Tonkin definition, a former state in northern French Indochina, now part of Vietnam. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, also called Tonkin Gulf Resolution, resolution put before the U.S. Congress by Pres. It was no surprise that when two Persian Gulf oil tankers were attacked last Thursday, "Gulf of Tonkin" immediately spiked on Google, while right-wing sites played up claims of a false flag attack. There were no U.S. casualties, and no further U.S. action was taken. "Dispropaganda" - An independent and politically unbiased website which strives to tell historical, political and contemporary, unfashionable, hidden truths through the use of satire and humor. Secretary of State Robert McNamara was familiar with the effectiveness of False Flags to initiate war. Yoichi Okamoto/U.S. The article states, The incidents, principally the second one of 4 August, led to the approval of theGulf of Tonkin Resolutionby the U.S. Congress, which handed President Johnson the carte blanche charter he had wanted for future intervention in Southeast Asia. 1898, on a flag-showing mission . After decades of public skepticism and government secrecy, the truth finally came out: In the early 2000s, nearly 200 documents were declassified and released by the National Security Agency (NSA). Although there was no enemy ship, it was designed to frame the enemy (false flag operation). President Johnson signed this into law three days later, privately remarking that the resolution was like Grandmas nightshirt. This initial action was never reported by the Johnson administration, which insisted that the Vietnamese boats fired first. North Vietnamese general Phng Th Ti later claimed that Maddox had been tracked since July 31 and that she had attacked fishing boats on August 2 forcing the North Vietnamese Navy to "fight back". North Vietnam did not adhere to an 8-kilometer (5mi) limit for its territorial waters; instead it adhered to a 20-kilometer (12mi) limit claimed by French Indochina in 1936. Freak weather effects on radar and overeager sonarmen may have accounted for many reports. According to intelligence officials, the view of government historians that Hanyok's report should become public was rebuffed by policy makers concerned that comparisons might be made to intelligence used to justify the Iraq War (Operation Iraqi Freedom) which commenced in 2003. Indeed, false flags are themselves capable of taking on a wide variety of forms - domestic or foreign, small or large, economic or political, and many other designations that can often blur into one another. As the battle continued, Captain Herrick too began to have doubts about these attacks. The LBJ Presidential tapes, declassified and released in 2001, prove that LBJ knew the Tonkin incident never happened, prior to the war. On 30 May 2006, NSA released the second and final installment of Gulf of Tonkin materials. Early on August 5, Johnson publicly ordered retaliatory measures stating, "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." The US's National Security Agency then fabricated a second false flag attack two days later and the US subsequently passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution through Congress which led to the deployment of ground troops in what would become the calamitous debacle that was the Vietnam War. On 30 November 2005, the National Security Agency (NSA) released the first installment of previously classified information regarding the Vietnam era, specifically the Gulf of Tonkin incident. TheMaddoxfired firstdue to a belief they were under attack. [14]:67 A communist-led uprising began against Diem's government in April 1957. The Gulf of Tonkin incident is the name given to two separate confrontations involving North Vietnam and the United States in the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. The conversation between President Lyndon B. Johnson andSecretary of State Robert McNamara in the video below starts at 1:14 minutes. After a series of unsuccessful missions, OPLAN 34A shifted its focus from the land to the sea, attacking the Norths coastal infrastructure and defense from the water. See more. But even at the time there was some recognition of a margin of error, so we thought it highly probable but not entirely certain. They were recruited for the job by the Norwegian intelligence officer Alf Martens Meyer. During the summer of 1964, President Johnson and the Joint Chiefs of Staff were eager to widen the war in Vietnam. In the end he concluded that there were no torpedo boats on the night in question, and that the White House was interested only in confirmation of an attack, not that there was no such attack. Oskar Schindler: how Hollywood turned a Nazi into a hero, Israel's former head of Space program says that Aliens exist and that they're among us, The secret truth about the Saddam Hussein - USA relationship, Ben & Jerrys are as 'woke' as they are hypocrites. An F8 Crusader from the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga flew overhead for ninety minutes and failed to locate any North Vietnamese ships attacking the "Maddox" and "Turner" on august 4. Herrick proposed a "complete evaluation before any further action taken. False. National Archives and Records AdministrationPresident Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara meet with Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky in Honolulu. The U.S. government was still seeking evidence on the night of August 4 when Johnson gave his address to the American public on the incident; messages recorded that day indicate that neither Johnson nor McNamara was certain of an attack. In 1964, the program was transferred to the Defense Department and conducted by the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG). The floodgates had opened. Included in the release is a controversial article by Agency historian Robert J. Hanyok on SIGINT and the Tonkin Gulf which confirms what historians have long argued: that there was no second attack on U.S. ships in Tonkin on August 4, 1964. Gulf of Tonkin. 