Many Americans of past generations remember the gulf of Tonkin incident as the spark that ignited American passions about the Vietnam War. Unfortunately, this pivotal moment in our wartime history never actually occurred. On August 2, 1964, the American destroyer USS Maddox was struck by torpedoes fired from North Vietnamese gunboats while conducting intelligence operations in the South China Sea. Two days later, on August 4, the National Security Agency (NSA) claimed that the North Vietnamese attacked The Maddox again, a claim that was later discovered to be entirely fabricated.
This false confrontation later led to congress drafting the “Gulf of Tonkin Resolution,” a piece of legislation that gave president Lyndon B. Johnson a great deal of autonomy to deploy ground troops into North Vietnam, without the approval of congress or an official declaration of war. This resolution led to an eleven-year conflict, resulting in the deaths of over one million people, with over 587,000 civilian casualties.
“Johnson deceived congress, but congress didn’t ask enough questions either,” said Advanced Placement (AP) United States History teacher John Franklin. “It was a gradual escalation [the Johnson administration was] looking for a reason to bring in ground troops.” Many speculate that the Vietnam War in general was just a provision to keep the American arms industry and in turn, the military industrial complex thriving, and that the Gulf of Tonkin Incident was a means to that end. Of course, the powers that be will never admit that they willingly sent over two hundred thousand American G.I.’s to their deaths for the sole purpose generating profits for a handful of weapons manufacturers so this remains… just a conspiracy theory.
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