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". 88408, 78 Stat. Suggest complete evaluation before any further action taken.. In the foreword, he notes "Among the many books written on the Vietnamese war, half a dozen note a 1967 letter to the editor of a Connecticut newspaper which was instrumental in pressuring the Johnson administration to tell the truth about how the war started. [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. The deeper lesson of the Tonkin Gulf episode is how a group of senior national security officials seeks determinedly through hardball - and even illicit tactics to advance its own war agenda,. At the end of July 1964, the USS Maddox was sent to patrol the waters off the North Vietnamese coastline in the Gulf of Tonkin. 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. It's the perfect time for a false flag attack, where one country carries out a covert attack, disguising it to look like it was done by someone else. See more. What are false flag attacks - and did Russia stage any to claim Top US officials also distorted the facts in the lead-up to the Vietnam War and the media dutifully reported the official narrative as absolute fact, . Secretary of State Robert McNamara was familiar with the effectiveness of False Flags to initiate war. Tonkin Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com actions. [59], In October 2012, retired Rear Admiral Lloyd "Joe" Vasey was interviewed by David Day on Asia Review and gave a detailed account of the August 4 incident. False Flags vs Hoaxes : r/conspiracy - reddit More answers below Did the Gulf of Tonkin incident actually occur or was it faked to justify going to war with Vietnam? The destroyer was ordered to fire warning shots if the enemy vessels closed within 10,000 yards. The Gulf of Tonkin incident: the false flag operation that started the [46], The use of the set of incidents as a pretext for escalation of U.S. involvement followed the issuance of public threats against North Vietnam, as well as calls from American politicians in favor of escalating the war. . He contended in speeches to Congress that the actions taken by the United States were actions outside the constitution and were "acts of war rather than acts of defense. Prior to the two incidents the U.S. had provided substantial aid to South Vietnam and also had a number of military advisers in South Vietnam. The U.S. vessels were now more than 100 miles away from the North Vietnamese coastline when their trackers started to light up. [1][5] The Maddox fired warning shots and the North Vietnamese boats attacked with torpedoes and machine gun fire. During the summer of 1964, President Johnson and the Joint Chiefs of Staff were eager to widen the war in Vietnam. It was tantamount to a declaration of war, but it was based on a lie. [5] The Hanyok article states that intelligence information was presented to the Johnson administration "in such a manner as to preclude responsible decision makers in the Johnson administration from having the complete and objective narrative of events." Gulf of Tonkin - National Security Agency "[46] Time stated that there was "no doubt in Sharp's mind that the U.S. would now have to answer this attack", and that there was no debate or confusion within the administration regarding the incident. Opsec News This article will show that President Lyndon B. Johnson twisted the Gulf of Tonkin incident into a False Flag to start a war between America and North Vietnam. His actions would lead to the deaths of 58,220 Americans and an untold number of Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution - Definition, Cause & Significance - HISTORY Yoichi Okamoto/U.S. [45] Time reported: "Through the darkness, from the West and south intruders boldly sped at least six of them they opened fire on the destroyers with automatic weapons, this time from as close as 2,000 yards. The Gulf of TonkiMonday, May 31, 2010 n Incident, in 1964, was a major turning point in US military involvement in Vietnam. [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. 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? How the Gulf of Tonkin Incident Embroiled the US in the Vietnam War But the biggest lie was that on August 4 1964, the two destroyers came again under attack, that they were ambushed, with enemy N. Vietnam boats firing 22 torpedoes at them. What was happening at the time were aggressive South Vietnamese raids against the North in the same general area. This release includes a variety of articles, chronologies of events, oral history interviews, signals intelligence (SIGINT) reports and translations, and other related memoranda. subscribers . In August 1964, the United States entered the Vietnam War after reports of an unprovoked attack in the Gulf of Tonkin. He immediately appeared in front of the United States with a televised speech. Originally American claims blamed North Vietnam for both attacks. 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. 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. 53 Admitted False Flag Attacks. "Not Conspiracy Theory - Global Research According to National Security Agency documents declassified in 2005 The overwhelming body of reports told the story that no attack had happened. There was no political motive to their action. The most sensational part of the history (which was excerpted and disclosed by the NSA two years ago) is the recounting of the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Incident, in which a second reported North Vietnamese attack on U.S. forces, following another attack two days before, triggered a major escalation of the war. While we cannot be sure whether this is a Gulf of Tonkin . But once-classified documents and tapes released in the past several years, combined with previously uncovered facts, make clear that high government officials, including the then US President Lyndon Johnson, distorted facts, lied and deceived the American public about the events that led to full US involvement in the Vietnam War. But he did not immediately call Johnson to tell him that the whole premise of his decision at lunch to approve McNamara's recommendation for retaliatory air strikes against North Vietnam was highly questionable. The accords called for a general election by July 1956 to create a unified Vietnamese state. "[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. As at least two millennia have proven, false flag operations, with healthy doses of propaganda and ignorance, provided a great recipe for endless war. Martens Meyer, who was head of department at the military intelligence staff, operated on behalf of U.S. intelligence. Gulf of Tonkin Incident - False Flag, or Not? These runs into North Vietnamese territorial waters coincided with South Vietnamese coastal raids and were interpreted as coordinated operations by the North, which officially acknowledged the engagements of August 2, 1964. 