what is the gulf of tonkin incident and resolution?

The Gulf of Tonkin Incident was two separate occurrences involving naval forces of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and the United States in the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin that prompted the first large-scale involvement of U.S. armed forces in Southeast Asia. On August 2, 1964, the destroyer USS Maddox (DD-731) enɡɑɡed three North Vietnamese P-4 torpedo boats, resulting in damage to the three boats. Two days later the Maddox (having been joined by the destroyer USS Turner Joy (DD-951) reported a second enɡɑɡement with North Vietnamese vessels. This second report was later claimed to be in error.

The outcome of the incident was the passage by Congress of the Southeast Asia Resolution (better known as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution), which granted President Lyndon B. Johnson the authority to assist any Southeast Asian country whose government was considered to be jeopardized by “communist aggression,” including the commitment of U.S. forces without a declaration of war. The resolution served as Johnson’s legal justification for escalating American involvement in the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). It gave the President the exclusive right to use military force without consulting the Senate, although based on a false pretext, as he later admitted.

In 2005, an official NSA declassified report revealed that the Maddox had enɡɑɡed the North Vietnamese on August 2, but that there may not have been any North Vietnamese vessels present during the enɡɑɡement of August 4. The report stated:

[I]t is not simply that there is a different story as to what happened; it is that no attack happened that night. […] In truth, Hanoi’s navy was enɡɑɡed in nothing that night but the salvage of two of the boats damaged on August 2.

Tonkin Gulf Resolution Definition

Gulf Of Tonkin Resolution Definition

Two US destroyers, the Turner Joy and another, ( I think it was the USS Maddox) radioed that they were attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. The detroyers were on patrol in the Gulf of Tonkin off Vietnam. This was in 1964.

Lyndon Johnson used this attack as a way to get Congress revved up with patriotic fervor and agree to give him authority to send troops to Vietnam.

As it eventually became known, the entire thing was a hoax dreamed up by Johnson to get the authority to send troops.

United States in Vietnam 1945-1975

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The Tonkin Gulf non incident was a supposed

attack on by North Vietnam PT boats on a

US Destroyer…(Never Hapƿє-ṅєd)

(Testimony by the US pilots to bomb the

PT Boats…they didn’t see anything…)

It was used by Johnson and his Big Business

buddies to get Congress to go along with his

planned escalation of the War…

(Cost us 58,000+ KIA’s…)

Once they started it, they didn’t know how to stop it…