Description
The book "The Pueblo Incident" by Mitchell Lerner discusses the capture of the U.S.S. Pueblo by North Korean gunships in January 1968 and the subsequent diplomatic efforts to secure the release of the crew. Lerner draws on declassified documents and interviews to provide a comprehensive account of the incident, highlighting the personal struggles of the crew and the controversy surrounding Commander Bucher's actions. The book also critiques America's Cold War mentality and argues that viewing North Korea as part of a global Communist conspiracy hindered effective resolution of the crisis. It also addresses unanswered questions about the mission of the Pueblo and the impact of the intelligence loss on national security. The book is part of the Modern War Studies series and provides insights into the role of gunboat diplomacy and American foreign policy failures in the Cold War.
"Remember, you are not going out there to start a war," Rear Admiral Frank Johnson reminded Commander Pete Bucher just prior to the maiden voyage of the U.S.S.
Pueblo. And yet a war--one that might have gone nuclear--was what nearly happened when the
Pueblo was attacked and captured by North Korean gunships in January 1968. Diplomacy prevailed in the end, but not without great cost to the lives of the imprisoned crew and to a nation already mired in an unwinnable war in Vietnam. The
Pueblo was an aging cargo ship poorly refurbished as a signals intelligence collector for the top-secret Operation Clickbeetle. It was sent off with a first-time captain, an inexperienced crew, and no back-up, and was captured well before the completion of its first mission. Drawing on thousands of pages of recently declassified documents from President Lyndon Johnson's administration, along with dozens of interviews with those involved, Mitchell Lerner provides the most complete and accurate account of the
Pueblo incident yet available. He weaves on a grand scale a dramatic story of international relations, presidential politics, covert intelligence, capture on the high seas, and secret negotiations. At the same time, he highlights the personal struggles of the
Pueblo's crew--through capture, imprisonment, indoctrination, torture, and release--and the still smoldering controversy over Commander Bucher's actions. In fact, Bucher emerges here for the first time as the truly steadfast hero his men have always considered him to be. More than an account of misadventure,
The Pueblo Incident is an indictment of America's Cold War mentality. Lerner argues that had U.S. policymakers regarded the North Koreans as people with a national agenda, rather than as serving a global Communist conspiracy, they might have avoided the crisis or resolved it more effectively. He also addresses such unanswered questions as what the
Pueblo's mission exactly was, why the ship had no military support, and how damaging the intelligence loss was to national security. With North Korea still seen as a rogue state by some policymakers,
The Pueblo Incident provides key insights into the domestic imperatives behind that country's foreign relations. It astutely assesses the place of gunboat diplomacy in the modern world and is vital for understanding American foreign policy failures in the Cold War. This book is part of the
Modern War Studies series.
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