Tonkin Gulf Incident

Gulf of Tonkin incident

Photo taken from USS Maddox during the incident, showing three North Vietnamese motor torpedo boats

Date	August 2, 1964 (1964-08-02)
Location	Gulf of Tonkin 19°42′N 106°46′E / 19.700°N 106.767°E / 19.700; 106.767Coordinates: 19°42′N 106°46′E / 19.700°N 106.767°E / 19.700; 106.767
Result	Gulf of Tonkin Resolution; escalation of the War in Vietnam

Belligerents

United States

North Vietnam

Commanders and leaders

George S. Morrison

Le Duy Khoai

Strength

Sea:
1 aircraft carrier,
1 destroyer
Air:
4 aircraft

3 torpedo boats

Casualties and losses

1 destroyer slightly damaged,
1 aircraft slightly damaged

1 torpedo boat severely damaged,
2 torpedo boats moderately damaged,
4 killed,
6 wounded

The Gulf of Tonkin incident (Vietnamese: Sự kiện Vịnh Bắc Bộ), also known as the USS Maddox incident, was an international confrontation that led to the United States engaging more directly in the Vietnam War. It involved either one or two separate confrontations involving North Vietnam and the United States in the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. The original American report blamed North Vietnam for both incidents, but eventually became very controversial with widespread claims that either one or both incidents were false, and possibly deliberately so. On August 2, 1964, the destroyer USS Maddox, while performing a signals intelligence patrol as part of DESOTO operations, was pursued by three North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats of the 135th Torpedo Squadron.Maddox fired three warning shots and the North Vietnamese boats then attacked with torpedoes and machine gun fire.Maddox expended over 280 3-inch and 5-inch shells in a sea battle. One U.S. aircraft was damaged, three North Vietnamese torpedo boats were damaged, and four North Vietnamese sailors were killed, with six more wounded. There were no U.S. casualties.Maddox "was unscathed except for a single bullet hole from a Vietnamese machine gun round".

It was originally claimed by the National Security Agency that a Second Gulf of Tonkin incident occurred on August 4, 1964, as another sea battle, but instead evidence was found of "Tonkin ghosts" (false radar images) and not actual North Vietnamese torpedo boats. In the 2003 documentary The Fog of War, the former United States Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara admitted that the August 2 USS Maddox attack happened with no Defense Department response, but the August 4 Gulf of Tonkin attack never happened. In 1995, former Secretary of Defense McNamara met with former Vietnam People's Army General Võ Nguyên Giáp to ask what happened on August 4, 1964 in the second Gulf of Tonkin Incident. "Absolutely nothing", Giáp replied. Giáp claimed that the attack had been imaginary.

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