Instead, through these public releases, we intend to make as much information as possible available for the many scholars, historians, academia, and members of the general public who find interest in analyzing the information and forming their own conclusions. Shortly after the attack was reported, President Johnson made his decision to retaliate. A skirmish and confused reports of a second engagement two days later led President Lyndon B. Johnson to order airstrikes against North . The 9/11 conspiracy theories predate 9/11. President Johnson signed this into law three days later, privately remarking that the resolution was like Grandmas nightshirt. Cecil Stoughton/U.S. The term is from old-timey naval warfare, where one ship flew a different nation's colors before attacking as a means to get closer to their target. An incredible 15 percent of American soldiers were addicted to heroin, while others were so desperate for escape that they ate C-4 explosives just to get high. [1][5] The Maddox fired warning shots and the North Vietnamese boats attacked with torpedoes and machine gun fire. Then read these 27 Vietnam War facts that will change the way you think about American history. But even at the time there was some recognition of a margin of error, so we thought it highly probable but not entirely certain. [58], In the fall of 1999, retired Senior CIA Engineering Executive S. Eugene Poteat wrote that he was asked in early August 1964 to determine if the radar operator's report showed a real torpedo boat attack or an imagined one. The floodgates had opened. Later investigation revealed that the second attack never happened; the American claim is that it was based mostly on erroneously interpreted communications intercepts. subscribers . Two days later, on August 7, Congress approved the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave the president authority to increase U.S. involvement in the war between North and South Vietnam. This U.S. retaliation marked the nations first overt military action against the North Vietnamese. "[66], Hanyok included his study of Tonkin Gulf as one chapter in an overall history of NSA involvement and American SIGINT, in the Indochina Wars. Undersecretary of State George Ball told a British journalist after the war that "at that time many people were looking for any excuse to initiate bombing". It is not NSA's intention to prove or disprove any one set of conclusions, many of which can be drawn from a thorough review of this material. Lawrence, A. T. (2009). By mid-1965, his approval rating was 70 percent (though it fell precipitously once the war dragged on longer than expected). What the Maddox operators were probably hearing was the ships propellers reflecting off its rudder during sharp turns. While Herrick soon reported doubts regarding the task forces initial perceptions of the attack, the Johnson administration relied on the wrongly interpreted National Security Agency communications intercepts to conclude that the attack was real. 88408, 78 Stat. Port Arthur, AUS, .all very real illusions. Nations have often done this by staging a real or simulated attack on their own side. On the evening of August 4, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson addressed the nation in a televised speech in which he announced that two days earlier, U.S. ships had been attacked twice in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin near North Vietnam. Lots of the 'nuts' sure . What was happening at the time were aggressive South Vietnamese raids against the North in the same general area. At the same time it gathered this intelligence, the South Vietnamese navy conducted strikes on multiple North Vietnamese islands. The opinions expressed within the documents in both releases are those of the authors and individuals interviewed. Though LBJ knew there was no second battle, he kept this information secret and beat the drums of war. [21], Although the boats were crewed by South Vietnamese naval personnel, approval for each mission conducted under the plan came directly from Admiral U.S. Grant Sharp Jr., CINCPAC in Honolulu, who received his orders from the White House. Schaperjahn confirmed White's assertions that Maddox's sonar reports were faulty and the Johnson administration knew it prior to going to Congress to request support for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Months before an alleged attack was being blamed on Iran, a US Army Colonel predicted this very scenario playing out to start a war. [5] In the ensuing engagement, one U.S. aircraft (which had been launched from aircraft carrier USSTiconderoga) was damaged, three North Vietnamese torpedo boats were damaged, and four North Vietnamese sailors were killed, with six more wounded. Maine that helped initiate the Spanish-American War, and the Gulf of Tonkin incident that led the U.S. to expand. This, along with other false flag operations in Operation Himmler, would be used to