
Act of War
Lyndon Johnson, North Korea, and the Capture of the Spy Ship Pueblo
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Narrated by:
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Jeffrey Kafer
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By:
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Jack Cheevers
In 1968, a small, dilapidated American spy ship set out on a dangerous mission to pinpoint military radar stations along the coast of North Korea. Packed with advanced surveillance equipment and classified intelligence documents, the USS Pueblo was poorly armed and lacked backup by air or sea. Its crew, led by a charismatic, hard-drinking, ex-submarine officer named Pete Bucher, was made up mostly of untested sailors in their teens and twenties.
On a frigid January morning while eavesdropping near the port of Wonsan, the Pueblo was challenged by a North Korean gunboat. When Bucher tried to escape, his ship was quickly surrounded by more patrolboats, shelled and machine-gunned, and forced to surrender. One American was killed and ten wounded, and Bucher and his young crew were taken prisoner by one of the world's most aggressive and erratic totalitarian regimes.
Less than forty-eight hours before the Pueblo's capture, North Korean commandos had nearly succeeded in assassinating South Korea's president in downtown Seoul. Together the two explosive incidents pushed Cold War tensions toward a flashpoint as both North and South Korea girded for war - with fifty thousand American soldiers caught between them.
President Lyndon Johnson rushed US combat ships and aircraft to reinforce South Korea, while secretly trying to negotiate a peaceful solution to the crisis.
Act of War tells the riveting saga of Bucher and his men as they struggled to survive merciless torture and horrendous living conditions in North Korean prisons. Based on extensive interviews and numerous government documents released through the Freedom of Information Act, this book also reveals new details of Johnson's high-risk gambit to prevent war from erupting on the Korean peninsula while his negotiators desperately tried to save the sailors from possible execution.
The backdrop of an international diplomatic poker game, Act of War offers lessons on the perils of covertintelligence operations as America finds itself confronting a host of 21st-century enemies.
©2013 Jack Cheevers (P)2013 Blackstone AudioListeners also enjoyed...




















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If you've ever been in the military you need to read this book. If you've ever been in the US Navy you really, need to read this book. If you are a military officer especially in any kind of Billet with command and Authority you really, really need to read this book. If you are a US Naval officer if you don't read this book you probably have made one of the biggest mistakes of your career.Life over Death
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The Bull Never Quits
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Great historicAl perspective
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Excellent recount of an all too forgotten struggle
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Amazing book
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Fascinating book, well read
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Wow, what a story!!
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Listen to the story, take in what happened in the action and the story of the Sailors. It will make an impression.
Excellent audiobook
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Crazy Navy cold war story!
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Fascinating and well done.
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