This event began during a DESOTO operation, and it may have been further instigated by the capture of an amphibious landing team and shellings by fast patrol boats 72 and 48 hours earlier.
This event began during a DESOTO operation, and it may have been further instigated by the capture of an amphibious landing team and shellings by fast patrol boats 72 and 48 hours earlier. It extended to a second attack 48  hours later that never happened, though the result of that phantom attack was Operation Pierce Arrow. Both of this event's real and phantom attacks involved the USS Maddox, and despite the president lying to Congress about American involvement prior to this incident, a joint Congressional resolution was passed giving Lyndon Johnson a free hand to use the military as he saw fit. Identify this 1964 event often seen as the point of escalation of America's involvement in Vietnam.
This event began during a DESOTO operation, and it may have been further instigated by the capture of an amphibious landing team and shellings by fast patrol boats 72 and 48 hours earlier.
Gulf of Tonkin Incident [accept variant wordings containing both parts; prompt on Tonkin; accept USS Maddox Incident until “Maddox”]