[38], He emphasized commitment to both the American people, and the South Vietnamese government. The Gulf of Tonkin by Erich Martel, The World Today, Vol. 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. While Johnson's final resolution was being drafted, U.S. By the end of July, they were tracking the USS Maddox, which was stationed in international waters just a few miles outside of Hn M Island in the Gulf of Tonkin. 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. 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. Suggest complete evaluation before any further action taken. And while the Maddox remained in international waters, three North Vietnamese patrol boats began tracking the destroyer in early August. 209217, Adam Roberts, Fredrik Logevall, "Choosing War: The Lost Chance for Peace and the Escalation of War in Vietnam" (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), p. 200, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group, "Skunks, Bogies, Silent Hounds, and the Flying Fish: The Gulf of Tonkin Mystery, 24 August 1964". Crucible Vietnam: Memoir of an Infantry Lieutenant. [11] Hanyok's conclusions were initially published in the Winter 2000/Spring 2001 Edition of Cryptologic Quarterly[63] about five years before the Times article. Questions about the Gulf of Tonkin incident have persisted for more than 40 years. fact that several Senators knew that the White House and the Pentagon had deceived the American people over the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident. Viet Minh political cadres, who were legally campaigning for the promised elections between 1955 and 1957, were suppressed by the government. In August 1964, the USS Maddox destroyer was stationed in the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of North Vietnam. 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. Captain John Herrick intercepted communications from these North Vietnamese forces that suggested they were preparing for an attack, so he retreated from the area. While U.S. President John F. Kennedy had originally supported the policy of sending military advisers to Diem, he had begun to alter his thinking by September 1963,[17] because of what he perceived to be the ineptitude of the Saigon government and its inability and unwillingness to make needed reforms (which led to a U.S.-supported coup which resulted in the death of Diem). The LBJ Presidential tapes, declassified and released in 2001, prove that LBJ knew the Tonkin incident never happened, prior to the war. But the government itself wouldnt confirm Whites suspicions for decades. According to Edwin Mose, the Hanoi government (which, unlike the U.S. government, had to give permission at the highest levels for the conduct of such missions) probably assumed that they were all a coordinated effort to escalate military actions against North Vietnam. Neither the United States nor State of Vietnam signed anything at the 1954 Geneva Conference. More Proof Gulf of Tonkin Was False Flag. 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. 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. False flags are real and have been used on many occasions to advance nations into war, change regimes or radically sway public opinion. See more. The Gulf of Tonkin incident: the false flag operation that started the Vietnam war. voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. More answers below Did the Gulf of Tonkin incident actually occur or was it faked to justify going to war with Vietnam? The opinions expressed within the documents in both releases are those of the authors and individuals interviewed. 5 (May 1970), pp. How the media destroyed Gary Webb, the journalist who exposed the CIA drug running operations. National Archives and Records Administration. This time their orders indicated that the ships were to close to no less than 11 miles (18km) from the coast of North Vietnam. After the second attack, the U.S. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution almost unanimously, allowing the federal government to take all necessary measures to protect U.S. forces in Vietnam. He later said he was concerned that his captors would eventually force him to reveal what he knew about the second incident. No actual visual sighting by Maddox. About 40,000 communist soldiers infiltrated the south from 1961 to 1963. A map of the Gulf of Tonkin, where the supposed attacks took place on Aug. 4, 1964. Tapes included in this release of documents also reveal President Johnson saying, Hell, those damn, stupid sailors were just shooting at flying fish.. Charleston church shooting. Due to the age and poor quality of some of the PDF images, a screen reader may not be able to process the images into word documents. Kennedy rejected the plan. All 18 of the witnesses testified at a hearing in Olongapo, Philippines, and their testimony is a matter of public record. 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. Martens Meyer, who was head of department at the military intelligence staff, operated on behalf of U.S. intelligence. [47] U.S. 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. They were recruited for the job by the Norwegian intelligence officer Alf Martens Meyer. Vietnam Gulf Of Tonkin False Flag Attack By US CIA In 1965 - Warmongering Military Industrial Complex Used Propaganda, Pro War Mass Media Coverage And Fake Outrage By US President In Order To Start Vietnamese War - All Wars Are Based On Fear, Hatred, Greed And War Profiteering - Hugh Thompson And My Lai Massacre Google searches for "Gulf of Tonkin," June 10-17, 2019. The decisions made by President Lyndon B. Johnson and his top advisors, and the Congressional debate that ensued, resulted in a resolution . Port Arthur, AUS, .all very real illusions. Freak weather effects on radar and overeager sonarmen may have accounted for many reports. Is it possible Lyndon Johnson was attempting another one with Israel to finish off Egypt once and for all? Soon thereafter theGulf of Tonkin Resolutionwas approved by the U.S. Congress, which gave LBJ the go to initiate a war against North Vietnam. 