Posted on 01/23/2006 11:53:34 AM PST by JZelle
An international incident 38 years ago this month remains shrouded in mystery. On the bitterly cold morning of Jan. 23, 1968, an American intelligence vessel, USS Pueblo, was operating in international waters off the coast of North Korea. It was surrounded by four North Korean patrol boats, with two MiG aircraft flying overhead. The boats ordered the Pueblo to stop and let the North Koreans board. The order was refused. The Pueblo headed further out to sea. The North Korean boats immediately opened fire. Armed with only a 50-caliber gun secured from the freezing temperatures by a tarp, the Pueblo was unable to fight back.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
I remember this vividly. A very tense situation.
Johnson had a REAL incident on his hands and couldn't do a thing because of his FAKE TONKIN GULF INCIDENT.............The persident LIED and 50,000 DIED........
Interesting article. I remember the day the Pueblo was captured.
Good info, but I do wish we had given some token resistance, even had it resulted in additional casualties. The total lack of return fire made this the most embarassing defeat in U.S. Navy history.
We should have destroyed the ship after the NKs took it. (and most of the dock.)
Interesting. I had never heard about the N Korean pilots in Vietnam. However, it still doesn't explain why the US didn't retaliate against the act of war committed by N Korea against the Pueblo.
Sounds very similiar to the surveilance plane episode a few years back with China.
Wonder what the "real" issue was there.
I never heard about either until I saw a segment about NK on 60 Minutes (I know, I know) a couple weeks ago. They said the Pueblo is a source of national pride. It now sits docked and can be toured for an admission.
I read this article but really didn't learn much. I was hoping to find out why we didn't firebomb N. Korea when they refused to let this ship go.
Sarcasm, funny!
Red6
I remember it too. Thought my "freedom" flight from Viet Nam in late Feb. would be diverted to cold Korea. While processing on Okinawa (Camp Hansen) for the rest of the ride home rumors were rampant that we combat veterans would be assigned to new units and shipped immediately to Korea.
Whenever we would play softball at Pine Banks Park on the Malden/Melrose line, someone would point up at the house on the cliff overlooking center field and say "that's where the idiot who didn't destroy the equipment on the Pueblo lived".
We should have allowed the two F4C's to continue.
Son of former CNO Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr.
James G. Zumwalt is a retired U.S. Marine lieutenant-colonel and former senior adviser to the assistant secretary of state on human rights and humanitarian affairs under President George W. Bush. Since 1994, he has visited North Korea 10 times to help bridge the gap between the U.S. and the DPRK. A Vietnam and Persian Gulf war veteran, Zumwalt now acts globally as a private consultant to clients for market investment. He received a Juris Doctorate degree from Villanova University in 1979, and the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa from Mercy College in New York in 1991.
Unfortunately, he's no longer alive to ask for additional details, or for his opinion on this article.
I also remember the incident. I was part of the national intelligence community at the time. The loss of sensitive equipment and documents was a tremendous blow. Even worse was the capture of our intel specialist. As usual, our timid leaders wrung their hands and begged the North Koreans to "pretty-please" give everything back.
Can't we, the USA, take it back from them? In a similar manner to which they so robbed us?
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