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Gulf Of Tonkin Case Study

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Was Congress correct in approving the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution? 1964 saw the United States enter into one of the longest war it had ever been involved in, up until that point the war was known as the Vietnam War. The then President of the United States Lyndon Johnson had campaigned vastly with the deception that he had become a person who believes that war and violence are unjustifiable. However, he later accepted the view that the war was unavoidable for the United States to be involved in due to the case in the Gulf of Tonkin. Therefore, without any form of proof or belief around the matter the Gulf of Tonkin incident was a sure explanation or excuse for the implementation of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. So, immediately Congress approved the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution they gave President Johnson access to full military power, which went ahead to propel the United States into a rather long, …show more content…

It was a perception that was widely accepted in the United States particularly in the years that led to the Vietnamese War. Vietnam was divided into North and South with North Vietnam being a communist population and South Vietnam a capitalist population that hoped for a democratic system of government and the consequent reunion with the North part. Though President Lyndon Johnson held the view that it was the responsibility of the United States to stop the war and crush communism before it extended to Southeast Asia, he, however, lacked any good motivation to join the war; in spite of everything, North Vietnam had not offended the United States openly or directly. Therefore, North Vietnam continued to send streams of soldiers against the South Vietnam part to transform South Vietnam to communism. The United States, on the other hand, had no option but to observe these occurrences from across the ocean in

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The Tonkin Gulf Resolution was passed by Congress, it allowed President Lyndon B. Johnson to take any action that he thought would help protect the U.S. Troops in Southeast Asia and the individuals in the United States. President Lyndon B. Johnson gained full authority, no one else can take any actions. He was basically on his own. Before the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, Johnson wanted to expand the war, but he was afraid that the other people would not support him. The Tonkin Gulf Resolution was also called USS Maddox incident.

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The questions of whether or not the President has authority to use the military without congress first having declared war has proven to be a great source of conflict throughout history. The confusion comes from the different interpretations of the clauses. Since the Korean War, it has been accepted that the executive powers are that “The president has the power to initiate hostilities without consulting Congress” (libertyclassroom.com). This is often misinterpreted and has been used to expand executive authority and essentially make war without a congressional declaration of war. Perhaps the first example of this misuse of power dates back to the presidency of John Adams.

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officials ended up lying to the public” (Zinn 477). While this case alone sufficiently proves that the U.S. government uses any threat that it comes across with and labels them as “massive threats” in order to get a substantial amount of people to agree with the increase of military supplies, another report in Zinn's book shows why even false threats are important and still valuable to the gain in increasing military supplies (Zinn, 477). Even though the Tonkin affair was proved and cased as a wrongful action, that did not stop them from sending troops into Vietnam and declaring war on the Vietnamese having over 200,000 American soldiers sent to South Vietnam and 200,000 the year

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America’s fear of communism stretched beyond the western hemisphere; the Domino Theory became popular in the 1960s as the Vietnam War was increasingly seen as a threat to democracy in Asia. The Domino Theory is the belief that a communist victory in one nation would start a “chain reaction of communist takeovers in neighboring states. ”(Domino Theory) In the Vietnam War, this theory was used as a justification for American involvement. Communism, as understood by the American people, was a threat to peace and liberty.

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Opposition to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War The two events protested the war in Washington, D.C. On 24 April 1971 and Anti-Vietnam War demonstration in 1967 demonstrate a large number of the American population were opposed to U.S. involvement in the South Vietnam during the course of the Vietnam War. Public opinion was strongly against the war from 1967 to 1970, which resulted in only a third of Americans supposed that the U.S made a right decision over participating in Vietnam War. It is why special groups led the anti-war movement to avoid America 's involved in the Vietnam War.

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After Kennedy’s assassination Lyndon Johnson inherited the White House and took the approach that dictatorships should not be appeased. Johnson was reluctant to become involved in Vietnam due to his political interpretation and policy direction are known as “Containment” and his belief that there was a threat of world domination by Communism which had become a very common Cold-War view among American politicians during this time period. But he continued on to help provide economic and military aid and even authorizes covert actions to prove to enemies that America will take a tough stance in Vietnam. As president, he felt he had to take all necessary measures to protect the U.S. from any attack a and to prevent any further

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Vietnamization also included a peace process aimed at gaining the support of the Vietnamese people by providing them with security, economic assistance, and political stability. The Vietnamization policy was instituted by President Nixon in 1969 and continued until the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. During this period, the South Vietnamese military received significant military and financial support from the United States, and American military presence in Vietnam was gradually reduced. Vietnamization took place primarily in South Vietnam, where the South Vietnamese army was stationed.

