“I resolved to uproot”: Park Chung Hee, The Country, the Revolution, and I (Hollym Publishers, Seoul, South Korea, 1970), 61.
“Ringleader of a Communist cell”: New York Times, May 20, 1961.
“An almost psychopathic fear”: NA, RG 59, General Records of the Department of State, Office of the Executive Secretariat, Korea Crisis (“Pueblo Crisis”) Files, 1968, Historical reports relating to diplomacy during the Lyndon Johnson Administration, 1963–1969, box 4, folder: Vol. 6.
“Forceful, fair and intelligent”: Edward C. Keefer et al., Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Vol. XXII, Northeast Asia (U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1996), 543.
“Upheaval, division, and probably bloodshed”: NA, RG 59, op. cit.
Drinking heavily: Karen L. Gatz, editor, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Vol. XXIX, Part 1, Korea (U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 2000), 377.
“We’re doing very well”: Author interview with Kent L. Lee.
“No, I am not”: LBJ, Appointment File (Diary Backup), 2/1/68–2/9/68, Feb. 2, 1968, container 89.
“Flat on our ass”: Gatz, Foreign Relations of the United States, op. cit., 554.
Ball destroyed all hard copies: George W. Ball, The Past Has Another Pattern: Memoirs (New York, W. W. Norton & Co., 1982), 436. A copy of Ball’s report in draft form, however, found its way to the LBJ Library, and the author had it declassified. The draft can be found at NSF, Intelligence File, “Pueblo (Jan. 1968),” box 11, document #2.
The United States “will not … humiliate itself”: LBJ, NSF, National Security Council Histories, Pueblo Crisis 1968, Vol. 14, Telegrams to Seoul, tab 1–12, box 33.
“A pirate and a thief”: 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., 2/1/68 to 2/15/68, box 2276, folder: 2/8/68.
Emergency powers: LBJ, NSF, National Security Council Histories, Pueblo Crisis 1968, Vol. 12, CIA Documents [2], box 32.
Only a few hours: New York Times, Feb. 16, 1968.
“An absolute menace”: Gatz, Foreign Relations of the United States, op. cit., 377.
“We are not helpless”: LBJ, NSF, National Security Council Histories, Pueblo Crisis 1968, Vol. 14, Telegrams to Seoul, tab 20–22, box 33.
“Gasped, sputtered”: LBJ, NSF, Memos to the President, Walt Rostow, Vol. 62, Feb. 14–16, 1968 (2 of 2), container #29 (1 of 2).
Fortifying themselves with whisky: Author interview with Abbott Greenleaf.
“Not strong enough”: LBJ, NSF, National Security Council Histories, Pueblo Crisis 1968, Vol. 16, Telegrams from Seoul, tab 8, box 34.
“Profoundly disturbed”: Ibid.
“Going on for some time”: Gatz, Foreign Relations of the United States, op. cit., 378.
“A weak reed”: Ibid., 382.
“Will fight together”: Sergey S. Radchenko, The Soviet Union and the North Korean Seizure of the USS Pueblo: Evidence from Russian Archives, Cold War International History Project, Working Paper #47 (Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C., undated), 65.
“A defensive character”: Ibid., 66.
CHAPTER 9: THE ENDURANCE OF MEN
“Welcome to your new home”: 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), 162.
Pondering various ways: Author interview with Lloyd M. Bucher.
“I have broken into tears many times”: Time magazine, April 12, 1968.
“Time is running out”: 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., 4/1/68 to 5/1/68, box 2270, folder: 4/15/68.
His emaciation startled him: Details of Woelk’s experiences are drawn from an author interview with Woelk; an online essay he wrote, “D.P.R.K.’s Glorious Medicare Care,” www.usspueblo.org/Prisoners/Medicare_Care.html; and Ed Brandt, The Last Voyage of USS Pueblo (W. W. Norton & Co., New York, 1969), 71.
“The typical day started in stupidity”: Schumacher, op. cit., 174.
“They have blinded the boy!”: Ibid., 166.
“We just don’t walk like you”: Trevor Armbrister, A Matter of Accountability: The True Story of the Pueblo Affair (Coward-McCann Inc., New York, 1970).
“Rascally fighting spirit”: Author interview with Peter Langenberg.
“You ought to be beaten”: Brandt, op. cit., 139.
“My head just exploded”: Author interview with Jim Kell.
“So hungry you’d be shaking”: Ibid.
“100 percent mechanized”: “My Pueblo Nightmare,” Boston Globe series, May 1969, episode 11.
“Talk and talk and talk and talk”: Kell interview, op. cit.
“They couldn’t sell us on their system”: Langenberg interview, op. cit.
Bought his own car for $3,200: Brandt, op. cit., 141.
“They haven’t perfected the goat”: Stephen R. Harris and James C. Hefley, My Anchor Held (Fleming H. Revell Co., Old Tappan, New Jersey, 1970), 101.
“Delirious with delight”: “Day 221: Mid summer, time to mow the lawn!” essay by crewman Ralph McClintock, copy in author’s possession.
“Look at him and grin”: Author interview with Charles Law.
“It scared the hell out of you”: Kell interview, op. cit.
“How dare you bring that up!”: Brandt, op. cit., 148.
CHAPTER 10: ALLIES AT ODDS
Description of Kaiser estate: LBJ, Appointment File (Diary Backup), April 15–17, 1968, Hawaii, container 96.
“A pyrotechnical spectacle”: Time magazine, April 19, 1968.
Under scrutiny by cryptanalysts: NA, RG 526, Records of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, folder: US6500, USS Pueblo, April 1968, box 13.
“Replying to the letters”: LBJ, Papers of Clark Clifford, folder: Pueblo—March 1, 1968–January 20, 1969, box 23.
His overarching fear: LBJ, NSF, International Meetings and Travel File, Korea, President Johnson’s Meeting w/ President Park, 4/68, container 21.
A turning point: LBJ, NSF, National Security Council Histories, Pueblo Crisis 1968, Vol. 21, Airgrams, misc., box 37.