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.
You recall correctly. Unfortunately, that was America’s “Fear of International Incidents” period in which we were afraid to stand up for ourselves for fear of being viewed by the rest of the world as a bully.
What a crock!!