Codenamed Desoto, they were special U.S. Navy patrols designed to eavesdrop on enemy shore-based communicationsspecifically China, North Korea, and now North Vietnam. Vietnam is a very watery country. The Pyramid and All-Seeing Eye . The lack of success in SOGs missions during the first few months of 1964 made this proposal quite attractive. In this case, perception was much more important than reality.10. Hickman, Kennedy. As Communist communications activity was rising rapidly, American senior leaders were increasing support to the South Vietnamese government. 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. Haiphong again repeated the recall order after the attack. WebGulf of Tonkin conspiracy. President Johnson ordered a halt to all 34A operations "to avoid sending confusing signals associated with recent events in the Gulf of Tonkin." Mr. Andrad is a Vietnam War historian with the U.S. Army Center of Military History, where he is writing a book on combat operations from 1969 through 1973. As a result, the ships offshore were able to collect valuable information on North Vietnamese military capabilities. The conspiracy theory has been dying for several years, and this work will probably be a stake through its heart. On 3 August, the CIA confirmed that "Hanois naval units have displayed increasing sensitivity to U.S. and South Vietnamese naval activity in the Gulf of Tonkin during the past several months. That night and morning, while cruising in heavy weather, the ships received radar, radio, and sonar reports that signaled another North Vietnamese attack. With a presidential election just three months away and Johnson positioning himself as the peace candidate, the administration spoke of American resolve not to react to provocation and to avoid escalation. On the night of 4 August, both ships reported renewed attacks by North Vietnamese patrol boats. The SIGINT intercepts also detected that the North Vietnamese coastal radar stations were tracking Maddox and reporting its movements to the outbound torpedo boats. 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. 8. THIS SECOND volume of the U.S. Navy's multivolume history of the Vietnam War is bound in the same familiar rich blue buckram that has styled official Navy histories since the Civil War and hence resembles its predecessors. The Truth About Tonkin | Naval History Magazine - February 2008 How the Gulf of Tonkin Incident Embroiled the US in the Vietnam Thus, the South Vietnamese raid on Hon Me Island, a major North Vietnamese infiltration staging point, became the tripwire that set off the August 2 confrontation in the Gulf of Tonkin. A firewall existed between covert patrol-boat attacks on North Vietnamese positions and Desoto patrols eavesdropping on shore-based communications. At the White House, administration officials panicked as the public spotlight illuminated their policy in Vietnam and threatened to reveal its covert roots. The maximum closure distance was originally established at 20 nautical miles, but the commander of the U.S. "11 The Americans claimed they sank two torpedo boats and damaged a third, while the torpedo boats claimed to have shot down two American aircraft. We're going to retaliate and well make an announcement a little later in the evening, in the next hour or so and well ask Congress for a resolution of war the next day to support us, Johnson toldan old friend. The Gulf of Tonkin act became more controversial as opposition to the war mounted. "14, Nasty fast patrol boats demonstrated their versatility in the Pacific Ocean before going to Vietnam.U.S. And so, in the course of a single day, and operating on imperfect information,Johnson changedthe trajectory of the Vietnam War. The Science of Conspiracy Theories - Gulf of Tonkin conspiracy Ten shocking conspiracy theories that were completely Johnsonasked for, and received, a resolution of war from the US Congress that led to further escalation in the conflict. On 7 August, the Senate passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, allowing the administration greater latitude in expanding the war by a vote of 88 to 2. Related:LBJ knew the Vietnam War was a disaster in the making. Message, COMUSMACV 291233Z July 1964, CP 291345Z July 1964. Media reporting on the NSA reports assessments sparked a brief rehash of the old arguments about the Gulf of Tonkin. Captain John J. Herrick, Commander Destroyer Division 192, embarked in the Maddox, concluded that there would be "possible hostile action." 5. 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. The bullets struck the destroyer; the torpedo missed. American aircraft flying over the scene during the "attack" failed to spot any North Vietnamese boats. Americas Vietnam War had begun in earnest. Herrick requested aerial reconnaissance for the next morning to search for the wreckage of the torpedo boats he thought he had sunk. This article is based on the PRI podcast, LBJ's War, hosted by David Brown. President Johnson himself apparently questioned the sailorsu0019 report of an attack. 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 Operation Fast and Furious 10 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. 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. In an effort to increase pressure on North Vietnam, several Norwegian-built fast patrol boats (PTFs) were covertly purchased and transferred to South Vietnam. As far as the headlines were concerned, that was it, but the covert campaign continued unabated. 