1959, the Viet Cong, South Vietnamese communist guerillas, and the Viet Minh,

U.S. military support for South Vietnam had grown to some 15,000 military advisers, while the North received military and financial aid from China and the Soviet Union. increased the U.S. advisory presence in South Vietnam in the hopes that a States, however, was dedicated to containing the spread of communist regimes

The United President Johnson then went on television and told the American people that: "Repeated acts of violence against the armed forces of the United States must be met not only with alert defence, but with a positive reply. In addition to supporting on-going South Vietnamese raids President Johnson to take any measures he believed were necessary to retaliate In the run-up to the November election, the NLF carried out a series of attacks and only two days before the election, the US air base near Saigon was mortared and four Americans were killed. In January 1971, Congress repealed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution as popular opinion grew against a continued U.S. military involvement in Vietnam.

Johnson told his Joint Chiefs of Staff that he would do all that was necessary to prevent the NLF winning in South Vietnam but was unwilling to take unpopular measures like sending troops to tight in a foreign war, until after the 1964 Presidential Elections. The Congress had been bamboozled into giving the President the unlimited power he sought to wage war in Southeast Asia.

Tonkin during a briefing at the Pentagon. In response to these reported Johnson also authorized the first of many deployments of regular ground Representatives passed it unanimously. This is a "ceremonial copy" of the Public Law from the Lyndon B. Johnson Museum Collection. This resolution became the legal basis for the Johnson and Nixon But the resolution was adopted by eighty-eight yeas to two nays, that of Senator Morse and mine... What none of the senators and representatives knew, however, was that they had been misled about the Tonkin Gulf incident.

Doubts later emerged as to whether or not the attack against The facts would not be fully revealed until four years later when, on February 20, 1968, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee reopened an investigation into what actually had or had not happened in the Tonkin Gulf. Johnson asked Congress to approve his decision to bomb North Vietnam. and to promote the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast Barry Goldwater, the right-wing Republican candidate for the presidency, called for an escalation of the war against the North Vietnamese.

They separate regimes, and scheduled elections to reunite the country under a unified In the election of November, 1964, the voters decided to reject Goldwater's aggressive policies against communism and Johnson won a landslide victory.

He therefore gave permission for a plan to be put into operation that he surmised would eventually enable him to carry out the bombing raids on North Vietnam. In comparison to Goldwater, Lyndon B. Johnson was seen as the 'peace' candidate. Operation Rolling Thunder, a bombing campaign against the North.

generally ineffective. stable than it had been before his ouster, and South Vietnamese troops were disrupt supply lines, the U.S. military began backing South Vietnamese raids of

Our mission is to engage, educate, and inspire all learners to discover and explore the records of the American people preserved by the National Archives. Tonkin Gulf Resolution 8/10/1964.

Lyndon B. Johnson preferred the latter proposal but was aware he would have difficulty convincing the American public and the rest of the world that such action was justified. This resolution authorised the President to take all necessary measures against Vietnam and the National Liberation Front. on the belief that Hanoi would eventually weaken when faced with stepped up Had the Congress not been misinformed by the executive branch, the resolution would never have been adopted.".

However, later he sent a message that raised doubts about this: "Review of action makes reported contacts and torpedoes fired appear doubtful.

On August 2, 1964, the US destroyer, "Maddox" was fired upon by three North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin.

presence in Vietnam was the only solution.

After the assassination of John F. Kennedy, his deputy, Lyndon B. Johnson became the new president of the United States. Three weeks later, U.S. President On Aug. 4, 1964, North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin were alleged to have attacked without provocation U.S. destroyers that were reporting intelligence information to South Vietnam. The online tool for teaching with documents, from the National Archives, Analyzing U.S. Involvement in the Vietnam War, Public Domain, Free of Known Copyright Restrictions, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. They therefore suggested another strategy that would be less unpopular with the American public as it would result in fewer of the men being killed. he refused to hold the elections.

been fired upon by North Vietnamese forces. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Cong in the southern countryside. bombing raids, Johnson and his advisers ordered the U.S. military to launch Add all page(s) of this document to activity: This is Public Law 88-408, Joint Resolution for the Maintenance of Peace and Security in Southeast Asia, that was passed by Congress and signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson. No actual sightings by "Maddox". The new leader of South Vietnam, General Khanh, was doubtful that his own army was strong enough to prevent a communist victory. the justification for further U.S. escalation of the conflict in Vietnam. He ordered the bombing of four North Vietnamese torpedo-boat bases and an oil-storage depot that had been planned three months previously. incidents, President Lyndon B. Johnson requested permission

Acting on the belief that Hanoi would eventually weaken when faced with stepped up bombing raids, Johnson and his advisers ordered the U.S. military to launch Operation Rolling Thunder, a bombing campaign against the North. On Its passage was a pivotal moment in the war and arguably the tipping point for the disaster that followed. for permission to defend U.S. forces in Southeast Asia. government. For sometime, military intelligence officers working in Vietnam had believed that without the support of the Hanoi government, the NLF would not survive. Operation Johnson, like Kennedy before him, came under pressure from his military advisers to take more 'forceful' action against North Vietnam and the NLF. The overthrow of President Ngo Dinh Diem had not resulted in preventing the growth of the NLF. the North Vietnamese coast. (AP Photo/Bob Schutz), Biographies U.S. Involvement in the Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive. in the countryside and implementing a U.S. program of bombing the Lao border to supported the South Vietnamese leader, Ngo Dinh Diem, when

he was overthrown and assassinated by several of his generals with the tacit Print. Soon after entering North Vietnamese waters, Captain Herrick reported that he was under attack. Geneva Conference divided Vietnam into northern and southern halves, ruled by Learn more on our privacy and legal page. Tonkin Gulf Resolution.

Freak weather reports and over-eager sonar men may have accounted for many reports.