According to his New York Times obit, the elder Morrison "commanded American naval forces in the gulf [of Tonkin] when the destroyer Maddox engaged three North Vietnamese torpedo boats on Aug. 2, 1964. The two destroyers stayed miles away from the coastlines in the Gulf of Tonkin. National Archives and Records AdministrationPresident Johnson and Secretary of Defense McNamara in a cabinet room meeting. [5], Shortly before midnight, on August 4, Johnson interrupted national television to make an announcement in which he described an attack by North Vietnamese vessels on two U.S. Navy warships, Maddox and Turner Joy, and requested authority to undertake a military response. Even at the time, there was widespread skepticism about the Gulf of Tonkin incident, in which the North Vietnamese were said to have attacked American destroyers on Aug. 4, 1964, two days after an . 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. Some of the most horrible Vietnam War facts . [43] These logs were not available before Johnson's resolution was presented to Congress. Port Arthur, AUS, .all very real illusions. Sweden and Denmark said that they had detected underwater blasts in the area. In August 1964, the United States entered the Vietnam War after reports of an unprovoked attack in the Gulf of Tonkin. 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. [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. 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". 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. As the evening progressed, further signals intelligence (SIGINT) did not support any such ambush, but the NSA personnel were apparently so convinced of an attack that they ignored the 90% of SIGINT that did not support that conclusion, and that was also excluded from any reports they produced for the consumption by the president. 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. Theyd disappear, only to reappear seconds or minutes later in a completely different location. After learning about the Gulf of Tonkin incident, check out these photos from the anti-Vietnam War movement. Winter War. One US aircraft was damaged, one 14.5mm round hit the destroyer. Martens Meyer, who was head of department at the military intelligence staff, operated on behalf of U.S. intelligence. The Gulf of Tonkin incident is considered a false flag operation because the military was used by the CIA to heighten the involvement of the US in Vietnam. He asserts "I maintain that President Johnson, Secretary McNamara and the Joint Chiefs of Staff gave false information to Congress in their report about US destroyers being attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin. 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. Two well-known incidents in American history the explosion of the U.S.S. It was tantamount to a declaration of war, but it was based on a lie. Florida, Texas, New Mexico and California were Spanish possessions that revolted for independence. 1898, on a flag-showing mission . By mid-1965, his approval rating was 70 percent (though it fell precipitously once the war dragged on longer than expected). But false flags are a very real and very present feature of geopolitics and denying that is simply denying reality. [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. [citation needed], In 1962, the U.S. Navy began an electronic warfare support measures (intelligence gathering) program, conducted by destroyer patrols in the western Pacific, with the cover name DESOTO. Further, it shows he lied about the incident, using it as a catalyst to go to war. Liberty Waco Oklahoma City 9/11 London 7/7 Sandy Hook Globalism U.N. Maine that helped initiate the Spanish-American War, and the Gulf of Tonkin incident that led the U.S. to expand. "[43] Morse's efforts were not immediately met with support, largely because he revealed no sources and was working with very limited information. History of American False Flag Operations . Aurora CO shooting. No actual visual sighting by Maddox. 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. 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. 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". National Archives and Records Administration. . In the 2003 documentary The Fog of War, the former United States Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara admitted that the August 4 Gulf of Tonkin attack never happened. [10] Gip confirmed that the attack had been imaginary. Cover-Up Worse Than Crime: Silence Around Hersh's Bombshell & Ominous Gulf of Tonkin Parallels 22 February, 18:50 GMT Sachs and McGovern: UN Probe is Global Priority Remarkably, two American experts who testified at the UNSC meeting openly said that they do not buy into the West's Nord Stream narrative. After these first shots, the North Vietnamese forces made their attack. Gulf of Tonkin incident. How the media destroyed Gary Webb, the journalist who exposed the CIA drug running operations. After Kennedy's assassination, Johnson ordered in more U.S. forces to support the Saigon government, beginning a protracted United States presence in Southeast Asia. Use tab to navigate through the menu items. The first missions in the Tonkin Gulf began in February 1964. White's book explains the difference between lies of commission and lies of omission. Still, U.S. intelligence reportedly intercepted messages indicating that the North Vietnamese forces were planning offensive operations on the Tonkin Gulf. 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 POWER ELITE HAVE GONE COMPLETELY MAD! 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." Theme: Bushwick by James Dinsdale. Because the enemy's flag, instead of the flag of the real country of the attacking ship, was hung, it was called a "false flag" attack. In actuality the destroyers were on an espionage mission in waters claimed by North Vietnam and were the ones who opened fire on the North Vietnamese boats and sunk all three of them after a brief firefight. This lie jumpstarted a war that would claim 58,220 American and more than 3 million Vietnamese lives. 