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. [5] Maddox retreated, but the next day, August 2, Maddox, which had a top speed of 28 knots, resumed her routine patrol, and three North Vietnamese P-4 torpedo boats with a top speed of 50 knots began to follow Maddox. Vietnam War: "The Tonkin incident", where American destroyer Maddox was supposedly attacked twice by three North Vietnamese torpedo boats in 1964 in the Gulf of Tonkin never happened. [59], In October 2012, retired Rear Admiral Lloyd "Joe" Vasey was interviewed by David Day on Asia Review and gave a detailed account of the August 4 incident. Johnson had fended off proposals from McNamara and other advisers for a policy of bombing North Vietnam on four occasions since becoming president. The two destroyers stayed miles away from the coastlines in the Gulf of Tonkin. Cecil Stoughton/U.S. [47] On May 4, 1964, William Bundy had called for the U.S. to "drive the communists out of South Vietnam", even if that meant attacking both North Vietnam and communist China. The Gulf of Tonkin incident, like others in our nation's history, has become the center of considerable controversy and debate. The term is from old-timey naval warfare, where one ship flew a different nation's colors before attacking as a means to get closer to their target. It covers everything.. [46], The use of the set of incidents as a pretext for escalation of U.S. involvement followed the issuance of public threats against North Vietnam, as well as calls from American politicians in favor of escalating the war. He contended in speeches to Congress that the actions taken by the United States were actions outside the constitution and were "acts of war rather than acts of defense. In so doing then create a template on how to study an event and determine if it is a false flag. [43] After urging Congress that they should be wary of Johnson's coming attempt to convince Congress of his resolution, Morse failed to gain enough cooperation and support from his colleagues to mount any sort of movement to stop it. The deeper lesson of the Tonkin Gulf episode is how a group of senior national security officials seeks determinedly through hardball - and even illicit tactics to advance its own war agenda,. He soon realized that the vessels they were tracking on the Maddox may have actually been the result of poor equipment performance and inexperienced sonar operators. [27], Others, such as Admiral Sharp, maintained that U.S. actions did not provoke the August 2 incident. He revealed that 90 percent of the relevant intercepts, including those from the North Vietnamese, had been kept out the NSA's final . 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. Despite the captains efforts to correct the errors of his original messages during the Gulf of Tonkin incident, U.S. officials took the idea of unprovoked attacks and ran with it. contribution. Nazi war criminals became high ranking commanders in NATO after WW2. subscribers . [36][37] Johnson's speech repeated the theme that "dramatized Hanoi/Ho Chi Minh as the aggressor and which put the United States into a more acceptable defensive posture. The Manchurian Incident was a classic false flag attack designed by Japanese military personnel to provide a pretext for the invasion in 1931 of Manchuria, in Northeastern China. Top US officials also distorted the facts in the lead-up to the Vietnam War and the media dutifully reported the official narrative as absolute fact, . It involved both a proven confrontation on August 2, 1964, carried out by North Vietnamese forces in response to covert operations in the coastal region of the gulf, and a second, claimed confrontation on August 4, 1964, between North Vietnamese and United States ships in the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. Two soldiers next to a fallen man during the Vietnam War. [12]:11 By 1961, South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem faced significant discontent among some quarters of the southern population, including some Buddhists who were opposed to the rule of Diem's Catholic supporters. On August 5, at 10:40, these planes bombed four torpedo boat bases and an oil-storage facility in Vinh.[42]. Suggest thorough reconnaissance in daylight by aircraft. Schaperjahn confirmed White's assertions that Maddox's sonar reports were faulty and the Johnson administration knew it prior to going to Congress to request support for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. With regard to why this happened, Hanyok writes: As much as anything else, it was an awareness that Johnson would brook no uncertainty that could undermine his position. On August 2, Capt. