Oral History of Adm. Joseph W. Prueher, USN (Ret.)

Admiral Prueher served the U.S. Navy and the nation during a time of conflict in Southeast Asia, increasingly heated global competition with the Soviet Union, and change in how the Navy treated female, African-American, and enlisted sailors. He flew hundreds of combat missions in A-6 Intruder attack planes during the Vietnam War. He describes in detail the nature of those operations, life on board an aircraft carrier in a combat theater, and the impact of losing squadron mates to enemy air defenses. He also relates the challenge of flying from carriers at night and in stormy weather during later tours in the North Sea, the Mediterranean, and the Indian Ocean. Prueher crowned his military career as Commander in Chief, Pacific. He was a key figure in the 1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis with the People’s Republic of China. His political-military duties brought him into contact with China’s Jiang Zemin, Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew, and other civilian and military leaders in the Pacific region. He also worked closely with the Clinton administration’s secretaries of defense William Perry and William Cohen and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Following his retirement from the U.S. Navy in 1999, Prueher was appointed as the U.S. Ambassador to China. He was key to settlement of the April 2001 Hainan incident with China. Other key issues during his tour in Beijing were China’s accession to the World Trade Organization and the Six-Party Talks regarding North Korea’s nuclear program.