Any truth to this claim? [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. 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. [26] Another P-4 received a direct hit from a five-inch shell from Maddox; its torpedo malfunctioned at launch. and sadly I believe the shooting in Uvalde Texas at the elementary school was a false flag mission to take . From this point on, the American policy and programs would dominate the course of the Indochina.. The Gulf of Tonkin incident, like others in our nation's history, has become the center of considerable controversy and debate. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Stockdale recounts the incident at 0:37 seconds in the video below. The Gulf of Tonkin incident: the false flag operation that started the Vietnam war. [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. Wayne Morse. As the enemy vessels launched their torpedoes, U.S. forces attacked them from above and below, severely damaging the boats. Obama's real legacy makes him one of the worst US presidents of all time. 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. 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. Freak weather effects on radar and overeager sonarmen may have accounted for many reports. Aurora CO shooting. [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. Gulf of Tonkin - FalseFlag.info FalseFlag.info True Patriotism is questioning your government because you Love your country Home False Flags Nero Ft. Sumter USS Maine RMS Lusitania Reichstag Fire Pearl Harbor Operation Gladio Operation Paperclip Operation Northwoods Gulf of Tonkin U.S.S. assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a study by NSA historian Robert J. Hanyok. 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. [43] After urging Congress that they should be wary of Johnson's coming attempt to convince Congress of his resolution, Morse failed to gain enough cooperation and support from his colleagues to mount any sort of movement to stop it. For such requests, please contact the Freedom of Information Act Office at foianet@nsa.gov or Public Affairs Office at 443-634-0721. And the sonars were probably just catching the tops of big waves. The USS Maddox evaded the torpedo attack, suffering only slight damage, and sailed off to safer waters. Shortly after the attack was reported, President Johnson made his decision to retaliate. Fri, 07/16/2010 - 10:33 . 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,. A map of the Gulf of Tonkin, where the supposed attacks took place on Aug. 4, 1964. 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. But the reports were false and the president knew it. On the evening of August 4, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson addressed the nation in a televised speech in which he announced that two days earlier, U.S. ships had been attacked twice in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin near North Vietnam. But not every event is a false flag . As we approach the 51st anniversary of the passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, an act that essentially kicked off the "hot" portion of the Vietnam War, we had an opportunity on The Liberty Brothers Radio Show to interview a man who was in the Gulf of Tonkin 51 years ago this week. Questions about the Gulf of Tonkin incident have persisted for more than 40 years. [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. Though LBJ knew there was no second battle, he kept this information secret and beat the drums of war. [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." Domestically speaking, a large-scale false flag such as . fact that several Senators knew that the White House and the Pentagon had deceived the American people over the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident. Please help support Dispropaganda by clicking on the "Donate" button and making a. 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. Increase. [43] Immediately after the resolution was read and presented to Congress, Morse began to fight it. They showed that there was no attack on August 4. Mere hours after the speech, Commander Stockdale was ordered to launch an airstrike against the North Vietnamese forces as retaliation for their supposed attacks the evening before. On August 2, it was attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. Please Note: These historical documents are PDF images of formerly classified carbon paper and reports that have been declassified. Later investigation revealed that the second attack never happened; the American claim is that it was based mostly on erroneously interpreted communications intercepts. Yoichi Okamoto/U.S. [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. During the early hours of the morning of August 5, Herrick sent a message to Honolulu that said, Review of action makes many reported contacts and torpedoes fired appear doubtful. Indeed, this concept is so well-accepted that rules of engagement for naval, air and land warfare all prohibit false flag attacks. On August 2, it was attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. In accordance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, individuals may request that the government provide auxiliary aids or services to ensure effective communication of the substance of the documents. A false flag is a political or military action carried out with the intention of blaming an opponent for it. The torpedo boats sped up, and the warning shots were fired. The latest releases, which document skepticism over the pretext for entry into the Vietnam war, date from 1968. . [12]:76, The Gulf of Tonkin Incident occurred during the first year of the Johnson administration. Theme: Bushwick by James Dinsdale. "[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. Soon thereafter theGulf of Tonkin Resolutionwas approved by the U.S. Congress, which gave LBJ the go to initiate a war against North Vietnam. For some two hours the ships fired on ghost radar targets and maneuvered vigorously. 