4. Despite the on-scene commanders efforts to correct their errors in the initial after-action reports, administration officials focused instead on the first SIGINT reports to the exclusion of all other evidence. Suddenly, North Vietnamese guns opened fire from the shore. Two nearly identical episodes six weeks apart; two nearly opposite responses. 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. 11. . The Gulf of Tonkin Incident took place on Aug. 2 and 4, 1964, and helped lead to greater American involvement in the Vietnam War. Carl Schuster is a retired U.S. Navy intelligence officer with 10 years of experience as a surface line officer. Two days later, the Gulf of Tonkin resolution sailedthrough both houses of Congress by a vote of 504 to 2. PTF-2 had mechanical troubles and had to turn back, but the other boats made it to their rendezvous point off the coast from Vinh Son. He headed seaward hoping to avoid a confrontation until daybreak, then returned to the coast at 1045, this time north of Hon Me. Hanoi pointed out what Washington denied: "On July 30, 1964 . WebNational Security Agency/Central Security Service > Home A long-standing program, the Desoto patrols consisted of American warships cruising in international waters to conduct electronic surveillance operations. When the contacts appeared to turn away at 6,000 yards, Maddoxs crew interpreted the move as a maneuver to mark a torpedo launch. 426-436. The USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin is shown in 1963. Carl Otis Schuster, U.S. Navy (ret.) To have a Tonkin Gulf conspiracy means that the several hundred National Security Agency and naval communications cited have been doctored. In turn, that means a minimum of several hundred persons were party to a plot that has remained watertight in sieve-like Washington for two decades. 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. William Conrad Gibbons, The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War, Part II, 1961-1964, pp. 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). 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. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. Neither ships crew knew about the North Vietnamese salvage operation. A U.S. Navy SEAL (Sea Air Land) team officer assigned to the SOG maritime operations training staff, Lieutenant James Hawes, led the covert boat fleet out of Da Nang and down the coast 300 miles to Cam Ranh Bay, where they waited out the crisis in isolation. Gulf of Tonkin - Wikipedia After a suspected torpedo attack by North Vietnamese patrol torpedo boats led to plans for US retaliation,the captain of the Maddox sent a cable to the Joint Chiefs that advised "complete evaluation before any further action"due to grave doubts over whether an attackhad reallyoccurred. After several early failures, it was transferred to the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group in 1964, at which time its focus shifted to maritime operations. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident famously gave the Johnson Administration the justification they needed to escalate the Vietnam War. Two hours later the Phu Bai SIGINT station transmitted a critic report warning of possible [North Vietnamese] naval operations planned against the Desoto patrol. Twenty-five minutes later, Phu Bai sent a second critic report that said, imminent plans of [North Vietnamese] naval action possibly against Desoto Mission.. "5, In reality there was little actual coordination between 34A and Desoto. Fluoride. The Maddox fired againthis time to killhitting the second North Vietnamese boat just as it launched two torpedoes. 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. 13. WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN THE GULF OF TONKIN? 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. As it turns out, Adm. Sharp failed to read to the Joint Chiefs the last line of the cable, whichread: Suggest a complete evaluation before any further actions.. U.S. soldiers recall Cam Ranh as a sprawling logistic center for materiel bolstering the war effort, but in the summer of 1964 it was only a junk force training base near a village of farmers and fishermen. But, interestingly, on Sept. 18, a similar incident occurred in the Gulf of Tonkin. In the summer of 1964, President Lyndon Baines Johnson needed a pretext to commit the American people to the already expanding covert war in South East Asia. Vietnam War: Gulf of Tonkin Incident - ThoughtCo WebJoe Rogan interview on the 911 Conspiracy Theory. For the maritime war specialist, it is of course invaluable. Approved on Aug. 10, 1964, the Southeast Asia (Gulf of Tonkin) Resolution, gave Johnson the power to use military force in the region without requiring a declaration of war. It took only a little imagination to see why the North Vietnamese might connect the two. :: Douglas Pike, director of the Indochina Studies Program at the University of California-Berkeley, is the author of the forthcoming "Vietnam and the U.S.S.R.: Anatomy of an Alliance.". The people who are calling me up, they want to be damned sure I don't pull 'em out and run, and they want to be damned sure that we're firm. Until 1964, Desoto patrols stayed at least 20 miles away from the coast. In response, the North Vietnamese built up their naval presence around the offshore islands. Holding their vector despite the gunfire, the boats rushed in, pouring 20-mm and 40-mm fire and 57-mm recoilless rifle rounds into their target. 136-137. At this point, U.S. involvement in Vietnam remained largely in the background. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. 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. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. Three days later, she rendezvoused with a tanker just east of the DMZ before beginning her intelligence- gathering mission up the North Vietnamese coast. Gulf of Tonkin incident Facts Not reported at the time, Herrick instructed his gun crews to fire three warning shots if the North Vietnamese came within 10,000 yards of the ship. Milestones: 19611968 - Office of the Historian In fact, the United States had been waging a small, secret war against North Vietnam since 1961. McNamara was ready to respond. At about the same time, there were other "secret" missions going on. To subscribe to Vietnam Magazine, click here! The truth about 'False Flags' from Nazi Germany to the Vietnam War It was 1964, an election year, and the Republicans had just nominated Barry Goldwater, a former jet fighter pilot, and hardcore hawk, to run against Johnson in November. This article by Capt. 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. The North Vietnamese coastal radars also tracked and reported the positions of U.S. aircraft operating east of the ships, probably the combat air patrol the Seventh Fleet had ordered in support. When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Given the maritime nature of the commando raids, which were launched from Da Nang, the bulk of the intelligence collecting fell to the Navy. When Did the U.S. The rounds set some of the buildings ablaze, keeping the defenders off balance. For the rest of the war they would be truly secretand in the end they were a dismal failure. That night, on national television, Johnson addressedthe American people, saying,Renewed hostile actions against United States ships on the high seas in the Gulf of Tonkin have today required me to take action and reply. 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. In the days leading up to the first incident of August 2nd, those secret operations had intensified.. 4. "I think we are kidding the world if you try to give the impression that when the South Vietnamese naval boats bombarded two islands a short distance off the coast of North Vietnam we were not implicated," he scornfully told McNamara during the hearings.16 In truth, two of the torpedo boats were damaged, of which one could not make it back to port, while a single American aircraft sustained some wing damage. A subsequent review of the SIGINT reports revealed that this later interceptMcNamaras smoking gunwas in fact a follow-on, more in-depth report of the August 2 action. And it didnt take much detective work to figure out where the commandos were stationed. Send the First Troops to Vietnam? Kennedy Hickman is a historian, museum director, and curator who specializes in military and naval history. Although McNamara did not know it at the time, part of his statement was not true; Captain Herrick, the Desoto patrol commander, did know about the 34A raids, something that his ships logs later made clear. Alerted to the threat, Herrick requested air support from the carrier USS Ticonderoga. Case Closed: The Gulf of Tonkin Incident - HistoryNet The subsequent North Vietnamese reporting on the enemy matched the location, course and speed of Maddox. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. This was almost certainly a reaction to the recent 34A raids. On 30 July, Westmoreland revised the 34A maritime operations schedule for August, increasing the number of raids by "283% over the July program and 566% over June. Conspiracy FACT #8: The Gulf of Tonkin Incident - YouTube The Truth About Tonkin | Naval History Magazine - February 2008 . Senate investigations in 1968 and 1975 did little to clarify the events or the evidence, lending further credence to the various conspiracy theories. AND THERE is the fact of Vietnam's position today. And who is going to believe that? Subsequent research and declassified documents have essentially shown that the second attack did not happen. Naval Institute. Under cover of darkness, four boats (PTF-2, PTF-3, PTF-5, and PTF-6) left Da Nang, racing north up the coast toward the demilitarized zone (DMZ), then angling farther out to sea as they left the safety of South Vietnamese waters.2 About five hours later they neared their objective: the offshore islands of Hon Me and Hon Nieu. 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. originally appeared in the June 2008 issue of Vietnam magazine. The report covers all aspects of the efforts of the various American SIGINT agencies from the early postWorld War II years through the evacuation of Saigon. Over the next few years, Johnson used the resolution to rapidly escalate American involvement in the Vietnam War. To have a Tonkin Gulf conspiracy means that the several hundred National Security Agency and naval communications cited have been doctored. Navy, Of course, none of this was known to Congress, which demanded an explanation for the goings-on in the Tonkin Gulf. Over the next 12 hours, as the president's team scrambledto understand what hadhappened and to organize a response, the facts remained elusive. He has appeared on The History Channel as a featured expert. In the years covered here, the Navy was generally known throughout the U.S. Mission in Saigon for being in the housekeeping business, operating supply warehouses, and running the officer clubs, PXs and other amenities, an inevitable part of the American military's baggage. Gulf of Tonkin incident | Definition, Date, Summary, Significance At 2000 hours local time, Maddox reported it had two surface and three aerial contacts on radar. Each boat carried a 16-man crew and a 57-mm recoilless rifle, plus machine guns. The captain of Maddox, Commander Herbert L. Ogier Jr., ordered his ship to battle