Today is the 61st anniversary of the Gulf of Tonkin incident. The Johnson administration and the NSA alleged that North Vietnam attacked the USS Maddox ship that was deployed off the coast of North Vietnam. However, they knew that the alleged attack did not occur, yet they waged a brutal war of aggression against the Vietnamese people.
Unfortunately, less than a year before the Gulf of Tonkin incident, the US national-security state probably murdered President Kennedy, who wanted to get the United States out of Vietnam after the 1964 presidential election. In October 1963, Kennedy signed National Security Action Memorandum (NSAM) 263, which called for an immediate reduction of 1000 troops from Vietnam.
Kennedy planned on implementing a full withdrawal in his 2nd term as President. On October 20, 1963, Kennedy told his neighbor, “This war in Vietnam – it’s never off my mind, it haunts me day and night. The first thing I’ll do when I’m re-elected, I’m going to get the Americans out of Vietnam.”
Just days after the November 1963 assassination or coup d’état, Johnson signed NSAM 273 which reversed Kennedy’s Vietnam policy. NSAM 273 called for full victory over North Vietnam. In 1964, the US carried out a series of attacks and provocations against North Vietnam with the probable goal of inducing North Vietnam to retaliate against US forces.
On August 2, 1964, the USS Maddox, which was carrying out signals intelligence for the United States against North Vietnam, fired at North Vietnamese patrol boats. North Vietnamese patrol boats struck back at the USS Maddox which sustained minor damage.
The US government lied when they asserted that North Vietnam attacked the USS Maddox on August 4th and used the fictitious August 4th attack as justification for enacting the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which authorized the war on Vietnam.
For years, the United States government and military killed millions of Vietnamese civilians and wantonly used chemical weapons in the process. Thankfully, the Vietnamese people overcame the empire and prevailed against the US national-security state and its puppet South Vietnamese regime.
11:21 am on August 4, 2025
