Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Research Writing Exercise By Grant Davison

The Tonkin Gulf Incident and the Domino Theory

The Gulf of Tonkin Incident began on July 31,1964 when the US put two ships next to the shores of the North Vietnamese including the USS Maddox. This was controversial as the were very close to the islands. The North Vietnamese began to strike on  August 2, 1964 when the USS Maddox, was performing a radar sweep of the North Vietnamese coast. The destroyer was attacked by North Vietnam torpedo patrol boats. These boats fired 22 torpedoes as they got ambushed.  The USS Ticonderoga sent planes to help defend the Maddox. The U.S. planes were able to destroy one of the boats while damaging the others. Later that night, the ships attacked the rest of the vessels at night.

After President Johnson was told of the incident, he brought together a special session of Congress, and on August 4, an air strike was approved. The next day, North Vietnamese targets were taken out, and on August 7, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. The resolution gave the president authority to use any means necessary to resolve the situation in neighboring Vietnam. This gave him the right to start war against the Southern Asia country. 

http://www.history.com/news/the-gulf-of-tonkin-incident-50-years-ago

USS Maddox

6 comments:

  1. I think it was crazy that this was all staged and it wasn't real.

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  2. I agree with Pauleina. It's crazy to think all of this happened as staged and to simply make a statement and point.

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  3. It is totally unsurprising to me that the US government would use deception like this to give an excuse to enter a war. It seems that this is a common theme for the people we choose to represent us.

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  4. This is confusing to me. Why would we want to get involved in a war when none of this actually happened!(Tonkin gulf incident).

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  5. I agree with Pauleina and Paige, It's hard to imagine that all of that was staged just so they could start another war. I find it sad that this kind of situations was deemed necessary from our government to start a war.

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  6. Though taught prior to this class about the resolution, I either didn't learn or forgot that it was staged. The things our government will do... maybe the Kennedy assassination setup or the World Trade Center conspiracies are true. Disclaimer: not a representation of my opinion as it may be unpopular.

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