Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War

Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War PDF Author: Edwin E. Moise
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 9780807823002
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
The author examines the events of one August night in 1964, when U.S. ships were allegedly attacked by the North Vietnamese, leading to an escalation of U.S. involvement in the war, and demonstrates that the attack never took place. UP.

Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War

Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War PDF Author: Edwin E. Moïse
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807863483
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
Retracing the confused pattern of planning for escalation of the Vietnam War, Moise reconstructs the events of the night of August 4, 1964, when the U.S. Navy destroyers Maddox and Turner Joy reported that they were under attack by North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. Using declassified records and interviews with the participants, Moise demonstrates that there was no North Vietnamese attack; the original report was a genuine mistake.

Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War

Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War PDF Author: Edwin E. Moise
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 9780807823002
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
The author examines the events of one August night in 1964, when U.S. ships were allegedly attacked by the North Vietnamese, leading to an escalation of U.S. involvement in the war, and demonstrates that the attack never took place. UP.

The Gulf of Tonkin

The Gulf of Tonkin PDF Author: Tal Tovy
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317431995
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
The Gulf of Tonkin: The United States and the Escalation in the Vietnam War analyzes the events that led to the escalation of the conflict in Vietnam and increased American involvement. On August 4, 1964, the captains of two American destroyers, the USS Maddox and the USS Turner Joy, reported that their ships were being attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. This report came on top of a previous report by the captain of the USS Maddox, indicating that he had been attacked by torpedo boats two nights earlier. The text introduces readers to the historiography of these incidents and how the perception of the events changed over time. The attacks, which were collectively called the Gulf of Tonkin incident, are presented in the context not only of the Vietnam War but also of the Cold War and U.S. government powers, enabling students to understand the events’ full ramifications. Using essential primary documents, Tal Tovy provides an accessible introduction to a vital turning point in U.S. and international affairs. This book will be useful to all students of the Vietnam War, American military history, and foreign policy history.

The Myths of Tet

The Myths of Tet PDF Author: Edwin Moïse
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 070062502X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Late in 1967, American officials and military officers pushed an optimistic view of the Vietnam War. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) said that the war was being won, and that Communist strength in South Vietnam was declining. Then came the Tet Offensive of 1968. In its broadest and simplest outline, the conventional wisdom about the offensive—that it was a military defeat for the Communists but a political victory for them, because it undermined support for the war in the United States—is correct. But much that has been written about the Tet Offensive has been misleading. Edwin Moïse shows that the Communist campaign shocked the American public not because the American media exaggerated its success, but because it was a bigger campaign—larger in scale, much longer in duration, and resulting in more American casualties—than most authors have acknowledged. MACV, led by General William Westmoreland, issued regular estimates of enemy strength in South Vietnam. During 1967, intelligence officers at MACV were increasingly required to issue low estimates to show that the war was being won. Their underestimation of enemy strength was most extreme in January 1968, just before the Tet Offensive. The weak Communist force depicted in MACV estimates would not have been capable of sustaining heavy combat month after month like they did in 1968. Moïse also explores the errors of the Communists, using Vietnamese sources. The first wave of Communist attacks, at the end of January 1968, showed gross failures of coordination. Communist policy throughout 1968 and into 1969 was wildly overoptimistic, setting impossible goals for their forces. While acknowledging the journalists and historians who have correctly reported various parts of the story, Moïse points out widespread misunderstandings in regard to the strength of Communist forces in Vietnam, the disputes among American intelligence agencies over estimates of enemy strength, the actual pattern of combat in 1968, the effects of Tet on American policy, and the American media’s coverage of all these issues.

The War Bells Have Rung

The War Bells Have Rung PDF Author: George C. Herring
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 0813938511
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 39

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Book Description
In the summer of 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson faced an agonizing decision. On June 7, General William Westmoreland had come to him with a "bombshell" request to more than double the number of existing troops in Vietnam. LBJ, who wished to be remembered as a great reformer, not as a war president, saw the proposed escalation for what it was—the turning point for American involvement in Vietnam. This is one of the most discussed chapters in modern presidential history, but George Herring, the acknowledged dean of Vietnam War historians, has found a fascinating new way to tell this story—through the remarkable legacy of LBJ’s taped telephone conversations. Underused until now in exploring Johnson’s decision making in Vietnam, the phone conversations offer intimate, striking, and sometimes poignant insights into this ordeal. Johnson emerges as a fascinating character, obligated to pursue victory in Vietnam but skeptical that it is even possible, the whole while watching his plans for domestic reform threatened. The president walks a fine line between a military he must placate and a Congress whose support he must maintain as he tries to implement his Great Society legislation. The reader can see the flaws in the Cold War sensibility contributing to Johnson’s tragic attempt to hold ground against an enemy with whom he had no leverage. The cast includes many of the era’s most iconic players, such as Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, General Westmoreland ("I have a lot riding on you," LBJ tells him—"I hope you don’t pull a MacArthur on me!"), House minority leader Gerald Ford, anti-war advocate Robert Kennedy ("I think you’ve got to sit down and talk to Bobby," LBJ tells McNamara), and former president Eisenhower, a valuable contact in the Republican camp. A concise, inside look at seven critical weeks in 1965—presented as a Rotunda ebook linking to transcripts and audio files of the original presidential tapes— The War Bells Have Rung offers both student and scholar a vivid and accessible look at a decision on which LBJ’s presidency would pivot and that would change modern American history. Miller Center Studies on the Presidency is a new series of original works that draw on the Miller Center's scholarly programs to shed light on the American presidency past and present.

