Tonkin Resolution Turning Point: The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution of 1964

The Vietnam War was one of the saddest conflicts in United States history. Just before the developments that led to this conflict, the Korean War had been unsuccessfully concluded, at least in the minds many, because the two major players in the battle were not willing to engage the other (China and the U.S.). Vietnam was another "line on the sand" for the government of the United States which wished to stop the spread of communism beyond the borders of the U.S.S.R. And China. Unfortunately, this was not working to any great degree because communist forces from both countries made inroads into peaceful neighboring countries under the pretext of ethnic repatriation. In the case of Vietnam, communist forces from the North were trying to envelop the entire country (which would eventually happen), and leaders from the North resented the fact that the United...

This paper examines the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution from the perspectives of how the issue started, what it said and what the result was, and whether this resolution can be considered a turning point for the United States.
This main reason that this event can be called a turning point in U.S. history is because it was resolution from the U.S. government that led to the escalation of the Vietnam War (NEH, 2011). The United States had sent warships to patrol just off the coast of Vietnam since there were already green beret in country who were acting as military advisors, and helping to train the South Vietnamese regulars. The communist forces from the North, supplied by the Chinese government, had aggressively been trying to take territory from the democratic government in the South (NEH, 2011). This led the U.S. To send troops and a small naval…