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Why did the attack on the us destroyers provide a basis for send in troops?
Wiki User
∙ 12y ago
Don't fall for that old stereotype "troops and escalation..." that's cold war 60s Propaganda. The truth is that the US destroyers were conducting DESOTO patrols and escorting or supplying DESOTO Intel to "Nasty Boats" that were inserting South Viet commandos into North Vietnam. It was Covert ops. The US wanted Hanoi to commence more drastic action so that the US could legally pound them...thus the Nasty boat insertions and DESOTO missions. The North Viets got wind of it, commenced a look out for the operators then reacted to it...on 02 August '64 (Reference book by Moise (1996) "The Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Viet War").
US troops were already in the Nam, since '55. The Tonkin Gulf simply gave the LBJ administration legal rights to commence open warfare on Hanoi. Which is what happened "Operation Pierce Arrow" on 05 August 1964...the first bombing by US jets of North Vietnam. Target: the North Viet Navy's Torpedo Boat bases in NORTH Vietnam. The first US POW of the war was LTCDR Alvarez shot down during that raid, he was piloting an A4 Skyhawk jet.
As to your question; LBJ considered the US destroyers to be "on the high seas" when attacked, therefore the North Viet Navy had no right to attack US warships "on the high seas." Therefore the US had the right to defend themselves. The bottom line is the Tonkin Gulf incidents resulted in war between the US and North Vietnam...that term "escalation" was the "political correct term" of the 60s designed to "not alarm people" during the age of possible nuclear crisis.
Wiki User
∙ 12y ago
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