The Science of Conspiracy Theories

Gulf of Tonkin conspiracy

Gulf of Tonkin conspiracy

This is another government conspiracy that's true. The Gulf of Tonkin incident led to the expansion of the Vietnam War that resulted in a lot of American soldier casualties. It resulted in Congress passing the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on Aug 15, 1964 that gave President Lyndon Johnson the green light to pursue a war with North Vietnam, which ended up including massive bombing raids in both North and South Vietnam, as well as Agent Orange spraying that caused cancer in both Vietnamese and U.S. Soldiers.

Supposedly on Aug 2, and 4, 1964, American warships were attacked by North Vietnam torpedo boats. Of course, this led to the public demanding retaliation. The first attack on Aug 2, did happen. Four North Vietnam torpedo boats tried to attack the USS Maddox, which fought off the attack, killing some Vietnam sailors.

What turned out to be a lie was that a second attack occurred on Aug 4 against both the USS Maddox and the USS Turner Joy, both of which were destroyers. In this case, the North Vietnam Navy was trying to salvage their vessels and recover their sailors from the previous incident and the Turner Joy was never attacked. Again, this was the CIA's decision. They wanted war with the North Vietnam communists.

Actually, it was the NSA that spread the lie to cover up their bungling of the entire affair. Apparently, the Navy's radar played tricks and wrongly indicated that enemy vessels were approaching.

When you think about it, the Korean War ended up causing the Vietnam War. It was the fault of the so-called 'Domino Effect' concept that said that if the communists take one Asian country, others would fall in line. The public, along with some crazy Senators and Representatives, were willing to go to war no matter if it could lead to a nuclear showdown with China or the Soviet Union.

This kind of thinking makes me nervous. War should be the last resort, not the first, and never should be provoked by a lie.

Thanks for reading.