Word: tonkin
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...they say. And he has not introduced one major piece of legislation for social change in this country since he has been in office. But, you say, he was there at the right time, when his country needed him. Really, he was a few years late. He remembered Tonkin a few years late. There is New Hampshire, Gene McCarthy said, and I am here before anyone else, except maybe the anti-war movement...
WHAT really happened in the Tonkin Gulf during the early days of August 1964 is a question that historians may ponder for decades. All the details will probably never be established. For present-day Americans, the knowable facts are of more than academic interest, since the events of those days set off a chain reaction, beginning with the Tonkin Gulf Resolution in Congress, which has sent more than a million U.S. troops to battle in South Viet Nam. The following account is based on the Defense Department's official report-much of which was secret until last week...
Maddox, a 2,200-ton destroyer, left Yokosuka, Japan, July 23 on what seemed to be a routine mission to observe North Vietnamese naval activity in the Gulf of Tonkin. Stopping at Taiwan, she took aboard a "black box," about the size of a moving van, crammed with electronic gear, and about a dozen new men to tend its innards. What was it for? Defense Secretary Robert McNamara insisted at first that the equipment "consisted in essence" of normal radio receivers that gave the ship "added capacity" to detect indications of possible attack. In testimony released at week...
...many substantial questions remain unanswered. The Administration, argues Fulbright, "didn't have a clear call to war" and acted precipitately and with inadequate evidence in sending American planes to bomb North Viet Nam. Last week's testimony strongly suggests that the Administration did indeed overreact to the Tonkin incident as such. But it treated that incident as part of the larger scene, evidently using it as a welcome excuse for launching bombers over North Viet Nam. Whatever the strategic merits of attacking the North at the time-and many in the U.S. military thought them considerable-it might...
...authors, "clearly the framers intended to give the President the power to meet a sudden attack without a congressional declaration of war." In addition, Congress has ratified the SEATO Treaty, which provides for aid to member nations threatened by external forces, and it has passed the Tonkin Resolution, which even Senator William Fulbright conceded at the time gave the President the authority to use such force as could lead to war. Many U.S. Presidents have had much less support for their actions, notably Lincoln, who blockaded Southern ports without congressional consent...