You said — Johnson and his administration covered it up or at least tried to.
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Oh yeah! But, it is kind of hard to cover up what is so obvious..., and so, they just decided to sweep it under the rug as best that they could. And it was shoved out of the limelight, by the U.S. as quickly as it could...
Note that it’s the — U.S. — that wanted to get rid of the story..., and that’s why it never went anywhere, other than the normal (and half-hearted) “public declarations” that one tries to make to make it look good (i.e., that the government is “doing something”...).
Just glad not all perished in the awful accident thanks to some heroic actions by some of the sailors on board.