mobilize support from the German population for the start of World War II in Europe. [16]:26 The rebellion, headed by the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF, or Viet Cong) under the direction of North Vietnam, had intensified by 1961. In 1962 McNamara presented President Kennedy withOperation Northwoods, a series of False Flag proposals designed to initiate violence against Americans and deceive the American people into a war with Cuba. He soon realized that the vessels they were tracking on the Maddox may have actually been the result of poor equipment performance and inexperienced sonar operators. [10] Gip confirmed that the attack had been imaginary. North Vietnamese general Phng Th Ti later claimed that Maddox had been tracked since July 31 and that she had attacked fishing boats on August 2 forcing the North Vietnamese Navy to "fight back". The first incident took place on August 2, 1964, when the destroyerUSSMaddox, engaged three North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats seen approaching the Maddox. While intelligence collected by DESOTO missions could be used by OPLAN-34A planners and commanders, they were separate programs not known to coordinate mission planning except to warn DESOTO patrols to stay clear of 34A operational areas. Declassified documents reve. He conducted an analysis of the records from the nights of the attacks and concluded that while there was indeed an attack on August 2, nothing malicious happened on August 4. U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage Command/Wikimedia CommonsCaptain John Herrick aboard the Maddox, on the left, alongside Commander Herbert Ogier, right. According to National Security Archive research fellow John Prados, "the American people have long . Captain George Stephen Morrison was in command of local American forces from his flagship USSBon Homme Richard. On 30 May 2006, NSA released the second and final installment of Gulf of Tonkin materials. Aurora CO shooting. President Johnson's Vietnam Address, August 4, 1964 about the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. . [5] The North Vietnamese boats then attacked,[5] and Maddox radioed she was under attack from the three boats, closing to within 10 nautical miles (19km; 12mi), while located 28 nautical miles (52km; 32mi) away from the North Vietnamese coast in international waters. During the summer of 1964, President Johnson and the Joint Chiefs of Staff were eager to widen the war in Vietnam. [34] Although information obtained well after the fact supported Captain Herrick's statements about the inaccuracy of the later torpedo reports as well as the 1981 Herrick and Scheer conclusion about the inaccuracy of the first, indicating that there was no North Vietnamese attack that night, at the time U.S. authorities and all of the Maddox's crew stated that they were convinced that an attack had taken place. Suggest complete evaluation before any further action taken. [47], North Vietnam's General Gip suggested that the DESOTO patrol had been sent into the gulf to provoke North Vietnam into giving the U.S. an excuse for escalation of the war. [25] When a MACV-SOG commando raid was being carried out against Hon Nieu, the ship was 120 miles (190km) away from the attacked area. In August 1964, the USS Maddox destroyer was stationed in the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of North Vietnam. [5] As the ships approached from the southwest, Maddox changed course from northeasterly to southeasterly and increased speed to 25 knots.[5]. He later said he was concerned that his captors would eventually force him to reveal what he knew about the second incident. No boats, he would later write, no boat wakes, no ricochets off boats, no boat impacts, no torpedo wakes nothing but black sea and American fire-power. "[39][40], Within thirty minutes of the August 4 incident, Johnson had decided on retaliatory attacks (dubbed "Operation Pierce Arrow"). Johnson's statements were short to "minimize the U.S. role in the conflict; a clear inconsistency existed between Johnson's actions and his public discourse. [43] It was not until after the United States became more involved in the war that his claim began to gain support throughout the United States government. They do not necessarily represent the official views of the National Security Agency. He did not like to deal with uncertainties. He immediately appeared in front of the United States with a televised speech. [47] Various government officials and men aboard Maddox have suggested similar theories. The next day, the USS Maddox once again resumed its normal patrol, this time alongside another U.S. Navy destroyer, the USS Turner Joy. 1964 naval confrontation between North Vietnam and the United States, Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1964. As a result, planes from the aircraft carriers Ticonderoga and Constellation were sent to hit North Vietnamese torpedo boat bases and fuel facilities during Operation Pierce Arrow. 