The+Tonkin+Gulf+Incident



On August 5th, 1964, the Washington Post headline read "American Planes Hit North Vietnam After Second Attack On Our Destroyers." The events that occurred will forever be remembered as the Tonkin Gulf Incident. It was a series of lies coming from the government about Vietnam and an excuse to go to war with them.

The Gulf of Tonkin incident was the event that caused the United States to join the Vietnam War. It consisted of two alleged unprovoked attacks on a U.S. ship called the USS Maddox on August 4, 1964. There is overwhelming evidence that the first attack was provoked and that the second attack never happened at all. Then president Johnson said "For all I know, our navy was shooting at whales out there."

The first attack was on a destroyer that was supposedly on a routine patrol mission. It was later discovered that the ship was on a highly aggressive mission to get photographs and information on the North Vietnamese. The mission was one day after an attack launched by South Vietnam, so the V.C. thought it was another attack.

The second attack was supposedly on the same destroyer, and gave the government an excuse to launch a series of ariel attacks on North Vietnam. President Johnson gave a speech on national television to address the issue. He said that "The North Vietnamese regime had conducted further deliberate attacks against U.S. naval vessels operating in international waters, and I have therefore directed air action against gunboats and supporting facilities used in these hostile operations. This air action has now been carried out with substantial damage to the boats and facilities. Two U.S. aircraft were lost in the action."

He also announced that he would be asking Congress for a resolution that would give him the power to intervene in the Vietnamese civil war. His reasons stated for going to war were that Vietnam had violated the Geneva Accords, attacked American ships and planes, and to contain communism. [|Gulf of Tonkin Resolution] As a result, the Congress gave him full wartime powers, without actually declaring war. The resolution was called the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. The three sections were...

1. The Congress approved the power for the president to repel and prevent any future attacks by the V.C.

2. Gave the right to the president to defend Southeast Asia from imperialist powers and for the U.S. to intervene in the Vietnamese Civil War to promote peace

3. Said that the resolution would expire when the president determined that peace and prosperity were restored, or when the Congress wanted to terminate the resolution

This resolution led to the war that was not really a war. We never declared war on Vietnam, but we fought them just the same as a war. Now there are laws that prevent the same thing from happening.