'Gulf of Tonkin Incident' August 5, 1964 - A hot lesson on 'creating an excuse' to wage war

Until now, the truth about the 'Gulf of Tonkin incident, Iraq possessing chemical weapons' has not been made public, because evidence was never found.

The “Gulf of Tonkin Incident” 53 years ago, which caused the Vietnam War - one of the longest, most brutal and fierce wars of modern times - to begin with a seemingly insignificant incident in the Gulf of Tonkin in the East Sea on August 2, 1964, made international observers unable to help but mention it again on this occasion.

From the "Gulf of Tonkin incident"...

With the policy of stopping the "spread of communism", in July 1964, the US authorities were concerned about the risk of "the widespread spread of communism" from North Vietnam to the Asian region, so the US sent warships to the Gulf of Tonkin to patrol.

The US destroyer Maddox provoked on August 5, 1964 in the Gulf of Tonkin. Photo courtesy of the National Defense Ministry

On August 2, the destroyer Maddox conducted radio reconnaissance and reported that three North Vietnamese torpedo boats were approaching.

A clash ensued, with both sides confirming that a Vietnamese patrol boat was put out of action, while the American destroyer was unscathed and the US government decided not to respond to the incident.

However, just two days later (August 4), Washington received a message about a “new attack” by North Vietnamese ships against American destroyers. At that time, none of the destroyer’s sailors confirmed seeing the “attacker”. Planes taking off from the aircraft carrier also did not detect any ships or debris in the area where the destroyer was present.

It is known that US intelligence reported to Washington that they had intercepted radio communications from the North Vietnamese Navy. Accordingly, Vietnamese sailors called for attacks on US warships, and this was an important detail that decided everything. And the very next day (August 5), in response to the "aggressive actions" of the Vietnamese Navy, US Navy aircraft bombed and shelled military positions and coastal residential areas in North Vietnam.

On August 7, the US Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, with a near-unanimous majority of 416 votes in favor and 9 abstentions. Accordingly, it authorized the use of armed forces to “protect the freedom of Southeast Asian countries”. In March 1965, the US Air Force began systematic bombing of North Vietnam, followed by the landing of US military units in South Vietnam.

In this war, the US mobilized more than 2.7 million soldiers, by the end of the war, the US had lost about 58,000 lives, and spent 111 billion USD (at that time). The number of casualties on the Vietnamese side was about 3 million people.

To the first victorious battle of the Vietnamese Navy

After creating the “Gulf of Tonkin incident”, the US Air Force launched a campaign to attack North Vietnam. On August 2, 1964, the destroyer USS Maddox, while conducting a patrol, encountered three torpedo boats of the North Vietnamese Navy, belonging to Torpedo Boat Flotilla 135.

A naval battle ensued, with the Maddox expending more than 280 3-inch and 5-inch shells, and four USN F-8 Crusader fighters bombing Vietnamese torpedo boats. One American plane was hit, the destroyer suffered a 14.5mm bullet wound; three Vietnamese torpedo boats were damaged, four sailors were killed, six were injured, and the US suffered no casualties.

According to military analysts, despite being inferior in weapons and equipment, the Vietnamese Navy soldiers on the 3rd torpedo boat squadron fought bravely, shot down a US Navy plane, damaged the Maddox, and forced the US ship to flee the waters of North Vietnam.

On August 5, the US dispatched dozens of modern fighter and attack aircraft, divided into 3 waves to simultaneously attack economic, military targets, and naval bases of Vietnam from Quang Binh, to Nghe An, Thanh Hoa and Quang Ninh.

This campaign opened the door to the US's large-scale war of destruction by air and naval forces against North Vietnam. However, with the "Piercing Arrow" campaign, the US's great ambition was defeated right from the first battle. The Vietnam People's Navy was not only not destroyed in a single battle, but also dealt heavy blows to the US Air Force.

The first victory of the Vietnam Navy on August 2 and 5, 1964, had great historical significance, opening a glorious page in the history of the Vietnam Navy. This was a victory of political strength, the spirit of the entire nation, the determination to dare to fight, to fight and to know how to defeat the invaders; a symbol of the indomitable will, of the intelligence and military art of Vietnam, inherited and developed in the new era - the Ho Chi Minh era.

The lesson of "creating excuses" for war is still there...

According to a declassified document, the US National Security Agency posted on its website a document related to the “Gulf of Tonkin incident” - a research work written by US military historian Robert J. Hanyok exclusively for the National Security Agency — NSA in 2001, he affirmed that: “The US started the war in Vietnam on the basis of distorted events”.

Hanyok has demonstrated and concluded that North Vietnamese warships did not attack American ships twice - strictly speaking, there was only one attack on August 2, 1964. As for the “attack” on August 4, 1964, it did not actually happen. Hanyok cites the testimony of military pilot James Stockdale, who was in the air at the time of the alleged attack and he did not see any Vietnamese “attack”.

“Our military (i.e., the US) was afraid to declare to the civilian leadership that such a method of war would lead to certain defeat,” said Mr. Hanyok. That was the thinking of American politician Colin Powell, a captain serving in South Vietnam at that time.

After nearly 40 years (2004), when Mr. Powell retired as a four-star general and became the US Secretary of State, he shocked the members of the UN Security Council when he held up a test tube and accused it of being “Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons”. The pretext was created to start a large-scale invasion of Iraq.

In fact, the destruction of this country has created activities that led to the emergence of radical Islam and IS, and the war has spread to other countries in the region such as Libya, Syria and even to some countries today... to the point that, when running for election, Mr. Trump said directly that: President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were the co-founders of IS, causing public opinion to ponder.

Indeed, until now, the declassification deadline (30 years) has passed but the truth about the "Gulf of Tonkin incident, Iraq's possession of chemical weapons" has not been announced, because evidence was never found, and the consequences of creating a pretext to wage an aggressive war with the suffering of millions of innocent people are still lingering with no clear end in sight.

The above historical lesson on “creating excuses” makes public opinion ponder the rare consensus (House of Representatives: 419/3 and Senate: 98/2) in the two houses of the US Congress recently on sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea, especially the evidence of Russia’s interference in the 2016 US election./.

According to VOV