Description: In 1968, a small, dilapidated American spy ship set out to pinpoint military radar stations along the North Korean coast. The crew of the poorly armed USS Pueblo, led by an exsubmarine officer named Pete Bucher, was made up of young, untested sailors. One frigid January morning, the Pueblo was challenged by a North Korean gunboat then quickly surrounded by more boats, shelled and machine-gunned, and forced to surrender. Bucher and his crew were then taken prisoner by one of the world's most aggressive and erratic totalitarian regimes. Act of War tells the riveting saga of Bucher and his men as they struggled to survive torture and horrendous living conditions.
Brief description: Jack Cheevers is the author of Act of War: Lyndon Johnson, North Korea, and the Capture of the Spy Ship Pueblo, winner of the 2014 Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature. He worked as a newspaper reporter and editor for twenty-seven years, including stints at the Los Angeles Times, The Oakland Tribune, and the Associated Press and United Press International bureaus in San Francisco. A Massachusetts native, he is a proud graduate of the University of California at Berkeley. He lives on a pond in New Hampshire.
Review Quotes:
"Sweeping in its power and importance as a historical document and absolutely riveting in its personal stories of sacrifice and heroism, Act of War is the best kind of narrative nonfiction. From the halls of power in Washington to the heaving seas of the Pacific and to the cold, stark torture rooms of Pyongyang, this book leaves no stone unturned. This is a masterwork by Jack Cheevers. I devoured Act of War the way I did Flyboys, Flags of our Fathers, and Lost in Shangri-la."
-- "Michael Connelly, #1 New York Times bestselling author"