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. As President and Commander in Chief, he said, it is my duty to the American people to report that renewed hostile actions against United States ships on the high seas in the Gulf of Tonkin have today required me to order the military forces of the United States to take action in reply., The initial attack on the destroyer Maddox, on August 2, was repeated today by a number of hostile vessels attacking two U.S. destroyers with torpedoes.. 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. False. Senator Wayne Morse attempted to hold a fundraiser to raise awareness about possible faulty records of the incident involving Maddox. As Commander James Stockdale, one of the pilots at the Gulf of Tonkin incident, later said, I had the best seat in the house to watch that event, and our destroyers were just shooting at phantom targets there were no PT boats therenothing there but black water and American firepower.. [58], In the fall of 1999, retired Senior CIA Engineering Executive S. Eugene Poteat wrote that he was asked in early August 1964 to determine if the radar operator's report showed a real torpedo boat attack or an imagined one. [47] George Ball stated that the mission of the destroyer warship involved in the Gulf of Tonkin incident "was primarily for provocation. The first missions in the Tonkin Gulf began in February 1964. Some people suspected the deception all along. [64], Reviewing the NSA's archives, Hanyok concluded that the August 4 incident began at Phu Bai Combat Base, where intelligence analysts mistakenly believed the destroyers would soon be attacked. TheMaddoxfired firstdue to a belief they were under attack. The conversation between President Lyndon B. Johnson andSecretary of State Robert McNamara in the video below starts at 1:14 minutes. The Council on Foreign Relations Read Watch Free Gun Permit 1984 Brave New World STORE Links About Contact Ft. Sumter His actions would lead to the deaths of 58,220 Americans and an untold number of Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians. One of the most important documents that was released to the public in 2005 is a study by NSA historian Robert J. Hanyok. Maddox, carrying electronic spying gear, was to collect signals intelligence from the North Vietnamese coast, and the coastal attacks were seen as a helpful way to get the North Vietnamese to turn on their coastal radars. Still, U.S. intelligence reportedly intercepted messages indicating that the North Vietnamese forces were planning offensive operations on the Tonkin Gulf. "[33], McNamara later testified that he had read the message after his return to the Pentagon that afternoon. Liberty Waco Oklahoma City 9/11 London 7/7 Sandy Hook [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. Suggest thorough reconnaissance in daylight by aircraft. 26, No. 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. Theme: Bushwick by James Dinsdale. [30], On August 4, another DESOTO patrol off the North Vietnamese coast was launched by Maddox and Turner Joy, in order to "show the flag" after the first incident. [26] Maddox stated she had evaded a torpedo attack and opened fire with its five-inch (127mm) guns, forcing the torpedo boats away. 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. on the platform of Responsibility to Protect similar to the Gulf of Tonkin. So much like with Iraq's WMD in 2003, the US launched its full scale war on Vietnam on nothing but lies and propaganda. "[36] Johnson also referred to the attacks as having taken place "on the high seas", suggesting that they had occurred in international waters. 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. The false flag Gulf of Tonkin Incident Vietnam 75,381 views Dec 22, 2008 613 Dislike Share kikila007 1.71K subscribers President Johnson used an alleged attack by North Vietnamese gun boats. U.S. NavyCommander James Bond Stockdale exiting his aircraft. In contrast to the clear conditions two days earlier, thunderstorms and rain squalls reduced visibility and increased wave heights to six feet. 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. "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." 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". But every time he hightailed it out of one area, another blip on the sonar would appear. They showed that there was no attack on August 4. [25] When a MACV-SOG commando raid was being carried out against Hon Nieu, the ship was 120 miles (190km) away from the attacked area. [47], North Vietnam's General Gip suggested that the DESOTO patrol had been sent into the gulf to provoke North Vietnam into giving the U.S. an excuse for escalation of the war. The NSA historian said agency staff "deliberately skewed" the evidence to make it appear that an attack had occurred. [5] According to Hanyok, "it would be attacks on these islands, especially Hn M, by South Vietnamese commandos, along with the proximity of the Maddox, that would set off the confrontation", although the Maddox did not participate in the commando attacks. 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". [44] Various news sources, including Time, Life and Newsweek, published articles throughout August on the Tonkin Gulf incident. 