Gradually, the Navy broadened its role from supply/logistics to aid/advisory -- training Vietnamese and developing the South Vietnamese navy's famed "brown water force," those riverine units operating in the country's matrix of rivers and canals and through the coastal network of islands and archipelagos. Shortly after taking office following the death of President John F. Kennedy, President Lyndon B. Johnson became concerned about South Vietnam's ability to fend off the Communist Viet Cong guerillas that were operating in the country. That night and morning, while cruising in heavy weather, the ships received radar, radio, and sonar reports that signaled another North Vietnamese attack. The Maddox planned to sail to 16 points along the North Vietnam coast, ranging from the DMZ north to the Chinese border. North Vietnams immediate concern was to determine the exact position and status of its torpedo boats and other forces. Mr. Then, everyones doubts were swept away when a SIGINT intercept from one of the North Vietnamese torpedo boats reported the claim that it had shot down two American planes in the battle area. Consequently, while Maddox was in the patrol area, a South Vietnamese commando raid was underway southwest of its position. If there had been any doubt before about whose hand was behind the raids, surely there was none now. But on 7 January, the Seventh Fleet eased the restriction, allowing the destroyers to approach to within four milesstill one mile beyond North Vietnamese territorial waters as recognized by the United States. "The North Vietnamese are reacting defensively to our attacks on their offshore islands. 11. Telegram from the Department of State to the Embassy in Vietnam, 3 August 1964. But only a few minutes later, McNamara was back on the line with news of a second incident in the Gulf of Tonkin. U.S. and South Vietnamese warships intruded into the territorial waters of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and simultaneously shelled: Hon Nieu Island, 4 kilometers off the coast of Thanh Hoa Province [and] Hon Me Island, 12 kilometers off the coast of Thanh Hoa Province." Those early mistakes led U.S. destroyers to open fire on spurious radar contacts, misinterpret their own propeller noises as incoming torpedoes, and ultimately report an attack that never occurred. Gulf of Tonkin incident Facts At 1505, when the torpedo boats had closed within 10,000 yards, in accordance with Captain Herricks orders and as allowed under international law at that time, Maddox fired three warning shots. By then, the two American ships were approximately 80 nautical miles from the nearest North Vietnamese coastline and steaming southeast at 20 knots. Gulf of Tonkin - Wikipedia Shortly after ordering the airstrikes, Johnson went on television and addressed the nation regarding the incident. On the night of 4 August, both ships reported renewed attacks by North Vietnamese patrol boats. Gulf of Tonkin incident | Definition, Date, Summary, Significance Over the next 12 hours, as the president's team scrambledto understand what hadhappened and to organize a response, the facts remained elusive. The Gulf of Tonkin act became more controversial as opposition to the war mounted. The Gulf of Tonkin incident: the false flag operation that started the Vietnam war. Something Isnt Working Refresh the page to try again. Something Isnt Working This is not the place to establish the final truth on the Gulf of Tonkin matter and certainly I am not the person to render the ultimate judgment. This is another government conspiracy that's true. The Gulf of Tonkin incident led to the expansion of the Vietnam War that resulted in a lot of American soldier casualties. His assessment of the evidence now raised doubts in his mind about what really had happened. When the boats reached that point, Maddox fired three warning shots, but the torpedo boats continued inbound at high speed. The North Vietnamese didnt buy the distinction; they attacked the USS Maddox. Kennedy Hickman is a historian, museum director, and curator who specializes in military and naval history. At the White House, administration officials panicked as the public spotlight illuminated their policy in Vietnam and threatened to reveal its covert roots. As the enemy boat passed astern, it was raked by gunfire from the Maddox that killed the boats commander. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident took place on Aug. 2 and 4, 1964, and helped lead to greater American involvement in the Vietnam War. The NSA report is revealing. Vietnam War: Gulf of Tonkin Incident. By late July 1964, SOG had four Nasty-class patrol boats, designated. In a conversation with Johnson, McNamara confirmedthis, with a reference to OP-CON 34A,acovert operation against the North Vietnamese. The historian here is obliged to deal with two basic considerations in offering up an accounting: the event itself -- that is, what actually happened there in the waters off North Vietnam in early August 1964; and the uses made of it by President Lyndon Johnson and his administration. Scattered small-arms sent tracers toward the commandos, but no one was hurt. The Science of Conspiracy Theories - Gulf of Tonkin conspiracy Captain Herrick had been ordered to be clear of the patrol area by nightfall, so he turned due east at approximately 1600. When the contacts appeared to turn away at 6,000 yards, Maddoxs crew interpreted the move as a maneuver to mark a torpedo launch. PTF-3 and PTF-6 broke off and streaked south for safety; they were back in port before 1200. The original radar contacts dropped off the scope at 2134, but the crews of Maddox and Turner Joy believed they detected two high-speed contacts closing on their position at 44 knots. Nigerians await election results in competitive race. We have ample forces to respond not only to these attacks on these destroyers but also to retaliate, should you wish to do so, against targets on the land, he toldthe president. In the subsequent exchange of fire, neither American nor North Vietnamese ships inflicted significant damage. PTF-6 took up station at the mouth of the Ron River, lit up the sky with illumination rounds, and fired at the security post. In fact, an earlier Desoto patrol planned for February had been canceled because of concerns over potential interference with South Vietnamese commando missions scheduled for the same time. Suddenly, North Vietnamese guns opened fire from the shore. 