back then, don’t forget too that the Soviets were funding and arming Nasser in Egypt (he was given Hero of the USSR award), Syria, and the PLO.
They would’ve established a Pan-Arab communist state (really just a caliphate without Islam at the fore, which is what Pan-Arabism was) and the Soviets would’ve had the whole middle east with oil and the rest. Given actual economic resources there, unlike in ‘Nam, the domino theory would’ve occurred there. We could’ve lost the Cold War.
Also to armydawg, most of the time I see the USS Liberty implied as anything other than an accident, its usually from leftist kooks. It was shown to be an accident. The end.
Egypt gave the Soviets one more try in 1973 before they finally threw them out. Only Obama has driven them back into the arms of the Russians.