[5] In the ensuing engagement, one U.S. aircraft (which had been launched from aircraft carrier USSTiconderoga) was damaged, three North Vietnamese torpedo boats were damaged, and four North Vietnamese sailors were killed, with six more wounded. This would have been communicated back to the NSA along with evidence supporting such a conclusion, but in fact the evidence did not do that. Instead, "only information that supported the claim that the communists had attacked the two destroyers was given to Johnson administration officials."[65]. Martens Meyer, who was head of department at the military intelligence staff, operated on behalf of U.S. intelligence. According to Edwin Mose, the Hanoi government (which, unlike the U.S. government, had to give permission at the highest levels for the conduct of such missions) probably assumed that they were all a coordinated effort to escalate military actions against North Vietnam. Indeed, this concept is so well-accepted that rules of engagement for naval, air and land warfare all prohibit false flag attacks. [27], Others, such as Admiral Sharp, maintained that U.S. actions did not provoke the August 2 incident. Johnson was guilty of willful lies of omission. . According to National Security Archive research fellow John Prados, "the American people have long . In 1963, three young Norwegian skippers traveled on a mission in South Vietnam. BRITISH RIOT PHOTOS: The Brits Finally Begin to Take Back Their PowerBIG TIME! How The Gulf Of Tonkin Incident Sparked The Vietnam War. [1] Intercepted communications indicated that the vessels intended to attack Maddox. On the evening of August 4, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson addressed the nation in a televised speech in which he announced that two days earlier, U.S. ships had been attacked twice in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin near North Vietnam. At the same time it gathered this intelligence, the South Vietnamese navy conducted strikes on multiple North Vietnamese islands. Aurora CO shooting. . The term is from old-timey naval warfare, where one ship flew a different nation's colors before attacking as a means to get closer to their target. This article will demonstrate three principal factual conclusions: (1) that Mr. Gamble is absolutely wrong, as a matter of historical fact, to claim that the Gulf of Tonkin incident was a "false flag" operation; (2) that belief in "9/11 was an inside job" conspiracy theories is not growing, but in fact shrinking; and (3) the conclusion . Hanyok attributed this to the deference that the NSA would have likely given to the analysts who were closer to the event. The accords called for a general election by July 1956 to create a unified Vietnamese state. In contrast to the clear conditions two days earlier, thunderstorms and rain squalls reduced visibility and increased wave heights to six feet. He thus characterized the attack as "unprovoked" since the ship had been in international waters. [5] A U.S. aircraft carrier, the USS Ticonderoga, was also stationed nearby. Retiring to South Vietnamese waters, Maddox was joined by the destroyer USSTurner Joy. The planes pilot, Dispropaganda is 100% independent non partisan and non profit, in order to keep the site up we rely on financial supprt from our readers. Despite the Navy's claim that two attacking torpedo boats had been sunk, there was no wreckage, bodies of dead North Vietnamese sailors, or other physical evidence present at the scene of the alleged engagement. [47] George Ball stated that the mission of the destroyer warship involved in the Gulf of Tonkin incident "was primarily for provocation. The U.S. vessels were now more than 100 miles away from the North Vietnamese coastline when their trackers started to light up. [51], Although Maddox had been involved in providing intelligence support for South Vietnamese attacks at Hn M and Hn Ng, Johnson denied, in his testimony before Congress, that the U.S. Navy had supported South Vietnamese military operations in the Gulf. The accords, which were signed by other participants including the Viet Minh, mandated a temporary ceasefire line, which separated southern and northern Vietnam to be governed by the State of Vietnam and the Viet Minh respectively. This lie jumpstarted a war that would claim 58,220 American and more than 3 million Vietnamese lives. "[34] In response to requests for confirmation, at around 16:00 Washington time, Herrick cabled, "Details of action present a confusing picture although certain that the original ambush was bona fide. Cover-Up Worse Than Crime: Silence Around Hersh's Bombshell & Ominous Gulf of Tonkin Parallels 22 February, 18:50 GMT Sachs and McGovern: UN Probe is Global Priority Remarkably, two American experts who testified at the UNSC meeting openly said that they do not buy into the West's Nord Stream narrative. Fri, 07/16/2010 - 10:33 . [49], In his book, Body of Secrets, James Bamford, who spent three years in the United States Navy as an intelligence analyst, writes that the primary purpose of the Maddox "was to act as a seagoing provocateurto poke its sharp gray bow and the American flag as close to the belly of North Vietnam as possible, in effect shoving its five-inch cannons up the nose of the communist navy. By mid-1965, his approval rating was 70 percent (though it fell precipitously once the war dragged on longer than expected). In 1964, the program was transferred to the Defense Department and conducted by the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG). Gulf of Tonkin. [9] In 1995, McNamara met with former People's Army of Vietnam General V Nguyn Gip to ask what happened on August 4, 1964. The two destroyers stayed miles away from the coastlines in the Gulf of Tonkin. As the torpedo boats neared, Maddox fired three warning shots. Further, it shows he lied about the incident, using it as a catalyst to go to war. [59], In October 2012, retired Rear Admiral Lloyd "Joe" Vasey was interviewed by David Day on Asia Review and gave a detailed account of the August 4 incident. U.S. NavyCommander James Bond Stockdale exiting his aircraft. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorized President Lyndon Johnson to "take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further. "[36] Johnson also referred to the attacks as having taken place "on the high seas", suggesting that they had occurred in international waters. These runs into North Vietnamese territorial waters coincided with South Vietnamese coastal raids and were interpreted as coordinated operations by the North, which officially acknowledged the engagements of August 2, 1964. Suggest complete evaluation before any further action taken.. [6][7] A taped conversation of a meeting several weeks after passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was released in 2001, revealing that McNamara expressed doubts to Johnson that the attack had even occurred. The Gulf of Tonkin incident (Vietnamese: S kin Vnh Bc B) was an international confrontation that led to the United States engaging more directly in the Vietnam War. The Gulf of Tonkin incident: the false flag operation that started the Vietnam war. