Updates? Torpedo boats and fuel storage facilities were destroyed. Non-subscribers can read five free Naval History articles per month. Probably the best one LBJ ever came up with and certainly his most everlastingly devastating was, "We were attacked [in the Gulf of Tonkin]." In August of 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson needed a pretext to commit the American people to the expanding covert war in south East Asia. Explanation: President Lyndon Johnson utilized the Gulf of Tonkin occurrence to enlarge the war. 384, enacted August 10, 1964, was a joint resolution that the United States Congress passed on August 7, 1964, in response to the Gulf of Tonkin incident . In Hawaii, Pacific Fleet Commander-in-Chief Admiral U. S. Grant Sharp was receiving Captain Herrick's reports by flash message traffic, not voice reports. The first incident took place on August 2 . The vessels appeared to be coming from several different directions, and they were impossible to lock onto. 7. McNamara instead declared that "our Navy played absolutely no part in, was not associated with, was not aware of, any South Vietnamese actions, if there were any. The Maddox called in air support from a nearby carrier, the Ticonderoga. August 5, 2014. What was true about the Gulf of Tonkin incident? What was true about the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution? Opposed Vietnamese independence and supported French attempts to retain its colonial control. Quoted in Robert Hanyok, "Skunks, Bogies, Silent Hounds, and the Flying Fish: The Gulf of Tonkin Mystery, 24 August 1964," Cryptological Quarterly, Winter 2000/Spring 2001, p. 6. Explanation: In 1964, the American government claimed that American naval ships had been attacked in territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. Still other targets appeared from the east, mimicking attacking profiles of torpedo boats. 132 (01 Dec 2005). 26. What was the primary political issue that Carter used in his presidential campaign? The United States denied involvement. 1 What was true about the Gulf of Tonkin incident? Among the most revealing documents is a study of the Gulf of Tonkin incidents by NSA historian Robert J. Hanyok. In early 1964, South Vietnam began conducting a covert series of U.S.-backed commando attacks and intelligence-gathering missions along the North Vietnamese coast. Subsequently, the White House carried the nation into the longest and one of the most costly conflicts in our nation's history. Operations carried during peace-time by civilian organisation, as well as covert government agencies, may by extension be called false flag operations if they seek to hide the real organisation behind an operation. Those communications most likely referred to operations to salvage the torpedo boat that had been damaged in the earlier firefight. Captain Herrick also began to have doubts about the attack. The Vietnam War: A Concise History. In the Gulf of Tonkin incident, North Vietnamese torpedo boats supposedly attacked the USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin, off Vietnam, in a pair of assaults on August 2 and 4 of 1964. Pat Bauer graduated from Ripon College in 1977 with a double major in Spanish and Theatre. Additionally, messages that were forwarded contained "severe analytic errors, unexplained translation changes, and the conjunction of two messages into one translation." Episode 2450 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story more about how the Norwegian Navy participated in the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. Seventh Fleet and that led to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which allowed President Lyndon B. Johnson to greatly escalate U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War. The simple answer is that the Norwegian Navy has a long and murky history of cooperation with American intelligence. North Vietnamese warships purportedly attacked United States warships, the U.S.S. After receiving information that there was an unprovoked attack in the Gulf of Tonkin, the United States entered the Vietnam War on August 14, 1964. On the afternoon of August 2, 1964, three North Vietnamese torpedo boats clashed with the American destroyer Maddox (DD-731) patrolling the coast. B. War is an enemy of all the humanity and human civilization. We may never know the whole truth behind the Tonkin events and the motivations of those involved. Moreover, another intercepted report seemed to confirm that the attack had in fact taken place, and thus Herricks caution was not taken seriously. New York, Columbia University Press, 2011. The Gulf of Tonkin incident (Vietnamese: S kin Vnh Bc B) was an international confrontation that led to the United States engaging more directly in the Vietnam War.It involved both a proven confrontation on August 2, 1964, carried out by North Vietnamese forces in response to covert operations in the coastal region of the gulf, and a second, claimed confrontation on August 4 . 