Cheap PUEBLO SURRENDER, THE (Book) (ROBERT LISTON) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of PUEBLO SURRENDER, THE

I HAD TO MAKE DO AT THE TIME
While still in the service, I kept running across references to the capture of the Pueblo by the North Koreans but could find very little in print about it. Being only 7 years old at the time of the incident, I vaguely remember it occuring. When this book was published in December of 1988, I jumped at the chance to delve deeper into the mystery of this oft cited seizure. When I got it, I was disappointed for 2 reasons. First, the thrust of the book propelled the ship (and it's crew) into the '60's twilight zone of conspiracy theories. Don't get me wrong, I feel that some elements of our government are capable of the alleged charges (and worst) but I was looking for more of a straightforward account of the incident. I guess I should have heeded the subtitle ("A Covert Action By The National Security Agency") a little better. My bad. The second thing was that there were only 3 pictures (2 of which are contrasting North Korean and Chinese uniforms!!!) and 2 maps throughout the entire 294 page book. No pictures of the ship, none of the individual shots of the crew that I've seen printed elsewhere, not even a lousy diagram of the layout of the decks. While I gleaned some important facts about the event, I feel that the ultimate Pueblo book has yet to be written. I was going to purchase Mitchell B. Lerner's "The Pueblo Incident" (April 2002) book but after reading the reviews, I guess I'll wait until Richard A. Mobley's "Flash Point North Korea" comes out. At least he's qualified to write about the subject (which is more then I can say for Liston and Lerner).

---

Implausible
While trying to unravel much of the bane of mystery still hanging over the Pueblo Incident the author embarks on an extraordinary conspiracy theory that becomes more and more difficult to lend any credibility to as the readers moves through the book.

Robert Liston is a prolific writer who has written on just about every subject under the sun. He leans mightily toward the left and has written several books that are very apologetic of communism and the former Soviet Union. He uses his background as a writer and journalist to write a historically accurate but mostly conjectural account of what might have happened that fateful day in 1968.

His theories are not readily plausible and his lack of objectivity is quite obvious. He admits he did not interview most of the crew of the Pueblo or many of those involved ashore during the crisis. He does quote other conspiracy theorists at length and the reliability of his work goes downhill from there.

For a fanciful look into what may have happened all those years ago, this is a fairly good read. For those who have studied the Pueblo Incident in depth, it is a bit of fun, for anyone just beginning to read about it, read something else first...please. Begin with newspaper articles from 1968, not this particular work. A quick review of the news from back then and the so-called objective writing of Mr. Liston will show the level of credibility this work deserves or doesn't deserve as the case may be.

---

Poorly thought-out conspiracy overload
A poorly thought-out attempt to resolve the many questions which still hang over the Pueblo incident. Surely there is still a tale to be told here, but not by an author who displays much more imagination than research or thoughtful analysis. His lack of knowledge of military affairs, diplomatic history, and North Korea could all have been compensated for with a lot of research. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to have attempted this. By his own admission he didn't even try to interview most of the principles and clearly didn't bother looking into relevant issues such as possible reasons why North Korea might have seized the ship.

Even if there were some sort of sinister conspiracy along the lines of what the author is suggesting, he doesn't do much to prove it. His evidence is often along the lines of "three men recalling a traumatic incident several years after it happened differ on some of the details, so somebody must be forcing them to lie." Compounding the fundamental problems of logic which this book suffers, it is very poorly written. This is especially disappointing considering the author's background as a journalist and author of several published books. I'm not in any hurry to read them.