Hardrock69
11-02-2005, 01:07 AM
The spin here is that it was all one big mistake. The LBJ Presidential tapes prove that LBJ knew the incident never happened and he was discussing how to politically spin it for war propaganda.
"One of America's spy agencies faked key intelligence used to justify its intervention in the Vietnam War, it was disclosed yesterday.
But the revelation was kept secret by the National Security Agency, partly because of fears that it would boost criticism of the intelligence services over the war in Iraq.
According to material uncovered by the NSA's own historian, Robert Hanyok, middle-ranking officers altered material relating to the Gulf of Tonkin incident.
Two US destroyers, Maddox and Turner Joy, were attacked by North Vietnamese craft in the gulf on Aug 2 1964.
Two days later, amid bad weather and considerable confusion in the US chain of command, Maddox reported that she had been fired on a second time.
Although its commander soon cast doubt on the reports, signals intelligence reported that the North Vietnamese admitted "we sacrificed two ships".
In revenge President Lyndon Johnson ordered air raids against North Vietnamese naval facilities and Congress authorised "all necessary steps including the use of armed force" to defend South Vietnam.
But Mr Hanyok found that timings on key intelligence intercepts had been changed and the "two ships" probably referred to the loss of two sailors in the first attack.
He blamed middle-ranking staff who realised the NSA's mistakes almost immediately but covered them up, not for political reasons, but to hide the original mistakes.
At the time, senior administration officials cited the faked paperwork in testimony before Congress.
It has even been suggested that President Johnson was so keen to deploy troops that he fabricated the whole episode. More than 58,000 Americans and a million Vietnamese died in the ensuing conflict."
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11/01/wviet01.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/11/01/ixworld.html
Also, here are taped segments of phone conversations between LBJ and his Secretary Of Defense Robert McNamara on August 3rd, 1964 PROVING that the Gulf Of Tonkin Incident did not happen as was portrayed, Johnson knew it, and told McNamara what to say when he addressed Congress regarding the incident.
This webpage is from the Archives Of The National Security Agency.
http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB132/tapes.htm
You think our government won't do this shit?
Think again.
A few million lives here or there mean nothing to them.
"One of America's spy agencies faked key intelligence used to justify its intervention in the Vietnam War, it was disclosed yesterday.
But the revelation was kept secret by the National Security Agency, partly because of fears that it would boost criticism of the intelligence services over the war in Iraq.
According to material uncovered by the NSA's own historian, Robert Hanyok, middle-ranking officers altered material relating to the Gulf of Tonkin incident.
Two US destroyers, Maddox and Turner Joy, were attacked by North Vietnamese craft in the gulf on Aug 2 1964.
Two days later, amid bad weather and considerable confusion in the US chain of command, Maddox reported that she had been fired on a second time.
Although its commander soon cast doubt on the reports, signals intelligence reported that the North Vietnamese admitted "we sacrificed two ships".
In revenge President Lyndon Johnson ordered air raids against North Vietnamese naval facilities and Congress authorised "all necessary steps including the use of armed force" to defend South Vietnam.
But Mr Hanyok found that timings on key intelligence intercepts had been changed and the "two ships" probably referred to the loss of two sailors in the first attack.
He blamed middle-ranking staff who realised the NSA's mistakes almost immediately but covered them up, not for political reasons, but to hide the original mistakes.
At the time, senior administration officials cited the faked paperwork in testimony before Congress.
It has even been suggested that President Johnson was so keen to deploy troops that he fabricated the whole episode. More than 58,000 Americans and a million Vietnamese died in the ensuing conflict."
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11/01/wviet01.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/11/01/ixworld.html
Also, here are taped segments of phone conversations between LBJ and his Secretary Of Defense Robert McNamara on August 3rd, 1964 PROVING that the Gulf Of Tonkin Incident did not happen as was portrayed, Johnson knew it, and told McNamara what to say when he addressed Congress regarding the incident.
This webpage is from the Archives Of The National Security Agency.
http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB132/tapes.htm
You think our government won't do this shit?
Think again.
A few million lives here or there mean nothing to them.