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. Answer (1 of 6): No, that's not true. 1898, on a flag-showing mission . The letter was mine. 11 Signs of a False Flag - Activist Post "False Flag" Attacks-Debunked! | Thrive Debunked 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. I think it is now clear [the second attack] did not occur" Defense Secretary Robert McNamara[7], One hour later, Herrick sent another cable, stating, "Entire action leaves many doubts except for apparent ambush at beginning. 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. China is destroying our world, and no one seems to mind. "9/11 Truth" movement: How Alex Jones and Michael Ruppert founded it. 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. [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. From bad intel to bombs. - Slate Magazine [13] In March 1956, the North Vietnamese leadership approved tentative measures to revive the southern insurgency in December 1956. Gulf of Tonkin incident. [43] Immediately after the resolution was read and presented to Congress, Morse began to fight it. Instead, "only information that supported the claim that the communists had attacked the two destroyers was given to Johnson administration officials."[65]. U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage CommandThe North Vietnamese torpedo boats under fire, as photographed on board the USS Maddox. Senator Wayne Morse attempted to hold a fundraiser to raise awareness about possible faulty records of the incident involving Maddox. Silence Around Hersh's Bombshell & Ominous Gulf of Tonkin Parallels On September 26, the Nord Stream AG operator registered a rapid gas pressure drop on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and Nord Stream 1 followed soon after. People on Reddit say the Gulf of Tonkin incident is an example of a conspiracy that turned out to be true. They stepped up sabotage and hit-and-run attacks on the coast of North Vietnam." [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. A map of the Gulf of Tonkin, where the supposed attacks took place on Aug. 4, 1964. Vietnam War Facts That Will Change How You See American History The conversation between President Lyndon B. Johnson andSecretary of State Robert McNamara in the video below starts at 1:14 minutes. False flags are real - US has a long history of lying to start wars The Gulf of Tonkin incident is the most notorious false flag in American history. The pilots from the Ticonderoga aircraft responded, flying overhead the destroyers for an hour and a half. And the sonars were probably just catching the tops of big waves. 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. The NSA historian said agency staff "deliberately skewed" the evidence to make it appear that an attack had occurred. In the end he concluded that there were no torpedo boats on the night in question, and that the White House was interested only in confirmation of an attack, not that there was no such attack. One of the most important documents that was released to the public in 2005 is a study by NSA historian Robert J. Hanyok. Although the Johnson administration knew that the Gulf of Tonkin incident was, in fact, no incident at all, they still made the executive decision to distort the events in their favor. 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". For some two hours the ships fired on ghost radar targets and maneuvered vigorously. 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. 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. 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. On August 5, at 10:40, these planes bombed four torpedo boat bases and an oil-storage facility in Vinh.[42]. Liberty Waco Oklahoma City 9/11 London 7/7 Sandy Hook For such requests, please contact the Freedom of Information Act Office at foianet@nsa.gov or Public Affairs Office at 443-634-0721. Indeed, this concept is so well-accepted that rules of engagement for naval, air and land warfare all prohibit false flag attacks. By mid-1965, his approval rating was 70 percent (though it fell precipitously once the war dragged on longer than expected). According to intelligence officials, the view of government historians that Hanyok's report should become public was rebuffed by policy makers concerned that comparisons might be made to intelligence used to justify the Iraq War (Operation Iraqi Freedom) which commenced in 2003. [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. At about 1505G, Maddox fired three rounds to warn off the communist [North Vietnamese] boats. [5] In the ensuing engagement, one U.S. aircraft (which had been launched from aircraft carrier USSTiconderoga) was damaged, three North Vietnamese torpedo boats were damaged, and four North Vietnamese sailors were killed, with six more wounded. In fact, the Turner Joy had not detected any torpedoes during the entire event. National Archives and Records Administration. 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. [62], In October 2005, The New York Times reported that Robert J. Hanyok, a historian for the NSA, concluded that the NSA distorted intelligence reports passed to policy makers regarding the August 4 incident. President Johnson barely won the election in 1964. false. False Flags are Real - US Has a Long History of Lying to Start Wars 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. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution Passes House and Senate "Aggression by terror against the peaceful villagers of South Vietnam has now been joined by open aggression on the high seas against the. Stockdale was always adamant that no attack ever occurred on August 4. Two soldiers next to a fallen man during the Vietnam War. "[34] In response to requests for confirmation, at around 16:00 Washington time, Herrick cabled, "Details of action present a confusing picture although certain that the original ambush was bona fide. The Johnson administration asserted that the destroyers, the "Maddox" and "Turner Joy", had been on routine patrol in international waters on August 2 when they were fired on by North Vietnamese Torpedo boats. 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.. 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. He also reminded Americans that there was no desire for war. The North Vietnamese Communist Party approved a "people's war" on the South at a session in January 1959,[15]:119120 and on July 28, North Vietnamese forces invaded Laos to maintain and upgrade the Ho Chi Minh trail, in support of insurgents in the south. [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. He thus characterized the attack as "unprovoked" since the ship had been in international waters. Johnson's statements were short to "minimize the U.S. role in the conflict; a clear inconsistency existed between Johnson's actions and his public discourse. The purpose of this article is to break down false flag events into their parts, deconstruct them. 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. [27], Others, such as Admiral Sharp, maintained that U.S. actions did not provoke the August 2 incident.
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