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. Inside The Most Disturbing Dungeons And Torture Chambers That Serial Killers Used To Torment Their Victims, Joe Bonanno Spent 35 Years As The Boss Of One Of New York's Biggest Crime Families Then Wrote A Tell-All Book About It, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch, Yoichi Okamoto/U.S. They also forbade the political interference of other countries in the area, the creation of new governments without the stipulated elections, and foreign military presence. Civil Liberties,Privacy,& Transparency Office, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Accessibility, An official website of the United States government, National Security Agency/Central Security Service, Declassification & Transparency Initiatives, Commercial Solutions for Classified Program (CSfC), Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Accessibility, Col Ralph Steakley, USAF; Chronology of Events Relating to DESOTO Patrol Incidents in the Gulf of Tonkin on 2 and 4 August 1964, Lawrence Levinson, Chronology of Events - Tuesday, 4 August and Wednesday, 5 August 1964 Tonkin Gulf Strike, Lt Col Delmar C. Lang, USAF; Chronology of Events of 18-20 September 1964 in the Gulf of Tonkin, Marshall Wright & Sven Kraemer, Vietnam Information Group; Presidential Decisions- The Gulf of Tonkin Attacks of August 1964, Memorandum by Lt Col Delmar Lang USAF regarding United States Intelligence Board: Special Annex USIB-M-345, Memorandum by NSA General Counsel Banner regarding 16 August 1964 Washington Post article, Memorandum for Commander Naval Security Group from N. Klar. President Johnson's Vietnam Address, August 4, 1964 about the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. Gulf of Tonkin incident. In August 1964, the American destroyer USS Maddox was stationed in the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of North Vietnam. The next day, the USS Maddox once again resumed its normal patrol, this time alongside another U.S. Navy destroyer, the USS Turner Joy. U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage Command/Wikimedia CommonsCaptain John Herrick aboard the Maddox, on the left, alongside Commander Herbert Ogier, right. [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 1962 McNamara presented President Kennedy withOperation Northwoods, a series of False Flag proposals designed to initiate violence against Americans and deceive the American people into a war with Cuba. 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. [5] In this context, on July 31, Maddox began patrols of the North Vietnamese coast to collect intelligence, coming within a few miles of Hn M island. "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. [26] Four USN F-8 Crusader jets launched from Ticonderoga and 15 minutes after Maddox had fired her initial warning shots, attacked the retiring P-4s,[5] claiming one was sunk and one heavily damaged. Memorandum for Mr. J. Fred Buzhardt, General Counsel OSD from Vice Admiral Noel Gayler, Subj: Request from Senator Fulbright, Memorandum for the Record, Subj: Church Committee Interest in Gulf of Tonkin Incident, Memorandum for the Record; Subj: Interview with Mr. Arthur McCafferty, White House Staff, Commercial Solutions for Classified Material (CSFC), Hosted by Defense Media Activity - WEB.mil. 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. The planes pilot, Dispropaganda is 100% independent non partisan and non profit, in order to keep the site up we rely on financial supprt from our readers. [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). The planes pilot, Commander James B. Stockdale, later wrote: I had the best seat in the house to watch and I saw no boats, no boat wakes, no boat gunfire, no torpedo wakesnothing but black sea and American firepower. Two well-known incidents in American history the explosion of the U.S.S. [12]:76, The Gulf of Tonkin Incident occurred during the first year of the Johnson administration. Gulf of Tonkin confirmed as False Flag Reprehensor Wed, 01/09/2008 - 11:51am Daniel Ellsberg Gulf of Tonkin Strait of Hormuz (For anyone still harboring doubts about the status of the Gulf of Tonkin incident as an example of a False Flag event, a report made public by the NSA clears it up. They stepped up sabotage and hit-and-run attacks on the coast of North Vietnam." More posts from r/skeptic. Shortly before Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, he had begun a limited withdrawal of 1,000 U.S. forces before the end of 1963. Its stated purpose was to . President Johnson signs the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Yoichi Okamoto/U.S. By 1964, the pressure on these waters had reached a boil, and North Vietnamese forces were not about to stand still against these operations. [16]:26 The rebellion, headed by the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF, or Viet Cong) under the direction of North Vietnam, had intensified by 1961. The Geneva Conference in 1954 was intended to settle outstanding issues following the end of hostilities between France and the Viet Minh at the end of the First Indochina War. Then read these 27 Vietnam War facts that will change the way you think about American history. The NSA states, James Stockdale, then a navy pilot at the scene, who had the best seat in the house from which to detect boats, saw nothing. It's a good example of a 'false flag', so common in politics since the beginning. 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). Please help support Dispropaganda by clicking on the "Donate" button and making a [9] In 1995, McNamara met with former People's Army of Vietnam General V Nguyn Gip to ask what happened on August 4, 1964. Leaders Throughout History Have Acknowledged False Flags The first incident took place on August 2, 1964, when the destroyerUSSMaddox, engaged three North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats seen approaching the Maddox. 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. Morse supposedly received a call from an informant who has remained anonymous urging Morse to investigate official logbooks of Maddox. 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. The pilots from the Ticonderoga aircraft responded, flying overhead the destroyers for an hour and a half. The official story was that North Vietnamese torpedo boats launched an unprovoked attack against the US destroyer "Maddox", which was on routine patrol in the Tonkin Gulf on August 2and that North Vietnamese PT boats followed up with a deliberate attack two days later on August 4, firing 22 torpedoes on the "Maddox" and another destroyer, the "Turner Joy". Answer (1 of 6): No, that's not true. According to National Security Archive research fellow John Prados, "the American people have long . contribution. For some two hours (from about 21:40 to about 23:35, local time) the ships fired on radar targets and maneuvered vigorously amid electronic and visual reports of enemies.