Gulf of Tonkin Compared to Iran

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution vs. the War on Iraq

Fact or Fiction?

In August of 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, the closest thing there was to declaring war on Vietnam. A war that resulted in millions of people dying, and the loss of liberties for a large number of people. The Resolution was passed because the government (and the American people) believed that the Vietnamese had fired torpedoes at a US destroyer on routine patrol in the Tonkin Gulf on August 2, 1964. It was also reported that a second deliberate attack happened against a pair of ships two days later on August 4, 1964. Based on this information, the President in a news conference announced to the U.S. that he was ordering air strikes against North Vietnam in retaliation for the attacks on US ships. But information now leads us to believe that President Johnson had ordered bombers to strike for an attack that never happened. It has even been reported that before the air strikes even began there was reason to believe that the attack on August 4th never happened. There are transmission reports from the commander in the Tonkin Gulf, Captain John J. Herrick stating that there was an overeager sonarman who "was hearing ship's own propeller beat" and freaky weather conditions. Also, Navy pilot, James Stockdale, who was flying in the area that night, stated that "our destroyers were just shooting at phantom targets - there were no boats there. There was nothing there but black water and American fire power."

The media in 1964 helped fuel the lies by publishing headlines such as " American Planes Hit North Vietnam after 2nd attack on our Destroyers", "Move taken to Halt New Aggression". The Los Angeles Times even reported that the Vietnamese "themselves escalated the hostilities". The incorrect news reports were reported to have all come from "almost exclusive reliance on government officials as sources of information.

In reality, Retired Vietnamese general Vo Nguyen Giap, in a 1995 meeting with former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, denied that the North Vietnamese had attacked the U.S. destroyers on Aug. 4, 1964, and in 2001 it was exposed that President Johnson, in a taped conversation with McNamara several weeks after passage of the resolution, had expressed doubt that the attack ever occurred. Whether he doubted it the night of his August 4 press conference has not been proven. But some argue that the escalation of this war began because of plans that had already been drawn up that called for gradually increasing military pressure against North Vietnam.

Only the 2nd attack has been proven not to have happened. The first attack, which was widely reported as unprovoked, did happen. The Navy reports that while the US ship was in International waters, it was attacked by three torpedo boats. But although the ship was reported to be in international waters, it was actually spying and trying to get information that would help the South Vietnamese in a coastal raid against North Vietnam. The ships had been in the area for months trying to obtain intelligence that it could use against the North Vietnamese and been involved in skirmishes before.

Today, we can read the reports and see the similarities in the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the Declaration of War against Iraq. And it's sad to say, but most of the comparisons appear be lies, half truths, and misleading by the newspapers and television reports.

Before President Bush declared war on Iraq, it was reported in almost nightly news casts that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction which were supposed to be used against the United States either directly or they