Review of Act of War: Lyndon Johnson, North Korea, and the Capture of the Spy Ship Pueblo by Jack Cheevers

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Acknowledgments

Thanks to Jerry Proc for giving permission to use images from his “Crypto Machines” website (http://jproc.ca/crypto/menu.html) and to René Stein, librarian at the National Cryptologic Museum, for locating cipher machine images.

Notes

¹Some of the communications can be found on p. 61 f.

²Pueblo was armed with two .50-caliber machine guns that could not quickly be placed into operation in the temperatures that Pueblo was experiencing.

³The rating was later changed to cryptologic technician.

⁴SOD is the Special Operations Department, which conducted Pueblo's spy mission. The SOD hut contained the classified material. Access to the SOD hut was only permitted to the members of the crew who were directly involved in Pueblo's intercept mission.

⁵The United States entered 1968 under the strain of controversy over its actions in Vietnam, and on 13 January, the Tet offensive increased public concern. On 31 March, President Johnson announced that he would not seek another term. On 28 March, Martin Luther King, Jr., led a march in Memphis, and on 4 April, King was shot and killed. In June, Democratic voters in California were deciding between Robert Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy in the presidential primary, and on the night of 4 June, Kennedy was shot and killed. June began the “Prague Spring” in Czechoslovakia, and on 20 August, the Soviet Union invaded. The Democratic National Convention met in Chicago in August, the Olympic Games were held in Mexico in October, Richard Nixon was elected President in November, and Apollo 8 was launched to orbit the moon at the end of December. The Pueblo crew were easily forgotten.

⁶In Act of War, Cheevers strongly emphasizes Bucher's disdain for his executive officer.

⁷It should also be noted that a recent article in the U.S. Naval Cryptologic Veterans Association journal Cryptolog by Ralph McClintock, one of Pueblo's crew, describes the first day of the crew's capture [7].

⁸The National Security Archive is a non-governmental organization that advocates for open government. The Archive uses the Freedom of Information Act and requests for declassification to obtain and archive government documents for public use.

⁹https://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/uss_pueblo/Doc_1.pdf

¹⁰K stands for cryptographic, and L stands for literal.

¹¹W stands for teletype.

¹²R stands for receiver. The transmitting unit KWT-37 broadcast from a location on shore, and ships receiving the transmission would use the KWR-37.

¹³G stands for key generator.

¹⁴Tordella's July 1969 damage assessment report states, “During debrief [of the crew who had by that time been released] it was determined that superseded keying material for November and December 1967 was aboard the ship. Therefore, November and December 1967 traffic encrypted by any holder of the keying material must be considered compromised. No action was taken at the time of capture to review traffic for November and December 1967 since the presumption in January 1968 was that all material had been destroyed as required by Naval Directives.”

¹⁵Walker was a spy for the Soviets from 1967 until his capture in 1985. During that time, he assembled a team of spies that included his son, his brother, and a Navy friend. Walker retired from the Navy in 1967 but continued to operate his spy ring. Walker died in prison in 2014.

¹⁶See [9].

¹⁷Lerner is the author of [6]. He was a member of a panel that discussed the capture of the USS Pueblo at the 2009 NSA Cryptologic History Symposium. The panel also included members of the crew (see [5]).

¹⁸Cheevers reports that during the first meeting by high-level administration officials in the Cabinet Room, the possibility of Soviet involvement was raised: “For the men in the Cabinet Room, the possibility of Soviet involvement sharply raised the stakes. [CIA Director Richard] Helms and [Secretary of Defense Robert] McNamara believed that the Russians at a minimum had known in advance of the seizure; [Special Assistant to the President for National Security Walt] Rostow suggested they wanted to get their hands on the Pueblo's advanced electronics” (p. 110).

¹⁹From the USS PUEBLO Veterans Association website: “In 1998 the crew of PUEBLO reunited at a thirty year anniversary reunion in San Diego. At the reunion both a producer and associate producer from CBS News Productions were in attendance to inform the crew that they were in the process of producing a one hour documentary about the Pueblo incident. It would be shown in 1999 on the History Channel. A number of Pueblo crewmembers were interviewed and filmed about their experiences. When the show aired on Sunday night March 28, 1999 the crew was astonished to find that the producers had presented a conclusion that the USS PUEBLO was attacked and captured by North Korean forces at the behest of the Soviet Union. The sole purpose being to obtain a working KW-7, Orestes cryptographic machine. The assertion was based on an interview with Oleg Kalugin, a former high ranking KGB officer who defected to the US in 1995” (http://www.usspueblo.org/Aftermath/John_Walker_KW7.html).

²⁰The use of small ships like Pueblo was comparable the Soviet's use of “fishing trawlers” to spy off the coast of the United States. The United States and the Soviet Union had a “gentleman's agreement” to not attack the other's spy ships. However, North Korea did not operate spy ships off the coast of the United States, and there was no such understanding between the United States and North Korea.

²¹Cheevers’ website (http://www.jackcheevers.net/) contains material about Rose Bucher, wife of Commander Bucher, which was deleted from Act of War for space reasons.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chris Christensen

Chris Christensen teaches mathematics and cryptology at Northern Kentucky University. At the time of the release of the crew of Pueblo, he was just beginning his service with the U.S. Army.