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. 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. As Commander James Stockdale, one of the pilots at the Gulf of Tonkin incident, later said, I had the best seat in the house to watch that event, and our destroyers were just shooting at phantom targets there were no PT boats therenothing there but black water and American firepower.. U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage CommandThree North Vietnamese torpedo boats approaching the USS Maddox. 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. Months before an alleged attack was being blamed on Iran, a US Army Colonel predicted this very scenario playing out to start a war. In 1964, South Vietnam began conducting a series of attacks and missions along the North Vietnamese coasts, backed by the United States. [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. [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. 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. The second Tonkin Gulf incident was claimed to have taken place on August 4, 1964. [20] For the maritime portion of the covert operation, a set of fast patrol boats had been purchased quietly from Norway and sent to South Vietnam. 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. 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 . 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.. 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. No boats, he would later write, no boat wakes, no ricochets off boats, no boat impacts, no torpedo wakes nothing but black sea and American fire-power. One of the most important documents that was released to the public in 2005 is a study by NSA historian Robert J. Hanyok. Reaction To Events in the Gulf of Tonkin, August 110, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gulf_of_Tonkin_incident&oldid=1138963597, Naval battles of the Vietnam War involving the United States, Battles and operations of the Vietnam War in 1964, Articles with dead external links from December 2019, Articles with permanently dead external links, Articles with dead external links from June 2016, Articles containing Vietnamese-language text, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 12 February 2023, at 17:06. 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. [5], On July 29, 1964, the night before it launched actions against North Vietnamese facilities on Hn M and Hn Ng islands, the MACV-SOG had launched a covert long-term agent team into North Vietnam, which was promptly captured. Charleston church shooting. [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. "[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. Graeme Shimmin Amateur military historian. President Johnson signs the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. List of Mass Shootings in the United States in 2021, CLICK FOR RECENT POSTS, SEARCH & ARCHIVES , Skunks, Bogies, Silent Hounds, and the Flying Fish: The Gulf of Tonkin Mystery, 2-4 August 1964, PRESUMED DEAD (BODY REMAINS NOT RECOVERED). Inside The Most Disturbing Dungeons And Torture Chambers That Serial Killers Used To Torment Their Victims, Joe Bonanno Spent 35 Years As The Boss Of One Of New York's Biggest Crime Families Then Wrote A Tell-All Book About It, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch, Yoichi Okamoto/U.S. Recently released tapes and documents reveal the truth and lies of the Gulf of Tonkin incident and its resolution. [1][5] The Maddox fired warning shots and the North Vietnamese boats attacked with torpedoes and machine gun fire. More answers below Did the Gulf of Tonkin incident actually occur or was it faked to justify going to war with Vietnam? On August 2, 1964 the USS Maddox was on DEOSTO Patrol in international waters off North Vietnam. The rest is history: nearly 10 years of American involvement in the Vietnam War, an estimated 2 million Vietnamese civilians killed, 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers killed, up to 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers killed, and more than 58,000 American soldiers killed. In fact the Maddoxs captain, John J. Herrick sent an urgent message to Pacific Command in Honolulu saying that the Maddox and C. Turner Joy had never been attacked: "No actual visual sightings by MADDOX. Liberty Waco Oklahoma City 9/11 London 7/7 Sandy Hook Globalism U.N. Four years later, Secretary McNamara admitted to Congress that the U.S. ships had in fact been cooperating in the South Vietnamese attacks against North Vietnam. Johnson was guilty of willful lies of omission. On August 1 and 2, flights of CIA-sponsored Laotian fighter-bombers (piloted by Thai mercenaries) attacked border outposts well within southwestern North Vietnam. 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. . Cecil Stoughton/U.S. Maine that helped initiate the Spanish-American War, and the Gulf of Tonkin incident that led the U.S. to expand. 