On 8/4 1964 the Pentagon received word that destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin were under sustained torpedo attack from N Vietnamese forces. As many as 26 torpedoes were in the water. Before long it emerged that the “attack” was actually a misreading of the ships own propellers.
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LBJ declared that the attack was an unequivocal, unprovoked attack on US ships on routine patrol in international waters. Each of these was a lie. The ships were on a secret intelligence mission in N Vietnam’s territorial waters. Their mission was to provoke NV into turning on...
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coastal defense radar so our destroyers could plot their defenses in preparation for sea or air attacks. We anticipated a NV response to covert US raids on coastal islands. The purpose of these raids was to provoke a response.
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On August 7 the US Senate passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution authorizing the president to take all measures to repel armed attacks against the US and to prevent further aggression. It passed 88-2 and served to justify the war for the next 11 years.
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Today in the Persian Gulf the President denounced another “unprovoked attack”...
For background: See “Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the pentagon Papers.”
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