A few days after the Tonkin Gulf Resolution was passed, he commented, "Hell, those damn, stupid sailors were just shooting at flying fish. . CIA Director John McCone answered matter-of-factly, "No, the North Vietnamese are reacting defensively to our attacks on their offshore islands . 16, No. 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. On 30 May 2006, NSA released the second and final installment of Gulf of Tonkin materials. Nevertheless, when later queried by NSA headquarters, the destroyer indicated she had been unaware of the OPLAN raid on the island.5 That ignorance set the stage for a showdown between North Vietnamese forces and the U.S. Navy eavesdropping platform. The Kerner Commission explained urban riots as the result of which of the following, Black frustration with the hopelessness of urban poverty, The Stonewall incident that catalyzed the gay rights movement occurred when __________, Bar patrons in New York City protested a police raid. Reply. At 0248 in the Gulf, Herrick sent another report in which he changed his previous story: Certain that original ambush was bonafide. The reply is being given as I speak to you tonight. Sharp admitted that there was a "slight possibility" because of freak radar echoes, inexperienced sonarmen, and no visual sightings of torpedo wakes. "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. (21) This ensures that they carry out that prime directive of all hangers-to render the clothing wrinkled and unfit for wearing in public. That night proved to be a stormy one. Hanyok conducted a comprehensive analysis of SIGINT records from the nights of the attacks and concluded that there was indeed an attack on 2 August but the attack on the 4th did not occur, despite claims to the contrary by President Johnson and Secretary McNamara. It was the beginning of the United States air assault against North Vietnam that lasted until the end of the war. 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. In contrast to the clear conditions two days earlier, thunderstorms and rain squalls reduced visibility and increased wave heights to six feet. This led the North Vietnamese to increase their efforts in the south. It showed the willingness of North Vietnam to make peace. None of these communications occurred on the night of 4 August. What should have stood out to the U.S. leadership collecting all the data of these attacks was that, with the exception of the battle report, no other SIGINT "chatter" was detected during the attacks on 4 August. B. Answers: 2 Show answers Another question on History. 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. This assignment requires you to use themes from the readings and debate critically the meaning, scope, and/or practices. In fact, one of the patrols' main missions was to gather information that would be useful to the raiders.2 A top-secret document declassified in 2005 revealed the standing orders to the Desoto patrols: "[L]ocate and identify all coastal radar transmitters, note all navigation aids along the DVR's [Democratic Republic of Vietnam's] coastline, and monitor the Vietnamese junk fleet for a possible connection to DRV/Viet Cong maritime supply and infiltration routes."3. 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. Besides the situation in Vietnam, Johnson was very concerned with the upcoming election of 1964. The enemy ship could also have been damaged. The Truth About Tonkin. In the ensuing firefight, one of the torpedo boats was badly damaged, but the Maddox escaped harm. This, in effect, gave Johnson carte blanche to escalate US involvement in Vietnam without the restrictions of declaring war. 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. The August 4 incident never took place. And quite frankly, I follow that rule. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident occurred in August 1964. T ruthout. 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. On August 2nd, 1964, the USS Maddox destroyer was supposedly conducting reconnaissance in the Gulf of Tonkin when fired upon by North Vietnamese forces in Swatow gunboats. Opposed Vietnamese independence and supported French attempts to retain its colonial control The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution allowed for the president to send combat troops to Vietnam. ed. The Tonkin Gulf Resolution was also called USS Maddox incident. The simple answer is that the Norwegian Navy has a long and murky history of cooperation with American intelligence. The South Vietnameseconducted OPLAN 34A raids and the U.S. Navy's Desoto patrols could be perceived as collaborative efforts against North Vietnamese targets. Unlike much else that followed, this incident is undisputed, although no one from the US government ever admitted publicly that the attack was likely provoked by its covert actions. But the US bombing of North Vietnam on August 4, 1964, in retaliation for an alleged naval attack that never happened, was not a move by LBJ to pave the way for war in Vietnam. What was the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and why was it important? All of the following are true about the Gulf of Tonkin incident and the ensuing resolution EXCEPT a. 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 . Financial and material aid was increased. You can specify conditions of storing and accessing cookies in your browser, president Johnson acted before all the facts became known. But several hours later he forwarded his doubts about what had happened up the chain of command.Naval Historical Center. The Maddox nevertheless reported at 2040 that she was tracking unidentified vessels. Congress concluded that it had been caused by China. 22. Commissioned in 1959, she spent her entire career in the Pacific. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. Drea, "Tonkin Gulf Reappraisal," p. 5. "27, Intelligence officials realized the obvious. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. External sources are not required for the short papers. All of the following are true about the Gulf of Tonkin incident and the ensuing resolution EXCEPT Served as justification for the assassination of Ngo Diem Resulted from a minor naval conflict The Johnson administration distorted the incident to provide a pretext for escalating American involvement in Vietnam There's no question but what that had bearing on it. But once-classified documents and tapes released in the past several years, combined with previously uncovered facts, make clear that high government officials distorted facts and deceived the American public about events that led to full U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. naval event, Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of Vietnam [1964]. 