Remember the Pueblo ((( "The Middle Finger" )))

NYT ^ | 7/19/05 | Nicholas Kristof

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

...The Pueblo is the Navy ship that North Korea seized in 1968 in waters off the country's east coast, setting off an international crisis. One American sailor was killed and 82 others were imprisoned for nearly a year and tortured into writing confessions. To signal that the confessions were forced, the sailors listed accomplices like the television character Maxwell Smart.

When forced to pose for a photo, some crew members extended their middle fingers to the camera, explaining to the North Korean photographer that this was a Hawaiian good luck sign. After the photo was published and the North Korean guards realized they'd been had, the sailors suffered a week of particularly brutal torture.

As the first Navy vessel to surrender in peacetime since 1807, the Pueblo was a humiliation for America. And it has become a propaganda trophy for North Korea, with ordinary Koreans paraded through in organized tours to fire up nationalist support for the Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il.

Then Mr. Kim decided the propaganda would be even better if the ship was moved from the east coast to the capital. So the Korean Navy disguised the Pueblo as a freighter, ran up the North Korean flag and sailed it for nine days through international waters around South Korea to the west coast of North Korea, and then up a river to Pyongyang. In 1999, the Pueblo opened triumphantly to crowds in Pyongyang.

"When this ship left Wonsan port [on the east coast], Japanese ships mobilized to check it," said Col. Kim Jung Rok, who as a 28-year-old sailor helped storm the Pueblo and is now in charge of it. "But then they saw it was an ordinary freighter and withdrew."...

[joesnuffy]

I was in basic training at Ft Campbell back then...
The DI's told us all our MOS training had been canceled
and nobody had to worry about fighting in Viet Nam as
we all (DI's included) were off to Korea to get our guys back.

Needless to say we did not go...

We should have ...imo

[Coyoteman]

I can't believe we let them parade the boat around like that. A MOAB would solve the problem nicely.

Or if folks don't want to be too obvious, Thor's Hammer, Smart Rocks, or Brilliant Pebbles would do the job nicely. I will be mightily disappointed if we do not have that capability yet.

[Jumpmaster]

I was in US Navy Recruit Training at Great Lakes when this happened. Our DIs said "The good news is most of the harrassment and haranguement common in boot camp will go away. The bad news is your training will be compressed and sleep time is cancelled."

[SandRat]

Yep CDR Loyd M. Bucher

[Jumpmaster]

CMDR LLoyd Bucher was skipper of Pueblo. Wrote book later. Great read!

[kingu]

The 1999 event was...

Under the Clinton Administration after Bill Clinton gave North Korea repeated bribes to be good folks. The appeasement resulted in this.

Thank you, NYT, for not bothering to put any of this in context, you lunk heads.

[BunnySlippers]

I just ran across this he other day. The photo is onlien somewhere.

[LibFreeUSA]

[Parley Baer]

Me, I was on the USS Enterprise when that happened attached to VF-96. We were in Sasebo, Japan and we had immediate orders to steam up to North Korea which we did. I worked the flight deck and I remember that it was real cold especially when we turned into the wind to launch our planes. Those of us who work the flight deck cut the sleeves off of sweaters to wear over our heads to try and keep warm.

Our original mission was to go back to Vietnam and the South China Sea and apparently there was not that much cold weather gear on board. Parley

[JoanneSD]

I think, that Mrs. Bucher was riding in her Van, that took a hit by an explosion while she was driving it in San Diego, an earlier terrorist attack,..that draws little attention now..

[phuzman]

That was my uncle monroe goldman that gave them bastards the finger the story was they came to his cell and told his cell mate that his brother had been killed in nam.they laugh and joked about it as my uncle told me so he gave them the finger when ask what that meant he said it meant good luck .when they found out what it really meant, they beat him badly.may they all die in hell.he still suffers today.

[AZLiberty]

When Bush administration officials rattle sabers at North Korea, they're helping to keep Kim Jong Il in power.

Then later:

The Bush administration's dismissal of serious, direct diplomacy has made Korea more dangerous.

The author seems to say that if we take Kim seriously, we strengthen him, but if we ignore him, we strengthen him. He contradicts himself, leading me to believe that Bush's multinational approach is about the best we can do until we see a need for aggressive action.

[Mears]

God what a year 1968 was !

[1066AD]

Wasn't there something similar when Gerald Ford was President or was that the Pueblo crew coming home ?

[JoanneSD]

You are right...thanks for correcting me..

[sofaman]

I remember that..it was near UTC...