Will secretary Clinton help or hinder travel to Russia?

by Grant Martin on

Travelers around the world are waiting for the day when the borders to Russia open wider to visitors. Although the formerly Communist country does and will accept tourists, the application process is long and expensive — you don’t just wander up to the border to Russia, get your passport stamped and mosey down to Red Square, no, before visitors to the Red State are even allowed to apply for a visa they need to be sponsored, a process that isn’t difficult but one that takes time, money and most of all, patience.

Now that the Obama administration has the reigns, however, many have high hopes for better relations between the United States and some of her formerly cold neighbors. Cuba, for example, has recently been hinting at welcoming American citizens back into the island nation and kick starting its economy.

Such is the message that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is taking with her as she circles the globe: Give us some time and space to figure things out and rebuild bridges — we’re not here to fight.

Or at least that’s what she thought she was saying to Sergi Lavrov, Russia’s Secretary of State and a prominent official with whom she met last week. In an attempt to get relations started off on the right foot, Mrs. Clinton presented Lavrov with a gag “reset button” that was meant to symbolize the resetting of relations between the former Cold War foes.

On the bottom was written RESET, in English, while the top said PEREGRUZKA, in Russian. Which does not mean “reset.” It means “OVERLOAD.”

Thankfully, Mr. Lavrov took the gaff in stride and the meeting still went well. And with any luck, relations between the east and west will soon become even warmer, making we American tourists one step closer to easy weekend caviar and vodka trips to Moscow.

Infiltrating North Korea Part 12: A North Korean History Lesson about the U.S.S. Pueblo

by Neil Woodburn on


The largest symbol of anti-Americanism in North Korea is undoubtedly the USS Pueblo. Naturally, this is an obligatory stop for all tourist groups.

The Pueblo is an American spy ship that was captured just off the coast of North Korea on January 23, 1968. The North Koreans claim the ship was in their territorial waters while the Americans claim it was not. It was fired upon, boarded, and then taken to the port of Wonsan.

Today, the spy ship sits moored to the bank of the Taedong River where we visited it one drizzly afternoon. We were met at the gangplank by one of the only English speaking docents we had the entire trip. She was dressed in a conservative uniform and spoke with a very matter-of-fact tone.

We followed her onto the ship and into a small room with a handful of chairs and a television. This is where we’d spend the next 20 minutes being indoctrinated by a North Korean video about the Pueblo incident.


The narrator was scathing and never missed the opportunity to add the word “imperialist” after every time he mentioned “American.” He told us how the ship was captured in North Korean waters and how the American government continually claimed it was a fishing trawler–something that even I found a little embarrassing when we later toured the ship and its enormous banks of encryption machines and electronic monitoring devices.

The video also included black and white clips of the 82 soldiers captured on board. The video made no mention of the torture and beatings they endured while in captivity, however, and focused instead focused on quotes by the sailors claiming they were being treated better than they deserved.

We were also told how the crew signed a letter of confession admitting that they were spying on North Korea. The fact that Lloyd Bucher, the Pueblo’s commanding officer, underwent a mock execution and was told that his men would be shot one by one until he signed the confession was conveniently left out of the story.

In addition, two classic acts of defiance were ignored. When the North Koreans forced Bucher to read his confession on a radio broadcast, he cleverly mispronounced “paen,” the Korean word for praise. And so he told the world, “We pee on the North Korean state, we pee on their great leader Kim Il Sung.”

Although the North Koreans never realized the pun, they did discover another act of defiance, although too late. It wasn’t until propaganda photos taken of the “healthy” crew were released to the world that the North Koreans discovered the true meaning behind so many middle fingers sticking out. Unfortunately, when they did find out, the surviving crew suffered terribly with increased beatings.

North Korea refused to release their captives until the United States apologized. It took 11 months but finally President Johnson acquiesced, much to the glee of our smartly-dressed guide who proudly told us that this was the first time the United States had ever apologized to another nation. The narrator of the video rubbed it in even further, mocking Maj. Gen. Gilbert H. Woodward who signed the apology as being too “confused” to even remember to sign the date.

Naturally, nothing was mentioned about the United States later disavowing the apology or about the statement Woodward read before signing it; “The paper which I am going to sign was prepared by the North Koreans and is at variance with the above position…but my signature will not and cannot alter the facts. I will sign the document to free the crew and only to free the crew.”

