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Associated Press
The U.S.S. Maddox, 1966
The U.S.S. Maddox, 1966
On this Day: Congress Authorizes Vietnam War
August 07, 2008 12:10 AM
by
findingDulcinea Staff
On Aug. 7, 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution based on what is now widely believed to be faulty intelligence, plunging the United States into the Vietnam War.
30-Second Summary
On July 31, 1964, the USS Maddox, a navy destroyer, began reconnaissance missions northwest of the South China Sea, in the Gulf of Tonkin. Encountering the Maddox, North Vietnamese torpedo boats fired three times. The torpedoes missed, and only a single machine gun round hit the American destroyer.
On August 4, the Maddox and the USS Turner Joy returned to the Gulf. That night, the USS Turner Joy picked up high-speed vessels on its radar, but the USS Maddox did not. The two destroyers fired on the supposed ships, even though many believed there were no actual attackers.
The August 4 incident became known as the “second attack.” Highly publicized by President Lyndon Johnson, it was used to justify the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution he presented to Congress. The resolution authorized the president to “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression,” and symbolized America’s perceived Cold War obligation to help other countries fight communism.
Congress passed the resolution in only 40 minutes, with only two opposing votes, launching a conflict that would claim more than 50,000 American lives and drag on for 10 years.
Media reports later charged that the ‘second attack’ was a fraud used as propaganda to win support for the war. Some historians believe the misinformation was caused by false intelligence, while others say Johnson purposely deceived the public.
Today, critics of the Iraq War draw parallels between President George Bush’s since-disproven claims about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction and President Johnson’s allegedly false claims.
On August 4, the Maddox and the USS Turner Joy returned to the Gulf. That night, the USS Turner Joy picked up high-speed vessels on its radar, but the USS Maddox did not. The two destroyers fired on the supposed ships, even though many believed there were no actual attackers.
The August 4 incident became known as the “second attack.” Highly publicized by President Lyndon Johnson, it was used to justify the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution he presented to Congress. The resolution authorized the president to “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression,” and symbolized America’s perceived Cold War obligation to help other countries fight communism.
Congress passed the resolution in only 40 minutes, with only two opposing votes, launching a conflict that would claim more than 50,000 American lives and drag on for 10 years.
Media reports later charged that the ‘second attack’ was a fraud used as propaganda to win support for the war. Some historians believe the misinformation was caused by false intelligence, while others say Johnson purposely deceived the public.
Today, critics of the Iraq War draw parallels between President George Bush’s since-disproven claims about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction and President Johnson’s allegedly false claims.
Headline Link: Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
On Aug. 2 1964, the USS Maddox was unsuccessfully attacked by three North Vietnamese vessels. Although multiple torpedoes were launched, they all missed, and only one heavy machine gun round hit the Maddox. Late in the afternoon of August 4, the USS Maddox, accompanied by the USS Turner Joy, returned to the Gulf of Tonkin. “That night, the USS Turner Joy picked up high-speed vessels on its radar. However, the USS Maddox did not. The two destroyers attacked these supposed ships. Some think the ships were there, others do not.” This “second attack” was the basis for President Lyndon Johnson’s Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving him power to “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.”
Source: VietnamWar.com
Key Players: President Lyndon B. Johnson
Johnson was elected in 1960 as Vice President to John F. Kennedy. Three years later, as America mourned the assassination of President Kennedy, Johnson was sworn in as the new president. After finishing Kennedy’s term, Johnson ran his own campaign for president in 1964 and won with over 60 percent of the electoral vote. Throughout his presidency, American involvement in Vietnam drastically increased. “Controversy over the war had become acute by the end of March 1968, when he limited the bombing of North Vietnam in order to initiate negotiations. At the same time, he startled the world by withdrawing as a candidate for re-election so that he might devote his full efforts, unimpeded by politics, to the quest for peace.”
Source: The White House
Background: The Cold War, ‘domino theory’
As the world lay in ruins after World War II, two rival superpowers emerged from the wreckage. The United States and the USSR both fought for the favor of a world that was rethinking its political philosophies. From the 1940’s to the 1980’s there was an ideological battle between the socialist nations of the Warsaw Pact, led by Russia, and the democratic nations of NATO, led by the USA. “Although centered originally in Europe, the Cold War enmity eventually drew the United States and the USSR into local conflicts in almost every quarter of the globe. It also produced what became known as the Cold War arms race, an intense competition between the two superpowers to accumulate advanced military weapons.”
Source: MSN Encarta Encyclopedia
The Truman Doctrine set the precedent of America aiding any country that was fighting against communist forces. Truman believed that communism had to be contained, and that if one country fell to communism, the world would soon follow. The U.S. found it necessary to fight in Vietnam according to this “domino” theory, believing if Vietnam became communist other developing countries would fall to communism like dominos.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Later Developments: The Vietnam War
The greatest conflict that America was drawn into as a result of the Cold War was the war in Vietnam. The Vietnam conflict would claim over 50,000 American, and millions of Vietnamese lives. The conflict was mainly fought between the American military and guerillas aided by North Vietnam. The war continued until 1975, when U.S. forces withdrew and South Vietnam fell to the communist North Vietnamese.
Source: VietnamWar.com
Opinion & Analysis: Gulf of Tonkin hoax, parallels to Bush’s WMD claims
There is strong evidence that the Vietnamese “attack” on Aug. 4, 1964 in the Gulf of Tonkin, which President Johnson reported to Congress, never occurred. “On the night of Aug. 4, the Pentagon proclaimed that a second attack by North Vietnamese PT boats had occurred earlier that day in the Tonkin Gulf—a report cited by President Johnson as he went on national TV that evening to announce a momentous escalation in the war: air strikes against North Vietnam. But Johnson ordered U.S. bombers to 'retaliate' for a North Vietnamese torpedo attack that never happened.”
Source: Fair.org
About 40 years after allegedly false intelligence led to the war in Vietnam, President George W. Bush led an invasion of Iraq to search for nonexistent weapons of mass destruction. There are a number of parallels that critics draw between the Iraq and Vietnam Wars. The American public and Congress initially granted overwhelming support for the wars, based on “limited or misleading information.” Both wars became increasingly unpopular as time elapsed and the truth about the “causes” of the wars were uncovered.
Source: PBS
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