The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 107, July 2003 - April, 2004 Page: 77
660 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Four Years and a World of Difference
evolutionary trend in LBJ's presidency toward a more sophisticated
understanding of America and the world. Perhaps the best way to appre-
ciate this process is by examining two very similar events that occurred at
very dissimilar times. One need look no further for such a comparison
than to the open seas, where the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident and the
1968 Pueblo incident offer just such a comparison.
The details of the attack in the Gulf of Tonkin have been articulated in
detail elsewhere and thus need no great elaboration here.29 In the sum-
mer of 1964, the destroyer USS Maddox was operating in the Tonkin Gulf
as part of the DeSoto program. These missions were designed to collect
electronic intelligence by monitoring local radio communications, and
by locating and tracking the frequency of coastal radar stations. Among
other objectives, the ships were to gather information in support of
OPLAN 34A, a series of covert operations secretly organized and sup-
ported by the United States, and performed by the South Vietnamese
against North Vietnam. On August 1, as the Maddox approached the off-
shore island of Hon Me, which had recently been attacked by South
Vietnamese commandos, the ship intercepted a series of messages indi-
cating an imminent North Vietnamese attack. The next morning, the
Maddox was approximately fifteen miles off Hon Me when three North
Vietnamese patrol boats approached from the southeast. When the
patrols closed within ten thousand yards, the American vessel opened
fire, leaving one ship badly damaged. The other two quickly broke off
their attack, and the Johnson administration ordered no further retalia-
tion. "The other side got a sting out of this," concluded Secretary of State
Dean Rusk. "If they do it again they'll get another sting."s Two nights
later, the Maddox, now accompanied by the destroyer Turner Joy, was still
in the Tonkin Gulf. Operating in bad weather, the two ships reported
(erroneously, as was later demonstrated) that they were under attack.
When this news reached Washington, President Johnson ordered the
launch of Operation Pierce Arrow, a retaliatory strike against North
Vietnamese torpedo boat bases and oil storage facilities, thus taking
another fateful step toward greater American involvement in Vietnam.
A close examination of Johnson's handling of this crisis lends cre-
dence to the negative picture of him put forward by his many critics.
2" See especially Edwin Moise, Tonkn Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War (Chapel Hill,
N.C.: University of North Carohna Press, 1996). See also Ezra Siff, Why the Senate Slept (Westport,
Conn Praeger Publishing, 1999); Joseph Goulden, Truth is Always the Frst Casualty (Chicago:
Rand McNally Co., 1969); Eugene Windchy, Tonkin Gulf (Garden City, N.J., Doubleday, 1971);
Anthony Austin, The President's War (Philadelphia: Lippincott Press, 1971); and James Bamford,
Body of Secrets (NewYork: Doubleday, 2001), 240-283.
"0 Rusk quoted in George Herring, America's Longest War (2nd ed.; New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
1986), 120.2003
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 107, July 2003 - April, 2004, periodical, 2004; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101224/m1/95/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.