Jack Cheevers - Act of War

“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.

“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.

“He is an unusual individual”:LBJ, NSF, Memos to the President—Walt Rostow, Vol. III, Dec. 18–25, 1968, container 43.

“You guys are gonna get a lot of questions”:Author interview with Lloyd M. Bucher.

“This was the nation’s Christmas present”:“Christmas Starts on an Airfield,” San Diego Union , Dec. 25, 1968.

“Captain, I’m so glad you got back”:“Incident Reports,” an online book by Bucher’s friend and former shipmate Allen Hemphill, who tape-recorded portions of the Miramar homecoming. http://www.allenhemphill.com/day_of_return.htm.

His first really good laugh:Bucher, Bucher: My Story , op. cit., 376.

“You should all wave to them!”:Eleanor Van Buskirk Harris, The Ship That Never Returned (Christopher Publishing House, North Quincy, Mass., 1974), 257.

“Crying into thin, gnarled hands”:Ibid.

“Handshakes … nearly broke my hand”:Bucher, Bucher: My Story , op. cit., 377.

“An admiral just fetched me a cup of coffee”:Edward R. Murphy Jr. and Curt Gentry, Second in Command (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1971), 36. Emphasis in original.

“When we sang ‘Joy to the World’”: Newsweek , Jan. 6, 1969.

“Never … have I been so burstingly proud”: San Diego Union , undated.

“Restraint and patience have paid off”:LBJ, White House Central Files, Judicial, JL3/CO, container 37.

“What can one believe?”:“ Pueblo Case Perfidy,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat , Dec. 24, 1968.

“We sank you!”: San Diego Union , Dec. 26, 1968.

Meanwhile, Navy doctors began examining the crew: Schumacher and Hammond’s medical conditions:NHHC, Records of the Immediate Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Pueblo Incident, Court of Inquiry, box 116, “Medical Annex to a Report of a Court of Inquiry.”

“Consciously and carefully controlled”:LBJ, Papers of Clark Clifford, box 23, folder: Pueblo —March 1, 1968–Jan. 20, 1969.

“‘Brainwashing’ techniques were unsuccessful”:Ford, Charles V., and Raymond C. Spaulding, “The Pueblo Incident: Psychological Reactions to the Stresses of Imprisonment and Repatriation,” American Journal of Psychiatry , July 1972.

“Exceptionally strong and an inspiration”:Spaulding, ibid. Spaulding’s article cites only “a 25-year-old junior officer,” but certain details and the context make it obvious he is discussing Schumacher.

Triumphed … by simply surviving:Author interview with C. W. “Bill” Erwin.

A bit tipsy:NSA, Oral History Interview, Eugene Sheck, NSA-OH-26-82.

A written guarantee:Murphy, op. cit., 327.

“Relaxed atmosphere” and a “sympathetic relationship”:NA, RG 526, Records of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, box 13, folder: US6500, USS Pueblo , Feb 1–7, 1968.

“The kids became pretty free”:Sheck oral history, op. cit.

“Several Hollywood starlets”:“ Pueblo Men Entertained at Party,” San Diego Evening Tribune , Jan. 13, 1969.

“You don’t just give up the ship”: Los Angeles Times , Jan. 24, 1968.

“I haven’t heard of anyone who is sympathetic”: U.S. News & World Report , Feb. 10, 1969.

Newsome worried that he wasn’t up to:Author interview with William R. Newsome.

Like they just saw Lindbergh :Ibid.

“Emotions just leaked out of me”:Author interview with Lloyd M. Bucher.

“Horrible chore”:U.S. Naval Institute, Reminiscences of Admiral John J. Hyland Jr., U.S. Navy (Ret.), Volume II, 1989, 460.

Strict limits:Memorandum of Understanding, Subj: Pueblo Matters, Department of the Navy, Sept. 26, 1968, copy provided to the author by William R. Newsome.

“I didn’t know what a court of inquiry was”:Author interview with E. Miles Harvey.

“Come on board with Bucher”:Ibid.

“Don’t make him John the Baptist”:Newsome interview, op. cit.

“No question in my mind”:RP, Vol. 1, 60.

“A complete slaughter”:Ibid., 119.

“No particular action took place”:Ibid., 136.

Completely off guard:Harvey interview, op. cit.

His hands trembled:Bucher’s pauses and gestures are described in The National Observer , Jan. 27, 1969, and Trevor Armbrister, A Matter of Accountability: The True Story of the Pueblo Affair (Coward-McCann Inc., New York, 1970), 366.

“An aura of unreality”:Armbrister, ibid., 367.

“Appalling demonstration”: Christian Science Monitor , Jan. 25, 1969.

Bag after bag of angry mail:The letters are quoted in Armbrister, op. cit., 368, and Edward R. Murphy Jr. and Curt Gentry, Second in Command (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1971), 362.

“Admiral Moorer is a horse’s ass”:NHHC, Records of the Immediate Office of the CNO, Pueblo Incident Files, box 127, folder: “Citizen mail.”

“What do they expect”:Ibid.

“A circus midget trying to slug Cassius Clay”: Miami Herald , Jan. 27, 1969.

“A nuclear Sarajevo”: New York Post , Jan. 30, 1969.