Act of War: Lyndon Johnson, North Korea, and the Capture of the Spy Ship Pueblo Author: Jack Cheevers | Language: English | ISBN:
B00C5QQI3A | Format: EPUB
Act of War: Lyndon Johnson, North Korea, and the Capture of the Spy Ship Pueblo Description
In 1968, a small, dilapidated American spy ship set out on a dangerous mission: to pinpoint military radar stations along the coast of North Korea. Packed with advanced electronic-surveillance equipment and classified intelligence documents, the USS
Pueblo was poorly armed and lacked backup by air or sea. Its crew, led by a charismatic, hard-drinking ex–submarine officer named Pete Bucher, was made up mostly of untested sailors in their teens and twenties.
On a frigid January morning while eavesdropping near the port of Wonsan, the
Pueblo was challenged by a North Korean gunboat. When Bucher tried to escape, his ship was quickly surrounded by more patrol boats, shelled and machine-gunned, and forced to surrender. One American was killed and ten wounded, and Bucher and his young crew were taken prisoner by one of the world’s most aggressive and erratic totalitarian regimes.
Less than forty-eight hours before the
Pueblo’s capture, North Korean commandos had nearly succeeded in assassinating South Korea’s president in downtown Seoul. Together, the two explosive incidents pushed Cold War tensions toward a flashpoint as both North and South Korea girded for war—with fifty thousand American soldiers caught between them. President Lyndon Johnson rushed U.S. combat ships and aircraft to reinforce South Korea, while secretly trying to negotiate a peaceful solution to the crisis.
Act of War tells the riveting saga of Bucher and his men as they struggled to survive merciless torture and horrendous living conditions in North Korean prisons. Based on extensive interviews and numerous government documents released through the Freedom of Information Act, this book also reveals new details of Johnson’s high-risk gambit to prevent war from erupting on the Korean peninsula while his negotiators desperately tried to save the sailors from possible execution. A dramatic tale of human endurance against the backdrop of an international diplomatic poker game,
Act of War offers lessons on the perils of covert intelligence operations as America finds itself confronting a host of twenty-first-century enemies.
- File Size: 14832 KB
- Print Length: 449 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0451466195
- Publisher: NAL (December 3, 2013)
- Sold by: Penguin Group (USA) LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00C5QQI3A
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #30,461 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #4
in Books > History > Asia > Korea > North - #17
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Specific Topics > Intelligence & Espionage - #20
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- #4
in Books > History > Asia > Korea > North - #17
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Specific Topics > Intelligence & Espionage - #20
in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > International & World Politics > Asian
In "Act of War" Jack Cheevers narrative brings to life the harrowing story of the capture of the USS Pueblo and the nightmare the crew endured while in captivity. Cheevers describes good decisions and bad ones made by Captain Bucher starting with the outfitting of the Pueblo through the ordeal of being captured and held captive for eleven months by the North Koreans. With insight and expertise Cheevers has written a dramatic and penetrating account of the 83 men aboard the Pueblo and the "incident" that threatened to open another front in the Asian Theater.
Cheevers eloquent and sometimes painful description of the crew during captivity is captivating. The narrative cuts straight to the heart of the military and political errors made before, during, and after the capture of the USS Pueblo. Also, what comes through in the telling is the burden that the crew of the Pueblo must bear based on their decisions during captivity. This is a story of how sometimes brave military personnel have to bleed and die for mistakes made by those in command and their superiors.
In January 1968, just prior to the communist led Tet Offensive in South Vietnam amidst the escalating American Troop buildup, the USS Pueblo, an electronic eavesdropping ship, was captured in international water by the North Koreans. The 83 men aboard were ill equipped, poorly prepared, and essentially unarmed, (except for two canvas covered 50 cal machine guns and stored small arms) for the "incident" which would become one of the most embarrassing for the country and U.S. Navy in particular.
Classified material and decoding equipment which would compromise the U.S Military for years to come fell into enemy hands.
This book sheds light on a confusing set of events during the Viet Nam war. It manages to be both highly informative and a dynamic story.
In 1968, a small elderly American Navy ship, the Pueblo, equipped with lots of radios for eavesdropping on Russia, China and Korea, but not equipped with much in the way of guns and armaments, started its maiden voyage. Led by a charismatic hard-partying Captain, Pete Bucher, the crew was a mix of young sailors, analysts, and more senior officers, not all of whom felt that Captain Bucher was the right kind of leader.
The ship was captured by North Korean vessels in international waters. The American leadership was naive about North Korea, assuming that no nation would violate the laws of the sea. Bucher attempted to evade the North Korean ships, but was forced to go North Korea, sparking an international incident. The Pueblo had many encryption ciphers on board, not all of which were destroyed before the North Koreans boarded her.
The 86 members of crew were held as POWs for 11 months. The US tried to negotiate for their release, but North Korean demands for a full apology stymied negotiations. The crew was tortured both physically and psychologically. Captain Bucher led his men in subtle acts of rebellion, and helped to keep morale up with humor and irreverence.
This book gives an excellent background on the commissioning of the ship, the series of "not my problem"s that led to inadequate provisioning of the ship, and the finger pointing that occurred after the men were released. Captain Bucher emerges as a larger than life character - not fond of BS, but a man who cares about his crew. You can almost picture him in a movie!
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