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. 5 (May 1970), pp. Mere hours after the speech, Commander Stockdale was ordered to launch an airstrike against the North Vietnamese forces as retaliation for their supposed attacks the evening before. "A close scrutiny of Johnson's public statements reveals no mention of preparations for overt warfare and no indication of the nature and extent of covert land and air measures that already were operational." Theme: Bushwick by James Dinsdale. They showed that there was no attack on August 4. The Gulf of Tonkin incident is the most notorious false flag in American history. But the reports were false and the president knew it. What was a low scale American involvment with Vietnam up until the Gulf of Tonkin incident, erupted into a full blown war which would end up causing the deaths of millions of Vietnamese. There were no U.S. casualties, and no further U.S. action was taken. After Kennedy's assassination, Johnson ordered in more U.S. forces to support the Saigon government, beginning a protracted United States presence in Southeast Asia. And the sonars were probably just catching the tops of big waves. Yoichi Okamoto/U.S. He thus characterized the attack as "unprovoked" since the ship had been in international waters. Lyndon Johnson on August 5, 1964, assertedly in reaction to two allegedly unprovoked attacks by North Vietnamese torpedo boats on the destroyers Maddox and C. Turner Joy of the U.S. As we approach the 51st anniversary of the passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, an act that essentially kicked off the "hot" portion of the Vietnam War, we had an opportunity on The Liberty Brothers Radio Show to interview a man who was in the Gulf of Tonkin 51 years ago this week. BRITISH RIOT PHOTOS: The Brits Finally Begin to Take Back Their PowerBIG TIME! [5] On the night of July 30, 1964, South Vietnamese commandos attacked a North Vietnamese radar station on Hn M island. There were no U.S. An F8 Crusader from the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga flew overhead for ninety minutes and failed to locate any North Vietnamese ships attacking the "Maddox" and "Turner" on august 4. The U.S. vessels were now more than 100 miles away from the North Vietnamese coastline when their trackers started to light up. As the torpedo boats neared, Maddox fired three warning shots. contribution. [1] Intercepted communications indicated that the vessels intended to attack Maddox. In fact, Herrick stated in a message sent at 1:27 pm Washington time that no North Vietnamese patrol boats had actually been sighted. Obama's real legacy makes him one of the worst US presidents of all time. In 1981, Captain Herrick and journalist Robert Scheer re-examined Herrick's ship's log and determined that the first torpedo report from August 4, which Herrick had maintained had occurredthe "apparent ambush"was in fact unfounded. He revealed that 90 percent of the relevant intercepts, including those from the North Vietnamese, had been kept out the NSA's final . Johnson had fended off proposals from McNamara and other advisers for a policy of bombing North Vietnam on four occasions since becoming president. Because the enemy's flag, instead of the flag of the real country of the attacking ship, was hung, it was called a "false flag" attack. [38], He emphasized commitment to both the American people, and the South Vietnamese government. The pilots from the Ticonderoga aircraft responded, flying overhead the destroyers for an hour and a half. [47] On May 4, 1964, William Bundy had called for the U.S. to "drive the communists out of South Vietnam", even if that meant attacking both North Vietnam and communist China. Shortly before Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, he had begun a limited withdrawal of 1,000 U.S. forces before the end of 1963. Commander James Bond Stockdale exiting his aircraft. After he was captured, this knowledge became a heavy burden. Gulf of Tonkin. According to intelligence officials, the view of government historians that Hanyok's report should become public was rebuffed by policy makers concerned that comparisons might be made to intelligence used to justify the Iraq War (Operation Iraqi Freedom) which commenced in 2003. His actions would lead to the deaths of 58,220 Americans and an untold number of Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians. He also reminded Americans that there was no desire for war. But once-classified documents and tapes released in the past several years, combined with previously uncovered facts, make clear that high government officials, including the then US President Lyndon Johnson, distorted facts, lied and deceived the American public about the events that led to full US involvement in the Vietnam War. In 1964, South Vietnam began conducting a series of attacks and missions along the North Vietnamese coasts, backed