“Is Commander Bucher in good health?”: LBJ, NSF, National Security Council Histories, Pueblo Crisis 1968, Vol. 18, Telegrams from Seoul, Tab 1 [1 of 2], box 35.
“We will be vulnerable to criticism”: LBJ, NSF, National Security Council Histories, Pueblo Crisis 1968, Vol. 15, Telegrams to Seoul, box 34, tabs 4–8.
“It [is] not practical for us to remain motionless”: NA, RG 59, General Records of the Department of State, Central Foreign Policy Files, 1967–1969, Political and Defense, Pol 33-6 Kor N.–US, 7/1/68, box 2271, folder: 7/1/68.
Pak didn’t seem to understand: LBJ, NSF, National Security Council Histories, Pueblo Crisis 1968, Vol. 18, Telegrams for Seoul, Tab 1 (1 of 2), box 35.
CHAPTER 13: HELL WEEK
“A bundle of feathers”: Author interview with Charles Law.
“Penetration however slight”: LBJ, NSF, National Security Files, Pueblo Crisis 1968, Vol. 8, Day to Day Documents, Part 17, box 30.
“Before this month is out”: Lloyd M. Bucher and Mark Rascovich, Bucher: My Story (Doubleday & Co., Inc., Garden City, New York, 1970), 348.
“Very beautiful!”: Ibid., 350.
Stuck his head in the animal’s harmless maw: “My Pueblo Nightmare,” Boston Globe series, May 24, 1969, episode 14.
“Get the hell out of my way”: Bucher, op. cit., 352.
A welcome “he would long remember”: Edward R. Murphy Jr. and Curt Gentry, Second in Command (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1971), 282.
“Why we Koreans hate you Americans”: F. Carl Schumacher Jr. and George C. Wilson, Bridge of No Return: The Ordeal of the U.S.S. Pueblo (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., New York, 1971), 170.
“A terrible atrocity had taken place”: Bruce Cumings, The Korean War: A History (Modern Library, New York, 2010), 198.
“How ghastly!”: Bucher, op. cit., 351.
The dark spots looked like mold: Ed Brandt, The Last Voyage of USS Pueblo (W. W. Norton & Co., New York, 1969), 193.
Nothing but icy disdain: Murphy, op. cit., 296.
Convinced he didn’t have much time to live: Bucher, op. cit., 357.
“Just couldn’t hold out any longer”: Ibid., 356.
“You CIA man!”: Brandt, op. cit., 215.
“He went to college and uses big words”: Ibid., 216.
A five-foot-long rod: Law interview, op. cit.
“My ribs felt cracked”: Bucher, op. cit., 358.
“Something we can all be proud of!”: Ibid., 359.
“Who made you try to fool us?”: “One Hellish Experience,” online essay by Harry Iredale, http://www.usspueblo.org/Prisoners/One_Hellish_Experience.html.
“I got stubborn”: Author interview with Harry Iredale.
“Damn scared”: CA, Vol. III, 1006–95.
Didn’t touch him again: Ibid., 1006–97.
CHAPTER 14: BRIDGE OF NO RETURN
“Understandable!”: LBJ, NSF, National Security Council Histories, Pueblo Crisis 1968, Vol. 18, Telegrams from Seoul, Tab 1 (2 of 2), box 35.
“Not sufficiently engaged”: LBJ, NSF, Country File—Asia and the Pacific (Korea), container #256.
50 guerrillas came ashore: LBJ, NSF, Country File—Korea, folder: memos and cables, Vol. VI, 4/68–12/68.
“This might have [a] salutary effect”: NA, RG 59, General Records of the Department of State, Central Foreign Policy Files, 1967–1969, Political and Defense, Pol 33-6, Kor N.–U.S., 7/1/68 to 7/1/68, box 2271, folder: 7/1/68.
A little rumor-mongering: Ibid., 10/15/86 to 12/1/68, box 2274, folder: 12/1/68.
“It was a bluff”: Author interview with Nicholas Katzenbach.
“An average American as I am”: NA, RG 59, op. cit.
“He evidently had no real conception”: LBJ, NSF, Country File—Asia and the Pacific, box 262, folder: Korea Pueblo Incident, Seoul Cables, Vol. II, 2/11/68–3/68.
“No genuine interest”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jan. 13, 1969.
He blithely offered to pay $50 million: NA, RG 59, op. cit.
Naive, “very high-strung,” and “unstable”: Ibid.
“They respect us for this eccentricity”: LBJ, NSF, National Security Council Histories, Pueblo Crisis 1968, Vol. 8, Day by Day Documents, Part 17, box 30.
“What sort of people we are privileged to serve”: NA, RG 59, op. cit.
“This may sound nutty to you”: Katzenbach interview, op. cit.
“We are agreeable”: LBJ, NSF, National Security Council Histories, Pueblo Crisis 1968, Vol. 18, Telegrams from Seoul, Tab 1 (2 of 2), box 35.
“We are … perturbed”: NA, Records Group 218, Records of Gen. Earle Wheeler, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, box 29.
Pump troops into the area: LBJ, NSF, op. cit.
“Not entirely medical in character”: Lloyd M. Bucher and Mark Rascovich, Bucher: My Story (Doubleday & Co., Inc., Garden City, New York, 1970), 361.
“The warmongering United States on its knees”: Bucher, op. cit., 362.
Bucher stood up, expressed his thanks: F. Carl Schumacher Jr. and George C. Wilson, Bridge of No Return: The Ordeal of the U.S.S. Pueblo (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., New York, 1971), 215.
“You don’t get medals for this”: Ed Brandt, The Last Voyage of USS Pueblo (W. W. Norton & Co., New York, 1969), 231.
Americans were sure to be killed: “My Pueblo Nightmare,” Boston Globe series, May 1969, episode 15.
“Shameful aggressive history”: LBJ, NSF, National Security Histories, Pueblo Crisis 1968, Vol. 21, Telegrams from Canada and Europe, Tabs 1-2a, box 37.
Grief and revulsion: Bucher, op. cit., 362.
Tears dampening his cheeks: Author interview with Charles Law.
The soldiers did nothing: “My Pueblo Nightmare,” op. cit.
CHAPTER 15: A CHRISTMAS PRESENT FOR THE NATION
“Known to be voluble”: Admiral William J. Crowe Jr., with David Chanoff, The Line of Fire: From Washington to the Gulf, the Politics and Battles of the New Military (Simon & Schuster, New York, 1993), 69.
“I’m relieved to hear it from you”: Lloyd M. Bucher and Mark Rascovich, Bucher: My Story (Doubleday & Co., Inc., Garden City, New York, 1970), 368.
“A study in agony and suspense”: “Bucher Tells the Story,” Washington Post, Dec. 24, 1968.
“Freedom is worth more than anyone’s life”: Patriot Ledger (Quincy, Mass.), Dec. 24, 1968.