The Gulf of Tonkin Incident was the fraud that started the Viet Nam War

[HooptieWagon]

39. Not quite. There were two incidents.

The first was definately exchanges of shots between NV torpedo boats and US ships and planes. US Navy ships, inc a carrier commanded by Jim Morrison's ( Doors singer) father were in disputed waters gathering intelligence and probing NV's defenses. Several NV torpedo boats did make a high speed run towards the destroyer USS Maddox. Maddox fired warning shots, torpedo boats fired torpedos and machine guns. Heavy gunfire from Maddox and US aircraft sank 3 of the torpedo boats. This occurred during daytime, there are even photos of the incident declassified and online.
The second incident, "The" incident, occurred two days later, at night. Maddox crew, perhaps overly jumpy, mistook radar ghost imagines for another torpedo boat attack. Maddox fired many shots at the ghost images, no wreckage found. Navy quickly concluded it was a mistake. However, US intelligence (including the NSA) reported it as a unprovoked attack. Before the reports were discredited a few days later, Pres Johnson had already announced he would be increasing military presence in Vietman.
So, POTUS and others in govt were already itching for war. Govt knew second incident was an error almost immediately. This was not reported to media and public. However, the first incident did definately occur, although was a response to US saber-rattling.