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorized President Lyndon Johnson to "take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. The U.S. vessels were now more than 100 miles away from the North Vietnamese coastline when their trackers started to light up. "A close scrutiny of Johnson's public statements reveals no mention of preparations for overt warfare and no indication of the nature and extent of covert land and air measures that already were operational." All subsequent Maddox torpedo reports are doubtful in that it is suspected that sonarman was hearing the ship's own propeller beat" [sic]. More Proof Gulf of Tonkin Was False Flag. [50], John McNaughton suggested in September 1964 that the U.S. prepare to take actions to provoke a North Vietnamese military reaction, including plans to use DESOTO patrols North. This table contains record counts based on the codes recorded in the CASUALTY CATEGORY field of theVietnam Conflict Extract Data File. According to Admiral Vasey, who was aboard USSOklahoma City, a Galveston-class guided missile cruiser, in the Gulf of Tonkin and serving as chief of staff to Commander Seventh Fleet, Turner Joy intercepted an NVA radio transmission ordering a torpedo boat attack on Turner Joy and Maddox. [26] Another P-4 received a direct hit from a five-inch shell from Maddox; its torpedo malfunctioned at launch. . THE POWER ELITE HAVE GONE COMPLETELY MAD! The three skippers did not know who Meyer really was when they agreed to a job that involved them in sabotage missions against North Vietnam. The Gulf of Tonkin incident: the false flag operation that started the Vietnam war. On the night of Aug. 4, the Pentagon proclaimed that a second attack by North Vietnamese PT boats had occurred earlier that day in the Tonkin Gulf a report cited by President Johnson as he went on national TV that evening to announce a momentous escalation in the war: air strikes against North Vietnam. The original account from the Pentagon Papers has been revised in light of a 2005 internal NSA historical study,[5] which stated on page 17: At 1500G, Captain Herrick (commander of Maddox) ordered Ogier's gun crews to open fire if the boats approached within ten thousand yards. [18] Johnson's views were likewise complex, but he had supported military escalation as a means of challenging what was perceived to be the Soviet Union's expansionist policies. U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage CommandThree North Vietnamese torpedo boats approaching the USS Maddox. Indeed, this concept is so well-accepted that rules of engagement for naval, air and land warfare all prohibit false flag attacks. Soon thereafter theGulf of Tonkin Resolutionwas approved by the U.S. Congress, which gave LBJ the go to initiate a war against North Vietnam. Two well-known incidents in American history the explosion of the U.S.S. The whole thing was entirely fabricated (lying, deceit). According to National Security Archive research fellow John Prados, "the American people have long . While Herrick soon reported doubts regarding the task forces initial perceptions of the attack, the Johnson administration relied on the wrongly interpreted National Security Agency communications intercepts to conclude that the attack was real. Memorandum for Lt Gen Fitch from George C. Denney Jr. It authorized Prezi Johnson by the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution to retaliate for the purported attacks in the Gulf of Tonkin and to start an official war against N-Vietnam. Additionally, he concluded that many pieces of evidence were carefully picked to distort the truth. The three North Vietnamese torpedo boats were damaged, and four North Vietnamese sailors were killed. Mere hours after the speech, Commander Stockdale was ordered to launch an airstrike against the North Vietnamese forces as retaliation for their supposed attacks the evening before. People on Reddit say the Gulf of Tonkin incident is an example of a conspiracy that turned out to be true. At the same time it gathered this intelligence, the South Vietnamese navy conducted strikes on multiple North Vietnamese islands. The second Tonkin Gulf incident was claimed to have taken place on August 4, 1964. ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! Later investigation revealed that the second attack never happened; the American claim is that it was based mostly on erroneously interpreted communications intercepts. This article will demonstrate three principal factual conclusions: (1) that Mr. Gamble is absolutely wrong, as a matter of historical fact, to claim that the Gulf of Tonkin incident was a "false flag" operation; (2) that belief in "9/11 was an inside job" conspiracy theories is not growing, but in fact shrinking; and (3) the conclusion . Even the US Navy had came out later and declared that it's clear that North Vietnamese naval forces did not attack Maddox and Turner Joy that night, on August 4, 1964.. The Maddox' mission was made even more provocative by being timed to coincide with commando raids, creating the impression that the Maddox was directing those missions " Thus, the North Vietnamese had every reason to believe that Maddox was involved in these actions. [5] As the ships approached from the southwest, Maddox changed course from northeasterly to southeasterly and increased speed to 25 knots.[5]. [30][31] The North Vietnamese stance is that they always considered a 12 nautical mile limit, consistent with the positions regarding the law of the sea of both the Soviet Union and China, their main allies. The Gulf of Tonkin incident, like others in our nation's history, has become the center of considerable controversy and debate. casualties. [5], Maddox, when confronted, was approaching Hn M Island, three to four nautical miles (nmi) (6 to 7km) inside the 12 nautical miles (22km; 14mi) limit claimed by North Vietnam. The accords allowed free movement of the population between the north and south for three hundred days. After learning about the Gulf of Tonkin incident, check out these photos from the anti-Vietnam War movement. 