Summary.
The Gulf of Tonkin Incident was a fabricated situation where a a U.S. navy ship was said to have been attacked. This justified the deployment of a large number of U.S. forces as backup into Vietnam.
The Gulf of Tonkin and the Vietnam War
- The Gulf of Tonkin
- The Gulf of Tonkin incident was a set up incident between the U.S. and North Vietnamese
- On August 2, 1964, the destroyer USS Maddox engaged three North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats
- A sea battle resulted where the Maddox expended over two hundred and eighty 3-inch and 5-inch shells
- The outcome of these two incidents granted President Lyndon B. Johnson the authority to assist any Southeast Asia
- Resolution served as Johnson's legal justification for deploying U.S. conventional forces
- In 2005, an internal National Security Agency historical study was declassified
- There were no North Vietnamese Naval vessels present during the incident of August 4
- The Vietnam War
- A Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975
- Fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam as well as the U.S.
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