How the Gulf of Tonkin Incident Embroiled the US in the Vietnam War Liberty Waco Oklahoma City 9/11 London 7/7 Sandy Hook "[55] White continued his whistleblowing activities in the 1968 documentary In the Year of the Pig. [10] Gip confirmed that the attack had been imaginary. involvement in Vietnam. [9] In 1995, McNamara met with former People's Army of Vietnam General V Nguyn Gip to ask what happened on August 4, 1964. From bad intel to bombs. - Slate Magazine More answers below Did the Gulf of Tonkin incident actually occur or was it faked to justify going to war with Vietnam? On August 2, 1964 the USS Maddox was on DEOSTO Patrol in international waters off North Vietnam. A skirmish and confused reports of a second engagement two days later led President Lyndon B. Johnson to order airstrikes against North . On August 5, at 10:40, these planes bombed four torpedo boat bases and an oil-storage facility in Vinh.[42]. It's a good example of a 'false flag', so common in politics since the beginning. Its stated purpose was to . 53 Admitted False Flag Attacks. "Not Conspiracy Theory - Global Research The Washington Standard / July 28, 2015. casualties. False flags are real - US has a long history of lying to start wars 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. Gulf of Tonkin incident. Following this incident, President Johnson ordered retaliatory air strikes against North Vietnamese military targets and bases and authorized sending US troops into Vietnam and by late 1965 some 180,000 American troops were on the ground, with more on the way. As at least two millennia have proven, false flag operations, with healthy doses of propaganda and ignorance, provided a great recipe for endless war. The Gulf of Tonkin incident (or the USS Maddox incident) is the name given to two separate confrontations involving North Vietnam and . Later investigation revealed that the second attack never happened; the American claim is that it was based mostly on erroneously interpreted communications intercepts. Theme: Bushwick by James Dinsdale. 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? More posts from r/skeptic. Vietnam Gulf Of Tonkin False Flag Attack By US CIA In 1965 In addition, many nations had previously carried out similar missions all over the world, and the destroyer USSJohn R. Craig had earlier conducted an intelligence-gathering mission in similar circumstances without incident. U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage Command, Three North Vietnamese torpedo boats approaching the USS, The North Vietnamese torpedo boats under fire, as photographed on board the USS, U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage Command/Wikimedia Commons. However, with this birds eye view, something wasnt adding up. Brought to you by the CDC. The next day, the USS Maddox once again resumed its normal patrol, this time alongside another U.S. Navy destroyer, the USS Turner Joy. Within 24 hours, though, the Maddox resumed its normal patrolling routine. Florida, Texas, New Mexico and California were Spanish possessions that revolted for independence. The U.S. Navy stationed two destroyers, the Maddox and the Turner Joy, in the Gulf of Tonkin to bolster these actions. [35] At 18:00 Washington time (05:00 in the Gulf of Tonkin), Herrick cabled yet again, this time stating, "the first boat to close the Maddox probably launched a torpedo at the Maddox which was heard but not seen. The conversation between President Lyndon B. Johnson andSecretary of State Robert McNamara in the video below starts at 1:14 minutes. Records Show Doubts on '64 Vietnam Crisis - The New York Times The Gulf of Tonkin incident (Vietnamese: S kin Vnh Bc B) was an international confrontation that led to the United States engaging more directly in the Vietnam War.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 . [47] Various government officials and men aboard Maddox have suggested similar theories. 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. President Johnson signed this into law three days later, privately remarking that the resolution was like Grandmas nightshirt. Stockdale at one point recounts seeing Turner Joy pointing her guns at Maddox. One US aircraft was damaged, one 14.5mm round hit the destroyer. Was the Gulf of Tonkin Incident a false flag operation? - Quora This plan, known as Operations Plan (OPLAN) 34A, was conceived and overseen by the U.S. Department of Defense and the CIA, but was carried out using South Vietnamese forces. 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. Declassified documents reve. During the summer of 1964, President Johnson and the Joint Chiefs of Staff were eager to widen the war in Vietnam. In 1995, McNamara met with former Vietnam People's Army General V Nguyn Gip to ask what happened on August 4, 1964 in the second Gulf of Tonkin Incident. [44] Various news sources, including Time, Life and Newsweek, published articles throughout August on the Tonkin Gulf incident. 26, No. [5] The boats were from Squadron 135, commanded by Le Duy Khoai, with the boats commanded by brothers Van Bot, Van Tu, and Van Gian. "[34] It is likely that McNamara did not inform either the president or Admiral U. S. Grant Sharp Jr. about Herrick's misgivings or Herrick's recommendation for further investigation. Suggest complete evaluation before any further action taken. 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. Later analysis showed those communications to have concerned the recovery of torpedo boats damaged in the August 2 attack and North Vietnamese observations of (but not participation in) the August 4 U.S. Still, U.S. intelligence reportedly intercepted messages indicating that the North Vietnamese forces were planning offensive operations on the Tonkin Gulf. History of American False Flag Operations . 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 [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. Newly Declassified National Security Agency History Questions Early The US elite is very partial to Modern False Flags (Spanish Maine, Gulf of Tonkin, Pearl Harbour, Oklahoma Bombings etc), but on home soil they often resort to Hoaxes, the purpose of which is to justify retaliation against an idea (eg Islam, gun ownership, drugs) but in which nobody actually gets killed (Sandy Hook, Boston Bombings etc). 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.. In August 1964, the American destroyer USS Maddox was stationed in the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of North Vietnam. Stockdale later said, We were about to launch a war under false pretenses, in the face of the on-scene military commanders advice to the contrary.. U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage Command/Wikimedia CommonsCaptain John Herrick aboard the Maddox, on the left, alongside Commander Herbert Ogier, right. [21], Although the boats were crewed by South Vietnamese naval personnel, approval for each mission conducted under the plan came directly from Admiral U.S. Grant Sharp Jr., CINCPAC in Honolulu, who received his orders from the White House. But the government itself wouldnt confirm Whites suspicions for decades. The resolution served as Johnson's legal justification for deploying U.S. conventional forces to South Vietnam and the commencement of open warfare against North Vietnam. [22] After the coastal attacks began, Hanoi, the capital of North Vietnam, lodged a complaint with the International Control Commission (ICC), which had been established in 1954 to oversee the terms of the Geneva Accords, but the U.S. denied any involvement. There was no political motive to their action. Undersecretary of State George Ball told a British journalist after the war that "at that time many people were looking for any excuse to initiate bombing". [1] Intercepted communications indicated that the vessels intended to attack Maddox. Not every lie made the war seem better, though. But false flags are a very real and very present feature of geopolitics and denying that is simply denying reality. The purpose of this article is to break down false flag events into their parts, deconstruct them. 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. This table contains record counts based on the codes recorded in the CASUALTY CATEGORY field of theVietnam Conflict Extract Data File. Gulf of Tonkin Incident - False Flag, or Not? The Maddox reported seeing multiple unidentified vessels on their sonars coming at them from different directions. Although August 4 was a stormy day, Captain Herrick ordered the two destroyers further out to sea in order to give them more space in the case of an attack. [11] In 2005, an internal National Security Agency historical study was declassified; it concluded that Maddox had engaged the North Vietnamese Navy on August 2, but that the incident of August 4 was based on bad naval intelligence and misrepresentations of North Vietnamese communications.[5].