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. A myriad of issues confronted the new president, not the least of which was the ongoing crisis in Vietnam. (APEX) Did the gulf of Tonkin incident happen? 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. . Robert McNamara, In Retrospect (New York: Vintage, 1996) p. 133. 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. 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. It covers everything. 4, Summer 2004, p. 75. 1 The Gulf of Tonkin Incident, escalator of the Vietnam War, never happened Conspiracy theory: The Gulf of Tonkin incident, a major escalator of US involvement in the Vietnam War, never actually occurred. Fifty years ago, in what came to be known as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, North Vietnamese patrol boats attacked the U.S.S. The Maddox called in air support from a nearby carrier, the Ticonderoga. On 4 August 1964 two U.S. destroyers were again in the middle of the Gulf of Tonkin. The attacks were unprovoked. In reality, McNamara knew full well that the 34A attacks had probably provoked the 2 August attacks on the Maddox. The president agreed and ordered Operation Pierce Arrow, an airstrike on North Vietnamese mainland targets. Omissions? C. supplies and shoes Naval Forces Southern Command in Mayport Florida. No, that's not 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. Anderson, David L., Editor. On 6 August, when called before a joint session of the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees to testify about the incident, McNamara eluded the questioning of Senator Wayne Morse (D-OR) when he asked specifically whether the 34A operations may have provoked the North Vietnamese response. As the battle continued, he realized the "attacks" were actually the results of "overeager sonar operators" and poor equipment performance. And following 24 hours after that with this destroyer in the same area undoubtedly led them to connect the two events. Pierce-Arrow was a limited airstrike on North Vietnamese targets on August 5, 1964. Without the full picture, Congress could not offer the checks and balances it was designed to provide. 7. Three days earlier he had told the President that some of the raids had led to the 2 August attack on the Maddox.U.S. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution effectively launched America's full-scale involvement in the Vietnam War. Si une phrase est fausse, corrigez-la. www.WhiteHouseTapes.org. Forty-eight hours earlier, on Aug. 2, two US destroyers on patrol in the Gulf of Tonkin the Maddox and the Turner Joy were attacked by North Vietnamese boats. a woman's right to choose in the first trimester. The destroyer was retiring to the south. In 1964, the American government claimed that American naval ships had been attacked in territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. A second boat then launched two "fish" but was hit by gunfire from the destroyer. On Friday night, as you probably know, we had four TP [sic] boats from [South] Vietnam, manned by [South] Vietnamese or other nationals, attack two islands, and we expended, oh, 1,000 rounds of ammunition of one kind or another against them. B. The Maddox, with its superior firepower and better defenses easily thwarted the attack. Other vital intercepts mysteriously disappeared. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. 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. At 2336, President Johnson appeared on national television and announced his intent to retaliate against North Vietnamese targets: "Repeated acts of violence against the armed forces of the United States must be met not only with alert defense, but with positive reply. 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. Hanyok, "Skunks, Bogies, Silent Hounds," p. 3. In my account of the Biden Administrations decision to destroy the Nord Stream pipelines, why did much of the secret planning and training for the operation take place in Norway? It was passed on August 7, 1964, by the U.S. Congress after an alleged attack on two U.S. naval destroyers stationed off the coast of Vietnam. By 1 August, the destroyer had returned to the area and was back on patrol. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Omissions? New York, Columbia University Press, 2011. The Maddox fired at the torpedo boats, which fired back. And what about the North Vietnamese battle report that seemed to provide irrefutable confirmation of the attack? by John Prados. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Furthermore, the evidence suggests a disturbing and deliberate attempt by Secretary of Defense McNamara to distort the evidence and mislead Congress. 5051. Initial successes, however, were limited; numerous South Vietnamese raiders were captured, and OPLAN 34A units suffered heavy casualties. The events led to Congress passing the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which allowed the president to increase U.S. involvement in Vietnam without Congressional approval. This final release includes additional articles, chronologies of events, oral history interviews, and other related memoranda. "17, McNamara considered the report, coupled with Admiral Sharp's belief the attack was authentic, as conclusive proof. Paragraph 14, 15 Richard Nixon, quoted in Walter Isaacson, Kissinger: A Biography (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005 . McNamara's intentional distortion of events prevented Congress from providing the civilian oversight of military matters so fundamental to the congressional charter. Moreover, some intercepts were altered to show different receipt times, and other evidence was cherry picked to deliberately distort the truth. A myriad of issues confronted the new president, not the least of which was the ongoing crisis in Vietnam. We may never know the whole truth behind the Tonkin events and the motivations of those involved. Inlet of Tonkin episode, complex maritime occasion in the Gulf of Tonkin, off the shore of Vietnam, that was introduced to the U.S. Congress on August 5, 1964, as two unmerited assaults by North Vietnamese torpedo water crafts on the destroyers. Moreover, another intercepted report seemed to confirm that the attack had in fact taken place, and thus Herricks caution was not taken seriously. 15. John Prados, "Tonkin Gulf Intelligence 'Skewed' According to Official History and Intercepts," National Security Agency Electronic Briefing Book, no. In addition to the difficult detection conditions, the Maddox's SPS-40 long-range air-search radar and the Turner Joy's SPG-53 fire-control radar were both inoperative.9 That night, Herrick had the two ships move out to sea to give themselves maneuver space in case of attack. More and more saw poverty from the failure of individuals to take full advantage of the American system.
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