Pueblo Surrender, The - Softcover

Liston, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0553292617 ISBN 13: 9780553292619

Publisher: Bantam, 1991

Synopsis

How the NSA manipulated the U.S. Navy, Pentagon, White House, Congress, tricked the North Koreans, Russians and Chinese, almost caused a war, and concealed the truth for over 40 years. 

On January 23, 1968, the North Koreans seized the U.S.S. Pueblo. The incident sent shock waves around the world-almost started a war-and has been the focus of controversy and contradiction ever since. Investigative reporter Robert Liston uncovered startling information to support a remarkable conclusion: The Pueblo was purposely surrendered in a covert mission conceived and carried out by the National Security Agency, a super-secret branch of U.S. intelligence. 

Liston produces documented evidence to show that the Pueblo, controlled by NSA operatives, was used as bait to draw the Soviet Union and Red Chinese into an NSA trap-an operation that enabled the NSA to break the Soviet system of codes, put the KGB on the defensive for years, and stop a possible war between the Soviets and Chinese. 

For the first time, author Liston brings to light a true story of international intrigue hidden from the American public, from Congress, even from the White House. He goes inside the U.S. intelligence apparatus and reveals how the Pueblo incident may have shaped and controlled American foreign policy and superpower politics for more than twenty years.

About this title

About the Author

Robert A. Liston is a widely published author of over 80 non-fiction books and novels. He spent more than ten years as an investigative reporter for a Baltimore newspaper.

From Publishers Weekly

Liston argues that the 1968 seizure of the U.S.S. Pueblo was part of a National Security Agency-run operation, in which the ship and its unsuspecting crew were offered as bait. The centerpiece of the plot, according to his scenario, was a rigged code-machine placed aboard the ship for the North Koreans to "capture" and use, leading to the breaking of Communist-bloc military codes. Liston, a novelist and jounalist, doesn't claim to have proven his case, but the documentation and material obtained in interviews render his theory shockingly plausible. The book carefully reconstructs the ship's seizure, and the Chinese and Soviet military involvement in its aftermath. Liston's primary focus, however, is directed toward the NSA, which he compares to the Soviet KGB in its ability "to manipulate the actions of our civilian and military leaders." ( Pueblo 's commanding officer, Command Lloyd Bucher, is presented as an honorable dupe.) From the agency's viewpoint, the operation was a brilliant success, maintains the author, helping prevent U.S. defeat in the Tet Offensive, causing the Soviets to abandon a military adventure in Red China and opening the way for a Beijing-Washington rapprochement.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bantam
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0553292617
• ISBN 13: 9780553292619
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 368