14. It took only a little imagination to see why the North Vietnamese might connect the two. There remains some disagreement among historians about the second (Aug. 4) incident, which involved the Maddox and another destroyer, the USS Turner Joy. Gulf of Tonkin - National Security Agency The North Vietnamese turned for shore with the Maddox in pursuit. Conducted under the nationally approved Operations Plan, OPLAN-34A, the program required the intelligence community to provide detailed intelligence about the commando targets, the Norths coastal defenses and related surveillance systems. He spoke out against banning girls education. . "13 As far as the State Department was concerned, there was no need to "review" the operations. But Morse did not know enough about the program to ask pointed questions. The first reports of the encounter from the destroyers reached the White House at 1000 EDT. Like all intelligence, it must be analyzed and reported in context. The Johnson administration had made the first of several secret diplomatic attempts during the summer of 1964 to convince the North Vietnamese to stop its war on South Vietnam, using the chief Canadian delegate to the ICC, J. Blair Seaborn, to pass the message along to Hanoi. They are part and parcel of a continuing Communist drive to conquer South Vietnam. Ships radar detected five patrol boats, which turned out to be P-4 torpedo boats and Swatows. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. Suns and Stars $22. Both South Vietnamese and U.S. maritime operators in Da Nang assumed that their raids were the cause of the mounting international crisis, and they never for a moment doubted that the North Vietnamese believed that the raids and the Desoto patrols were one and the same. In late 2007, that information was finally made public when an official National Security Agency (NSA) history of signals intelligence (SIGINT) in Vietnam, written in 2002, was released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. This time, however, President Johnson reacted much more skeptically and ultimately decided to take no retaliatory action. Although Washington officials did not believe Hanoi would attack the Desoto ships again, tensions ran high on both sides, and this affected their respective analyses of the events to come. "14, Nasty fast patrol boats demonstrated their versatility in the Pacific Ocean before going to Vietnam.U.S. WebTo many online conspiracy theorists, the biggest false flag operation of all time was the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. Forced Government Indoctrination Camps . Through the evening of Aug. 4, while no new information arrivedto clarify the eventin the Gulf, the White House narrative was firmly in place. 9/11. The boats followed at their maximum speed of 44 knots, continuing the chase for more than 20 minutes. Aircraft from Ticonderoga arrived on-scene at 1528 hours and fired on the boats. WebJoe Rogan interview on the 911 Conspiracy Theory. During the afternoon of 3 August, another maritime team headed north from Da Nang. Gulf of Tonkin & the Vietnam War. President, weve just had a report from the commander of that task force out there The report is that they have observed and we don't know by what means two unidentified vessels and three unidentified prop aircraft in the vicinity of the destroyers, McNamara told the president. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. To have a Tonkin Gulf conspiracy means that the several hundred National Security Agency and naval communications cited have been doctored. 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Ten shocking conspiracy theories that were completely In July 1964, Operational Plan 34A was taking off, but during the first six months of this highly classified program of covert attacks against North Vietnam, one after the other, missions failed, often spelling doom for the commando teams inserted into the North by boat and parachute. The U.S. in-theater SIGINT assets were limited, as was the number of Vietnamese linguists. The Navys seaborne SIGINT effort in support of OPLAN-34, called Desoto Missions, played a key role in the events that ultimately led to the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Illumination rounds shot skyward, catching the patrol boats in their harsh glare. IV-2 to IV-4. This was the first of several carefully worded official statements aimed at separating 34A and Desoto and leaving the impression that the United States was not involved in the covert operations.9 The Secret Side of the Tonkin Gulf Incident | Naval History Then North Vietnams naval authorities either became confused or were seized by indecision. 426-436. 10. Seeking to follow the established policy of containment, Johnson and his Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, began increasing military aid to South Vietnam. This volume deals only with the former. Most uncertainty has long centered on the alleged second attack of August 4. CIA Director John McCone was convinced that Hanoi was reacting to the raids when it attacked the Maddox. Captain John J. Herrick, Commander Destroyer Division 192, embarked in the Maddox, concluded that there would be "possible hostile action." 8. WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN THE GULF OF TONKIN? 1, p. 646. Both orders were repeated, but only the latter was relayed to the torpedo boats before the attack was launched. Formerly an analyst with the Washington-based Asian Studies Center, Mr. Conboy is vice president of Lippo Group, a large financial services institution in Jakarta, Indonesia. PTF-1 and PTF-2 were U.S.