stations shortly after 1500 hours. Captain Herrick had been ordered to be clear of the patrol area by nightfall, so he turned due east at approximately 1600. He has written numerous articles on Vietnam War-era special operations and is the author of two books on the war: 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. Historians still argue about what exactly happened in the Gulf of Tonkin in August of 1964. These types of patrols had previously been conducted off the coasts of the Soviet Union, China, and North Korea. As such, its personnel in Vietnam were the envy of their Army counterparts in the bush since, as it was commonly put, sailors sleep between clean sheets at night (the grunts were also envious of the Air Force, where you fight sitting down). For the Navys official account stating that both incidents occurred and that 34A and Desoto were "entirely distinct," see Marolda and Fitzgerald, pp. https://www.thoughtco.com/vietnam-war-gulf-of-tonkin-incident-2361345 (accessed March 4, 2023). This mission coincided with several 34A attacks, including an Aug. 1 raid on Hon Me and Hon Ngu Islands. "Vietnam War: Gulf of Tonkin Incident." But the administration dithered, informing the embassy only that "further OPLAN 34A operations should be held off pending review of the situation in Washington. NSA analysts from shore-based stations shared Herricks belief and transmitted an immediate warning to all major Pacific Theater commandsexcept to Herrick and Maddox. In 1964 the Navy was attempting to determine the extent of North Vietnams maritime infiltration into the South and to identify the Norths coastal defenses so that Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) could better support South Vietnams commando operations against the North. The study debunks two strongly held but opposing beliefs about what happened on both dayson the one hand that neither of the reported attacks ever took place at all, and on the other that there was in fact a second deliberate North Vietnamese attack on August 4. As the torpedo boats continued their high-speed approach, Maddox was ordered to fire warning shots if they closed inside 10,000 yards. Unfortunately, much of the media reporting combined or confused the events of August 2 and 4 into a single incident. Subscribe to LBJ's War onApple Podcasts. The U.S. ships were supposed to remain well outside North Vietnams claimed five nautical mile territorial limit. JCS, "34A Chronology of Events," (see Marolda and Fitzgerald, p. 424); Porter, Vietnam: The Definitive Documentation (Stanfordville, NY: 1979), vol. For some reason, however, the second Desoto Mission, to be conducted by Maddox, was not canceled, even though it was scheduled to start at the same time that a late July commando mission was being launched. The accords, which were signed by other participants including the Viet Minh, mandated a temporary ceasefire line, which separated southern and northern Vietnam to be governed by the State of Vietnam an Gulf of Tonkin - A secret report reveals how easily soldiers, spies and politicians can jump to a conclusion and plunge the country into war. Mr. He then requested the passage of a resolution "expressing the unity and determination of the United States in supporting freedom and in protecting peace in Southeast Asia." WebGulf of Tonkin Resolution, also called Tonkin Gulf Resolution, resolution put before the U.S. Congress by Pres. Consequently, while Maddox was in the patrol area, a South Vietnamese commando raid was underway southwest of its position. There was no way to get a commando team ashore to plant demolition charges; they would have do what damage they could with the boats guns.3 WebUnderground Knowledge host James Morcan discloses what really happened in 1964's Gulf of Tonkin Incident which started the Vietnam War. WebThe Gulf of Tonkin and the Vietnam War. The three torpedo boats continued through the American barrage and launched their torpedoes at 1516. There was more or less general acceptance of the Navy's initial account -- there was an unprovoked attack on Aug. 2 by three North Vietnamese patrol boats on an American warship, the destroyer USS Maddox in international waters. The Gulf of Tonkin incident, like others in our nation's history, has become the center of considerable controversy and debate. Reinforced by Turner Joy, Herrick returned to the area on Aug. 4. President Johnson and his advisers nevetheless went forward with a public announcement of an attack. WebMany 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. Background intelligence on North Vietnam, its radar networks and command-and-control systems was limited. Simultaneously, U.S. SIGINT was placed on increased alert to monitor indications of future North Vietnamese threats to the Desoto Missions, and additional air and naval forces were deployed to the Western Pacific. Meanwhile, by late August 3, the North Vietnamese had learned the condition of their torpedo boats and ordered a salvage tug to recover the damaged craft. This was reinforced by statements by retired Vietnamese Defense Minister Vo Nguyen Giap who admitted to the Aug. 2 attack but denied ordering another two days later. The NSA report is revealing. McNamara and the JCS believed that this intercept decisively provided the smoking gun of the second attack, and so the president reported to the American people and Congress. 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. The North also protested the South Vietnamese commando raid on Hon Me Island and claimed that the Desoto Mission ships had been involved in that raid.

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