292. Memorandum From the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs (Warnke) to Secretary of Defense Clifford1
SUBJECT
- Future Steps Regarding the Pueblo Incident
Secretary McNamara informed Secretary Rusk that the Department of Defense desired no role in coordinating the diplomatic initiatives designed to secure the return of the Pueblo and its crew. Accordingly, our only activity relating to the Pueblo incident has been the preparation of information on the incident itself for members of Congress, and the preparation, in coordination with the Joint Staff and State, of some general military options papers.
As you know, the North Koreans gave us some photostatic copies of maps which purport to prove that on six occasions the Pueblo intruded into North Korea’s claimed territorial waters. The attached book2 prepared by the Department of the Navy demonstrates that these maps are almost certainly false.
The North Koreans have now given us a letter to President Johnson, purported to be signed by all surviving members of the Pueblo crew, confessing again that they were indeed seized in North Korean waters and asking the President to apologize for this act. A copy of the letter is attached.3 I believe that we should consider using this letter as a basis for an apology if the North Koreans would agree in advance that our apology would result in the release of the crew of the Pueblo. If interrogations of the crew confirm our belief that the North Korean charges are false, this fact could be given wide publicity, and we could retract the apology which we had based solely on information provided to us by the North Koreans.