Wisconsin Public Radio station WLFM 1990 interview of Dean Rusk by talkshow
host Tom Clark about his book, "As I Saw It."

Caller:  Through diplomatic channels, the State Department refused to
accept Israel's explanations.

Rusk:  Right.

C:  I would appreciate it very much if you would elaborate.

R:  Incidentally, I made a mistake on the number of dead there, and it
is being corrected in a later edition.  There were 34 killed.  There
were several attacks both by water and by air which obviously involved
several commanders in Israeli armed forces.  Our view was that the
Liberty was flying an American flag.  It was not all that difficult to
identify and my judgment was that somewhere along the line some fairly
senior Israeli official gave the go ahead for these attacks because of
the variety and nature of the attack.  I couldn't understand how many
different elements could make the same mistake.  And so I personally did
not fully accept the Israeli explanation.