USS Maddox
On August 2, 1964, North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the U.S.S. Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin. A few days later, another American ship, the U.S.S. Turner Joy, was also attacked. The Tonkin Gulf Resolution was passed in response to the aggression, authorizing the President to take "all necessary steps, including the use of armed force," to protect American interests ("Gulf of Tonkin Incident," n.d.). The attack marked a major turning point in United States policy and military action in Vietnam. Until this point, there was no full commitment of troops in Southeast Asia. After the Gulf of Tonkin incident, Johnson committed 500,000 American troops to the region. Therefore, the attack on the Maddox represented the escalation of war.
Events leading up to the turning point remain shrouded somewhat in secrecy. There is some evidence to suggest that the attack on the U.S.S. Maddox was provoked and that reports of a second attack on the ship had been fabricated ("Gulf of Tonkin Incident," n.d.). The United States had also been playing a "dangerous game" by engaging in covert ops using the help of South Vietnamese (Paterson, 2008). The full story behind the covert ops that preceded the U.S.S. Maddox attack is gradually being revealed as some 140 documents have been...
" The Great Society initiative included policies concerning increased education assistance, fundamental protections of civil rights and the right of all Americans to vote, urban renewal, Medicare, conservation, beautification, control and prevention of crime and delinquency, promotion of the arts, and consumer protection (President Lyndon B. Johnson's Biography 2009). Contributions. The contributions made by President Johnson were both numerous and significant. In this regard, Firestone and Vogt (1988) report that, "As LBJ
Vietnam Turning Point The Alleged Attack on U.S. Maddox in 1964 Why is your chosen turning point actually a turning point and not just another event? The incident leading up to the claim of an attack against the U.S. Maddox, a Destroyer naval vessel is a turning point in history. This is because it sparked the beginning of a war with Vietnam that would last nearly ten years and divide and change U.S.
Tonkin Gulf Crisis The Debate over the Tonkin Gulf Crisis The Tonkin Gulf Crisis 1964 ranks with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy as events that David Kaiser of the U.S. Naval War College refers to as "controversies in American political history that dwarf all others (Ford, 1997)." There is evidence that President Lyndon Johnson deliberately lied about the incidents leading to the Vietnam War
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