I concur with the first part, but not the rest.
In the aftermath of the Pueblo episode, when the crew was finally returned, 4 books about the incident were produced. The most insightful of the 4 was written by an admiral who directly addressed the slow-to-nonresponse by the military services overall.
We think it desirable to have our military controlled by civilians. Thus the Army, Navy, Air Force all have civilian "secretaries" at their head to direct their military branch. According to the admiral, it was the civilian control that caused the slow or non-response.
The civilians were all concerned that if any assistance were given or any fire returned, it would cause "an international incident". An international incident might cause to U.S. to appear to be a bully to the rest of the world so, without presidential approval, aid wasn't coming.
The irony is that Nixon sent the USS Enterprise to Korea and it was there the day after the Pueblo was captured. Had I been POTUS, I would have parked 5 F-4s on the flight deck and invited the NORKS to come out and take a look. I would then advise North Korea that either my ship and crew were released in the next two hours or one of their cities would disappear. And, one of their cities would disappear every two hours afterward until we either got our ship and crew back, or there was nothing left to destroy.
That's probably why I will never be POTUS. I won't take any crap from any other nation and if you want to screw with the U.S, you won't like the consequences!
IIRC, Nixon took LBJ to task for not going immediately and teaching the Norks a lesson in Jan 1968. In April 1969, the Norks shot down an Atsugi-based reconnaissance aircraft after Nixon was president, and he did nothing. The deaths of those crewmen, some of whom lived in my ‘hood, remain unavenged.