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. [26] Maddox stated she had evaded a torpedo attack and opened fire with its five-inch (127mm) guns, forcing the torpedo boats away. Captain George Stephen Morrison was in command of local American forces from his flagship USSBon Homme Richard. 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. 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. 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. President Johnson's Vietnam Address, August 4, 1964 about the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. No further details were forthcoming. 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. He also reminded Americans that there was no desire for war. The Gulf of Tonkin incident, like others in our nation's history, has become the center of considerable controversy and debate. Stockdale was always adamant that no attack ever occurred on August 4. [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). This time their orders indicated that the ships were to close to no less than 11 miles (18km) from the coast of North Vietnam. He did not like to deal with uncertainties. 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. According to National Security Archive research fellow John Prados, "the American people have long . The Cold War policy of containment was to be applied to prevent the fall of Southeast Asia to communism under the precepts of the domino theory. The NSA paper goes on to say, It would be years before any evidence that an attack had not happened finally emerged in the public domain, and even then, most reluctantly.. But false flags are a very real and very present feature of geopolitics and denying that is simply denying reality. In the video below, McNamara admits the Gulf of Tonki attack of August 4, 1964 never happened. Declassified documents reve. 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 . After the skirmish, Johnson ordered Maddox and Turner Joy to stage daylight runs into North Vietnamese waters, testing the 12 nautical miles (22km; 14mi) limit and North Vietnamese resolve. In 1967, former naval officer John White wrote a letter to the editor of the New Haven (CT) Register. 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. [24] On July 31, 1964, Maddox had begun her mission in the Gulf of Tonkin. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, also called Tonkin Gulf Resolution, resolution put before the U.S. Congress by Pres. 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). Stanislav Petrov, the man who stopped a USSR - US nuclear war by doing nothing. "Absolutely nothing", Gip replied. 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. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was a statement which allowed President Johnson to _______U.S. This table contains record counts based on the codes recorded in the CASUALTY CATEGORY field of theVietnam Conflict Extract Data File. [34] Although information obtained well after the fact supported Captain Herrick's statements about the inaccuracy of the later torpedo reports as well as the 1981 Herrick and Scheer conclusion about the inaccuracy of the first, indicating that there was no North Vietnamese attack that night, at the time U.S. authorities and all of the Maddox's crew stated that they were convinced that an attack had taken place. Domestically speaking, a large-scale false flag such as . Tonkin definition, a former state in northern French Indochina, now part of Vietnam. "[66], Hanyok included his study of Tonkin Gulf as one chapter in an overall history of NSA involvement and American SIGINT, in the Indochina Wars. 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. 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 . [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. The Gulf of Tonkin incident: the false flag operation that started the Vietnam war. 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. Lots of the 'nuts' sure . The Gulf of Tonkin incident: the false flag operation that started the Vietnam war. 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. Johnson won the 1964 election by a landslide, winning a greater share of the popular vote than any presidential candidate had since 1820. Maddox was under orders not to approach closer than eight miles (13km) from North Vietnam's coast and four miles (6km) from Hon Nieu island. 5 (May 1970), pp. Additionally, he concluded that many pieces of evidence were carefully picked to distort the truth. He thus characterized the attack as "unprovoked" since the ship had been in international waters. 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. Answer (1 of 6): No, that's not true. This, along with other false flag operations in Operation Himmler, would be used to mobilize support from the German population for the start of World War II in Europe. A skirmish and confused reports of a second engagement two days later led President Lyndon B. Johnson to order airstrikes against North . 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. For this purpose, it was authorized to approach the coast as close as 13 kilometers (8mi) and the offshore islands as close as four; the latter had already been subjected to shelling from the sea. Despite this, he led a strike of 18 aircraft against an oil storage facility located just inland of where the alleged Gulf of Tonkin incident had occurred. Yoichi Okamoto/U.S. It was known quickly that no North Vietnamese ships had been in the vicinity, and no U.S. ships had been attacked. A false flag is a political or military action carried out with the intention of blaming an opponent for it. For such requests, please contact the Freedom of Information Act Office at foianet@nsa.gov or Public Affairs Office at 443-634-0721. 