-built 1950s vintage boats pulled out of mothballs and sent to Vietnam. He reported those doubts in his after action report transmitted shortly after midnight his time on August 5, which was 1300 hours August 4 in Washington. To have a Tonkin Gulf conspiracy means that the several hundred National Security Agency and naval communications cited have been doctored. In the days leading up to the first incident of August 2nd, those secret operations had intensified.. AND THERE is the fact of Vietnam's position today. 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. The Gulf of Tonkin incident led to the expansion of the Vietnam War that resulted in a lot of American Two days later, the Gulf of Tonkin resolution sailedthrough both houses of Congress by a vote of 504 to 2. Naval Institute Proceedings (February 1992), p. 59. Any escalation in the bombing of the North risked provoking the Russians or, more likely, the Chinese. Both countries were backing North Vietnam, but so far they were staying out of the conflict and the White House wanted to keep it that way. Carl Schuster is a retired U.S. Navy intelligence officer with 10 years of experience as a surface line officer. Signals Intelligence is a valuable source but it is not perfect. Related:LBJ knew the Vietnam War was a disaster in the making. 3. In the first few days of August 1964, a series of events off the coast of North Vietnam and decisions made in Washington, D.C., set the United States on a course that would largely define the next decade and weigh heavily on American foreign policy to this day. George C. Herring, ed., The Secret Diplomacy of the Vietnam War: The Negotiating Volumes of the Pentagon Papers (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1983), p. 18. The Vietnam War buff will find it fascinating for its wealth of detail carefully set down in understated prose (a welcome relief, I might add, from the hysterical tone that marks much Vietnam War writing). 17. McNamara insisted that the evidence clearly indicated there was an attack on August 4, and he continued to maintain so in his book In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons From Vietnam. A North Vietnamese patrol boat also trailed the American ships, reporting on their movements to Haiphong. After the Tonkin Gulf incident, the State Department cabled Seaborn, instructing him to tell the North Vietnamese that "neither the Maddox or any other destroyer was in any way associated with any attack on the DRV [Democratic Republic of Vietnam, or North Vietnam] islands." . The Gulf of Tonkin Incident famously gave the Johnson Administration the justification they needed to escalate the Vietnam War. The House passed the resolution unanimously.17 https://www.historynet.com/case-closed-the-gulf-of-tonkin-incident/, Jerrie Mock: Record-Breaking American Female Pilot, When 21 Sikh Soldiers Fought the Odds Against 10,000 Pashtun Warriors, Few Red Tails Remain: Tuskegee Airman Dies at 96. The Maddox fired againthis time to killhitting the second North Vietnamese boat just as it launched two torpedoes. It can be deceived and it is all too often incomplete. As a result, the ships offshore were able to collect valuable information on North Vietnamese military capabilities. The commander also added the requirement of collecting photographic intelligence of ships and aircraft encountered, as well as weather and hydrographic information. While there was some doubt in Washington regarding the second attack, those aboard Maddox and Turner Joy were convinced that it had occurred. "Vietnam War: Gulf of Tonkin Incident." For 25 minutes the boats fired on the radar station, then headed back to Da Nang. But we sure ought to always leave the impression that if you shoot at us, you're going to get hit, Johnson said. A long-standing program, the Desoto patrols consisted of American warships cruising in international waters to conduct electronic surveillance operations. It is difficult to imagine that the North Vietnamese could come to any other conclusion than that the 34A and Desoto missions were all part of the same operation. Hereafter referred to as FRUS, Vietnam 1964; Congressional Research Service, The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War: Executive and Legislative Roles and Relationships, Part II, 1961-1964 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1984), p. 287; Message CTG72.1 040140Z August 1964 (Marolda and Fitzgerald, p. 425). By 1400 hours EDT, the president had approved retaliatory strikes against North Vietnamese naval bases for the next morning, August 5, at 0600 local time, which was 1900 EDT on August 4 in Washington. During a meeting at the White House on the evening of 4 August, President Johnson asked McCone, "Do they want a war by attacking our ships in the middle of the Gulf of Tonkin? The only opposition came from a few scattered machine guns on shore, but they did no damage. Although North Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap admitted in a 1984 discussion with Robert S. McNamara that the first attack was deliberate, he denied that a second attack had ever taken place. Send the First Troops to Vietnam? The North Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs made all this clear in September when it published a "Memorandum Regarding the U.S. War Acts Against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the First Days of August 1964." It set a very terrible precedent, which is that he would go on to escalate further, not with any striking confidence that his objectives will be achieved, but only with the assurance that, unless he embarked on these massive military escalations, America would fail in Vietnam and he might well be labeled the only president in American history to lose a war..
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