The incident that prompted the
attack was the
terrorist bombing of a
Berlin disco on April 5th; 200 people were injured in the blast, 63 of whom were American soldiers. One soldier and one civilian were killed. President
Ronald Reagan, addressing the people of the
United States while the
retaliatory attack was in progress, claimed that the U.S. had uncovered
irrefutable evidence that the
Libyan government was responsible for the bombing.
The French government refused to allow the U.S. jets participating in the mission to fly over their airspace, increasing the crews' travel time by 6-7 hours and making additional refueling on the way necessary.
This disagreement between the U.S. and France was later cited as a supporting argument in the single "French People Suck" by the Meatmen.