NEVER FORGET! 52 years today-23 January 1963- USS Pueblo was at attacked and captured by the Naval Forces of North Korea and the USS Pueblo crew was held hostage and tortured for 11 months! On 23 January 1968, the USS Pueblo, a Navy intelligence vessel, was engaged in a routine survelliance of the North Korean coast when it was intercepted by North Korean Patrol Boats. According to US Reports, the USS Pueblo was in International waters almost 16 miles from shore, but the North Koreans turned their guns on the lightly armed vessel and demanded its surrender. The Americans attempted to escape, and the North Koreans opened fire, wounding the commander and several other crew members and killing one sailor. With capture inevitable, the Americans stalled for time, destroying the classified information aboard while taking further fire. Finally, the USS Pueblo was boarded and taken to Wonson North Korea. There, the 83-man crew was bound and blindfolded and transported to Pyongyang, where they were charged with spying within North Koreas 12-mile territorial limit and imprisoned. It was the biggest crisis in two years of increased tensions and minor skirmishes between the United States and North Korea. The US maintained that the USS Pueblo had been in International waters and demanded the release of the captive sailors. With the Tet offensive raging 2,000 miles to the south in Vietnam, President Johnson ordered no direct retaliation, but the US begin a military buildup in the area. North Korean authorities, meanwhile, coerced a confession and apology out of the USS Pueblo commander, CDR Bucher, in which he stated, I will never again be a party to any disgraceful act of aggression of this type. The rest of the crew also signed a confession under torture! The prisoners were then taken to a second compound in the countryside near Pyongyang, where they forced to study propaganda materials and beaten for straying from the compounds stricts rules. In August 1968, the North Koreans staged a phony news conference in which the prisoners were to praise their humane treatment, but the Americans thwarted the Koreans by inserting innvendoes and sarcastic language into their statements. Some prisoners also rebelled in photo shoots by casually sticking out their middle finger, a gesture that their captures didnt understand. Later, the North Koreans beat the Americans for a week. On 23 December 1968, exactly 11 months after the USS Pueblo capture, US and North Korean negotiators reached a settlement to resolve the crisis. Under the settlements terms, the US admitted the ships intrusion into North Korean territory, apologized for the action, and pledged to cease and future such action. That day, the surviving 82 crewmen walked one by one across the Bridge Of No Return at Panmunjon to freedom in South Korea. They were hailed as heroes and returned home to the US in time for Christmas.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 20:19:17 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015