Solving the Pueblo mystery

The Washington Times ^ | 1-23-06 | James G. Zumwalt

[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.

[ThanhPhero]

If the Pueblo was, indeed, on a mission to deliver slightly defective crypto equipment to the NKs then we should have waited until the ship was offloaded and THEN blown up the port facilities and the ship. If that was the mission only the crew chief would have known of it among those on the boat.

[1Old Pro]

After about 2 weeks we realized nothing was going to happen, morale went right in the toilet.

We still don't know the real story here.

[Rapscallion]

I was hoping to find out why we didn't firebomb N. Korea when they refused to let this ship go.

The answer is that such an action by the US would have caused an international war between the US and China. The ship was not worth it.

[Rapscallion]

I vaguely recall that they did get aboard, but found that the [crypto] equipment had already been removed.

The crypto equipment went to Russia so the KGB could exploit the crypto key material they were getting from the spies W/O John Walker and W/O Gerald Whitworth...according to the History Channel.

[Rapscallion]

Actually, the plane wasn't a spy plane and the Red Chinese didn't force it down.

Wrong on both counts. They were listening to preparations for a nuke test and they were forced down by a fighter that bumped their aircraft. The Navy pilot was heroic in avoiding a crash landing.

[gaijin]

In order to permit Marcinko and his team a chance to get onto the Pueblo soon after its capture, I remember it being felt that there had to be a diversion. There was a avery large-scale air operation somewhere nearby.

It was something very prominent that would earn the full attention of the DPRKs, which it did.

[Bender2]

What really gets my goat is the North Koreans moved the USS Pueblo from their east coast to their west coast and up to Pyongyang and Clinton did not do a damned thing about it!

[Bender2]

Re: I believe that Richard Marcinko (the former S.E.A.L. author of, "Red Cell", and many others) was dispatched right after the Pueblo's capture to attempt to destroy any cryptography equipment that remained onboard. I vaguely recall that they did get aboard, but found that the equipment had already been removed. The vessel was being kept tied-up dockside in a very obvious place, amazingly.

I put very little faith in any thing Marcinko says about this...

[NY Attitude]

There may have been a different outcome if the CO were cleared and if he and the SSO got along.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

The answer is that such an action by the US would have caused an international war between the US and China. The ship was not worth it.

If I were President, I would have said they should have thought of that before they boarded it.

No war is "worth it". Every war would fail a cost-benefit analysis. That's why no one ever does one.

[JZelle]

" I put very little faith in any thing Marcinko says about this..."

Why do you say this? I read a couple of his books awhile back. They were some wild stories.

[killjoy]

The discovery of North Korea's secret, and short, participation in the Vietnam War nine months earlier may, therefore, be relevant.

Ummm... no. The reason, AFAIK, for the North Korean attack on the Pueblo had to do with John Walker. Walker had been supplying keying material to the Soviets and they needed to get their hands on the actual crypto equipment. The North Koreans, through taking the Pueblo, were able to supply this to them.

[killjoy]

Why do you say this? I read a couple of his books awhile back. They were some wild stories.

Read Captain Robert A. Gormly's book, Combat Swimmer: Memoirs of a Navy SEAL. He had command of SEAL Team Six after Marcinko. His book goes into the details of the investigation. He makes it very obvious he has no love at all for Marcinko. Based off of what Captain Gormly wrote in his autobiography, I wouldn't trust anything Marcinko says.

[Bender2]

Killjoy took the words right out of my mouth...