what was true about the gulf of tonkin incident what was true about the gulf of tonkin incident

Freak weather effects on radar and overeager sonarmen may have accounted for many reports. 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. 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. Naval Institute Photo archive. . Maddox and the U.S.S. The Maddox, with its superior firepower and better defenses easily thwarted the attack. All of the enemy boats were heading northwest at about 40 knots, two in front of the third by about a mile. After missions in December 1962 and April of the next year, patrols were scheduled for 1964 in the vicinity of OPLAN 34A raids. The North Vietnamese boats attacked with torpedoes and machine gun fire. Gunfire and torpedoes were exchanged while F-8 fighters from USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14) raced to the scene. War is an enemy of all the humanity and human civilization. Three patrol craft attacked a security garrison at Cua Ron (the mouth of the Ron River) and a radar site at Vinh Son, firing 770 rounds of high-explosive munitions at the targets.8 North Vietnamese installations had been attacked four separate times in five days. D. food and medical care Another reporter pressed the issue, "Do these [patrol boats] go north, into North Vietnamese waters?" 3. And why were highly skilled seamen and technicians from the Norwegian Navy involved? On hearing of the authorization's passage by both houses of Congress, the delighted President remarked that the resolution "was like Grandma's nightshirt. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident occurred in August 1964. 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. The fictitious Gulf of Tonkin incident helped draw the United States deeper into the Vietnam War. voters who did not agree with noisy protests such as those of the 1968 Democratic National Convention. 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?" 7. (APEX) Did the gulf of Tonkin incident happen? We sacrificed two comrades but all the rest are okay. The first incident took place on August 2 . "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. What was true about the Gulf of Tonkin incident? there was nothing there but black water and American firepower."11. 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 the early hours of the next day, Maddox communication technicians intercepted SIGINT reports of North Vietnamese vessels getting under way, possibly intent on attacking the destroyer. The targets were military or directly applicable to the North Vietnamese ability to wage war on South Vietnam. "27, Intelligence officials realized the obvious. Was the tonkin gulf resolution justified? 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. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution or the Southeast Asia Resolution, Pub. 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. Subscribe to Seymour Hersh to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives. Foreign Relations of the United States, 19641968, vol. 1 See answer Advertisement mahak08 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. 6. Explanation: In 1964, the American government claimed that American naval ships had been attacked in territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. See Summary Notes of the 538th meeting of the National Security Council. Additionally, messages that were forwarded contained "severe analytic errors, unexplained translation changes, and the conjunction of two messages into one translation." . 9. Unbelievable, but true. We may never know the whole truth behind the Tonkin events and the motivations of those involved. What initially sparked the 1973 energy crisis? The film won the Academy Award for best documentary feature for 2003. In the meantime, as a demonstration of presence and power, The Maddox was joined by the USS Turner Joy. Its stated purpose was to approve and support the determination of the president, as commander in chief, in taking all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression. Questions about the Gulf of Tonkin incidents have persisted for more than 40 years. 11. When his wingman's aircraft developed trouble, Stockdale got permission to launch solo from the Ticonderoga. 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. 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. 30. 28. Maddox.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. The incident was utilized by the Johnson Administration to publicly justify and escalate military operations in the region. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Answer: 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. There's no question but what that had bearing on it. They used a questionable report of a North Vietnamese attack on American naval vessels to justify the president's policy to the electorate and to defuse Republican senator and presidential candidate Barry Goldwater's charges that Lyndon Johnson was irresolute and "soft" in the foreign policy arena.30, For his part, McNamara never admitted his mistakes. B. www.WhiteHouseTapes.org. 16. Overhead, meanwhile, four F8 Crusaders that the Maddox had called in earlier from the USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14) were rapidly approaching. 2. 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. An intercepted SIGINT message, apparently from one of the patrol boats, reported: "Shot down two planes in the battle area. Carter's campaign focused less on issues than on his background as a hardworking, honest, Southern Baptist southerner, All of the following led to the economic development of the Sun Belt EXCEPT. Jim and Sybil Stockdale, In Love and War (New York: Harper and Row, 1984), p. 23. Have interviewed witnesses who made positive visual sightings of cockpit lights or similar passing near MADDOX. Late that night, radar images on the C. Turner Joy indicated that they were being approached by speeding vessels. The South Vietnameseconducted OPLAN 34A raids and the U.S. Navy's Desoto patrols could be perceived as collaborative efforts against North Vietnamese targets. The Gulf of Tonkin incident was a brief confrontation between United States and North Vietnamese warships, off the coast of northern Vietnam in August 1964. Si une phrase est fausse, corrigez-la. This, in effect, gave Johnson carte blanche to escalate US involvement in Vietnam without the restrictions of declaring war. Despite this type of loss throughout the war, the North Vietnamese continued to fight. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution effectively launched Americas full-scale involvement in the Vietnam War. He admitted that the new SIGINT intercept "pins it down better than anything so far. At 1723 in Washington, Air Force Lieutenant General David Burchinal, the director of the Joint Staff, was watching the events unfold from the National Military Command Center when he received a phone call from Sharp. Commissioned in 1959, she spent her entire career in the Pacific. operating in the coastal waters, inspecting suspicious incoming junks, seeking to deter and prevent the infiltration of both men and material." Subsequently, the White House carried the nation into the longest and one of the most costly conflicts in our nation's history. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident - History What power did the Gulf of Tonkin give the President? She recruited volunteers from among the Union prisoners held at Pat Bauer graduated from Ripon College in 1977 with a double major in Spanish and Theatre. 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. Aware of North Vietnamese intent from the earlier SIGINT message, Captain Herrick ordered gun crews to open fire if the fast-approaching trio closed to within 10,000 yards of the destroyer, and at about 1505 three 5-inch shots were fired across the bow of the closest boat. The Gulf of Tonkin incident is considered a false flag ope. PDF The American Yawp 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. Explanation: President Lyndon Johnson utilized the Gulf of Tonkin occurrence to enlarge the war. Quoted in Robert McNamara's In Retrospect, (New York: Vintage, 1996) p. 133. August 5, 2014. 1 What was true about the Gulf of Tonkin incident? Served as justification for the assassination of Ngo Diem b. The Maddox fired at the torpedo boats, which fired back.