Review: Bucher: My Story

Bucher: My Story by Lloyd M. Bucher

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Beside being a pivotal and important part of U.S. and Korean history, reading this book is to help form an opinion on who is at fault here: North Korea, Bucher, the U.S. Navy? Now, I think all three.

My opinion? All three.

It is easy to read between the lines here that Bucher was a second-rate leader already hopeless for sub command and grasped at this mission to command even the humble Pueblo. It seems he was not the most capable man for the job and also went to sea with a poor XO that did not have his respect. In the pivotal moments when surrounded by elements of the North Korean navy, he did not have the means and discipline to get his secret material destroyed, although I agree with this decision not to engage the ships in battle.

As for the Navy, despite the the USS Liberty incident, the Navy was not prepared to protect or even rescue the Pueblo which is should have especially been prepared for nothing North Korea was on alert after their failed attempt to assassinate South Korea's President Park.

Bucher I also fault for the type of discipline he kept on his fellow POWs. His lengths to ridicule the North Koreans, such as having his men photographed with the middle finger as the "Hawaiian Good Luck Sign" seemed to do nothing more than earn them additional torture and privation. Surely morale could be maintained in other ways. The "full confession" included in the appendix with references to Barney Google and Sol Loxfinger and the "fickle finger of fate", etc. is hilarious.



View all my reviews