A Matter of Accountability: The True Story of the Pueblo Affair [Paperback]

Trevor Armbrister (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2004

The fascinating true story of how a U.S. spy ship was captured by North Korea.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An objective, dispassionate, and graphic piece of reportage about perhaps the most controversial incident in modern American naval history."--New York Times Book Review

"Trevor Armbrister has assembled a superb narrative portrait--it easily assumes the dimensions of a classic--of the Navy in crisis."--Life

"As exciting as any fiction and more stirring, perhaps, for being true."--Book of the Month News

From the Back Cover

On January 23, 1968, North Korean gunboats surrounded the USS Pueblo in the Sea of Japan, setting off an international incident that threatened to destabilize the entire region. The slow, lightly armed spy ship came under a withering cannon barrage that killed one and wounded ten, including the captain. At the end of the day, the Pueblo surrendered all her sensitive spying instruments and classified documents without firing a shot, in what may have been one of the greatest intelligence disasters of the last half of the twentieth century.
In A Matter of Accountability, author Trevor Armbrister has re-created the amazing events that culminated in the first surrender of a U.S. Navy ship since the War of 1812, from the ship itself-a nearly-defenseless former coastal freighter that frequently had to be hand-steered-to the unheeded warnings from North Korea about U.S. spy ships, to the lack of air support when the ship came under fire. Eleven months later, the North Koreans released the tortured crew after they had signed confessions. Some were nearly blind from starvation. The United States immediately revoked a grudging apology, and started an investigation into what had happened.
An initial court of inquiry recommended that the captain be tried in a court martial, but the Secretary of the Navy declined, perhaps fearing what author Trevor Armbrister details in A Matter of Accountability. With over three hundred interviews, starting with the skipper, Commander Lloyd M. (Pete) Bucher, to then-Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford, Armbrister painstakingly reveals every aspect of the appalling behind-the-scenes blunders that made the Pueblo a doomed ship from the very beginning. A Matter of Accountability is a must-read for anyone who has enjoyed Tom Clancy's high-stakes naval thrillers.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 440 pages
• Publisher: The Lyons Press (December 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592285791
• ISBN-13: 978-1592285792
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #774,211 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worse Than it Seemed at the Time, March 7, 2005

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Matter of Accountability: The True Story of the Pueblo Affair (Paperback)

It was tragic news when the spy ship Puible was captured with her crew. The whole country watched for months while the negeotiations were carried out to free the crew.

What wasn't known for many years was the fact that this was part of the biggest intelligence loss the United States ever had.

The Pueblo was filled with the most secret intelligence euipment the US posessed at that time. Equipment not unlike that found on U-110, the German Enigma machine. Knowing that this most secret equipment was now in the hands of the North Koreans the United States immediately changed its codes. After all, like the Enigma, the equipment wasn't useful without the codes. Unknown at the time was that the North Koreans immediately invited the Russians to examine/study, maybe even take home, the machines.

But during this time, the Walker spy ring was supplying the Russians with the daily codes. For years during this critical time in the Cold War, the Russians were "reading our mail."

The Pueblo is a story of arrogance on the Navy's part that created an attitude of infallibility and confidence that no one would ever attack a U.S. Navy ship. They were wrong.

Well researched and well written, this is a book that remains on any student of modern history.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most embarrassing chapters in US Navy history, October 24, 2005

By 

spchlgr 3985 "A.G. Ward" (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Matter of Accountability: The True Story of the Pueblo Affair (Paperback)

I read this book when I was stationed in Guam in 1981 and never forgot it. The seizure of the USS Pueblo is one of the most embarrassing chapters in Naval history. The USS Pueblo is the only ship that United States Navy has on it's active roster but does not have custody- the ship is a museum in the Wosan harbor of North Korea.
Trevor Armbrister does and outstanding job pointing out the United States Navy's deep committment of it's air power to North Vietnam. So committed that it did not have the air power to committ to provide support for the USS Pueblo, although 500 miles from where the incident occurred was the biggest aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise. The pilots were never even briefed as to what was happening to the USS Pueblo. During the entire time of the North Korean attack, the crew was in direct contact with the National Security Administration (NSA), and was informed that help was on the way in the form of F-105 aircraft. The crew watched the sky for hours- planes never arrived! The next morning the whole world woke up to the news - US NAVY SHIP SEIZED ON THE HIGH SEAS. The first to see it was Rose Bucher, the wife of Commander Lloyd Bucher, Commanding Officer of USS Pueblo. The question that everyone asked was, "How can this happen to one of the most powerful navies in the world?"
The seizure of the USS Pueblo enabled the Soviets to assess the authenticity of what John Walker was selling. The North Koreans were counterparts with the Soviets, and the equipment needed to asses the quality of Walker's material came off the USS Pueblo.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well-written and fair, July 13, 2003

By 

David Dirks (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Matter of Accountability: The True Story of the Pueblo Affair. (Hardcover)

Very well-written and balanced look at this fascinating incident. I've now read three books (and ordered two more) on the incident and it is by far the best of the three. Rather than placing blame squarely on the shoulders of one individual or agency, the author shows how many mistakes were made all around. As the author quotes Otis Pike, "there was enough blame to go around to everyone."