DECISION NOT TO AID PUEBLO CAME FROM PACIFIC, NOT D.C.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70B00338R000200220060-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 16, 2004
• Sequence Number: 60
• Publication Date: January 25, 1969
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2004/02/09 : 7 B00338R000200220060-6
g. k4.
terday and forced it into Wonsan
harbor.
fln e a ' -7 This is the position identified
-a
OIL ii 0 A 'l a, .a ueil &.1V01 in the first announcement as
~j 'the mainland of North Korea."
Aai11e . join .u .acn, ,a eCa Not . U ..; Goulding issued his statement
to counter the North Korean
broadcast today of "confession"
By CHARLES W. CORDDRY by' Cmdr. Lloyd M. Bucher,. the
[Washington Bureau of The sun] -Pueblo's skipper, that his ship
Washington, Jan. 24-A deci- T:ra nuclear powered Enter- was spying for the Central In-
sion against sending planes to,prise and its escorts were re.telligence Agency and was but
the aid of the U.S.S. Pueblo ported tonight ? to have passed 7.6 miles off the North Korean
when it was being seized by
North Koreans was made by
commanders at the Pacific with
no intervention of any kind
from Washington, defense offi-
cials declared tonight.
The situ( Lion they described
regarding he capture of the in-
tell igence-gathering ship con-
trasted markedly with that in
other crises of recent years
when the Government here im-
mediately took control and di-
rected events.
In this incident, officials
mai:.ained, Robert S. McNama-
ra, Secretary of Defense, was
ir.r., fined at 12.23 A.M. yester-
day that the Pueblo had been
boatcec 38 minutes earlier.
Me ainara Did Nothing
McNamara did nothing as far
as oizure of the ship by four
:ort.h Korean patrol boats was
concerned, officials said, adding
only a "no comment" concern-
ir?.m other actions that were
ta;':en.
Those other actions apparently
concerned the turnaround of the
aircraft carrier Enterprise, the
-guided-missile frigate- Truxtun
and three destroyers and their
dispatch to the Sea of Japan
instead of the South China . Sea boats surrounded it early yes
off Vietnam. ti. ,..
between Korea and Japan and North Korea claims a 12-mile
to be in the Japan Sea awaiting territorial waters limit.. ~~
Unmistakable Evidence
orders while the Government /,
endeavored by diplomatic .,The style: and wording of the
means to gain release of the document provide unmistakable
ship and 83-man crew now held evidence in themselves that this
in North Korea's Wonsan harbor. was not written"or prepared by
Earlier, the Pentagon assailed' any American, Goulding said
of the "confession."
as propaganda the alleged spy The "confession" attributed to
ing-'confession' of the U.S.S. ,Bucher said:
Pueblo's skipper, and declared "I have no excuse whatsoever
that intercepted North Korean for my crimina
i l act as my ship
military messages' themselves;
demonstrated that the ship was; intruded deep into the territorial
in international waters when waters of the Democratic Repub-
seized. lie of North Korea and was cap-
Departing from the customary tuned by the . . Korean Peo-
practice of not revealing inter- pies Army in their self-defense
while conducting the
cepted information, Phil G. action
Goulding, Assistant Defense criminal espionage activities."
Secretary for public affairs, said The skipper was quoted as ex-
in a statement, that, when ap- pressing hope . that he and the
Pueblo crew will be forgiven len-
proached by North Korean pa- ? K .
N
h
the statement attributed by)
North' Korean radio to Bucher(
that the Central Intclligenc
Agency had promised him that,
"a lot of dollars would be of-
fered to the whole crew mem-
bers of my ship and particu-
larly I myself would be 'hon-
? r
ored."
Four were wounded, including
one whose leg was blown off in
circumstances still not clarified.
This could have. occurred when
the crew destroyed' the secret
intelligence gear aboard the
ship, although ho information
was forthcoming on this point.
Top Late For Rescue
far as is publicly known,
nothing has been heard from
the Pueblo and Its crew since
12.32 A,M. yesterday when it'
radioed that it was "going off
the air.
The Government, at this
time,?~is seeking by diplomatic
means to win release of the
ship and crew and is. saying
nothing of the military prepara-
tions that are going on.
There are three aircraft car-
riers in the western Pacific
which presumably are available
for duty in North Korean 'wa-
ters if called on. Besides the
Enterprise, they are the Oris-
kany and the Toconderoga.
In Japan, the Air Force has
three squadrons of fighters -
about 54 airplapes in all -'and
a further. squadron at Kadena,
Okinawa.
The Air Force also has a
squadron of fighters and a
squadron of light bombers In
the Philippines.
At the time the Pueblo was
seized, there were eight'.Atheri-
can fighter planes in South Ko-
rea, four at Osan and four at
Kunsan.
On Nuclear Alert
These planes are believed to
be kept on nuclear alert at
those bases.
There has been no official
suggestion that any aircraft
were launched or-alerted during
the Pueblo incident.
While the Unietd 'States has
some naval and air forces
available'in'he Pacific, beyond
-those committed in Vietnam its
o[ea.
ort
trol boats, the Pueblo's position [ently by
"as' determined by the radar "Our parents -and wives and
track of the North Koreans children at home are anxiously
themselves was 39 degrees 25 waiting for us to return'home in
minutes north and 127 degrees -safety," the. "confession" con-
56 minutes east." el Goulding said the Pueblo's or -
Goulding stated that this re , ders on its intelligence-collect-
ported position was within a: .
to stay at
n were "
issi
o
ing m
mile of the position reported by
the Pueblo itself as four patrol': least. 13 miles from North Ko-
rean territory."
"There is no evidence to sug-
gest that these orders were dis-
obeyed," he said., "There is
much evidence, both from her
own radio transmission and
from the information broadcast
from the North Koreans them-
selves in their own internal. re-
ports, that. the orders were
obeyed."
Goulding noted as an exam-
ple.of the "propaganda sham"
only uncommitted, ground forces
are the two United States Army
divisions, the 2d and 7th, In
South Korea. t'
Approved ,For Release 2004/02/09: CIA-RDP70B00338R000200220060-6