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. Herrick sent a flash message to the U.S. saying he had received info indicating possible hostile action. He had spotted three North Vietnamese torpedo boats coming his way, and once again began to retreat. President Lyndon Johnson had deliberately lied and misled the American public into the Vietnam War when he used the justification of the non existent 4th of August attack on the "Maddox" and "Turner". Seventh Fleet in the Gulf of Tonkin on August 2 and August 4, respectively. Tucson (AZ) shooting. It resulted in the death of millions of people. But the reports were false and the president knew it. The commander of the Maddox task force, Captain John Herrick, reported that the ships were being attacked by North Vietnamese boats when in fact, there were no North Vietnamese boats in the area. In the 2003 documentary The Fog of War, the former United States Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara admitted that an attack on the USS Maddox happened on August 2, but the supposed August 4 attack, for which Washington authorized retaliation, never happened. [25], In July 1964, "the situation along North Vietnam's territorial waters had reached a near boil", because of 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. In the video below, McNamara admits the Gulf of Tonki attack of August 4, 1964 never happened. Despite the Navy's claim that two attacking torpedo boats had been sunk, there was no wreckage, bodies of dead North Vietnamese sailors, or other physical evidence present at the scene of the alleged engagement. Suggest complete evaluation before any further action taken. He immediately appeared in front of the United States with a televised speech. 2. 1. voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. L. Paul Epley/National ArchivesTwo soldiers next to a fallen man during the Vietnam War. Six were wounded. The North Vietnamese Communist Party approved a "people's war" on the South at a session in January 1959,[15]:119120 and on July 28, North Vietnamese forces invaded Laos to maintain and upgrade the Ho Chi Minh trail, in support of insurgents in the south. The US Navy destroyer had shipping container on its decked fitted out with electronic monitoring equipment gathering radio/radar (signals intelligence) informati. [56], Squadron Commander James Stockdale was one of the U.S. pilots flying overhead during the second alleged attack. [60], In 2014, as the incident's 50th anniversary approached, John White wrote The Gulf of Tonkin EventsFifty Years Later: A Footnote to the History of the Vietnam War. In fact, the Turner Joy had not detected any torpedoes during the entire event. Mexican wars of 1819 and 1846-48. Updated: Aug 4, 2022 Did you know that the Gulf of Tonkin Bay incident that led the US to wage all out war on Vietnam was based on a false flag, or in other words, a lie? The Gulf of Tonkin false flag operation actually happened. America's history of using false flags to start wars. During the hours of darkness, in rough weather and heavy seas, the Maddox and the Turner Joy reported receiving radar, and sonar signals believed caused by the North Vietnamese ships. Suggest complete evaluation before any further action taken.. 1964 naval confrontation between North Vietnam and the United States, Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1964. The U.S. Navy destroyer didnt attack the North Vietnamese directly, but it did gather intelligence in sync with South Vietnamese attacks on the North. [5] The North Vietnamese boats then attacked,[5] and Maddox radioed she was under attack from the three boats, closing to within 10 nautical miles (19km; 12mi), while located 28 nautical miles (52km; 32mi) away from the North Vietnamese coast in international waters. The most commonly known false flag operations consist of a government agency staging a terror attack, whereby an uninvolved entity gets blamed for the carnage. Johnson was guilty of willful lies of omission. on the platform of Responsibility to Protect similar to the Gulf of Tonkin. [44] Various news sources, including Time, Life and Newsweek, published articles throughout August on the Tonkin Gulf incident. . "CNN Cold War Interviews: Robert McNamara", "Vietnam War Intelligence 'Deliberately Skewed,' Secret Study Says", "Transcript of Broadcast With Walter Cronkite Inaugurating a CBS Television Program", "National Security Action Memorandum 263 - Intro", "Vi som sttter Amerika Norges rolle i Vietnamkrigen", "The Pentagon Papers, Gravel Edition, Volume 3, Chapter 2, "Military Pressures Against North Vietnam, February 1964 January 1965," second section", "National Security Archive | 30+ Years of Freedom of Information Action", "Deceit and dishonesty: Ben Bradlee's 1987 James Cameron memorial lecture", "Robert McNamara deceived LBJ on Gulf of Tonkin, documents show", "United States Congress resolution, Pub.L. By 1964, the pressure on these waters had reached a boil, and North Vietnamese forces were not about to stand still against these operations. And because it was highly probableand because even if it hadn't occurred, there was strong feeling we should have responded to the first attack, which we were positive had occurredPresident Johnson decided to respond to the second [attack]. Faced with this attitude, Ray Cline was quoted as saying "we knew it was bum dope that we were getting from Seventh Fleet, but we were told only to give facts with no elaboration on the nature of the evidence. In fact the Maddoxs captain, John J. Herrick sent an urgent message to Pacific Command in Honolulu saying that the Maddox and C. Turner Joy had never been attacked: "No actual visual sightings by MADDOX. Its stated purpose was to . U.S. officials had distorted the truth about the Gulf of Tonkin incident for their own gains and perhaps for Johnsons own political prospects. 