REMEMBERING THE PUEBLO

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

James M. Fallows, in his recent "Brass Tacks" article, wants us to "Remember the Pueblo." But remember it for what? On this point the article is somewhat equivocal.

The author seems to want us to remember the "violence" inflicted on the 82 men imprisoned for about a year, and the one man killed in the capture of the Pueblo.

The author tries to excuse, in contrast, the massive violence the U.S. continues to inflict on the people of South-east Asia: because we now "seem to regret it" and "seem ashamed." Therefore we are somehow justified in assuming outrage at the unregretted "violence" of the North Koreans against the Pueblo.

I would suggest that such an attitude is hypocrisy. I would suggest that the real violence in the Pueblo affair was on the part of the United States. Apart from the crew members' confessions, the log of the Pueblo itself reportedly shows that the ship was violating North Korean territorial waters. But in any case, the Pueblo was a spy ship, and we know from history what aggressive and violent uses the U.S. makes of the "intelligence" it gathers about small nations: Vietnam, Laos, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, etc.

I would therefore suggest that the North Koreans had the right to defend themselves from this aggression, and to intern the crew members who were, after all, the willing tools of a hostile spying mission against the North Koreans' country. In the light of the crew's activities, I do not think we have a right to complain about "violence" done to them, except that done by their own government. The length of their imprisonment was apparently determined by the Administration's political qualms about acknowledging the facts and apologizing to North Korea before the November elections.

As for the crew member killed in the capture of the Pueblo, there are indications that he too was a victim of the system he served: that he was destroyed in the crew's frantic efforts to destroy, before its capture, the massive espionage equipment the ship was carrying.

So by all means let us "Remember the Pueblo": let us remember it for its real meaning, as one bungled example of the American imperialist mission, a mission which entails the daily oppression of, and daily violence against the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Jack Stauder   Instructor in Social Anthropology