Johnson's statements were short to "minimize the U.S. role in the conflict; a clear inconsistency existed between Johnson's actions and his public discourse. This initial action was never reported by the Johnson administration, which insisted that the Vietnamese boats fired first. [18], In July 1964, "the situation along North Vietnam's territorial waters had reached a near boil", due to South Vietnamese commando raids and airborne operations that inserted intelligence teams into North Vietnam, as well as North Vietnam's military response to these operations. . 23. The outcome of these two incidents was the passage by US Congress of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which granted US President Lyndon B. Johnson the authority to assist any Southeast Asian country whose government was considered to be jeopardized by "communist aggression". At 0248 in the Gulf, Herrick sent another report in which he changed his previous story: Certain that original ambush was bonafide. 384", "John White's Letter to the New Haven Register, 1967", "CNN Cold War – Interviews: Robert McNamara", "New Tapes Indicate Johnson Doubted Attack in Tonkin Gulf", "Engineering in the CIA: ELINT, Stealth and the Beginnings of Information Warfare", "Gulf of Tonkin: The Record Set Straight", The Gulf of Tonkin Events—Fifty Years Later: A Footnote to the History of the Vietnam War [49], "Vietnam War Intelligence 'Deliberately Skewed,' Secret Study Says", Robert J. Hanyok: His United States National Security Council study on Tonkin Gulf Deception, "Spartans in Darkness: American SIGINT and the Indochina War, 1945–1975". Specially equipped with a communications intercept van and 17 SIGINT specialists, she was to patrol in international waters off the North Vietnamese coast, from the demilitarized zone (DMZ) north to the Chinese border. [citation needed]. He later said he was concerned that his captors would eventually force him to reveal what he knew about the second incident. He did not like to deal with uncertainties. In the foreword, he notes "Among the many books written on the Vietnamese war, half a dozen note a 1967 letter to the editor of a Connecticut newspaper which was instrumental in pressuring the Johnson administration to tell the truth about how the war started. Johnson and his advisers had approved retaliatory strikes on North Vietnamese naval bases as soon as the reports of the apparent attack of August 4 came in. They were recruited for the job by the Norwegian intelligence officer Alf Martens Meyer.
Assistant Editor, Encyclopaedia Britannica. The following day, the Maddox found that it was being approached by three North Vietnamese torpedo boats. [5], By August 1, North Vietnamese patrol boats were tracking Maddox, and several intercepted communications indicated that they were preparing to attack.