Gulf+of+Tonkin+Incident

The Gulf of Tonkin Incident (1964)

The incident started on August 2nd, 1964 when the Maddox, a U.S. Navy destroyer, was attacked by three torpedo boats and returned fire. The Maddox sank two of the boats and the last one fled. The Maddox was on a mission to provide support for South Vietnamese commando raids along the North Vietnamese coast line to gather intelligence on radar sites and other defenses. The Maddox requested back up and was joined by USS Turner Joy on August 3rd. On the night of August 4th, reported that North Vietnamese ships had launched a another attack. Both ships returned fire and asked for back up from the aircraft carrier Ticonderoga, which sent them fighter planes. All of this was based only off radar information and they never really fired at anything. This second attack caused a strong response from President Johnson probably because he was criticized for not doing anything about the 1st attack on August 2nd. He ordered fighter bombers to strike North Vietnamese patrol boat bases and oil storage facilities along the coast. This was the first major air strike on North Vietnam. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorized more involvement in Vietnam and further escalated the situation.

The further escalation of the war happened because of an attack that never happened. This escalation of the war was unnecessary especially since the second attack was never really an attack and just misreading radar. There was no need for Johnson to do anything about the first attack because our ship sunk two of theirs and scared the third one away. He especially didn't need to take action about the second attack since our ships were firing at nothing, he took it way of out of hand and made it something it did not need to be. The criticism he received about sitting back and doing nothing should not have affected his decision about taking action but it very well might have.



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Citations

Hickman, Kennedy. "Gulf of Tonkin Incident." //About.com// . N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov 2010. .

 Hillstrom, Kevin, and Laurie Hillstrom. //Vietnam War Almanac// . 1st ed. United States of America: UXL, 2001. 83-85. Print.