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The three skippers did not know who Meyer really was when they agreed to a job that involved them in sabotage missions against North Vietnam. As at least two millennia have proven, false flag operations, with healthy doses of propaganda and ignorance, provided a great recipe for endless war. Catastrophic Covid Vax Mandates Shutting Down Hospitals, Medical Centers and Healthcare Systems Like This?! [36][37] Johnson's speech repeated the theme that "dramatized Hanoi/Ho Chi Minh as the aggressor and which put the United States into a more acceptable defensive posture. His actions would lead to the deaths of 58,220 Americans and an untold number of Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians. Polmar, Norman "The U. S. Navy Electronic Warfare (Part 1)", OAH Magazine of History, fall 1992. The sinking of the USS Maine in 1898 and the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 - each of which was a critical part of a casus belli - have been claimed as possible false flag attacks, though. "[53], Johnson commented privately: "For all I know, our navy was shooting at whales out there."[54]. In fact, the Turner Joy had not detected any torpedoes during the entire event. The Gulf of Tonkin incident: the false flag operation that started the Vietnam war. "[33], McNamara later testified that he had read the message after his return to the Pentagon that afternoon. Theyd disappear, only to reappear seconds or minutes later in a completely different location. False Flags Nero Ft. Sumter USS Maine RMS Lusitania Reichstag Fire Pearl Harbor Operation Gladio Operation Paperclip Operation Northwoods Gulf of Tonkin U.S.S. [21], Although the boats were crewed by South Vietnamese naval personnel, approval for each mission conducted under the plan came directly from Admiral U.S. Grant Sharp Jr., CINCPAC in Honolulu, who received his orders from the White House. "A close scrutiny of Johnson's public statements reveals no mention of preparations for overt warfare and no indication of the nature and extent of covert land and air measures that already were operational." The Gulf of Tonkin incident is considered a false flag operation because the military was used by the CIA to heighten the involvement of the US in Vietnam. The conversation between President Lyndon B. Johnson andSecretary of State Robert McNamara in the video below starts at 1:14 minutes. "Dispropaganda" - An independent and politically unbiased website which strives to tell historical, political and contemporary, unfashionable, hidden truths through the use of satire and humor. This initial action was never reported by the Johnson administration, which insisted that the Vietnamese boats fired first. White's book explains the difference between lies of commission and lies of omission. He asserts "I maintain that President Johnson, Secretary McNamara and the Joint Chiefs of Staff gave false information to Congress in their report about US destroyers being attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin. and sadly I believe the shooting in Uvalde Texas at the elementary school was a false flag mission to take . Herrick sent a flash message to the U.S. saying he had received info indicating possible hostile action. He had spotted three North Vietnamese torpedo boats coming his way, and once again began to retreat. assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a study by NSA historian Robert J. Hanyok. [43] It was not until after the United States became more involved in the war that his claim began to gain support throughout the United States government. This, along with other false flag operations in Operation Himmler, would be used to mobilize support from the German population for the start of World War II in Europe. Stockdale was always adamant that no attack ever occurred on August 4. The destroyer was ordered to fire warning shots if the enemy vessels closed within 10,000 yards. Lots of the 'nuts' sure . By 1964, the pressure on these waters had reached a boil, and North Vietnamese forces were not about to stand still against these operations. But not every event is a false flag . This territorial limit was unrecognized by the United States. 2. He claimed that the North Vietnamese had tracked Maddox along the coast by radar and were thus aware that the destroyer had not actually attacked North Vietnam and that Hanoi (or the local commander) had ordered its craft to engage Maddox anyway. TheMaddoxfired firstdue to a belief they were under attack. But every time he hightailed it out of one area, another blip on the sonar would appear. As the battle continued, Captain Herrick too began to have doubts about these attacks. The Gulf of Tonkin incident is the most notorious false flag in American history. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was passed unanimously in the Senate. "[55] White continued his whistleblowing activities in the 1968 documentary In the Year of the Pig. President Johnson signed this into law three days later, privately remarking that the resolution was like Grandmas nightshirt. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was a statement which allowed President Johnson to _______U.S. [5] The boats were from Squadron 135, commanded by Le Duy Khoai, with the boats commanded by brothers Van Bot, Van Tu, and Van Gian. Maddox suffered only minor damage from a single 14.5mm bullet from a P-4's KPV heavy machine gun into her superstructure. False flags are real and have been used on many occasions to advance nations into war, change regimes or radically sway public opinion. [12]:76, The Gulf of Tonkin Incident occurred during the first year of the Johnson administration. In fact, the Gulf of Tonkin incident, as it became known, turned out to be a fictitious creation courtesy of the government to escalate war in Vietnam leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of U.S. troops and millions of Vietnamese, fomenting the largest anti-war movement in American history, and tarnishing the reputation of a nation once In the 2003 documentary The Fog of War, the former United States Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara admitted that an attack on the USS Maddox happened on August 2, but the supposed August 4 attack, for which Washington authorized retaliation, never happened. The first missions in the Tonkin Gulf began in February 1964. After these first shots, the North Vietnamese forces made their attack.