Walking through the spy ship war trophy after watching the video certainly left a bad taste in my mouth, especially after hearing the narrator’s final statement that, “the American imperialists are an aggressor that should be annihilated by force of arms.”


Yes, the Americans were spying and yes, the North Koreans caught them, but so much of the story was purposely left out to paint a very one-sided portrait of the affair. It was classic North Korean propaganda and it provided some fascinating insight into the communist government’s control, manipulation, and resultant mindset of their population. The only difference from what we experienced during our “education” about the Pueblo is that the North Korean people have no outside source of information to confirm or deny what the government tells them. Nor, for that matter, will they ever have the chance to learn for themselves about the bizarre submarine incursions their own government has ordered into the South.

For more information about the Pueblo, be sure to click here to visit a fascinating website maintained by the former crew.

Yesterday: North Korean Style Advertising
Tomorrow: Kids will be Kids

Kelvedon Hatch: England’s Largest Cold War Bunker now Open to the Public

by Neil Woodburn on

Cold War relics are simply a joy to explore. For me, it’s their proximity to recent history that makes them so fascinating; it wasn’t so long ago that they were very active and very serious in their role to protect our fair lands from the communist menace. Today, they are almost comical in the fear and paranoia so deeply imbued throughout.

Bunkers are some of my favorite Cold War relics. Not only are the located underground, but they represent the ultimate Cold War fear: nuclear annihilation.

With the Cold War over, governments around the globe have begun decommissioning a number of such bunkers. Some have simply “disappeared” while others have been purchased by civilians.

Recently, Sophie Campbell of The Telegraph, burrowed into Kelvedon Hatch–a three-story government bunker in Essex, England which was purchased in 1994 by a local farmer and has since been turned into a rather cool museum.The farmer purchased it nearly empty but has managed to find enough period gear to restock parts of the bunker to make it look like it did while in operation. He has also staffed the station with a number of mannequins manning radio receivers, hospital units, and even a Prime Minister’s quarters.

The whole bunker is set up to appear as though a nuclear bomb had just been dropped and museum visitors (paying £6.50 each) are the lucky few to have gained access to the government facility. The visitors are treated to fake news reports detailing the damage above ground and the impending doom in store for those left outside of the bunker’s ten-foot thick walls and 1½ ton blast doors.

It sounds pretty cool to me, but wouldn’t it be a whole lot more realistic if they hired a bunch of nuclear mutated ghouls to attack visitors in the bunker and eat their flesh? I certainly think so.

Chinese Government Opens up Secret Nuclear Base for Tourism

by Neil Woodburn on

I love it when government locations which were once top-secret are opened up to the public and turned into tourist sites. With the Cold War over, this has been happening more and more.

Surprisingly, China has embraced the fad as well.

Most recently the communist government opened up Factory 221. This weapons base, located underground and protected by a three-ton steel door, was home to China’s first nuclear bomb. 30,000 people worked here in absolute secrecy; the town itself, located in the Chinese province of Liaoning, never even appeared on maps.

Today, “Nuclear City” has thrown up its doors and interested tourists can now explore the bowels of this secret nuclear city. LA Times journalist Don Lee, who recently went himself, raises an interesting thought in Visiting China’s Nuclear Past: China’s Propaganda Department were the ones responsible for opening up Nuclear City. This is not for Western tourists to gawk at the Cold War secrecy, but rather “to arouse… national pride” amongst domestic tourists.

Sounds like the Cold War is still pretty hot to me.

Bohemian Berlin Nearly Dead?

by Neil Woodburn on

Bohemian Berlin is nearly dead.

Or so claims a recent LA Times article bemoaning the demise of the underground art scene at the hands of commercialism.

Yes folks, it’s an age old theme but it’s happening once again, this time in the German capital.

During the Cold War, West Berlin was a haven for artists who received subsidies from the government for the hardship of living in the walled city. The art scene really took off, however, with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the resulting mass of condemned and vacant buildings in East Berlin which squatters quickly took over and transformed into, you guessed it, a Bohemian enclave.

After nearly 20 years of artistic freedom, however, studios are going upscale, Starbucks is moving into old communist neighborhoods, and rent is becoming increasingly more unaffordable for artists. Berlin is slowly transforming into a well-heeled, affluent city that has less and less room for artists and an expanding amount of space for bankers, lawyers, and government slogs.

Is Berlin losing its character?

I hope not. No other city in all of Germany is as wild, vibrant, and so very un-German-like as Berlin. And I, for one, hope it stays that way.