The seizure of the U.S.S. Pueblo in international waters came as an abrupt object lesson to Americans that the world's greatest power can be roundly and resoundingly put down by the most minuscule of foes. The Bay of Pigs debacle in 1961 was a portent, but it was a local and limited embarrassment that was soon forgotten. North Viet Nam has also proved the efficacy of persistent, small-scale Communist effort. Yet no other Communist state, big or small, has succeeded so well in provoking and frustrating the U.S. as North Korea did last week by hijacking Pueblo.
From that quick, cunning act came the threat of a second war front in Asia—one which the U.S., hard pressed in Viet Nam, can scarcely afford. Apart from fueling anti-American polemics from Paris to Pyongyang, the incident raised grave questions in the West about the Johnson Administration's ability to prevent or respond effectively to Communist military initiatives in Southeast Asia or beyond.
At home, the plight of Pueblo's crew was eloquently conveyed by a photo from North Korea of the ship's officers and crew parading with their hands up. Washington's impotence in a week-long waffling effort to obtain their release helped prompt a predictably irascible response from press, public and Congress. "A dastardly act of piracy!" cried Massachusetts Congressman William Bates, senior Republican on the House Armed Services Committee. Utah's Republican Senator Wallace Bennett urged the U.S. to send "an armada steaming into Wonsan harbor, throw a tow rope around the Pueblo and get her out of there."
Even some dissenters from Johnson's Viet Nam policies urged quick retaliation against the North Korean regime. Idaho's dovish Democratic Senator Frank Church called the seizure "an act of war," adding: "The ship must be returned at once, with all Americans aboard. Our national honor is at stake."
Said Kentucky's Republican Senator Thruston Morton: "We ought to pursue every possible diplomatic action to get it back, and if that doesn't work we'll have to go in there."
"Tactical Blunder." Others, recalling the clumsy initial cover-ups attempted during the U-2 and Bay of Pigs disasters, were more circumspect. Presidential Candidate Richard Nixon called the whole affair a "tactical blunder" by the U.S. South Dakota's Senator Karl Mundt, long a G.O.P. supporter of the President's Viet Nam policy, demanded to know why the Administration risked provocative patrols "when you already have more war on your hands than you can handle." Warned Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield: "We ought to keep our shirts on and not go off half-cocked until we know more."
Despite persuasive evidence that Pueblo had not ventured over the twelve-mile limit claimed by North Korea as its territorial waters, Pyongyang insisted that the ship had "intruded into the territorial waters of the Republic and was carrying out hostile activities."