August 17, 2002

An anniversary few remember, the Tonkin Gulf Incident

Through A Glass Darkly, by John Myers, Internet Photojournalist

Aug. 5, 1964 is not a date widely remembered or even particularly observed by those of my generation who were there.

It was 38 years ago when President Lyndon B. Johnson made an address to Congress about "the Tonkin Gulf Incident" which resulted in Joint Resolution of Congress H.J. RES 1145 on Aug. 7, 1964. If you're not of my generation, you probably don't know that this was the event that put America into the Vietnam War.

"Last night I announced to the American people that the North Vietnamese regime had conducted further deliberate attacks against U.S. naval vessels operating in international waters, and I had therefore directed air action against gunboats and supporting facilities used in these hostile operations. This air action has now been carried out with substantial damage to the boats and facilities. Two U.S. aircraft were lost in the action," LBJ said in his address to Congress seeking authorization to send the first American troops to Vietnam.

The Tonkin Gulf Resolution passed by a large majority of Congress stated "That the Congress approves and supports the determination of the President, as Commander in Chief, to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression."

I was ready to begin my senior year in high school when the Vietnam War officially began. By 1967 I had frittered away two years of military school and one year at North Carolina State University -- majoring in partying with a grade-point average hovering near subzero.

It was time to fish or cut bait, so after flunking out as a freshman at NCSU, I bummed a ride into downtown Raleigh and walked into the Navy recruiter's office.

In fairly short order I was on a plane headed to San Diego, which seemed a better choice for boot camp than the Great Lakes. I had never been to southern California or to Chicago, and in my ignorance I thought Illinois might still be cold in May.

I don't know if it was, or is, but I do know now for sure that San Diego is evermore hot in May -- and June, July and August.

In January 1969, my turn came to go to Vietnam but at least it was aboard the relative comfort of a Navy destroyer. I never saw the Vietnam jungles, and certainly consider it not my loss.

And on that cruise, I had a shipmate, a gunner's mate who was aboard a sister ship of ours, the destroyer Turner Joy, which was one of the two American ships allegedly fired upon by North Vietnamese gunboats on Aug. 4, 1964, to pull us into that war.

I say allegedly because that gunner's mate said they never saw any gunboats, just some fuzzy blips on radar that might have been gunboats -- and might have been whales or wave tops.

And the Turner Joy was never fired on, but did fire a couple of rounds at the fuzzy blips, just in case there were gunboats.

The fuzzy blips didn't fire first, or second or at all, he said.

As was suspected in hindsight, LBJ just used that incident as his excuse to get a full military commitment for Vietnam, for whatever reasons he had at the time. I can't imagine just why.

And now here we are again with another President fighting one war and talking about starting another in Iraq. I'm not saying President George W. Bush will take a flimsy excuse like the Tonkin Gulf Incident to launch a war against Iraq.

I believe there is ample reason to finish the job his father left undone.

But when it happens, and I believe it will, more young men and women will be sent into harm's way, and that's not a decision to be taken lightly by our commander-in-chief.

Pray for our men and women in uniform, busy fighting the war against terrorism in Afghanistan and maybe soon in Iraq.

If you're an old fossil like me, that's about all there's left to do.