WI: USS Pueblo Escaped

The Pueblo incident was where, in 1968, the Navy Intelligence ship USS Pueblo was captured by the North Koreans and charged with spying in North Korean territory (it was in international waters). The crew was arrested and forced to confess, and the North Koreans managed to capture intelligence equipment and information (some of which the crew of the Pueblo managed to destroy). That which was not destroyed went to Moscow, which the White House feared would leap ahead their development in intelligence technology. The crew was eventually released, and the United States threw out the crew's supposed confessions as forced. The USS Pueblo is still in North Korea as a war trophy.

So what if the USS Pueblo had managed to not be captured and escape?
 
Things would be a whole lot better.
The response by the USN to the Pueblo was even worse than the response to the USS Liberty. At least the latter fired back.
 
The US military would not have reworked parts of the communications security. The fear the Commies had figured something out from the captured equipment casued some changes.
 
From what I read, the Pueblo commander and crew got screwed not only by the North Koreans but also by our very own navy after they got released!
 
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