I may not be spelling it correctly, but was the Tonken Resolution pre-written by Pres. Johnson and the actual Tonken incident was induced by the US to fabricate the justification Congress would need for going to war in Vietnam? Also, is it correct the US had been funding the French in French-Indochina (aka: Vietnam) since 1959?
Is it this clear-cut, or shrouded in a Great Debate?
It’s Tonkin and farce.
Check this out.
Don’t know if we were funding the French, (though we certainly supported thier claim on Indochina). There is a lot of debate about whether the Gulf of Tonkin incident, however, and I think that most historians now think that it was exagerated, if not completely fabricated. In one of the recently release Johnson tapes, for example, McNamara is talking to Pres. Johnson, and even he seems fairly skeptical that there was an actual attack. Military personal on both sides have also claimed that no attack happend, and there’s also the fact that it really wouldn’t have made sense for the NVA to send gunboats against US destroyers.
Wikepedia, my child, and may God go with you…
Short course: the Tonkin Bay incident was not so much fabricated as wildly exaggerated. The USS Maddox was allegedly attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats, apparently using the time honored naval attack pattern known as puttering by and cursing loudly. What might have motivated the NV to challenge the most powerful naval force in human history with the People’s Rubber Ducky is one of history’s many, many mysterys. It has been alleged that the Maddox was on a deliberately provocative mission. I happen to believe this to be the case, but must acknowledge that certainty eludes.
Some interpreters of Johnson believe that his intent was to bitch-slap the NV just enough to make his point, and encourage them to take a more realistic view of their position. Oopsy.