25. Foreign Relations of the United States, 19641968, vol. The destroyers were sent to the area in 1964 in order to conduct reconnaissance and to intercept North Vietnamese communications in support of South Vietnamese war efforts. Historians still disagree over whether Johnson deliberately misled Congress and the American people about the Tonkin Gulf incident or simply capitalized on an opportunity that came his way. Both ships began firing at what they thought were torpedo boats, and again they sought air support. However the human race LOVEs . In contrast, during the 2 August attack NSA listening posts monitored VHF communications between North Vietnamese vessels, HF communications between higher headquarters in Hanoi and the boats, and communication relays to the regional naval station. The Gulf of Tonkin incident was a complex naval event in the Gulf of Tonkin, off the coast of Vietnam, that was presented to the U.S. Congress on August 5, 1964, as two unprovoked attacks. The admiral added that he was trying to get information and recommended holding any order for a retaliatory strike against North Vietnam until "we have a definite indication of what happened. A myriad of issues confronted the new president, not the least of which was the ongoing crisis in Vietnam. On 2nd August, 1964, three North Vietnamese torpedo boats travelled towards the Maddox. Nearly 200 documents the National Security Agency (NSA) declassified and released in 2005 and 2006, however, have helped shed light on what transpired in the Gulf of Tonkin on 4 August. A joint resolution of Congress dated August 7, 1964, gave the president authority to increase U.S. involvement in the war between North and South Vietnam and served as the legal basis for escalations in the Johnson and Nixon administrations that likely dwarfed what most Americans could have imagined in August 1964. Led by Commander James B. Stockdale, the four Crusaders strafed one of the boats, claiming it sunk . Was the Gulf of Tonkin Incident true? Calls between the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the National Military Command Center; headquarters of the Commander in Chief, Pacific; and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara were frequently exchanged during the phantom battle. In early August 1964, Johnsons and McNamaras zeal for aggressive action in Southeast Asia led to full U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, which cost the lives of more than 58,000 American service men and women.Lyndon Baines Johnson Library. He sent a flash (highest priority) message to Honolulu, which was received in Washington at 1327 on 4 August, declaring his doubts: "Review of action makes many reported contacts and torpedoes fired appear doubtful. 12. He was a decorated war hero from World War II and the Korean War, with a great enough public presence to consider politics if he so chose after his military career. And following 24 hours after that with this destroyer in the same area undoubtedly led them to connect the two events. le "tourisme plage" est une ide dpasse (. ed. Why the Gulf of Tonkin Matters 50 Years Later (1/2) Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and historian Gareth Porter discuss how the Gulf of Tonkin incident was used to further entangle . Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Crazy. Army Colonel H. R. McMaster, author of the highly acclaimed 1997 book Dereliction of Duty, accused Johnson and McNamara of outright deception: To enhance his chances for election, [Johnson] and McNamara deceived the American people and Congress about events and the nature of the American commitment in Vietnam. Johnson and McNamara recording, 03 August 1964 at 10:30 a.m., recording provided by the, Presidential Recordings Program, Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia. (Wikimedia Commons) F ifty-one years ago today, the United States . However, it is important to put what we do know into context. TURNER JOY reports two torpedoes passed near her.14, McNamara phoned Sharp at 1608 Washington time to talk it over and asked, "Was there a possibility that there had been no attack?" McNamara's intentional distortion of events prevented Congress from providing the civilian oversight of military matters so fundamental to the congressional charter. On hearing of the authorization's passage by both houses of Congress, the delighted President remarked that the resolution "was like Grandma's nightshirt. Originally, it was claimed by the National Security Agency that the North Vietnamese Navy fired torpedo boats towards the USS Maddox on August 4, 1964. McMasters, Dereliction of Duty, p. 134. The attacks were unprovoked. Stockdale and the other pilots, with orders to "attack and destroy the PT boats," made multiple firing runs on the enemy vessels. The Maddox, on patrol in the area but probably unaware of the raids that had taken place, observed torpedo boats sent out in pursuit of the South Vietnamese vessels and thus withdrew, but it returned on August 1. Was the Gulf of Tonkin incident staged USS Maddox On November 22, 1963, John Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Updates? CH 