation. When I first heard the story of the USS Liberty, I became extremely interested in learning more about the events that transpired and began reading about the incident in my free time. Thus, when I registered for Modern American Military History with Dr. David Snead, I was already eager to research this topic. After obtaining a general understanding of the incident I formed my research question, which is, “What are there differing accounts of the USS Liberty incident and what actually happened? In my research, I utilized both primary sources such as government documents and various statements from senior government officials involved. I also utilized many secondary sources, many of which disagree with survivors’ assessments. I was able to get in touch with multiple Liberty survivors including Philip Tourney and Ron Kukal. In the last year, Phil and I have been able to build a close friendship and we have communicated with one another often. In my research, I do not attempt to conclude a possible motive for the attack rather I describe the details of what happened and allow readers to draw their conclusions. My research is meant to showcase differing views of the incident while also providing an unbiased account of what transpired. In the future, I hope to continue to write more on the topic.

 

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