CHAPTER 13: HELL WEEK
“A bundle of feathers”: Author interview with Charles Law.
“Penetration however slight”: LBJ, NSF, National Security Files, Pueblo Crisis 1968, Vol. 8, Day to Day Documents, Part 17, box 30.
“Before this month is out”: Lloyd M. Bucher and Mark Rascovich, Bucher: My Story (Doubleday & Co., Inc., Garden City, New York, 1970), 348.
“Very beautiful!”: Ibid., 350.
Stuck his head in the animal’s harmless maw: “My Pueblo Nightmare,” Boston Globe series, May 24, 1969, episode 14.
“Get the hell out of my way”: Bucher, op. cit., 352.
A welcome “he would long remember”: Edward R. Murphy Jr. and Curt Gentry, Second in Command (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1971), 282.
“Why we Koreans hate you Americans”: F. Carl Schumacher Jr. and George C. Wilson, Bridge of No Return: The Ordeal of the U.S.S. Pueblo (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., New York, 1971), 170.
“A terrible atrocity had taken place”: Bruce Cumings, The Korean War: A History (Modern Library, New York, 2010), 198.
“How ghastly!”: Bucher, op. cit., 351.
The dark spots looked like mold: Ed Brandt, The Last Voyage of USS Pueblo (W. W. Norton & Co., New York, 1969), 193.
Nothing but icy disdain: Murphy, op. cit., 296.
Convinced he didn’t have much time to live: Bucher, op. cit., 357.
“Just couldn’t hold out any longer”: Ibid., 356.
“You CIA man!”: Brandt, op. cit., 215.
“He went to college and uses big words”: Ibid., 216.
A five-foot-long rod: Law interview, op. cit.
“My ribs felt cracked”: Bucher, op. cit., 358.
“Something we can all be proud of!”: Ibid., 359.
“Who made you try to fool us?”: “One Hellish Experience,” online essay by Harry Iredale, http://www.usspueblo.org/Prisoners/One_Hellish_Experience.html.
“I got stubborn”: Author interview with Harry Iredale.
“Damn scared”: CA, Vol. III, 1006–95.
Didn’t touch him again: Ibid., 1006–97.
CHAPTER 14: BRIDGE OF NO RETURN
“Understandable!”: LBJ, NSF, National Security Council Histories, Pueblo Crisis 1968, Vol. 18, Telegrams from Seoul, Tab 1 (2 of 2), box 35.
“Not sufficiently engaged”: LBJ, NSF, Country File—Asia and the Pacific (Korea), container #256.
50 guerrillas came ashore: LBJ, NSF, Country File—Korea, folder: memos and cables, Vol. VI, 4/68–12/68.
“This might have [a] salutary effect”: NA, RG 59, General Records of the Department of State, Central Foreign Policy Files, 1967–1969, Political and Defense, Pol 33-6, Kor N.–U.S., 7/1/68 to 7/1/68, box 2271, folder: 7/1/68.
A little rumor-mongering: Ibid., 10/15/86 to 12/1/68, box 2274, folder: 12/1/68.
“It was a bluff”: Author interview with Nicholas Katzenbach.
“An average American as I am”: NA, RG 59, op. cit.
“He evidently had no real conception”: LBJ, NSF, Country File—Asia and the Pacific, box 262, folder: Korea Pueblo Incident, Seoul Cables, Vol. II, 2/11/68–3/68.
“No genuine interest”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jan. 13, 1969.
He blithely offered to pay $50 million: NA, RG 59, op. cit.
Naive, “very high-strung,” and “unstable”: Ibid.
“They respect us for this eccentricity”: LBJ, NSF, National Security Council Histories, Pueblo Crisis 1968, Vol. 8, Day by Day Documents, Part 17, box 30.
“What sort of people we are privileged to serve”: NA, RG 59, op. cit.
“This may sound nutty to you”: Katzenbach interview, op. cit.
“We are agreeable”: LBJ, NSF, National Security Council Histories, Pueblo Crisis 1968, Vol. 18, Telegrams from Seoul, Tab 1 (2 of 2), box 35.
“We are . . . perturbed”: NA, Records Group 218, Records of Gen. Earle Wheeler, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, box 29.
Pump troops into the area: LBJ, NSF, op. cit.
“Not entirely medical in character”: Lloyd M. Bucher and Mark Rascovich, Bucher: My Story (Doubleday & Co., Inc., Garden City, New York, 1970), 361.
“The warmongering United States on its knees”: Bucher, op. cit., 362.
