0205Z 17 June 1967 drafted message text from
Secretary of State to American Embassy, Tel Aviv

OUTGOING TELEGRAM   DEPARTMENT OF STATE

                    SECRET
                    Classification

ACTION: AmEmbassy TEL AVIV

INFO:   AmEmbassy MOSCOW
        AmEmbassy PARIS
        USUN
        AmEmbassy LONDON

STATE 212139

EXDIS

SUBJECT: ROSTOW-HARMAN MEMCON JUNE 12

1. Amb Harman opened the conversation by reviewing Israeli
intelligence estimates on Arab rearming. [remaining part of
paragraph deleted.]

[Paragraphs 2, 3, and 4 deleted.]

5. Harman then turned to the Liberty incident and passed Under Secre-
tary Rostow the Israeli reply to our note on the subject.
Harman stressed that fact that GOI reaction to the incident was one of
shock. He was, however, greatly agitated by press reports on the
incident, particularly the Periscope item in this week's NEWSWEEK
which referred to "high officials" as source for an indication that
the attack was deliberate. Harman stressed the fact that GOI was
making a prompt investigation of the incident. He asked Mr. Rostow
if there was any truth in the Newsweek allegation that some US
officials are not convinced that this incident had been nothing more
than a tragic accident. Under secretary Rostow replied that he had
never heard any US official make such a statement. He did regard the
episode as "literally incomprehensible." So far as he knew, the
Newsweek article was not correct. He promised Harman that he would
look into the possibility of appropriate press guidance on the sub-
ject.

                     END

RUSK

Message subject lineage: 171602Z JUN 67 AMEMBASSY PARIS

Note: message format as drafted with EDT time stamp (GMT - 4 hours)

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