1968. On the Brink of War with North Korea

Washington Considers Its Options on North Korea

"The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVAN-65) steams in formation with the destroyers USS Nicholas (DD-449) and USS O'Bannon (DD-450) in the Gulf of Tonkin," March 6, 1968 (source)

Bill Downs

ABC Washington

January 23, 1968

The United States undoubtedly will charge piracy on the high seas, protest and raise Cain with the North Koreans at the Panmunjom armistice commission and otherwise try to cover the embarrassment caused by the Communist boarding and capture of the USS Pueblo.

But in the meantime the Navy will be conducting a thorough behind-the-scenes investigation as to why the Navy intelligence ship put itself into a position to be taken by the North Koreans without firing a shot and without supporting American sea or air power.

The Pueblo is the second US Navy intelligence ship to get into trouble in the last eight months. Another and larger spy ship, the USS Liberty, came under fire and took heavy casualties when Israeli aircraft attacked it during the Arab-Israeli war.

Pentagon officials say this incident, as embarrassing as it is—plus the daring North Korean commando sortie into South Korea two days ago—it does not appear to presage immediate large-scale action in Korea. Not right now, at least.

This is Bill Downs reporting from the Pentagon.

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Bill Downs

ABC Washington

January 23, 1968 (Evening)

The questions which are plaguing official Washington tonight include: What if diplomacy fails? What if the North Korean Communist government refuses to return the USS Pueblo and its 83-man crew?

The answers and options available to President Johnson are fearful to contemplate, but the hard facts remain. The USS Pueblo and 83 Americans were taken in international waters and forced to sail into the North Korean port of Wonsan. Will the United States allow them to be held hostage?

According to government officials here, the diplomats will be given full opportunity and time to negotiate their way out of this crisis—negotiations which will not be eased by the Navy's confirmation that at least four US sailors were injured when the North Koreans captured the Pueblo.

In the meantime it's reliably reported that the USS Enterprise, the most powerful aircraft carrier in the world, has been ordered to the Sea of Japan off North Korea and now has all that Communist territory in range of her warplanes.

Other Allied naval units also are reported headed northward to the same area. Washington acted swiftly in reprisal when Communist Vietnamese torpedo boats fired on the Seventh Fleet.

Today's North Korean action is a much more serious affair.

This is Bill Downs reporting from the Pentagon.

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Bill Downs

ABC Washington

January 23, 1968 (Evening)

Here at the Pentagon, Defense officials put a lid on the building at about 6:30 p.m., which in the news business means that any further military details of the dangerous Wonsan Bay incident will have to come from somewhere else.

It also means that the international crisis precipitated by the North Korean capture of the USS Pueblo will, for the time being, remain in the hands of the State Department and the White House—and that President Johnson is moving slowly and carefully in the situation which could produce a two-front war in the Far East, and possibly lead to World War III.

After releasing the bare-bones story of the hijacking of the American intelligence ship this morning, Pentagon officials have been under wraps.

Questions which remain unanswered are manifold, including just how close to Communist territory was the Pueblo when the first North Korean gunboat challenged her? In the two hours or so that the Pueblo was under Communist guns before she was boarded, why did not American ships or aircraft from South Korea come to her aid? Why was the Pueblo captured without even her two .50 caliber machine guns being fired?

And the biggest and most melancholy question which lacks an answer: "If diplomacy fails to get the Pueblo and her 83-man crew released, can the United States avoid taking reprisals?"

The world's most powerful aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise, is reliably reported to be in North Korean waters right now; the whole of Communist North Korea within range of her warplanes. Other Allied naval craft also are reported sailing to the crisis.

Meanwhile the Panmunjom conference on the 38th parallel will tackle this new Korean crisis in about two hours from now.

So, if possible, tomorrow will be a more dangerous day for world peace than today was.

This is Bill Downs in Washington for Information Reports.

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Bill Downs

ABC Washington

January 25, 1968

It's increasingly clear here in worried Washington that time is running out on the diplomats, and the government is turning more and more to what the military call "contingency plans."

"Contingency plans" is the Pentagon's euphemism for "what can you do by force which the State Department has been unable to do through words."

The ordering of the Navy task force to the Sea of Japan two days ago is part of a contingency plan, and for the past 36 hours the planes of the nuclear aircraft carrier Enterprise has had Communist North Korea within range of her planes.

The ordering of additional Air Force fighter-bombers to American bases in South Korea is part of a "contingency plan," although the transfer of these fighter-bombers may mean thinning out Air Force units now engaged in Vietnam.

And now there has been mention on Capitol Hill of the United States' ultimate "contingency" weapon: America's nuclear power. And it is a sad and frightening fact that, unless the Communist world relents, it may come to that.

This is Bill Downs from Washington.