LBJ was president and Vietnam was going badly. The CIA ran LBJ's foreign policy and engaged in it's usual idiotic stealthy strategy towards Israel when any Naval Commander in his right mind would have alerted Israel to the Liberty's presence in a volatile operation. Israel compensated the victims. It should be noted that another "intelligence" U.S. Ship (USS Pueblo) was captured by N.K. during LBJ/CIA "stealthy" operations and is still in the hands of the NK.