Fourth Arm of Defense

Fourth Arm of Defense PDF Author: Salvatore R. Mercogliano
Publisher: Government Printing Office
ISBN: 9780945274964
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 88

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Book Description
This publication is the eighth in the series The U.S. Navy and the Vietnam War. The publication focuses on the sealift and logistic operations during the war and includes a number of photographs as well as sidebars detailing specific people and ships involved in the logistic operations. This historical pictorial reference would be of interest to students, historians, members of the military, specifically the Navy, and military leaders, veterans, Vietnam War veterans, and the U.S. merchant marines.

Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War

Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War PDF Author: Edwin E. Moise
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780788159893
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
By carefully reconstructing the events of August 4, 1964, when two U.S. Navy destroyers reported that they were under attack in the Gulf of Tonkin, Moise conclusively demonstrates that there was no North Vietnamese attack. Still, he argues that the original report was not a lie concocted to provide an excuse for escalation but a genuine mistake.

Summons of the Trumpet

Summons of the Trumpet PDF Author: Dave R. Palmer
Publisher: Random House Digital, Inc.
ISBN: 0891415505
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
Soldier/scholar Palmer traces the history of the American involvement in Vietnam and shows how events in both the U.S. and Vietnam became inextricably linked as domestic dissent and a lack of realistic, viable military strategy ultimately led to America's first lost war. Index. 6 maps.

Knowing the Enemy

Knowing the Enemy PDF Author: Richard A. Mobley
Publisher: U.S. Government Printing Office
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 108

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Book Description
U.S. Navy Intelligence Contribution Key to SE Asia War Effort from 1965-75 Knowing the Enemy, part of the commemorative series The U.S. Navy and the Vietnam War, covers the Navy intelligence establishment's support to the war effort in Southeast Asia from 1965 to 1975. It describes the contribution of naval intelligence to key strategic, operational, and tactical aspects of the war including the involvement of intelligence in the seminal Tonkin Gulf Crisis of 1964 and the Rolling Thunder and Linebacker bombing campaigns; the monitoring of Sino-Soviet bloc military assistance to Hanoi; the operation of the Seventh Fleet's reconnaissance aircraft; the enemy's use of the "neutral" Cambodian port of Sihanoukvil≤ and the support to U.S. Navy riverine operations during the Tet Offensive and the SEALORDS campaign in South Vietnam. Special features elaborate on the experiences of reconnaissance plane pilots navigating the dangerous skies of Indochina; intelligence professionals who braved enemy attacks at shore bases in South Vietnam; the perilous mission in Laos of Observation Squadron 67 (VO-67); the secret voyage of nuclear attack submarine Sculpin (SSN-590); and the leadership and heroism of Captain Earl F. Rectanus, Lieutenant Commander Jack Graf, and other naval intelligence professionals who risked, and sometimes lost, their lives in the service of their country during the war. The work is lavishly illustrated with more than 85 photographs and maps, and includes a select list of suggested readings. This publication will be of interest and value to scholars, veterans, and students of the Vietnam War and the Navy's role in that conflict. Related products: Vietnam War resources collection can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/us-military-history/battles-wars/vietnam-war Other products producted by the U.S. Navy, Naval History and Heritage Command can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/agency/902

Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War, Revised Edition

Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War, Revised Edition PDF Author: Edwin Moise
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1682474488
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
On July 31, the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Maddox (DD-731) began a reconnaissance cruise off the coast of North Vietnam. On August 2, three North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the ship. On the night of August 4, the Maddox and another destroyer, the USS Turner Joy (DD-951), expecting to be attacked, saw what they interpreted as hostile torpedo boats on their radars and reported themselves under attack. The following day, the United States bombed North Vietnam in retaliation. Congress promptly passed, almost unanimously and with little debate, a resolution granting President Lyndon Johnson authority to take “all necessary measures” to deal with aggression in Vietnam. The incident of August 4, 1964, is at the heart of this book. The author interviewed numerous Americans who were present. Most believed in the moment that an attack was occurring. By the time they were interviewed, there were more doubters than believers, but the ones who still believed were more confident in their opinions. Factoring in degree of assurance, one could say that the witnesses were split right down the middle on this fundamental question. A careful and rigorous examination of the other forms of evidence, including intercepted North Vietnamese naval communications, interrogations of North Vietnamese torpedo boat personnel captured later in the war, and the destroyers’ detailed records of the location and duration of radar contacts, lead the author to conclude that no attack occurred that night.