Word: fleetness
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Even in private, Washington officials could not offer an intelligent reason that might explain why the puny Hanoi mosquito fleet challenged the 125-ship U.S. Seventh Fleet. Some speculated that Hanoi had somehow connected the Maddox with recent South Vietnamese raids on Hon Me and the neighboring island of Hon Ngu. Yet the Maddox was at least 30 miles from either island at the time of those attacks. And her presence in the gulf was hardly a new provocation, since U.S. destroyers had been patrolling the area frequently over the past two years and are well known to North Vietnamese...
...lest the North Vietnamese, and by indirection the Red Chinese, misread the U.S. stance, the President ordered the U.S. fleet to pursue and destroy any attacking vessel. "Pursuit," in this case, meant that an enemy could be chased to wherever it might flee, even into the sanctuary of its own territorial waters. To back up the public denunciation of North Viet Nam's attack, moreover, the State Department issued a fiery protest to the Hanoi government...
...Going." McNamara hurried back to his office and set the plans in motion. The Pentagon phoned Sharp. In turn, Sharp called the Navy's Pacific Fleet commander, Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, stationed at nearby Makalapa Naval Base, told him: "We're going to clo it." Orders crackled through the Pacific as units of the Seventh Fleet were alerted. The carrier Constellation moved out of Hong Kong-about 500 miles from the Tonkin bases-with instructions to join the Ticonderoga as quickly as possible...
Immediately, Sharp began shuffling forces in his own command. An antisubmarine task force, led by the carrier Kearsarge (famed for its recovery of orbiting U.S. astronauts), swept into the South China Sea to watch for Red China's roving fleet of submarines. A squadron of Air Force F-102 supersonic interceptors bolted from Clark Field in the Philippines to bases in South Viet Nam to counter any attempt by the Chinese to bolster the Viet Minh with jets. Amphibious landing craft silently embarked for undisclosed destinations...
When sunset brought your fleet back...