Reasoned Audacity

Senator Wayne Allard Wants the USS Pueblo Back

April 19, 2007 | By Jack Yoest

The USS Pueblo
is a popular propaganda tourist attraction
on the Taedong River in Pyongyang
North Korea US Senator Wayne Allard, R-Colorado, (Republican, of course) reintroduced a resolution demanding the return of United States Navy property from North Korea.

The Pueblo is the only active-duty U.S. warship in the hands of a foreign power. It was taken Jan. 23, 1968, after being sent defenseless on an intelligence-gathering mission off the North Korean coast. Reports the Washington Post (with misplaced indignation).

The USS Pueblo may have been out-gunned, but she was armed and was not defenseless.

The reporter, Jennifer Talhelm, is a female feminist from the Washington Post; I'm not sure military armaments is her forte.

Allard said the USS Pueblo "belongs to the United States Navy and we should pursue all possible options to return her to a rightful resting place."

The USS Pueblo and her crew have been in the blogosphere recently. The Pueblo crew was a noble comparison with the ignoble captured British sailors. The Brits were subservient and groveling when held by pirates.

Americans were defiant. Americans gave our captors the Digitus Impudicus. As Mark Steyn says America is Alone.

That is not quite right: It is Conservative Republicans who are alone.

Pueblo Crew
Time Magazine 18 Oct 1968 Jennifer Talhelm from the Washington Post continues,

Navy records show the Pueblo was in international waters when it was captured, though the North Koreans insist it was inside the Korean coastal zone. One person was killed in an explosion during the attack, and 10 of the 82 surviving crewmen were wounded. All 82 were held 11 months before being sent to South Korea on Christmas Eve.

The North Koreans display the ship as a trophy and a monument to the rocky relationship between the two nations.

Indeed.

Pueblo Crew with
"Hawaiin Good Luck Sign"