40th Anniversary:
Lies used to escalate war in Vietnam

Bruce McPhie

On August 2 and 4, 1964, two American destroyers, the Maddox 
and the Turner Joy, claimed to be under "unprovoked" 
attack by North Vietnam, while sailing in "international 
waters".

On August 5, US carrier-based jets flew 64 bombing sorties 
against the North in "reprisal" — the first of thousands of such 
missions over the next nine years, that would eventually hit 
every road and rail bridge, six industrial cities, 28 of the 30 
provincial cities, more than 350 hospitals, 3000 schools, 1000 
churches or temples, and 4000 of the 5788 villages in the North.

While the US bombed the North, President Johnson (Democrat) spoke 
live over all three US television networks, rallying public 
opinion with talk of " ... open aggression on the high seas 
against the United States of America".

The American press published lurid reports inspired by Pentagon 
officials. Life had the American ships "under continuous 
torpedo attack". Newsweek concluded, "It was time for 
American might to strike back."

On August 7, an indignant Congress passed the Tonkin Gulf 
Resolution, giving the President the power to "take all necessary 
measures" to "repel any armed attack against the forces of the 
United States and to prevent further aggression". It was passed 
almost unanimously — by the House (416-0) and Senate (88-2).

Later that day, Morse, one of the two dissenting Senators, 
correctly predicted: "history will record that we have made a 
great mistake ... We are in effect giving the President ... war 
making powers in the absence of a declaration of war".

When he heard Congress had passed the Resolution, Johnson joked 
that the wording "was like Grandma's nightshirt — it covers 
everything".

The Resolution empowered Johnson to deploy regular American 
troops in Viet Nam. There were already nearly 20,000 US soldiers 
in Viet Nam, officially described as "military advisers" — but 
they were increasingly dying, and actually engaged in direct 
active combat.

(Earlier, President JFK had unequivocally lied when he publicly 
denied this fact.)

"Proof package"

Subsequent research, and the leaking of top-secret official 
documents known as the Pentagon Papers proved that the 
first "attack" actually took place while the USS Maddox was in 
Vietnamese territorial waters assisting a covert commando raid. 
Furthermore, the Maddox fired first! America suffered no 
casualties, and negligible damage. The second "attack", which the 
US actively tried to provoke, simply never took place at all. US 
pilot eyewitnesses were pressured to change their stories to 
provide Johnson's "proof package".

The Johnson administration had in fact drafted the Resolution 
well before, and had already selected 94 bombing targets in the 
north by early June. They just needed an opportunity, lies and 
fabricated "proof", to put it to Congress.

Daniel Ellsberg, a Pentagon analyst working for US Defence 
Secretary Robert S McNamara, later turned against the war and 
leaked the official Pentagon Papers, which were first 
published in the New York Times on June 13, 1971.

Daniel Ellsberg: "Very few Americans would ever come to realise 
that ... even at the time, the statement that it was a clear 
attack to which we were justified in responding to so fast, was a 
lie".

"Johnson wanted to underline by bombs, by a little killing, the 
threats that he was already making to Hanoi. At the same time, he 
didn't want to reveal the threats, which did indeed foreshadow an 
endless war of enormous proportions."

"So Tonkin Gulf seemed to give him the perfect opportunity to 
carry out a little bombing while not suggesting that it was part 
of a larger programme of bombing — which it was." 
(http://www.ellsberg.net)

The attacks in America on September 11, 2001, were also described 
as an "opportunity" by those now pursuing the so-called "war on 
terror". President Bush misled Congress into supporting war in 
Iraq, using lies, fabricated evidence, and the fear of an 
imminent threat.