GULF OF TONKIN INCIDENT: On August 2, 1964, three North Vietnamese PT boats allegedly fire torpedoes at the USS Maddox, a destroyer located in international waters of the Tonkin Gulf, some thirty miles off the coast of North Vietnam. A second, even more highly disputed attack, is alleged to have taken place on August 4, 1964. DEBATE ON GULF OF TONKIN RESOLUTION: The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution is approved by Congress on August 7, 1964 and authorizes President Lyndon Johnson to “Take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.” The Resolution passed unanimously in the House and 82 - 2 in the Senate. The Resolution allowed Johnson to wage all out war against North Vietnam without ever securing a formal Declaration of War from Congress. (This resolution passed over the objections of Senator Wayne Morse (R. Oregon) who from the beginning doubted the reports being accurate.) On or about August 1, 2013 - almost 39 years to the day after that alleged attack in the Gulf of Tonkin, which led up to an undeclared war in Vietnam - a story was leaked from the White House ,or someone close to the White House, alleging that a message between two of Al Qaeda’s top leaders had been intercepted. That message was said to be about unspecified threats concerning United States interests in and around Yemen which resulted in the closing of nineteen U.S. Embassies in North Africa and including the one in Yemen. Was this threat, leaked at a convenient time, real or another “Gulf of Tonkin” incident designed to draw attention from all those, as the President calls them, “Phony Scandals” rocking Washington at this time??
Posted on: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 20:20:21 +0000
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