384", "John White's Letter to the New Haven Register, 1967", "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 EventsFifty Years Later: A Footnote to the History of the Vietnam War [49], 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", "Report reveals Vietnam War hoaxes, faked attacks", "August 4, 1964: Report on the Gulf of Tonkin Incident", The Gulf of Tonkin Incident, 40 Years Later; Flawed Intelligence and the Decision for War in Vietnam, National Security Archive at George Washington University, The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the Escalation of the Vietnam War, US Navy Historical Site showing charts and photos of the incident (archived), Tonkin Gulf Intelligence "Skewed" According to Official History and Intercepts, Ronnie E. Ford "New Light on Gulf of Tonkin", Original Document: Tonkin Gulf Resolution, "Aboard the Maddox" LIFE Magazine Aug. 14, 1964, Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) Reports (R) and Translations (T) MarOct 1964, Related Command and Technical Messages, 226 Aug 1964, Transcript of Telephone Conversations, Gulf of Tonkin Transcripts, Formerly Classified Documents from 2 August 1964, Formerly Classified Documents Subsequent to 4 August 1964, U.S. It's a good example of a 'false flag', so common in politics since the beginning. [5][6][7], On August 2, 1964, the destroyer USSMaddox, while performing a signals intelligence patrol as part of DESOTO operations, was approached by three Vietnam People's Navy torpedo boats of the 135th Torpedo Squadron. [51], Although Maddox had been involved in providing intelligence support for South Vietnamese attacks at Hn M and Hn Ng, Johnson denied, in his testimony before Congress, that the U.S. Navy had supported South Vietnamese military operations in the Gulf. On the evening of August 4, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson addressed the nation in a televised speech in which he announced that two days earlier, U.S. ships had been attacked twice in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin near North Vietnam. [1] Intercepted communications indicated that the vessels intended to attack Maddox. In fact, the Gulf of Tonkin incident, as it became known, turned out to be a fictitious creation courtesy of the government to escalate war in Vietnam leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of U.S. troops and millions of Vietnamese, fomenting the largest anti-war movement in American history, and tarnishing the reputation of a nation once The incident served as the justification for the Gulf of Tonkin resolution passed by Congress Aug. 10, which authorized the subsequent U.S. build-up of forces. . Please Note: These historical documents are PDF images of formerly classified carbon paper and reports that have been declassified. A moderately sanitized version of the overall history[67] was released in January 2008 by the National Security Agency and published by the Federation of American Scientists.[68]. The Gulf of Tonkin incident is in many ways the epitome of government crime. This U.S. retaliation marked the nations first overt military action against the North Vietnamese. How The Gulf Of Tonkin Incident Sparked The Vietnam War. Google searches for "Gulf of Tonkin," June 10-17, 2019. The NSA historian said agency staff "deliberately skewed" the evidence to make it appear that an attack had occurred. Within 24 hours, though, the Maddox resumed its normal patrolling routine. [28], Sharp also noted that orders given to Maddox to stay 8 nautical miles (15km; 9.2mi) off the North Vietnamese coast put the ship in international waters, as North Vietnam claimed only a 5 nautical miles (9.3km; 5.8mi) limit as its territory (or off of its off-shore islands). [10] Gip confirmed that the attack had been imaginary. That month, this ship was involved in two events collectively referred to as the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which changed the course of modern history in ways that reverberate to this day. USS Liberty. Gulf of Tonkin incident. He did not like to deal with uncertainties. Viet Minh political cadres, who were legally campaigning for the promised elections between 1955 and 1957, were suppressed by the government. Port Arthur, AUS, .all very real illusions. The Gulf of TonkiMonday, May 31, 2010 n Incident, in 1964, was a major turning point in US military involvement in Vietnam. He asked for further details on time, weather and surface conditions. 26, No. "[43] Morse's efforts were not immediately met with support, largely because he revealed no sources and was working with very limited information. After these first shots, the North Vietnamese forces made their attack. National Archives and Records AdministrationPresident Johnson and Secretary of Defense McNamara in a cabinet room meeting. The Washington Standard / July 28, 2015. It is not NSA's intention to prove or disprove any one set of conclusions, many of which can be drawn from a thorough review of this material. Is it possible Lyndon Johnson was attempting another one with Israel to finish off Egypt once and for all?
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