"The capture of the ship and internment of its crew by North Korea was loudly protested by the Johnson administration. The U.S. government vehemently denied that North Korea's territorial waters had been violated and argued the ship was merely performing routine intelligence gathering duties in the Sea of Japan. Some U.S. officials, including Johnson himself, were convinced that the seizure was part of a larger communist-bloc offensive, since exactly one week later, communist forces in South Vietnam launched the Tet Offensive, the largest attack of the Vietnam War. Despite this, however, the Johnson administration took a restrained stance toward the incident. Fully occupied with the Tet Offensive, Johnson resorted to quieter diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis in North Korea.
In December 1968, the commander of the Pueblo, Capt. Lloyd Bucher, grudgingly signed a confession indicating that his ship was spying on North Korea prior to its capture. With this propaganda victory in hand, the North Koreans turned the crew and captain (including one crewman who had died) over to the United States.
The Pueblo incident was a blow to the Johnson administration's credibility, as the president seemed powerless to free the captured crew and ship. Combined with the public's perception--in the wake of the Tet Offensive--that the Vietnam War was being lost, the Pueblo incident resulted in a serious faltering of Johnson's popularity with the American people. The crewmen's reports about their horrific treatment at the hands of the North Koreans during their 11 months in captivity further incensed American citizens, many of whom believed that Johnson should have taken more aggressive action to free the captive Americans."
http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=coldwar
The USS Pueblo is still listed in US Navy records as a US Navy ship.
The North Koreans STILL have it.
My ship, USS CORRY DD 817,
http://www.uss-corry.com
was at the 3 mile limit off of Havana for a 6 week period of time in Jan-Feb 68
We were guarding a communication ship, 12 miles off of Havana.
The same type of ship that the USS Pueblo was.
The USS Pueblo was captured by North Korea
in Jan of 68
EVERY day the Cuban gunboats would runn, full speed,
up to our ship.
We then went to General Quarters and played the waiting game.
Neither side ever opened fire.
It was just a very intense "game"
All with downtown Havana in the background.
We did pickup an escapee from Havana.
He floated out on a make shift type of raft.
Turns out he was originally from Philadelphia
and thought Cuba was the promised land.
We turned him over to the Coast Guard
and were told not to mention this incident.
Later, when we docked in Miami, the papers had a story how he had crossed into US waters on his raft.
kennedy, johnson, carter, clinton -- all duds.
the u.s. lost big when they were in command of the military.
As Clarence Darrow said, "History repeats itself. That's one of the things wrong with history.": Major Intelligence Coup for China
Yes I remember this well, I was a junior in high school and was sick that we didn't rescue these poor men
As a teenager at the time, I remember seeing a posed picture of the captive Pueblo crew, and began to laugh out loud. Each one had their middle finger exposed in the pic. I think they were found out and beaten for it, but their act of defiance made them heroes to me. Anyone have that picture?