by the United States. The sinking of the USS Maine in 1898 and the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 - each of which was a critical part of a casus belli - have been claimed as possible false flag attacks, though. Reaction To Events in the Gulf of Tonkin, August 110, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gulf_of_Tonkin_incident&oldid=1138963597, Naval battles of the Vietnam War involving the United States, Battles and operations of the Vietnam War in 1964, Articles with dead external links from December 2019, Articles with permanently dead external links, Articles with dead external links from June 2016, Articles containing Vietnamese-language text, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 12 February 2023, at 17:06. [25], In July 1964, "the situation along North Vietnam's territorial waters had reached a near boil", because of South Vietnamese commando raids and airborne operations that inserted intelligence teams into North Vietnam, as well as North Vietnam's military response to these operations. [43] After urging Congress that they should be wary of Johnson's coming attempt to convince Congress of his resolution, Morse failed to gain enough cooperation and support from his colleagues to mount any sort of movement to stop it. Cecil Stoughton/U.S. TheMaddoxfired firstdue to a belief they were under attack. Get Ready For The First Pluto Return in American History, OPERATION JAB INDIA: A Slow Motion Genocide, JOHN POULOS: LIAR-IN-CHIEF FOR DOMINION VOTING SYSTEMS, MEDICIDE: How American Hospitals and Doctors Methodically Murdered Covid Patients. After learning about the Gulf of Tonkin incident, check out these photos from the anti-Vietnam War movement. [27], Others, such as Admiral Sharp, maintained that U.S. actions did not provoke the August 2 incident. In the 2003 documentary The Fog of War, the former United States Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara admitted that the August 4 Gulf of Tonkin attack never happened. The Gulf of Tonkin Mystery, 2-4 August 1964, a definitive study of the events in the gulf, including the manipulation of signals intelligence. America had entered in the Vietnam War. In accordance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, individuals may request that the government provide auxiliary aids or services to ensure effective communication of the substance of the documents. [60], In 2014, as the incident's 50th anniversary approached, John White wrote The Gulf of Tonkin EventsFifty Years Later: A Footnote to the History of the Vietnam War. [20] For the maritime portion of the covert operation, a set of fast patrol boats had been purchased quietly from Norway and sent to South Vietnam. How the media destroyed Gary Webb, the journalist who exposed the CIA drug running operations. Captain John Herrick intercepted communications from these North Vietnamese forces that suggested they were preparing for an attack, so he retreated from the area. The Gulf of Tonkin incident: the false flag operation that started the Vietnam war. Recently released tapes and documents reveal the truth and lies of the Gulf of Tonkin incident and its resolution. Gulf of Tonkin incident. Please Note: These historical documents are PDF images of formerly classified carbon paper and reports that have been declassified. Google searches for "Gulf of Tonkin," June 10-17, 2019. Retiring to South Vietnamese waters, Maddox was joined by the destroyer USSTurner Joy. Soon thereafter theGulf of Tonkin Resolutionwas approved by the U.S. Congress, which gave LBJ the go to initiate a war against North Vietnam. It resulted in the death of millions of people. [19], A highly classified program of covert actions against North Vietnam, known as Operation Plan 34-Alpha, in conjunction with the DESOTO operations, had begun under the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1961. Not every lie made the war seem better, though. Is it possible Lyndon Johnson was attempting another one with Israel to finish off Egypt once and for all? 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. This table contains record counts based on the codes recorded in the CASUALTY CATEGORY field of theVietnam Conflict Extract Data File. In the foreword, he notes "Among the many books written on the Vietnamese war, half a dozen note a 1967 letter to the editor of a Connecticut newspaper which was instrumental in pressuring the Johnson administration to tell the truth about how the war started. It had been ordered to locate and identify all coastal radar transmitters, note all navigation aids along the DVRs [Democratic Republic of Vietnams] coastline, and monitor the Vietnamese junk fleet for a possible connection to DRV/Viet Cong maritime supply and infiltration routes.. Liberty Waco Oklahoma City 9/11 London 7/7 Sandy Hook The conversation between President Lyndon B. Johnson andSecretary of State Robert McNamara in the video below starts at 1:14 minutes.