Bucher stood up, expressed his thanks: F. Carl Schumacher Jr. and George C. Wilson, Bridge of No Return: The Ordeal of the U.S.S. Pueblo (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., New York, 1971), 215.
“You don’t get medals for this”: Ed Brandt, The Last Voyage of USS Pueblo (W. W. Norton & Co., New York, 1969), 231.
Americans were sure to be killed: “My Pueblo Nightmare,” Boston Globe series, May 1969, episode 15.
“Shameful aggressive history”: LBJ, NSF, National Security Histories, Pueblo Crisis 1968, Vol. 21, Telegrams from Canada and Europe, Tabs 1-2a, box 37.
Grief and revulsion: Bucher, op. cit., 362.
Tears dampening his cheeks: Author interview with Charles Law.
The soldiers did nothing: “My Pueblo Nightmare,” op. cit.
CHAPTER 15: A CHRISTMAS PRESENT FOR THE NATION
“Known to be voluble”: Admiral William J. Crowe Jr., with David Chanoff, The Line of Fire: From Washington to the Gulf, the Politics and Battles of the New Military (Simon & Schuster, New York, 1993), 69.
“I’m relieved to hear it from you”: Lloyd M. Bucher and Mark Rascovich, Bucher: My Story (Doubleday & Co., Inc., Garden City, New York, 1970), 368.
“A study in agony and suspense”: “Bucher Tells the Story,” Washington Post, Dec. 24, 1968.
“Freedom is worth more than anyone’s life”: Patriot Ledger (Quincy, Mass.), Dec. 24, 1968.
“He is an unusual individual”: LBJ, NSF, Memos to the President—Walt Rostow, Vol. III, Dec. 18–25, 1968, container 43.
“You guys are gonna get a lot of questions”: Author interview with Lloyd M. Bucher.
“This was the nation’s Christmas present”: “Christmas Starts on an Airfield,” San Diego Union, Dec. 25, 1968.
“Captain, I’m so glad you got back”: “Incident Reports,” an online book by Bucher’s friend and former shipmate Allen Hemphill, who tape-recorded portions of the Miramar homecoming. http://www.allenhemphill.com/day_of_return.htm.
His first really good laugh: Bucher, Bucher: My Story, op. cit., 376.
“You should all wave to them!”: Eleanor Van Buskirk Harris, The Ship That Never Returned (Christopher Publishing House, North Quincy, Mass., 1974), 257.
“Crying into thin, gnarled hands”: Ibid.
“Handshakes . . . nearly broke my hand”: Bucher, Bucher: My Story, op. cit., 377.
“An admiral just fetched me a cup of coffee”: Edward R. Murphy Jr. and Curt Gentry, Second in Command (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1971), 36. Emphasis in original.
“When we sang ‘Joy to the World’”: Newsweek, Jan. 6, 1969.
“Never . . . have I been so burstingly proud”: San Diego Union, undated.
“Restraint and patience have paid off”: LBJ, White House Central Files, Judicial, JL3/CO, container 37.
“What can one believe?”: “Pueblo Case Perfidy,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Dec. 24, 1968.
“We sank you!”: San Diego Union, Dec. 26, 1968.
Meanwhile, Navy doctors began examining the crew: Schumacher and Hammond’s medical conditions: NHHC, Records of the Immediate Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Pueblo Incident, Court of Inquiry, box 116, “Medical Annex to a Report of a Court of Inquiry.”
“Consciously and carefully controlled”: LBJ, Papers of Clark Clifford, box 23, folder: Pueblo—March 1, 1968–Jan. 20, 1969.
“‘Brainwashing’ techniques were unsuccessful”: Ford, Charles V., and Raymond C. Spaulding, “The Pueblo Incident: Psychological Reactions to the Stresses of Imprisonment and
Repatriation,” American Journal of Psychiatry, July 1972.
“Exceptionally strong and an inspiration”: Spaulding, ibid. Spaulding’s article cites only “a 25-year-old junior officer,” but certain details and the context make it obvious he is discussing Schumacher.
Triumphed . . . by simply surviving: Author interview with C. W. “Bill” Erwin.
A bit tipsy: NSA, Oral History Interview, Eugene Sheck, NSA-OH-26-82.
A written guarantee: Murphy, op. cit., 327.
“Relaxed atmosphere” and a “sympathetic relationship”: NA, RG 526, Records of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, box 13, folder: US6500, USS Pueblo, Feb 1–7, 1968.
“The kids became pretty free”: Sheck oral history, op. cit.
“Several Hollywood starlets”: “Pueblo Men Entertained at Party,” San Diego Evening Tribune, Jan. 13, 1969.
