T he spy ship review ofhis extraordinarily intemperate of my book
Conspiracy of Silence (7 ctober), Sir Anthony Nutting has allowed his personal opinion to override his duty to objectivity. The review is couched in tone arid terms least expected of a person of Sir A. nthony's eminence and knowledge. One Is led to believe that his review borders, in Parts, almost on paranoia denying as it noes from the very first sentence statement °f fact about the Six Day war, Nasser and the very incident of the USS Liberty made as late as 1972 by Sir Anthony Nutting in tblIs lengthy, detailed and often excellent lography of Gamal Abdel Nasser. In the second sentence of his review he writes: And the disingenuous explanation given to the American government at the time by the Israelis — namely mistaken identity — can have fooled no one'. But this disingenuous explanation obviously fooled Sir Anthony Nutting who, on Page 421 of the US edition of Nasser writes: 'With rather more justification they Ole Egyptians] also accused the American intelligence service of colluding with Israel following the mysterious incident of the ;-1.SS Liberty, a radio ship of the American attacked Fleet, which had been accidentally attacked boa by Israeli aircraft and torpedo boats while cruising a few miles off the gYPtians coast'. In 1972, all informed diportnatic sources in Britain, America and the Middle East were well aware that whatever reason the Israelis had for attacking the Liberty, the explanation of mis taken identity had fooled no one with a few odd exceptions. In the declassified transcript of the USS Liberty inquiry released soon after the incident in 1967, the US Navy clearly stated that while it noted the Israeli explanation it did not accept it. Sir Anthony's explanation of the Liberty affair fails to offer even a theory for conjecture and argument. However, I am glad to see that he supports my assertion that the Israelis double-crossed the Americans over Jordan just as Nasser told him they had. So why does he consider that stationing the USS Andrew Jackson to prevent an escalation of missile warfare by Israel too fanciful when he stresses in his Nasser biography the delicacy of Soviet-Western relations in the Middle East in 1967? A sample of page 445 of the US edition of Nasser reads; 'The Soviet government was currently involved in delicate discussions with Washington about a Middle East settlement and were trying to persuade the United States government that the best hope was for the four powers to draw up their own ideal solution of the frontier problem and impose it on Israel and the Arabs alike. They, therefore, did not want to upset any applecarts by some action which the Americans could say was likely to disturb the balance of power in the area'. The same was also true of the United States. While the content of my book raises questions which are as yet unanswered but which in time I hope will be proven conclusively by pressure and more investigation, part of my reason for writing Conspiracy of Silence, it is unfair to deliberately misinterpret minor points of history like the Lavon affair and more important points like the Liberty compensation argument. I made it quite clear in my book that personal compensations were settled by the US government on behalf of Israel to avoid embarrassment and publicity and the money was then deducted from the US aid to Israel.
Finally, as a close and well-known observer of Middle East affairs Sir Anthony must know that, however far America is prepared to go in supporting Israel, it never has and never will take that support to the ultimate point of no return by provoking direct conflict with Russia, as seen in the October 1973 war. If America had to destroy Israel's entire arsenal of ultimate defence to avoid nuclear war with the Soviets in 1967 — a time when nuclear war was a greater threat than it is today — then it would have done so. That is why the USS Andrew Jackson was dispatched to work in liaison with the USS Liberty and that is why the Liberty sustained such a bloody and deadly assault by her supposed close ally.
Anthony Pearson 1707 H Street NW, Suite 807, Washington, DC
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