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The '''Gulf of Tonkin incident''' was a confrontation in fall 1964 between the [[communist]] [[North Vietnam]] and the [[United States]].  President [[Lyndon Johnson]] exaggerated a conflict between the American destroyer USS ''Maddox'' and three North Vietnamese P-4 torpedo boats. There were two incidents, and historians feel that a false report of an attack on the ''Maddox'' by the North Vietnamese (the second incident) was publicized. Johnson presented this false information to Congress in order to obtain passage of the [[Gulf of Tonkin Resolution]], which granted Johnson the power to assist [[South Vietnam]] against communist aggression. This was not a declaration of war, but Johnson used it to support injecting the United States into the [[Vietnam War]] and to win reelection in 1964 in a landslide.  

The '''Gulf of Tonkin incident''' was a confrontation in the late summer 1964 between the [[communist]] [[North Vietnam]] and the [[United States]].  President [[Lyndon Johnson]] exaggerated a conflict between the attack of August 2, 1964 on the American destroyer USS ''Maddox'' and three North Vietnamese P-4 torpedo boats. A second attack was said to have occurred on August 4, 1964. Historians feel that a false report of this second incident on the USS ''Maddox'' and USS ''Turner Joy'' by the North Vietnamese was publicized. Further, Johnson presented the false information to Congress in order to obtain passage of the [[Gulf of Tonkin Resolution]], which granted Johnson the power to assist [[South Vietnam]] against communist aggression. This was not a declaration of war, but Johnson used it to support injecting the United States into the [[Vietnam War]] and to win reelection in 1964 by a landslide.

President Johnson, in the middle of his reelection campaign, exaggerated and lied about the incidents in special national television address, and [[liberal]] newspapers promoted his falsehoods further:<ref>http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2261</ref>

President Johnson, in the middle of his reelection campaign, exaggerated and lied about the incidents in special national television address, and [[liberal]] newspapers promoted his falsehoods further:<ref>http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2261</ref>