13 Meiosis and Sexual Life Cycles Vocab, Chapter 9: Cellular Respiration and Fermentat, US Citizenship and Naturalization Test 2019 (, Cole Conlin, Elizabeth Millan, Max Ehrsam, Parthena Draggett, An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese Workbook, Betsy Kerr, Guy Spielmann, Mary Rogers, Tracy D.Terrell, la prise de conscience de notre impact sur la plan. The South Vietnameseconducted OPLAN 34A raids and the U.S. Navy's Desoto patrols could be perceived as collaborative efforts against North Vietnamese targets. "19 Despite his reservations, Stockdale led a strike of 18 aircraft against an oil storage facility at Vinh, located just inland of where the alleged attacks on the Maddox and Turner Joy had occurred. Another reporter pressed the issue, "Do these [patrol boats] go north, into North Vietnamese waters?" Johnson did not want to anger American voters by putting US servicemen in harms way, but he was conscious of the fact that if he did nothing he would be labeled soft on Communism by his Republican opponents. Subscribe now and never hit a limit. , your opinion; it must be well-reasoned and backed up it has to be ( 3 to 4 pages long) by reconstructing the arguments and ideas from the readings. False reports were also presented, and the president didn't know about them. Combined with recently declassified tapes of phone calls from White House officials involved with the events and previously uncovered facts about Tonkin, these documents provide compelling evidence about the subsequent decisions that led to the full commitment of U.S. armed forces to the Vietnam War. On the night of August 4, both the Maddox and Turner Joy reported they were under attack. "21, Navy Captain John J. Herrick (left), pictured with Maddox skipper Commander Herbert L. Ogier on board the destroyer, kept his superiors informed during the alleged battle with North Vietnamese PT boats on 4 August. 3. According to John Prados of the independent National Security Archive, Hanyok asserted that faulty signals intelligence became "vital evidence of a second attack and [Johnson and McNamara] used this claim to support retaliatory air strikes and to buttress the administration's request for a Congressional resolution that would give the White House freedom of action in Vietnam. She spent most of the next 42 years working as a copy editor and editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica. The following day, the Maddox found that it was being approached by three North Vietnamese torpedo boats. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and President Johnson were both convinced of the reality of the second attack, however, and thus they asked Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Here are 10 you may or may not be familiar with that turned out to be true. In the meantime, as a demonstration of presence and power, The Maddox was joined by the USS Turner Joy. operating in the coastal waters, inspecting suspicious incoming junks, seeking to deter and prevent the infiltration of both men and material." Messages declassified in 2005 and recently released tapes from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library reveal confusion among the leadership in Washington. HOPE THIS HELPS YOU. It showed the willingness of North Vietnam to make peace. 28. And then, two days later, on August 4, the Johnson administration claimed that it had been attacked again. Who was the leader of the movement to stop the Equal Rights Amendment? Lyndon Johnson on August 5, 1964, assertedly in reaction to two allegedly unprovoked attacks by North Vietnamese torpedo boats on the destroyers Maddox and C. Turner Joy of the U.S. No actual visual sightings by MADDOX. All of the following are true about the Gulf of Tonkin incident and the ensuing resolution EXCEPT a. McMasters, Dereliction of Duty, p. 108. What was the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and why was it important? Next, the best we have as Robert McNamara deemed him, General William Westmoreland was appointed the commander of operations in Vietnam in April of 1964. . Richmond socialites. Questions about the Gulf of Tonkin incidents have persisted for more than 40 years. Lieutenant Commander Paterson is a foreign area officer and former history instructor at the U.S. On the night of July 3031, 1964, South Vietnamese commandos attacked North Vietnamese radar and military installations on Hon Me and Hon Ngu islands in the Gulf of Tonkin. Especially during his tenure as commander, Westmoreland became the face of the United States in Vietnam. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. In return, the lead vessel launched a torpedo and veered away. More than 40 years after the events, that all changed with the release of the nearly 200 documents related to the Gulf of Tonkin incident and transcripts from the Johnson Library. A few days after the Tonkin Gulf Resolution was passed, he commented, "Hell, those damn, stupid sailors were just shooting at flying fish. The president agreed and ordered Operation Pierce Arrow, an airstrike on North Vietnamese mainland targets. 