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. It was tantamount to a declaration of war, but it was based on a lie. 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. On the evening of August 4, the ships opened fire on radar returns that had been preceded by communications intercepts which US forces claimed meant an attack was imminent. Although the Johnson administration knew that the Gulf of Tonkin incident was, in fact, no incident at all, they still made the executive decision to distort the events in their favor. Please help support Dispropaganda by clicking on the "Donate" button and making a. With regard to why this happened, Hanyok writes: As much as anything else, it was an awareness that Johnson would brook no uncertainty that could undermine his position. Debunking the myths and propaganda behind 'D-Day'. [28], Sharp also noted that orders given to Maddox to stay 8 nautical miles (15km; 9.2mi) off the North Vietnamese coast put the ship in international waters, as North Vietnam claimed only a 5 nautical miles (9.3km; 5.8mi) limit as its territory (or off of its off-shore islands). Months before an alleged attack was being blamed on Iran, a US Army Colonel predicted this very scenario playing out to start a war. In fact, Herrick stated in a message sent at 1:27 pm Washington time that no North Vietnamese patrol boats had actually been sighted. How the Gulf of Tonkin Incident Embroiled the US in the Vietnam War Dispropaganda is 100% independent non partisan and non profit, in order to keep the site up we rely on financial supprt from our readers. A sea battle resulted, in which theMaddoxexpended over two hundred and eighty 3-inch and 5-inch shells, and in which four USNF-8 Crusaderjet fighter bombers strafed the torpedo boats. President Lyndon Johnson had deliberately lied and misled the American public into the Vietnam War when he used the justification of the non existent 4th of August attack on the "Maddox" and "Turner". The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and Escalation of the Vietnam War Newly Declassified National Security Agency History Questions Early 5 (May 1970), pp. Brought to you by the CDC. As Hanyok put it, The overwhelming body of reports, if used, would have told the story that no attack occurred.. The Washington Standard / July 28, 2015. Although August 4 was a stormy day, Captain Herrick ordered the two destroyers further out to sea in order to give them more space in the case of an attack. Via: ibtimes.co.uk. [5] A U.S. aircraft carrier, the USS Ticonderoga, was also stationed nearby. Many historians now agree that the Gulf of Tonkin incident, in which many believed North Vietnamese ships had attacked American naval forces, may not have occurred in the way it was described at the time. [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.