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. Freak weather effects on radar and overeager sonarmen may have accounted for many reports. Catastrophic Covid Vax Mandates Shutting Down Hospitals, Medical Centers and Healthcare Systems Like This?! 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. RES 1145), titled the Southeast Asia Resolution, which granted Johnson the authority to conduct military operations in Southeast Asia without the benefit of a declaration of war. Fri, 07/16/2010 - 10:33 . "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. Afraid of attackers, Captain Herrick sent flash messages to U.S. officials while desperately trying to move the ships out of harms way. Morse supposedly received a call from an informant who has remained anonymous urging Morse to investigate official logbooks of Maddox. [1] Intercepted communications indicated that the vessels intended to attack Maddox. Its stated purpose was to . The National Security Agency released a paper entitledSkunks, Bogies, Silent Hounds, and the Flying Fish: The Gulf of Tonkin Mystery, 2-4 August 1964. Suggest thorough reconnaissance in daylight by aircraft. 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. They showed that there was no attack on August 4. The Gulf of TonkiMonday, May 31, 2010 n Incident, in 1964, was a major turning point in US military involvement in Vietnam. Polmar, Norman "The U. S. Navy Electronic Warfare (Part 1)", OAH Magazine of History, fall 1992. 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. Crucible Vietnam: Memoir of an Infantry Lieutenant. "[48], According to Ray McGovern, CIA analyst from 1963 to 1990, the CIA, "not to mention President Lyndon Johnson, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy all knew full well that the evidence of any armed attack on the evening of Aug. 4, 1964, the so-called 'second' Tonkin Gulf incident, was highly dubious. 2. Commander James Bond Stockdale exiting his aircraft. All subsequent Maddox torpedo reports are doubtful in that it is suspected that sonarman was hearing the ship's own propeller beat" [sic]. This August 4 incident never happened. [49], In his book, Body of Secrets, James Bamford, who spent three years in the United States Navy as an intelligence analyst, writes that the primary purpose of the Maddox "was to act as a seagoing provocateurto poke its sharp gray bow and the American flag as close to the belly of North Vietnam as possible, in effect shoving its five-inch cannons up the nose of the communist navy. White was featured in the August 2014 issue of Connecticut Magazine. The accords, which were signed by other participants including the Viet Minh, mandated a temporary ceasefire line, which separated southern and northern Vietnam to be governed by the State of Vietnam and the Viet Minh respectively. [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. assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a study by NSA historian Robert J. Hanyok. As at least two millennia have proven, false flag operations, with healthy doses of propaganda and ignorance, provided a great recipe for endless 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. The sinking of the USS Maine in 1898 and the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 - each of which was a critical part of a casus belli - have been claimed as possible false flag attacks, though. [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. But even at the time there was some recognition of a margin of error, so we thought it highly probable but not entirely certain. Although there was no enemy ship, it was designed to frame the enemy (false flag operation). 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. [43] It was not until after the United States became more involved in the war that his claim began to gain support throughout the United States government. [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. 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. [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. [25] During an evening of rough weather and heavy seas, the destroyers received radar, sonar, and radio signals that they believed signaled another attack by the North Vietnamese navy. No actual visual sightings by Maddox. 1. Gulf of Tonkin. USS Liberty. [32][5], At 01:27 local time (13:27 Washington time), Herrick sent a cable in which he acknowledged that the second attack may not have happened and that there may actually have been no Vietnamese craft in the area: "Review of action makes many reported contacts and torpedoes fired appear doubtful. [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. As a result, planes from the aircraft carriers Ticonderoga and Constellation were sent to hit North Vietnamese torpedo boat bases and fuel facilities during Operation Pierce Arrow. 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. But every time he hightailed it out of one area, another blip on the sonar would appear. Though LBJ knew there was no second battle, he kept this information secret and beat the drums of war. Many historians now agree that the Gulf of Tonkin incident, in which many believed North Vietnamese ships had attacked American naval forces, may not have occurred in the way it was described at the time. 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. [52] As a result of his testimony, on August 7, Congress passed a joint resolution (H.J. The purpose of this article is to break down false flag events into their parts, deconstruct them. [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. [5] A U.S. aircraft carrier, the USS Ticonderoga, was also stationed nearby. [47] Various government officials and men aboard Maddox have suggested similar theories. 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.
Consumer Behavior On Buying Luxury Goods Questionnaire,
The Patriot Tomahawk And Knife,
House Of Blues Vip Seating Cost,
Southwest Conference 1980,
Articles G