2. Suggest complete evaluation before any further action taken."13. Besides the situation in Vietnam, Johnson was very concerned with the upcoming election of 1964. 29. At the end of July 1964, MACV-SOG assaulted North Vietnamese installations on the coast of North Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. "28, Johnson himself apparently had his own doubts about what happened in the Gulf on 4 August. Johnson and his advisers had approved retaliatory strikes on North Vietnamese naval bases as soon as the reports of the apparent attack of August 4 came in. They were there as part of an effort to support South Vietnamese military raids on what was then the North Vietnamese coast. yo no ______ (salir) sin mi pasaporte. New York: Oxford Press, 2008. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_incident, https://dailyhistory.org/index.php?title=Was_the_Gulf_of_Tonkin_incident_staged&oldid=23951. At present cannot even estimate number of boats involved. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorized President Lyndon Johnson to "take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further. He arrived overhead at 2135. President Johnson signed it on August 10, giving the executive far greater power to conduct military operations, without a declaration of war, than had ever been granted before. That night proved to be a stormy one. "18, Back on board the Ticonderoga, Commander Stockdale had been ordered to prepare to launch an air strike against the North Vietnamese targets for their "attacks" of the previous evening. . various battlefields. Corrections? OPEC's embargo of oil exports to the United States in retaliation for American intervention in the Middle East. One pilot was killed, Richard Sather, and another was captured, Everett Alvarez, who was held in Hoa Lo Prison, better known as the Hanoi Hilton, for eight years. President Johnson acted before all the facts became known. The encounter sparked the first open fighting between the United States and North Vietnam, the first U.S. bombing of the North and an intensification of U.S. support for South Vietnam. Maddox. The United States was playing a dangerous game. (20) The more astute cardboard-roll hangers wait until they have been placed in the closet, out of view, before they collapse. It's true. D. President Johnson acted before all the facts became known. By the time the destroyers broke off their "counterattack," they had fired 249 5-inch shells, 123 3-inch shells, and four or five depth charges.10, Commander Stockdale was again in the action, this time alone. OB. Until then, the United States supported South Vietnam by every means at its disposal, short of fully engaging its military. The US Navy destroyer had shipping container on its decked fitted out with electronic monitoring equipment gathering radio/radar (signals intelligence) information on North Vietnam. How to Market Your Business with Webinars. Please. Three days following the incident, Congress approved the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving the President wide latitude in conducting military operations in Vietnam, and Johnson signed it into law on the 10th.Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Subsequently, Secretary McNamara intentionally misled Congress and the public about his knowledge of and the nature of the 34A operations, which surely would have been perceived as the actual cause for the 2 August attack on the Maddox and the apparent attack on the 4th. In his award-winning 2003 video memoirs Fog of War, he remained unapologetic and even bragged of his ability to deceive: "I learned early on never answer the question that is asked of you. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Quoted in Dale Andrade and Kenneth Conboy, "The Secret Side of the Tonkin Gulf Incident," Naval History, 13:4, July/August 1999, pp. August 4, 2015. The National Security Agency originally claimed that another sea battle, the Second Gulf of Tonkin incident, occurred on August 4, 1964, but instead evidence was found of "Tonkin ghosts" (false radar images) and not actual North Vietnamese torpedo boats. What is the Gulf of Tonkin incident and why is it controversial? "25, Later that day, Secretary McNamara lied when he denied knowledge of the provocative 34A patrols at a Pentagon news conference. The incident was utilized by the Johnson Administration to publicly justify and escalate military operations in the region. All of the enemy boats were heading northwest at about 40 knots, two in front of the third by about a mile. After this was reported to Washington, Robert McNamara urged President Johnson to retaliate. On an audio tape from the Johnson Library declassified in December 2005, he admitted to the President the morning after the attacks that the two events were almost certainly connected: And I think I should also, or we should also at that time, Mr. President, explain this OPLAN 34-A, these covert operations. 