82 crewmembers aboard and subjected them to 11 months of interro-
gation and torture. After forced confessions and an apology from the
U.S. government, later repudiated, North Korea released the prison-
ers on 23 December 1968.
The decision to surrender the ship without resistance led to a naval
inquiry that recommended the court martial of commander Bucher, but
the secretary of the navy overruled the board. However, the incident
prompted the navy to undertake a modernization program to reinforce
armaments on intelligence ships and to provide them with destruct sys-
tems, secret weapons, and rapid scuttling devices. The navy also reex-
amined and improved operational doctrine as well as communications
between command-and-control forces.PURPLE.Purple was the American designation for the Japanese code
used to encode diplomatic and military communications prior to
World War II. The U.S. government gave the acronym MAGIC to
intercepted and decoded messages from Purple. The first successful
Purple decoded message was sent to Washington in August 1940, but
the government encountered legal problems because the Federal
Communications Act of 1934 prohibited wiretaps and the intercep-
tion of messages between the U.S. and other countries. Because of
this law, American cable companies initially refused to hand over
messages but eventually agreed to limited cooperation. See also
CRYPTOLOGY; SHAMROCK (OPERATION).– R –
RABORN, WILLIAM, JR. (1905–1990).Seventh director of central
intelligence (DCI) between 28 April 1965 and 30 June 1966. AU.S.
Naval Academy graduate, Admiral Raborn made substantial contri-
butions to the U.S. Navy prior to his appointment as DCI. During
World War II, he commanded a gunnery school and after the war
was assigned to command ships. In December 1955, Admiral Raborn
was put in charge of the development of the Polaris, a submarine-
launched ballistic missile (SLBM) weapons system. Subsequently, he
managed the development of various missiles, guidance systems, and
launches for the navy. In 1962, he became deputy chief of naval op-
erations and retired from the navy in 1963. Throughout his career,166 • PURPLE05-398 (2) Dictionary.qxd 10/20/05 6:27 AM Page 166