The Gulf of Tonkin Incident – 1964
It all started in an emotional atmosphere of melodrama. Suddenly, on the evening of August 4, 1964, at
11:36 p.m., the President appeared on TV. He told the nation that, for the first time since the Korean War, the
US would launch a military offensive on communist soil. At that very moment, US planes were about to bomb
gunboat bases in North Vietnam. These raids, the President said, were in reprisal (response) for torpedo-boat
attacks against two US destroyers (the Maddox and the Turner Joy) 12 hours earlier in the Gulf of Tonkin off
the coast of North Vietnam.
Three days later, on August 7, 1964, the Johnson Administration received a sweeping resolution from
Congress which authorized it “to repel any armed attack against the forces of the US and to prevent further
aggression.”
What President Johnson failed to tell the American people on that August night was that the Tonkin
Gulf incident followed 6 months of clandestine (secret) military attacks by US sponsored forces in South
Vietnam against North Vietnam. On the night before the alleged attack on the Maddox, South Vietnamese
patrol forces had launched a midnight attack, including an amphibious commando raid, on Hon Me and Hon
Nieu Islands off the coast of North Vietnam. At the time, the Maddox was operating within the 12 mile
territorial limit claimed by North Vietnam and recognized by the US. The Maddox sustained no damage.
The second reported attack on the Maddox and the Turner Joy almost certainly never took place.
Captain John Herrick, Commander of the Tonkin Gulf patrol, had signaled the Pentagon that there were “no
actual sightings by the Maddox…” James Stockdale, a Navy carrier pilot circling above, said that, because it
was so dark below, he had very good vision. Stockdale says, “the wake (of an attacking boat) would have been
luminous (lighted up). The ricochet would have been sparkling, the gunfire would have been red and bright.”
Stockdale searched for any signs of North Vietnamese attack boats but saw nothing. When he heard the next
day that the retaliation had been ordered, Stockdale reflected: “Well, I sat there on the edge of the bed realizing
that I was one of the few people in the world who knew we were going to launch a war under false pretenses.”
Commenting on the incident some months later, President Johnson remarked with a grin, “For all I
know, our Navy was shooting at whales out there.” It was, however, just the kind of incident that Johnson
needed to rally congressional support. The resolution (which is now the Gulf of Tonkin resolution) had actually
been prepared many months before by President Johnson’s staff, a resolution they considered the equivalent of
a declaration of war. Thus, the evidence seems strong that the 1st attack was provoked by the US and the
alleged 2nd attack never took place.
The Tonkin Gulf incident was a MAJOR turning point for US involvement in Vietnam. How did the
national press report this critical event? Unfortunately, it gave extensive coverage to the inaccurate version of
events promoted by the government. Repeatedly in 1964, readers of the New York Times and 3 leading news
magazines read of two “unprovoked attacks” by the Communists on US destroyers lawfully patrolling in
international waters. For example, the week following the 1st Tonkin Gulf encounter, the Times published 15
stories on it front page alone, all presenting the Administration’s account of what happened.
The stories were based on information provided by military sources as the Defense Department provided
details for the story. More stories alleged the “unprovoked attacks” with details of the encounters. On August
14, 1964, Time magazine dramatically described the 2nd attack, an event which eye witnesses claimed never
occurred: “The night glowed eerily with the nightmarish glare of air-dropped flares and boat searching lights.
For 30 hours the small boats attacked in pass after pass. Ten communist torpedoes sizzled through the
waters…Gunfire and gun smells and shots stung the air…” It was dramatic news; however, it most certainly
was not true.
The alternative press provided a sharp contrast to the government and national press accounts of the
Gulf of Tonkin incident. In August 1964, both the Guardian and the New Statesman questioned the
government’s version of the events. As a result, their readers learned important information ignored by the
mainstream national press. The Guardian published 5 major articles on the subject, one of which wondered if
the August 2nd “skirmish” had been provoked by the US, and if the August 4th incident had even taken place. It
observed that the 1st incident occurred near 2 North Vietnamese islands that had been shelled 48 hours earlier.
It also noted that the Maddox had been within the 12 mile territorial limit claimed by North Vietnam. Perhaps,
the Guardian proposed, the Communists believed our destroyer was connected to the earlier raids against its
territory.
As for the 2nd attack, the Guardian wrote that this alleged encounter took place in the middle of a pitchblack, stormy night and, according to the Pentagon, at no point did the two US destroyers identify the opposing
craft. Also, the paper noted that if two US destroyers were under continuous torpedo attack for 3 hours, why
were there NO casualties?
Both the Guardian and New Statesman gave extensive coverage to information provided by Senator
Wayne Morse (one of only 2 Congressmen to oppose President Johnson’s Gulf of Tonkin Resolution). Morse
believed that the President was violating the Constitution that gave Congress the authority to declare war, not
the President. Morse continued to challenge the President’s version of what happened but the national media
would not pay him any attention. In contrast, the alternative press provided accounts by Communists as well as
non-Communist. The US Government’s account of events in the Tonkin Gulf contained “the fatal taint of
deception.” The national press only reported the official version of reality, even though it was far from the
complete story. In sharp contrast, news coverage was far more accurate in the alternative press.
On August 7th, Congress passed a resolution drafted by the administration authorizing all necessary
measures to repel attacks against U.S. forces and all steps necessary for the defense of U.S. allies in Southeast
Asia. Although there was disagreement in Congress over the precise meaning of the Tonkin Gulf resolution,
Presidents Johnson and Richard M. Nixon used it to justify later military action in Southeast Asia. The measure
was repealed by Congress in 1970. Retired Vietnamese general Vo Nguyen Giap, in a 1995 meeting with
former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, categorically denied that the North Vietnamese had attacked
the U.S. destroyers on August 4, 1964, and in 2001 it was revealed that President Johnson, in a taped
conversation with McNamara several weeks after the passage of the resolution, had expressed doubt that the
attacks had ever occurred.
Directions: Answer the following questions in your binder, using complete sentences.
1. What were the actual circumstances surrounding the
alleged attacks in the Gulf of Tonkin? (What really happened?)
2. How did President Johnson present the event to the American
public? (What did he say happened?)
3. What were the differences in coverage of the event by the national
press and the alternative press?
4. If, in 1964, you heard about the Tonkin Gulf incident in the
New York Times and in the more radical Guardian, which version
would you have believed? If a majority of Americans had read about
the crisis in the alternative press, do you think they would have
supported their government’s policy?