5. The destroyers reported automatic-weapons fire; more than 20 torpedo attacks; sightings of torpedo wakes, enemy cockpit lights, and searchlight illumination; and numerous radar and surface contacts. The witness was asked to __________ a statement she made that did not seem to ________with her earlier testimony. However, the retaliatory attack of 5 August marked the United States' first overt military action against the North Vietnamese and the most serious escalation up to that date. On further examination, it was found to be referring to the 2 August attacks against the Maddox but had been routinely transmitted in a follow-up report during the second "attack." The Tonkin Gulf Resolution, essentially unchallenged by a Congress that believed it was an appropriate response to unprovoked, aggressive, and deliberate attacks on U.S. vessels on the high seas, would open the floodgates for direct American military involvement in Vietnam. In these shorter essays, you are expected to make a strong argument about a specific week's readings, and to support this argument with theoretical and empirical evidence. The North Vietnamese boats attacked with torpedoes and machine gun fire. B. How did American liberals change their views of poverty during the 1960s? In reality, McNamara knew full well that the 34A attacks had probably provoked the 2 August attacks on the Maddox. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. All of his policy decisions, foreign and domestic, were considered through the prism of the November vote. Gulf of Tonkin incident The Gulf of Tonkin incident was a complex naval event in the Gulf of Tonkin, off the coast of Vietnam, that was presented to the U.S. Congress on August 5, 1964, as two unprovoked attacks by North Vietnamese torpedo boats on the destroyers Maddox and Turner Joy of the U.S. Hanyok, "Skunks, Bogies, Silent Hounds," p. 47. Gulf of Tonkin incident, complex naval event in the Gulf of Tonkin, off the coast of Vietnam, that was presented to the U.S. Congress on August 5, 1964, as two unprovoked attacks by North Vietnamese torpedo boats on the destroyers Maddox and Turner Joy of the U.S. He was the second-longest POW in American history, the longest also during the Vietnam conflict. Despite this type of loss throughout the war, the North Vietnamese continued to fight. . Yes it happened. The Mysteries of Tonkin Gulf. As the battle continued, he realized the "attacks" were actually the results of "overeager sonar operators" and poor equipment performance. . At the 1968 Democratic National Convention. After missions in December 1962 and April of the next year, patrols were scheduled for 1964 in the vicinity of OPLAN 34A raids. Freak weather effects on radar and overeager sonarmen may have accounted for many reports. On 3 August, the CIA confirmed that "Hanoi's naval units have displayed increasing sensitivity to U.S. and South Vietnamese naval activity in the Gulf of Tonkin during the past several months." 4 The two lead boats maneuvered evasively but were nevertheless heavily damaged. Sharp admitted that there was a "slight possibility" because of freak radar echoes, inexperienced sonarmen, and no visual sightings of torpedo wakes. The featured story comes from the Counter Currents website and was titled: Covert Operations In Continue reading On August 2nd 1964, two United States Navy ships . Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Specially equipped with a communications intercept van and 17 SIGINT specialists, she was to patrol in international waters off the North Vietnamese coast, from the demilitarized zone (DMZ) north to the Chinese border. Interpreting this as an act of North Vietnamese aggression, the US government responded by ordering greater military involvement in Vietnam. naval event, Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of Vietnam [1964]. This quote by Dwight D. Eisenhower shows the true picture of the war. When his wingman's aircraft developed trouble, Stockdale got permission to launch solo from the Ticonderoga. On August 2, 1964, the U.S. destroyer USS Maddox was performing its intelligence-gathering mission in the Gulf of Tonkin. Re-engaging, the first PT boat launched a second torpedo and opened fire with her 14.5-mm guns, but Maddox shell fire heavily damaged the vessel.6. Initial successes, however, were limited; numerous South Vietnamese raiders were captured, and OPLAN 34A units suffered heavy casualties. In reality, there was no coordination between the forces conducting the operations. From the point of view of the Maddox, the attack had been unprovoked, though North Vietnam was under the impression that the Maddox had been involved in the raids on Hon Me and Hon Ngu islands. Early in the morning, during the Desoto patrols, the USS Maddox received. But no declassified information had suggested that McNamara, Johnson, or anyone else in the decision-making process had intentionally misinterpreted the intelligence concerning the 4 August incident. . Requested by Johnson, the resolution authorized the chief executive to "take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression."

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