Truth about the Gulf of Tonkin Incident - Forgotten History

Until the War on Terrorism, Vietnam was the longest conflict in American history. By the end of that war, in April 1975, 57,939 Americans would be killed or missing in action, with an estimated 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers also dead. The Gulf of Tonkin incident sparked the great conflict that had been a series of small counter-insurgency missions. This event was the reason that President Lyndon Johnson justified going to Congress to appropriate military funding to expand American military involvement in Vietnam, starting a major conflict that would last until April 1975. Johnson had many personal and financial reasons for getting involved in the war, not the least of which was his stock portfolio in the military armaments industry, especially the Hughes Aircraft Company that built many of the helicopters used in the conflict. How did Johnson convince the public and Congress to get involved in Vietnam? What did he say to create the atmosphere for war? What was the real truth behind the event that people did not know? Hello, I'm Colin Heaton, military veteran, historian, author, and welcome to this episode of Forgotten History. On August 2, 1964, three North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the USS Maddox, DD-731, which was in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. There is no doubting that fact. The force commander, Captain Herrick, ordered gun crews to open fire if the boats came within 10,000 yards of the destroyer, which did happen. Three 5-inch shots were fired across the bow of the closest boat that closed in at 1505 hours. In return, the lead communist boat launched a torpedo and then veered away. A second torpedo boat followed and it launched two torpedoes and was in return hit by gunfire from the Maddox. The first PT boat returned to the action and launched a second torpedo and fired its 14.5mm guns, but it was heavily damaged by the Maddox's defensive fire. The entire engagement only lasted 22 minutes. The aircraft carrier, USS Ticonderoga, a CVA-14, had launched four F-8 Crusaders from VF-51 and they were in the air supporting Maddox. The commanding officer of VF-51, Commander James Stockdale, recalled that, We passed over the Maddox at 1530 and there was no damage just after the situation had ended. All of the enemy boats were heading northwest at about 40 knots, two in front of the third biobattle mile. The destroyer was retiring to the south. Our orders were to attack and destroy the PT boats, so we made a few firing runs on the enemy vessels and we saw the two lead boats took evasive action, but it was clear that they had suffered heavy damage, while the last one was dead in the water, all shot up and burning. The weather had been clear, a perfect day. It was reported that two days later there was another attack against the Maddox and the USS Turner Joy, prompting Johnson to take action. But the facts say differently, as stated from the declassified documents. On the morning of 4 August, U.S. intelligence intercepted a report indicating that the Communists intended to conduct offensive maritime operations in the Gulf of Tonkin. In contrast to the clear conditions two days earlier, thunderstorms and rain squalls reduced visibility and increased wave heights to six feet. In addition to the difficult detection conditions, the Maddox's SPS-40 long-range air search radar and the Turner Joy's SPG-53 fire control radar were both inoperative. That night, Herrick had the two ships move out to sea to give themselves maneuver space in case of attack. Despite operating more than 100 miles from Vietnam, the Maddox reported tracking unidentified vessels that seemed to come at the ships from multiple directions, some from the northeast, others from the southwest. Still, other targets reportedly appeared from the east, similar to torpedo boats, then disappeared and new targets appeared from the opposite direction. But something was very wrong. Commander Stockdale was again in the air, but this time he was alone after his wingman's aircraft developed trouble. He arrived overhead at 2135 and for more than 90 minutes, he flew along the ship's course and below 2,000 feet looking for any enemy vessels and saw nothing. Stockdale later reported, I had the best seat in the house to watch that event and our destroyers were just shooting at phantom targets. There were no PT boats there. There was nothing there but black water and American firepower. Maddox and Turner Joy had been chasing ghosts on the radars due to faulty equipment and bad weather. As well as very nervous and inexperienced radar and sonar operators, Captain Herwick sent a flash message to Honolulu, Hawaii clarifying the situation as, quote, a non-event, as there were no enemy sightings. However, inexplicably, Herwick later sent another conflicting message which read, quote, Certain that original ambush was bona fide. Details of action following present a confusing picture. Have interviewed witnesses who made positive visual sightings of cockpit lights or similar passing near Maddox. Several reported torpedoes were probably boats themselves which were observed to make several close passes on Maddox. Own ship screw noises on rudders may have accounted for some. At present cannot even estimate number of boats involved. Turner Joy reports two torpedoes passed near her, end quote. The Pacific Fleet Commander in Chief Admiral U.S. Grant Sharp in Hawaii received both messages and Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara called him asking if there was a possibility that there was no actual attack and Sharp answered yes. On the evening of August 4th, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson gave the following address to the American public on all three national TV stations, opening the door for his starting full-scale military operations in Vietnam. He stated in his address, my fellow Americans, as President and Commander in Chief, it is my duty to the American people to report that renewed hostile actions against United States ships on the high seas in the Gulf of Tonkin have today required me to order the military forces of the United States to take action in reply. The initial attack on the destroyer Maddox on August 2 was repeated today by a number of hostile vessels attacking two U.S. destroyers with torpedoes. The destroyers and supporting aircraft acted at once on the orders I gave after the initial act of aggression. We believe at least two of the attacking boats were sunk. There were no U.S. losses. The performance of commanders and crews in this engagement is in the highest tradition of the United States Navy, but repeated acts of violence against the armed forces of the