The Pueblo Incident
A Spy Ship and the Failure of American
Foreign Policy
Mitchell B. Lerner
New in paperback: October 2003
xiv, 320 pages, 21 photographs, 1 map, 6-1/8 x 9-1/4
Modern War Studies
Paper ISBN 978-0-7006-1296-3, $16.95 (t)
Also available in cloth
Cloth ISBN 978-0-7006-1171-3, $34.95 (t)
WINNER OF THE JOHN LYMAN BOOK AWARD
North American Society for Oceanic History
 "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.
“Engrossing analysis of Vietnam-era diplomacy, naval history,
and Cold War politics—embedded with fascinating parallels
between the events of 1968 and today’s crisis over terrorism.”--Kirkus
Reviews
“A gripping story of courageous officers and their crew
who had to suffer from the stupidity and incompetence of their
superiors.”--Virginia Quarterly Review
“A new and insightful look at this dramatic and potentially
explosive incident.”--Sea Power
“A lively account, backed by extensive research.”--Foreign
Affairs
"The Pueblo Incident has found its biographer. Lerner tells
the story well at the micro level, displays complete mastery of
his sources, and fits his story compellingly into the context
of the times."--William Stueck, Jr., author of The
Korean War
"Expands our understanding of U.S. Cold War politics
and its ideological trappings. I learned so much from this book."--Larry
Berman, author of No Peace, No Honor: Nixon, Kissinger,
and Betrayal in Vietnam
"Should sound a warning to anyone who seeks simplistic
formulas to explain and defeat today's international terrorism."--Kenneth
J. Hagan, author of This People's Navy: The Making of
American Sea Power
"A cautionary tale that resonates today." --Edward
J. Drea, author of MacArthur's ULTRA: Codebreaking and
the War Against Japan, 1942–1945
MITCHELL B. LERNER is assistant professor of history
at the Ohio State University in Newark, Ohio, and a Fellow at
the University of Virginia's Miller Center for Public Affairs.
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