Word: mayaguez
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...Sung as well as by the Cambodians." Moreover, Ford and Kissinger were insistent that the U.S. would not repeat its failure to use force to recover the U.S. Navy surveillance ship Pueblo from North Korea in 1968. Said a Defense Department official rhetorically: "What if the Cambodians used the Mayaguez crew the way that the North Koreans used the Pueblo crew?* I'd hate to think what would happen to the remaining American position in Asia. Yet, that was a possibility we had to face if the crew was not returned...
TUESDAY. At 2:25 a.m., Scowcroft awakened the President to tell him that the Cambodians were towing the Mayaguez toward the mainland. By morning, however, Ford learned that the Cambodians had anchored at Koh Tang, a 3-mi. by 2-mi. jungle islet about 34 miles off the port of Kompong Som (also known as Sihanoukville). That was encouraging news to Ford; rescue would be more difficult if the crew had been taken to the mainland...
...Washington, the U.S. warned the Cambodians through the Chinese not to try to take the gunboats away from the island, and gave them 24 hours to surrender the Mayaguez and its crew. At 5:30 p.m., presidential aides began phoning congressional leaders to inform them that Ford had decided to use force, if necessary. But they were not told precisely what action was contemplated...
...without any after it came under Cambodian fire. On Ford's orders, the eighth gunboat was allowed to proceed toward Kompong Som because a pilot reported seeing eight or nine men with "Caucasian faces" on deck; they were thought to be those of some or perhaps all of the Mayaguez's crew...
...this was the toughest problem he had faced as President. He ordered that all the Navy, Marine and Air Force personnel in the Pacific be put on full alert and capable of moving in an hour. He felt that he was going to be lucky to get all 39 Mayaguez crewmen back alive. He was prepared for the loss of some or all of them...