We look back on The Gulf of Tonkin
Incident that occured fifty years ago and the provocative covert acts against North Viet Nam by the US Navy, CIA, US Army, NSA et al- and local forces under the command of the US installed Saigon government.
Ultimately as the years of war ground on replete with body counts, medals and corporate profits there ensued millions of people who were killed and generations of both Vietnamese and western forces including their descendants adversely effected from exposure to chemical warfare-Monsanto “agent orange”, depleted uranium and atrocities.
The Viet Nam war demoralized and shattered the US nation; historians seldom view it as anything other than a defeat and collosal blunder.
Fifty years later there is once again howling and yapping from people (who’s own children will stay safely out of any militarily intervention) in another civil war -Ukraine. Once again there is yet another incident which perhaps decades from now the true story of will be revealed. #MH17
BEATING THE DRUMS FOR WAR
Evidence to support the claims made by potus was non-existent on the night of August 4 1964, when Lyndon Johnson broadcast the administrations version and conclusions to the American public.
Messages recorded that day indicate that rather than the MSM version of the event being true President Johnson and Secretary McNamara engaged in pushing a story that was later shown to be false, and misleading.
Conclusions based on fabrications and recanted reports were the order of the day.
The “free press” rather than inquire for authenticated evidence eagerly spread the dis-information. Time, Life and Newsweek, ran articles throughout August 1964 on the Tonkin Gulf incident.
Time reported:”Through the darkness, from the west and south…intruders boldly sped…at least six of them… they opened fire on the destroyers with automatic weapons, this time from as close as 2,000 yards.”
The use of the Tonkin Gulf tale served as a pretext for escalation and military intervention of U.S. in Viet Nam.
“THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY”
Public threats against North Vietnam, as well as calls from politicians in favor of “bombing them into the stone age” began concurrently with a media blitz to convince the public for their support.
North Vietnamese General Giap stated that the US actions were done to “to provoke North Viet Nam” which was immediately dismissed as “communist propaganda”.
Actually the #US defense strategists had been planning provocative actions against North Vietnam for some time. George Ball told a British journalist after the war that
“at that time…many people…were looking for any excuse to initiate bombing”.
Raymond McGovern, a retired CIA officer,is quoted as saying : “President Lyndon Johnson, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy all knew full well that the evidence of any armed attack on the evening of Aug. 4, 1964”.. (the so-called part two of the Tonkin Gulf incident) “was highly dubious”.
Apparently months prior to Aug. President Johnson with the Joint Chiefs of Staff had conspired and planned for war in Vietnam.
The USS Maddox, on 28 July 1964 was dispatched for patrol duty off the coast of Viet Nam. Opeating as an electronic signals gathering ship its mission in addition to provocation and probing General Giaps defenses was to sail within the territorial waters of Viet Nam purportedly within 8 miles of the coastline.
Fifty years have passed since the US was mislead into a disastrous war that divided one country and destroyed another.
Now once again we see history on the verge of repeating itself. While the advent of the internet has come since then , this seems to allow for flimsy “evidence” to serve as a pretext -“In the posts of two or three tweets shall every bogus word of Harf be established. ”
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