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Fearing the spread of communism to Laos, the United States declared an anticommunist containment. This was the first time United States declared said statement as it was a rather bold move. Southern Laos was the home to the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which the United States deemed dangerous, as it connected the South part of Laos to the Northern communist regions, and they sought to destroy it (Vang). The United States also firmly believed Laos couldn’t defend itself. They thought that Laos lacked the economic development needed to get out of its poverty.

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The development against U.S. inclusion in the Vietnam War started small–among peace activists and liberal intelligent people on school campuses–but increased national noticeable quality in 1965, after the United States started bombarding North Vietnam decisively. Hostile to war walks and different challenges, for example, the ones sorted out by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), pulled in an augmenting base of backing throughout the following three years, topping in mid 1968 after the effective Tet Offensive by North Vietnamese troops demonstrated that war's end was no place in sight. The counter war development started for the most part on school grounds, as individuals from the radical association Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) started sorting out "instruct ins" to express their resistance to the route in which it was being directed. In spite of the fact that by far most of the American populace still bolstered the organization arrangement in Vietnam, a little however frank liberal minority was making its voice heard before the end of 1965.

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The 1950’s through the 1970’s was a time filled with hardship for many Americans because of the ineffective invasion of Vietnam. In a completely unreasonable manner, the United States attempted to end communism in Vietnam, by investing an exceedingly large amount of money on war materials and losing plenty of lives, only to fail; the U.S., filled with pride, became involved in the war completely oblivious of the North Vietnamese military force and should not have entered the war until they were aware of the forces of China and the Soviet Union (allies of North Vietnam). In 1955, President Dwight Eisenhower sent advisors to Vietnam to train the South Vietnamese soldiers in order to battle against the North Vietnamese forces. Then, Eisenhower delivered a speech1, The Domino Theory, giving Americans his opinion on Southeast Asia’s future if the U.S. overlooked the communism occurring in Vietnam. Eisenhower stated that if Vietnam was not under any influence by the United States, communism would spread from one country to the next, resulting in the entire southeast becoming communist.

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In John Kerry’s testimony before the Senate of Foreign Relations on April 22, 1971, he admitted that, “Over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia.” (Kerry 1) A war crime is an action carried out during the conduct of a war that violates accepted international rules of war. “They told stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razzed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stock, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam” (Kerry 1) None of these awful things would have never happened if American was never involved in Vietnam, if it understood that we couldn't save them all or the spread of communism.

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The Vietnam War was caused by a result of U.S strategy of containment during the Cold War, which aimed to prevent the spread of communism throughout the world, in turn, a war broke out with the Viet Chong versus South Vietnam and America. Through half of the century, Vietnam was occupied by France and Japan, but in 1945 Viet Minh, the national revolutionary force of Indochina, claimed control of Vietnam, this caused Japan and France to be in a different area. After President Franklin Roosevelt died in 1945, President Harry Truman he enacted the policy of containment, this caused the French to watch the democratic process, though this caused the First Indochina War. In 1945, Ho Chi Mihn declared Vietnam's independence.

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Communism was finally starting to come close to an end on its own, so there was no need for the United States to be involved to stop it, but the United States went to war

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Therefore, responding to these reported incidents, it was said that President Lyndon B. Johnson requested permission from the U.S. Congress to increase the U.S. military presence in Indochina. On August 7, 1964, which he succeeded when the Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorizing President Johnson to take any measures he believed were necessary to retaliate and to promote the maintenance of international peace and

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The United States believed that it was their responsibility to contain Communism. They wanted to stop the spread of communism across the world. They saw that Vietnam as the start of the spread of Communism so it contributed as one of the reasons of going to war. The Domino theory was a theory that if one country in a region falls to Communism that the surrounding countries would fall to communism as well. The U.S. also saw the Domino Theory in Vietnam.

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