Origin of the blank check: How the Vietnam war started from a battle that never happened
Sixty years ago this week, an incident off the coast of North Vietnam set the U.S. on a path toward a costly and, ultimately, unsuccessful war.
July 1964
What some were calling the Second Indochina War is heating up. The U.S. had boosted its troop presence in 1961 and again in 1962.
OPLAN 34A
South Vietnamese troops are carrying out a series of commando raids along the coast of North Vietnam, in the Gulf of Tonkin. These raids are, in fact, planned by the U.S. Department of Defense and supported by the CIA. The military code name for these raids is OPLAN 34A.
Desoto Patrols
At the same time, U.S. destroyers patrol the Gulf of Tonkin off the North Vietnamese coast, monitoring the attacks and collecting intelligence. These types of surveillance missions — the Navy calls them DeSoto patrols — are common along the coast of Vietnam, North Korea, China and Russia.
Shots Fired, Aug. 2, 1964
The destroyer USS Maddox is monitoring one of the OPLAN 34A attacks when three small North Vietnamese patrol boats appear, closing rapidly. The Maddox fires a warning shot, but the patrol boats launch torpedoes at the Maddox.
Photo Credit: Naval History & Heritage Command
The Maddox easily avoids the attack and begins firing on the patrol boats. In addition, F-8 Crusader fighter jets from the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga join the attack, setting one patrol boat afire and sending the others scurrying for shore.
President Lyndon Johnson orders a second destroyer — the USS Turner Joy — to join the Maddox in further patrols.
Brush with History
Commanding U.S. naval forces from his flagship the USS Bon Homme Richard: Capt. George Morrison. His son, Jim, would find fame as singer for the rock group The Doors.
A Phantom Attack, Aug. 4, 1964
In the middle of a driving rainstorm with reduced visibility and 6-foot swells, the Maddox reports it’s under attack again. This time multiple contacts are made from multiple vectors. The Maddox and the Turner Joy fire wildly into the night.
Except there turned out to be no attack. Capt. John Herrick of the Maddox notes the lack of torpedo wakes and begins to suspect the sonar and radar contacts are caused by wave crests and overeager operators. He radios his doubts to his superiors: “No actual visual sightings ... suggest complete evaluation before any further action taken.”
Also, F-8 jets from the Ticonderoga are scrambled again to repel the attack. Cmdr. James Stockdale reported later, “Our destroyers were just shooting at phantom targets ... there was nothing there but black water and American firepower.”
Despite the disclaimers, Washington springs into action. Stockdale is awakened the next morning to lead an airstrike as a reprisal.
“Reprisal for what?” he responds.
The strike on Aug. 5 destroys an oil storage facility and sinks 30 enemy vessels. Two of the 18 attacking U.S. jets are shot down, killing one pilot. The other is captured.
Brush with History
On duty that night at the Pentagon, receiving reports from the Gulf of Tonkin: Security analyst Daniel Ellsberg, who would later leak the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times.
A Political Response, Aug. 7, 1964
Johnson and his Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara — both in Washington, D.C. — spring into action. They ask Congress for permission to defend the U.S. forces in Southeast Asia.
Johnson’s proposed Gulf of Tonkin resolution sails through the House unanimously and wins passage in the Senate 48-2. Only Sens. Wayne Morse, D-Ore., and Ernest Gruening, D-Alaska, dissent. Morse tells his colleagues: “I believe that within the next century, future generations will look with dismay and great disappointment upon a Congress which is now about to make such a historic mistake.”
Johnson is gleeful at what will later be called the “blank check” he’s been given by Congress. He reportedly tells aides the resolution is “like Grandma’s nightshirt — It covers everything.”
U.S. strategists feel the growing Communist influence in Vietnam will back off if faced with a show of force. Six months later, Johnson orders Operation Rolling Thunder, a massive bombing campaign, and sends yet more troops to Vietnam.
Eventually, more than 58,000 American servicemen and women and nearly half a million Vietnamese civilians will die before the U.S. pulls out of the conflict 11 years later.
Congress takes back its checkbook by repealing the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on June 24, 1970.
Four Key Players
Captain John J. Herrick
Credit: U.S. Navy
A veteran of World War II (aboard the battleship USS New York) and the Korean war, Herrick was in command of Destroyer Division 192. After the Tonkin incident, he was named commanding office of the naval ammo depot in Portsmouth, Virginia. He later retired to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Commander James Stockdale
U.S. Navy
Thirteen months after the Tonkin incident, Stockdale ejected from his crippled A-4E Skyhawk and parachuted into a Vietnamese village. He was severely beaten and held prisoner for 7½ years. He was released in 1973, served as president of the Naval War College and of the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, and, in 1992, was Ross Perot’s vice presidential candidate.a]
Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara
Naval History Magazine
Although tapes of Johnson’s White House meetings prove McNamara deliberately distorted the Aug. 4 incident and lied to Congress, he never admitted remorse or regret. In his 2003 video memoir, McNamara explained, “I learned early on never answer the question that is asked of you. Answer the question that you wish had been asked of you.
President Lyndon B. Johnson
LBJ Presidential Archive
As the Vietnam War spiraled out of control in the 1960s, so did Johnson’s re-election hopes. When Robert F. Kennedy announced his candidacy on an anti-war platform, Johnson bowed out of the race. He moved back to Texas in January 1969 and died on Jan. 22, 1973. The next day, President Richard Nixon announced a cease-fire and the end of the war.