“You don’t just give up the ship”: Los Angeles Times, Jan. 24, 1968.
“I haven’t heard of anyone who is sympathetic”: U.S. News & World Report, Feb. 10, 1969.
CHAPTER 16: BUCHER’S GETHSEMANE
Newsome worried that he wasn’t up to: Author interview with William R. Newsome.
Like they just saw Lindbergh: Ibid.
“Emotions just leaked out of me”: Author interview with Lloyd M. Bucher.
“Horrible chore”: U.S. Naval Institute, Reminiscences of Admiral John J. Hyland Jr., U.S. Navy (Ret.), Volume II, 1989, 460.
Strict limits: Memorandum of Understanding, Subj: Pueblo Matters, Department of the Navy, Sept. 26, 1968, copy provided to the author by William R. Newsome.
“I didn’t know what a court of inquiry was”: Author interview with E. Miles Harvey.
“Come on board with Bucher”: Ibid.
“Don’t make him John the Baptist”: Newsome interview, op. cit.
“No question in my mind”: RP, Vol. 1, 60.
“A complete slaughter”: Ibid., 119.
“No particular action took place”: Ibid., 136.
Completely off guard: Harvey interview, op. cit.
His hands trembled: Bucher’s pauses and gestures are described in The National Observer, Jan. 27, 1969, and Trevor Armbrister, A Matter of Accountability: The True Story of the Pueblo Affair (Coward-McCann Inc., New York, 1970), 366.
“An aura of unreality”: Armbrister, ibid., 367.
“Appalling demonstration”: Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 25, 1969.
Bag after bag of angry mail: The letters are quoted in Armbrister, op. cit., 368, and Edward R. Murphy Jr. and Curt Gentry, Second in Command (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1971), 362.
“Admiral Moorer is a horse’s ass”: NHHC, Records of the Immediate Office of the CNO, Pueblo Incident Files, box 127, folder: “Citizen mail.”
“What do they expect”: Ibid.
“A circus midget trying to slug Cassius Clay”: Miami Herald, Jan. 27, 1969.
“A nuclear Sarajevo”: New York Post, Jan. 30, 1969.
“If those five admirals think”: Boston Sunday Globe, Jan. 26, 1969.
“Don’t let Navy make a fool of itself”: Richard Reeves, President Nixon: Alone in the White House (Simon & Schuster, New York, 2001), 30.
“Harvey was running the court”: Admiral William J. Crowe Jr., with David Chanoff, The Line of Fire: From Washington to the Gulf, the Politics and Battles of the New Military (Simon & Schuster, New York, 1993), 72.
“Standing up against authority”: Author interview with Bernard Weinraub.
“The public thronged”: Murphy, op. cit., 363.
“If you were a betting man”: RP, Vol. 1, 220.
353 southern fishermen aboard 50 boats: Inq, 683.
“Determined countermeasures”: New York Times, Jan. 27, 1968.
An uncontrollable clash: AMHI, Bonesteel interview, Senior Officers Oral History Program, 1973, Vol. 1, 342.
Bonesteel wouldn’t let the South Koreans help their own: CA, Vol. 1, 198-54.
“A diplomatic uproar”: Ibid., 198–99.
“There was no means and no procedures”: Ibid.
Bucher was specifically instructed: Ibid.
“Ill-concealed disgust”: Murphy, op. cit., 376.
Johnson’s cheeks reddened: Johnson’s and Bucher’s facial expressions are described in “Admiral Says He Lacked Forces to Rescue,” New York Times, Jan. 30, 1969, 8.
CHAPTER 17: EVERYONE’S WORST NIGHTMARE
“A dent or some scratched paint”: RP, Vol. 2, 421.
Didn’t even know where the bags were stored: CA, Vol. 2, 626–48.
Prescribed a certain sequence: NA, RG 218, Records of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Records of Chairman (Gen.) Earle G. Wheeler, 1964–1970, box 29, folder: 091 Korea (re: Pueblo Incident, Jan. 68).
“It seemed like no one was”: CA, Vol. 4, 1846–49.
“Pale and skinny”: Time, Feb. 21, 1969.
“An immense amount of junk”: CA, Vol. 1, 114.
“Virtually to powder”: RP, Vol. 2, 354.
“Everyone’s worst nightmare”: Thomas R. Johnson, “American Cryptology During the Cold War, 1945–1989, Book II: Centralization Wins, 1960–1972,” National Security Agency, United States Cryptologic History, 1995, 439.
