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The USS Maddox was fired on by North Vietnamese on August 2 and 4th 1964. Which was used a an excuse for the United States to go and intervene. From this the the Gulf to Tonkin Resolution was created by Congress, which allowed Lyndon B. Johnson to have a blank check to take all necessary measures.
From this Johnson had three choices to chose from, first listen to Kennedy's Advisors, second negotiate with Hanoi (North Vietnamese forces) and third send US troops to Vietnam. Johnson was then advised by his generals to target North locations. Were the US generals thought that Ho Chi Minh would surrender in a month. On February 7th 1965, North Viet Cong troops attacked and stormed a US base in Plekiu. This event gave all the more reason for Johnson to send troops to Vietnam, to stop the Communists. |
Telegram from the Department of State (Rusk) to the Embassy in Vietnam (Lodge)This document was declassified in 2005. It reads, "Once such publicity occurred, I think you can see that the finger would point straight at us and that the President would then be put in perhaps a far more difficult position," meaning that the whole attack on the USS Maddox was just a way for the US to go to war. Also that the American people would look the government more specially the president differently.
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Telephone Conversation between Johnson and BundyIn the beginning Johnson says, "I don't see what we can ever hope to get out of there with once we're committed….I don't think it worth fighting for and I don't think we can get out. And it's just the biggest damn mess that I ever saw." Johnson was having second thoughts about going to war and how it could (and would ) turn into a deserter.
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Criteria for US bombing North VietnamFirst to target military locations where the Viet Cong are. Second the risk of having SAND missiles hit American aircraft was to high. Third the danger of having another country come to war (China). Fourth fear of having to many civilian deaths.
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