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. His actions would lead to the deaths of 58,220 Americans and an untold number of Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians. Commander James Bond Stockdale exiting his aircraft. Both the Maddox and the Turner reported multiple torpedos launched by the North Vietnamese. L. Paul Epley/National ArchivesTwo soldiers next to a fallen man during the Vietnam War. 1. Nazi war criminals became high ranking commanders in NATO after WW2. 5 (May 1970), pp. Liberty Waco Oklahoma City 9/11 London 7/7 Sandy Hook The three North Vietnamese torpedo boats were damaged, and four North Vietnamese sailors were killed. 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 . [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). However, the truth of what really happened in the Gulf of Tonkin on August 4 1964, was very different. They do not necessarily represent the official views of the National Security Agency. With regard to why this happened, Hanyok writes: As much as anything else, it was an awareness that Johnson would brook no uncertainty that could undermine his position. National Archives and Records AdministrationPresident Johnson and Secretary of Defense McNamara in a cabinet room meeting. A skirmish and confused reports of a second engagement two days later led President Lyndon B. Johnson to order airstrikes against North . The official story was that North Vietnamese torpedo boats launched an unprovoked attack against the US destroyer "Maddox", which was on routine patrol in the Tonkin Gulf on August 2and that North Vietnamese PT boats followed up with a deliberate attack two days later on August 4, firing 22 torpedoes on the "Maddox" and another destroyer, the "Turner Joy". 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. In fact, the Gulf of Tonkin incident, as it became known, turned out to be a fictitious creation courtesy of the government to escalate war in Vietnam leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of U.S. troops and millions of Vietnamese, fomenting the largest anti-war movement in American history, and tarnishing the reputation of a nation once The Manchurian Incident was a classic false flag attack designed by Japanese military personnel to provide a pretext for the invasion in 1931 of Manchuria, in Northeastern China. "[33], McNamara later testified that he had read the message after his return to the Pentagon that afternoon. The U.S. Navy stationed two destroyers, the Maddox and the Turner Joy, in the Gulf of Tonkin to bolster these actions. "A close scrutiny of Johnson's public statements reveals no mention of preparations for overt warfare and no indication of the nature and extent of covert land and air measures that already were operational." All subsequent Maddox torpedo reports are doubtful in that it is suspected that sonarman was hearing the ship's own propeller beat" [sic]. They reported an attack by North Vietnamese patrol boats on August 2, and a second attack on August 4. Two days later, on August 7, Congress approved the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave the president authority to increase U.S. involvement in the war between North and South Vietnam. Florida, Texas, New Mexico and California were Spanish possessions that revolted for independence. 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. [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. In 1995, McNamara met with former Vietnam People's Army General V Nguyn Gip to ask what happened on August 4, 1964 in the second Gulf of Tonkin Incident. [47], By early afternoon of August 4, Washington time, Herrick had reported to the Commander in Chief Pacific in Honolulu that "freak weather effects" on the ship's radar had made such an attack questionable. The first incident took place on August 2, 1964, when the destroyerUSSMaddox, engaged three North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats seen approaching the Maddox. [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. U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage Command/Wikimedia CommonsCaptain John Herrick aboard the Maddox, on the left, alongside Commander Herbert Ogier, right. 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. 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? 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. An incredible 15 percent of American soldiers were addicted to heroin, while others were so desperate for escape that they ate C-4 explosives just to get high. Wikimedia CommonsA map of the Gulf of Tonkin, where the supposed attacks took place on Aug. 4, 1964. [5] As the ships approached from the southwest, Maddox changed course from northeasterly to southeasterly and increased speed to 25 knots.[5]. [52] As a result of his testimony, on August 7, Congress passed a joint resolution (H.J. [26] Maddox stated she had evaded a torpedo attack and opened fire with its five-inch (127mm) guns, forcing the torpedo boats away. Suggest complete evaluation before any further action taken." There were no U.S. The destroyer was ordered to fire warning shots if the enemy vessels closed within 10,000 yards. 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 . 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". "[39][40], Within thirty minutes of the August 4 incident, Johnson had decided on retaliatory attacks (dubbed "Operation Pierce Arrow"). [5], While doubts regarding the perceived second attack have been expressed since 1964, it was not until years later that it was shown conclusively never to have happened. [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. After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, President Lyndon B. Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara slowly increased military pressureon the coast of North Vietnam, aiding the South in offensive strikes and intelligence-gathering. Polmar, Norman "The U. S. Navy Electronic Warfare (Part 1)", OAH Magazine of History, fall 1992. This table contains record counts based on the codes recorded in the CASUALTY CATEGORY field of theVietnam Conflict Extract Data File. It had been ordered to locate and identify all coastal radar transmitters, note all navigation aids along the DVRs [Democratic Republic of Vietnams] coastline, and monitor the Vietnamese junk fleet for a possible connection to DRV/Viet Cong maritime supply and infiltration routes.. This initial action was never reported by the Johnson administration, which insisted that the Vietnamese boats fired first. 1898, on a flag-showing mission . Within 24 hours, though, the Maddox resumed its normal patrolling routine. "[34] It is likely that McNamara did not inform either the president or Admiral U. S. Grant Sharp Jr. about Herrick's misgivings or Herrick's recommendation for further investigation. "[36] Johnson also referred to the attacks as having taken place "on the high seas", suggesting that they had occurred in international waters. [38], He emphasized commitment to both the American people, and the South Vietnamese government. [5] On the night of July 30, 1964, South Vietnamese commandos attacked a North Vietnamese radar station on Hn M island. The most commonly known false flag operations consist of a government agency staging a terror attack, whereby an uninvolved entity gets blamed for the carnage. On August 5, at 10:40, these planes bombed four torpedo boat bases and an oil-storage facility in Vinh.[42]. 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. National Archives and Records AdministrationPresident Johnson signs the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. [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. Stockdale was always adamant that no attack ever occurred on August 4. William Bundy's paper dated September 8, 1964, suggested more DESOTO patrols as well. On July 25, 2001, in a two-and-a-half-hour broadcast of his Infowars TV program on a local public-access channel, Alex Jones laid out what he saw as the . Via: ibtimes.co.uk. [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. The planes pilot, Dispropaganda is 100% independent non partisan and non profit, in order to keep the site up we rely on financial supprt from our readers. 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. But even at the time there was some recognition of a margin of error, so we thought it highly probable but not entirely certain. 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. As the battle continued, Captain Herrick too began to have doubts about these attacks. Martens Meyer, who was head of department at the military intelligence staff, operated on behalf of U.S. intelligence. He thus characterized the attack as "unprovoked" since the ship had been in international waters. The accords allowed free movement of the population between the north and south for three hundred days. This article will show that President Lyndon B. Johnson twisted the Gulf of Tonkin incident into aFalse Flagto start a war between America and North Vietnam. He did not like to deal with uncertainties. The U.S. built a fortification 150km inside the Mexican border. 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. BRITISH RIOT PHOTOS: The Brits Finally Begin to Take Back Their PowerBIG TIME! [57], In 1995, retired Vietnamese Defense Minister, V Nguyn Gip, meeting with former Secretary McNamara, denied that Vietnamese gunboats had attacked American destroyers on August 4, while admitting to the attack on August 2. This final release includes additional articles, chronologies of events, oral history interviews, and other related memoranda. There was no political motive to their action. Some people suspected the deception all along. Mexican wars of 1819 and 1846-48. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was a statement which allowed President Johnson to _______U.S. President Johnson and Secretary of Defense McNamara in a cabinet room meeting. 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 Vietnam did not adhere to an 8-kilometer (5mi) limit for its territorial waters; instead it adhered to a 20-kilometer (12mi) limit claimed by French Indochina in 1936. Suggest thorough reconnaissance in daylight by aircraft. [29], Sharp's claims, however, included some factually incorrect statements. [19], A highly classified program of covert actions against North Vietnam, known as Operation Plan 34-Alpha, in conjunction with the DESOTO operations, had begun under the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1961. 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 . After the fraudulent second attack, LBJ capitalized on initial reports and ordered the bombing of four torpedo boat bases, and an oil-storage facility in Vinh. [6][7] A taped conversation of a meeting several weeks after passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was released in 2001, revealing that McNamara expressed doubts to Johnson that the attack had even occurred. McNamara asks Giap: What happened in Tonkin Gulf? Further, it shows he lied about the incident, using it as a catalyst to go to war. Retiring to South Vietnamese waters, Maddox was joined by the destroyer USSTurner Joy. 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.