“I didn’t pay any attention”: Robert E. Newton, “The Capture of the USS Pueblo and Its Effect on SIGINT Operations,” National Security Agency, United States Cryptologic History, Special Series, Crisis Collection, Vol. 7, 1992, 67. This 245-page study was declassified, at the author’s request, under mandatory declassification review in 2007.
“A major intelligence coup”: Johnson, op. cit., 446.
Soviet military intelligence inspected: Newton, op. cit., 173.
Impede U.S. intelligence-collection: “Damage Assessment of the Compromise of Operational Intelligence Broadcast Messages on Board USS Pueblo (AGER-2),” March 17, 1969, III-B-5. This 50-page report was prepared jointly by the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, Navy, Air Force and Army. It was declassified, at the author’s request, under mandatory declassification review in 2007.
“Great danger”: Newton, op. cit., 150.
“Could not be deceived”; “more talkative and cooperative”; and “terrified condition”: Ibid., 129.
“We knew everything!”: “Interview with the Spy Master,” Washington Post Magazine, April 23, 1995, W18.
More than one million: Robert Hunter, Spy Hunter: Inside the FBI Investigation of the Walker Espionage Case (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1999), 202.
“If there had been a war”: Washington Post, Jan. 22, 1989, D1.
Vehemently denied: Pete Early, Family of Spies (Bantam Books, New York, 1988), 72.
“We innocent peons”: Langenberg’s Feb. 2, 1969, letter to his mother, copy in author’s possession.
Men still enjoyed strong public support: The poll is cited in “Pueblo’s Captain and Crew Given Support,” Los Angeles Times, Feb. 10, 1969, 26.
“A 24-hour-a-day job”: Author interview with Edward Grimm.
“Bail her out”: Author interview with E. Miles Harvey.
“Welcome home, Captain”: Washington Post, March 9, 1969.
The only lukewarm assessment: RP, Vol. 3, 714.
“My faith in God and my country”: RP, Vol. 6, 1287.
He spoke evenly: New York Times, March 12, 1969.
“Just didn’t occur to me”: RP, Vol. 8, 1817.
“I never did actually surrender”: Ibid., 1831.
“Abnormally concerned”: Ibid., 1752.
“He still loves the Navy”: New York Times, May 7, 1969.
“His greatest reward”: RP, Vol. 8, 1863.
CHAPTER 18: BALM OF MERCY
“This is my home”: Omaha World-Herald, April 24, 1969.
“The verdict has already been returned”:
Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 115, No. 71, May 1, 1969.
“A single shot”: Time magazine, April 25, 1969.
Near Cape Town: Record of a Telephone Conversation Between President Nixon and the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger), April 15, 1969, 10 p.m., http://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76v19p1/d9.
“Strongly influenced”: CIA Intelligence Memorandum, “Communist Reactions to Certain US Actions,” April 17, 1969, http://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76v19p1/d14.
800 other . . . reconnaissance sorties: Memorandum for Director of Central Intelligence, “JRC Monthly Reconnaissance Schedule for January 1968,” Jan. 2, 1968, http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/document_conversions/89801/DOC_0001458144.pdf.
“Cursory and perfunctory”: Inq, 728.
“North Korean Air Force has been extremely sensitive”: F. Carl Schumacher Jr. and George C. Wilson, Bridge of No Return: The Ordeal of the U.S.S. Pueblo (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., New York, 1971), 64.
“Complete blithering idiots”: NSA, Eugene Sheck, Oral History Interview, NSA-OH-26-82, 5.
“Saving our ass”: Ibid., 7.
“A deliberate effort to bury”: Report of the Special Subcommittee on the U.S.S. Pueblo of the Committee on Armed Services, House of Representatives, 91st Congress, First Session, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1969, 1656.
“No overt action”: Ibid., 1672.
“I was lukewarm”: Inq, 860.
“Are you in any way implying”: Report of the Special Subcommittee, op. cit., 805.
“Not to contact the South Korean air force”: Ibid., 877.
“It was kind of nice”: Ibid., 881.
“He just didn’t try”: Findings of Fact, Opinions, and Recommendations of a Court of Inquiry Convened by Order of Commander in Chief, United States Pacific Fleet, to Inquire into the Circumstances Relating to the Seizure of USS Pueblo (AGER 2), 88. The Navy released a copy of the report to the author under the Freedom of Information Act.
“Completely failed”: Ibid., 172.
“They would have hung Bucher”: Author interview with William Newsome.
Hyland was appalled: “The Pueblo Incident,” Naval History, Fall 1988, Vol. 2, No. 4, 55.
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