Vietnam & After

The Great Deception Escalates

LBJ lamented giving up on the "Great Society" when he inherited the situation in Vietnam.  "The Great Society" was perhaps dead but a great deception was escalating.  Stated in the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, 1964:

"... the United States is assisting the peoples of southeast Asia to protect their freedom and has no territorial, military or political ambitions in that area, but desires only that these peoples should be left in peace to work out their own destinies in their own way..."  (Emphasis added)

By this time certain fictions had snowballed, new ones were created, and what was being established remained unchallenged.  For instance, John Foster Dulles in the Eisenhower administration stated that communism was a monolithic block.   Evidence indicates that the issue was far more complex, however what was perceived as reality influenced policy.  "Containment" was the basis of such policy, thus how can any reasonable perspective not see that US intervention was in fact territorial.  Self-deception ran very deep from the outset and continued.

There were political ambitions- the political maneuvering took place on a world map between polarized superpowers.  Relevant to this point, continuing self-deception in the Kennedy administration is apparent is the statement of Henry Cabot Lodge, who warned against letting 240 million people in the area of southeast Asia fall to communism.  "Losing" more of the East was definitely political, and bi-partisan. It was hardly a humanitarian concern. 

Of course when it was difficult to establish the democracy that needed defending, there was a need to increase military involvement.  It is interesting how the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution negates all evident rationale.  Much can be said to further support this conclusion.  But another point is that when we look at history we need to make certain acknowledgments, which in this case deals with intentions.  Calling this a great lie might suggest deliberate negative intentions.  Since certain perceptions were taken for reality, it is perhaps better to call this a very serious endemic of deception.

I believe there is a lesson in all this which is relevant to the political philosophies of the current Republican presidential candidate.  The campaign often takes history out of context and uses deceptive tactics.  They appeal to the anti-intellectualism which take issues at face value, and like Dulles, cannot see the greater complexities.

Congress gives LBJ a green light to Vietnam

"Congress supports the determination of the President and 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"

What seems frightening to me is that Congress made this judgment based on information that by all accounts was less than sound.  The particulars surrounding the Tonkin Gulf incident remained somewhat sketchy and therefore yielded a resolution born more out of a nations predilection for war and less like a major threat.

In the beginning of World War I one of the greatest pieces of propaganda employed to raise national support was the slogan "Remember the Maine" but what nobody seems to remember was that alot like the Maddox the Maine didn't drop its anchor in the Harbor of Havana simply to look pretty.  Intimidation was likely the agenda of the Maine followed by an unexplained explosion which would serve as a lugubrious invitation into the War for Cuban Independence.  The only problem was that nearly seventy years later the supposed attack on the Maine turned out to be nothing more than an internal malfunction in the ships engine compartment

The story of the Maddox begins to fog when accounts of enemy attack cannot be agreed upon between the ships crew and Washington.  In the end it was held that stormy weather conditions coupled with nervous and inexperienced sonar operators might have inflated the very facts that authorized the Tonkin Gulf Resolution.

So, in comparison to the United States jumping into the Spanish American War and World War I is Vietnam a mere coincidence or have we uncovered the dark side of twentieth century American foreign policy.    

The Tonkin Gulf Resolution

The Tonkin Gulf of Resolution of 1964 gave President Lyndon B. Johnson permission to increase U.S. involvement in the war between North and South Vietnam. The resolution stated that Congress approved and supported the determination of the President to take any necessary measures to stop any attack against the forces of the U.S.

The Tonkin Gulf Incident

The Tonkin Gulf Incident       occured when the N. Vietnamese launched a premtive strike against "U.S. Navy vessels operating in international waters". This led to air strikes ordered by President Johnson on enemy gunboats and other facilities involved in the attack which resulted in the loss of 2 U.S. planes.