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From: andrew@orca.UUCP (Andrew Klossner)
Newsgroups: net.startrek
Subject: Re: What is the 'Pueblo Incident'?
Message-ID: <1402@orca.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 15-Mar-85 03:09:28 EST
Article-I.D.: orca.1402
Posted: Fri Mar 15 03:09:28 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 17-Mar-85 01:25:32 EST
References: <386@haddock.UUCP> <2826@dartvax.UUCP>
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR
Lines: 28

>> Many have said that "The Enterprise Incident" was based on the 1968 Pueblo 
>> Incident.  Could someone out there please explain to me what that was?

> I think the U.S.S. Pueblo was involved in Vietnam in 1968 or something,
> and they went up a river into a country where they had no right to be,
> and got caught.  They were supposedly on some kind of spy mission or
> something, but the U.S.  government wouldn't admit it.  The country may
> have been China(?).  And yes, David Gerrold's books keep mentioning
> that The Enterprise Incident was based on this (does anyone have any
> info other than my free-associations about this)?

The Pueblo was an electronic espionage ship; its crew listened in on
enemy communications, and usually had to decode them.  In 1968 it was
cruising off the shore of North Korea when it was taken over by a North
Korean ship and brought to port.  The crew was taken ashore and kept
for about a year while being subjected to frequent interrogation and
pressure to make anti-US statements in front of TV cameras.  They were
eventually released and brought back to the US.  The ship's captain may
have been court martialed, but my memory gets very foggy here.

There was never really any question that the Pueblo was spying.  The
controvery was as to whether the Pueblo was doing so legally, in
international waters, or whether it had strayed into North Korean
waters.  Although it was never really settled, world opinion held that
the crew had screwed up and gotten too close to shore.

  -- Andrew Klossner   (decvax!tektronix!orca!andrew)       [UUCP]
                       (orca!andrew.tektronix@csnet-relay)  [ARPA]