#gulfoftonkin — Public Fediverse posts

August 7, 1964 - After a reported U.S. confrontation with North Vietnamese forces that, it was later discovered, never occurred, the U.S. Congress nearly unanimously passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution.

The resolution gave President Lyndon Johnson broad powers in dealing with North Vietnam, including sending U.S. troops.

News coverage relied almost entirely on official U.S. government sources so Americans assumed the North had in fact launched an unprovoked attack. Two courageous senators, Wayne Morse (D-Oregon) and Ernest Gruening (D-Alaska), provided the only "no" votes.

“I rise to speak in opposition to the joint resolution. I do so with a very sad heart. But I consider the resolution . . . to be naught but a resolution which embodies a predated declaration of war . . . .” -Senator Wayne Morse

#GulfOfTonkin

It's a strange new world. An oil rich target of American imperialism has claimed to have bombed an American warship, and America is denying it. Is this opposite day?

#iran #wmd #GulfOfTonkin

August 2, 1964 - The U.S.S. Maddox, a destroyer conducting intelligence operations along North Vietnam’s coast, reported it had been attacked by some of the North’s torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. The day before, the North had been attacked by the South Vietnamese Navy and the Laotian Air Force under U.S. direction.
#USSMaddox #GulfOfTonkin

#Autocratic, #authoritian #governments often create or allow violence as a tool to expand control within their #nation, to engage in #war with other nations, or both.

#RememberTheMaine #Lusitania #ReichstagFire #PearHarbor #GulfOfTonkin #September11 #CrocusCityHall

.> The “good wars” — the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the Second World War — they were all perfectly avoidable tragedies. The bad wars — The Mexican War, the Spanish War, World War I, the Korean War, Vietnam and twice into Iraq — these were utter frauds, killing for profit and territory....

.> Remember the Maine was the lie that launched the Spanish-American War. The Korean War (1950-53) was built on the lie that Russia and North Korea had attacked Seoul. The Vietnam War (1965-74) was built on a lie about an American boat being attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin. The first Gulf War was created when the US lured Saddam Hussein into Kuwait (2003-21?? ) with Machiavellian diplomatic deceptions. The second Gulf War was built on the lie that Iraq had secret facilities building “weapons of mass destruction”.

@bethsawin
Wouldn't be the first time…
#GulfOfTonkin, eg

#GulfOfTonkin - "A textbook produced by the U.S. Air Force informs students that the United States entered the Vietnam War after the North Vietnamese attacked a U.S. destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin in August 1964.

But the authors never mention a key part of the story: It was the report of a second, full-on attack two days later that led Congress to approve America’s escalated involvement in Vietnam — and that attack, history eventually revealed, never happened.