United States must not be met only with alert defense, but with positive reply. That reply is being given as I speak to you tonight. Air action is now in execution against gunboats and certain supporting facilities in North Vietnam which have been used in these hostile operations. In the larger sense, this new act of aggression, aimed directly at our own forces, again brings home to all of us in the United States the importance of the struggle for peace and security in Southeast Asia. Aggression by terror against the peaceful villagers of South Vietnam has now been joined by open aggression on the high seas against the United States of America. The determination of all Americans to carry out our full commitment to the people and to the government of South Vietnam will be redoubled by this outrage, yet our response for the present will be limited and fitting. We Americans know, although others appear to forget, the risks of spreading conflict. We still seek no wider war. I have instructed the Secretary of State to make this position totally clear to friends and to adversaries and, indeed, to all. I have instructed Ambassador Stevenson to raise this matter immediately and urgently before the Security Council of the United Nations. Finally, I have today met with the leaders of both parties in the Congress of the United States and I have informed them that I shall immediately request the Congress to pass a resolution making it clear that our government is united in its determination to take all necessary measures in support of freedom and in defense of peace in Southeast Asia. I have been given encouraging assurances by these leaders of both parties that such a resolution will be promptly introduced, freely and expeditiously debated, and passed with overwhelming support, and just a few minutes ago I was able to reach Senator Goldwater and I am glad to say that he has expressed his support of the statement that I am making to you tonight. It is a solemn responsibility to have to order even limited military action by forces whose overall strength is as vast and as awesome as those of the United States of America, but it is my considered conviction, shared throughout your government, that firmness in the right is indispensable today for peace, that firmness will always be measured. Its mission is peace. The problem was that Johnson's entire statement was a total lie. There had not been a follow-up attack on August 4th. Everyone on the ships and in the intelligence communities knew the truth as well. What had prompted the North Vietnamese response was that in early 1964, U.S.-supported South Vietnamese commandos had conducted attacks and intelligence-gathering operations along the North Vietnamese coast under the codename Operations Plan 34A. These missions were supported by the U.S. Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency under the operational command of Lieutenant General William C. Westmoreland, Commander of the U.S. Military Assistance Command, using the South Vietnamese Navy and their Marines. Many of these missions failed as commandos were killed or captured, and much of their operational secrecy had been compromised, forcing a change of plan. Westmoreland decided to change the game plan entirely, and in July 1964, operations changed from ship-to-shore commando attacks to using South Vietnamese patrol boats, using bombardments with rockets, mortars, and recordless rifles fired into NVA facilities ashore. The U.S. Navy was very active as they flew patrols, called de-soto patrols, along the North Vietnamese coast, locating radar sites, harbors, small boats, sampans, and junks as well as any permanent structures indicating troop buildups. Signals intelligence-gathering was also critical as any transmissions emitted from the communists were being analyzed to try and predict communist movements and intentions. The Navy also monitored rivers and estuaries in conjunction with the South Vietnamese to interdict communist troop movements and resupply efforts, although coordination between U.S. and the South Vietnamese forces was not very effective and rarely worked as they had no interfacing tactical command and control. Westmoreland needed more credibility and manpower. Johnson needed an event to justify direct combat action, and McNamara decided that the very questionable evidence of any attack was genuine. On August 7th, Congress, with near unanimity, approved the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which President Johnson signed into law three days later. Vietnam had just become a war based upon a lie. The Johnson family investment portfolio exploded as Vietnam required weapons, ammunition, and helicopters, investments that Johnson profited from heavily as he increased the troop presence every year. Their TV and radio stations became CBS affiliates and they controlled the media narrative in Texas. Vietnam was Johnson's cash cow, which makes his actions all the more diabolical. The war eventually spilled over into neighboring Laos and Cambodia, and it brought a coalition of nations to fight against communism, such as South Korea with 4,000 military dead, Thailand lost 350, and Australia over 500, and New Zealand with around 40 soldiers lost. As a sidebar, I once asked Vice Admiral James Stockdale about this event during an interview, and he said, they lied, they had to. Johnson wanted his war, and he got it one way or another. He caused our country a lot of unnecessary pain and suffering. As a sidebar again, on his next deployment, while Commander of Carrier Air Wing 16 aboard the carrier USS Oriskany, CV-34, his A-4 Skyhawk jet was shot down over North Vietnam on September 9th, 1965. Stockdale would be a POW in Hanoi, brutally beaten and tortured until 1973, earning four silver stars, two Purple Hearts, and the Medal of Honor. Lyndon Johnson, always an aggressive and controversial figure, is covered in our video on him in our Most Corrupt series. Many historians have debated why he wanted war in Vietnam. For this historian, it is not a mystery. His personal wealth increased dramatically as the war escalated, having entered office as President, with a collective net worth of around $400,000, including his wealth from his wife Lady Bird's radio and TV stations, and he left office with a net worth of $15 million, or $109.3 million today. Yes, Vietnam was very good to President Johnson. Thanks for watching today's episode of Forgotten History. If you liked this episode, please consider becoming a channel member, or joining our Patreon page. This would help us offset the ever-increasing cost of production. As always, please like, share, and comment, and if you have any show ideas, please contact us and we'll get back to you as soon as possible. Until next time.