Writing a book is an arduous process that depends on the cooperation, support, and patience of many. I would first like to thank my father, John Scott, who served as an officer on the U.S.S. Liberty and never realized that this book would take as much out of him as it did me. I am equally grateful to his shipmates and their families, who welcomed me into their homes and shared with me some of the more painful memories of that tragic afternoon. I owe a special thanks to Jim Ennes, Jr., Lloyd and Ingrid Painter, Dave Lucas, Dave Lewis, Richard Kiepfer, Gary Brummett, Dennis Eikleberry, James Halman, Dale Larkins, Bryce Lockwood, Mac Watson, Patrick O’Malley, Richard Brooks, Ronald Kukal, Phillip Tourney, Pat Blue-Roushakes, Jack Beattie, and many more.
Many others shared invaluable insight into the Navy, State Department, White House, and intelligence community as well as provided me with important introductions. Along those lines, I would like to thank Paul Tobin, Jerome King, Jr., Roger Hall, Glenn Cella, Gerard Burke, and John Hadden. Gideon Kleiman proved an indispensable assistant in Israel, doggedly hunting down records, arranging interviews, and answering my constant queries. Closer to home, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation graciously awarded me a Moody Grant to assist in my research. Regina Greenwell and the courteous staff at the Johnson Library made my trips to Texas a pleasure and tracked down answers to all my questions, both while in Austin and from afar.
I am indebted to Bob Giles and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism for the wonderful opportunity to spend a year at Harvard and work on this project. The foundation’s incredible staff—as well as the terrific fellows I shared my year with—made Cambridge home. I am grateful to Chris Cousins for his great ideas and careful reading of the manuscript. I also want to offer a special thanks to Craig Welch, not only for his innumerable readings, suggestions, and edits, but also for his weekly—and sometimes daily—pep talks. Wendy Strothman and Dan O’Connell at the Strothman Agency in Boston believed in this project from the start, as did Bob Bender, my wise and patient editor at Simon & Schuster, who gambled on an untested, first-time writer.
Though welders cut down the Liberty for scrap decades ago, I know at times my family must have felt as though we all still somehow sailed aboard it. I want to thank my mother, Sue Scott, and brother, John Scott, Jr., for the encouragement and readings over the years as I researched and wrote Dad’s story. Most important is the thanks I owe my wife, Carmen Scott. She never wavered in her support, dedication, and patience as I traveled on research trips and spent countless weekends locked in an office at home even though I know it came at great sacrifice to her and our amazing daughter. Without her, this book never would have been finished.