Gulf Of Tonkin Incident Essay

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Gulf of Tonkin Incident In 1955, NGO Dinh Diem organized the Republic of South Vietnam and made himself the new president. In 1960, Ho Chi Minh the communist leader of North Vietnam had been able to mobilize nationalist sentiment with the citizens of South Vietnam. These South Vietnamese Guerilla forces, Vietcong, launched attacks in opposition to the new Diem regime and the support sought from western countries. The democratic country of South Vietnam was the United States end of the United States-Russian proxy war between North and South Vietnam. The South Vietnamese had relied on United States support more and more as the war was getting started. On July 30 and 31 1964, two North Vietnamese islands were bombed, and on July 31, 1964 while the United States Destroyer Maddox was on a recon patrol off of the North Vietnam islands of Ho Me and Hon Hgu where they were setting up strategic positions for a covert operations again the North Vietnamese. August 2, 1964, the United States Maddox was very close to Hon Me when two North Korean torpedo boats were launched from the island, the United States Maddox fired several warning shots, but the torpedo boats continued to advance. The United States Maddox fired directly at the torpedo boats, one…show more content…
Congress passed the resolution with the understanding that it would be consulted if the war escalated and if ground troops were to be used in South Vietnam, Congress acted without knowledge of the bombing raids or that the Maddox had been less than twelve miles off the coast of North Vietnam. North Vietnams maritime boundaries were twelve miles or greater, the US Maddox fired from less than three
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