In 1964 Barry Goldwater was gaining rapidly on Lyndon Johnson. The attempts by Democrats to paint Goldwater as a war monger were not working. Instead, Goldwater was pounding Johnson for being soft on communism. It was having a serious impact on the election. Then, on August 2 there was a report of an attack by North Vietnamese Torpedo Boats on an American Destroyer, the USS Maddox. On August 4 there was another report that both the USS Maddox and the USS Turner Joy were engaged in a naval battle with North Vietnamese Torpedo boats. In response, President Johnson ordered retaliatory air attacks. He then spoke to the nation and requested a resolution by congress: “expressing the unity and determination of the United States in supporting freedom and protecting peace in Southeast Asia.” He asked for support for: “all necessary action to protect our Armed Forces” but also said he sought “no wider war.”
The country united behind Johnson and Barry Goldwater got slaughtered in the 1964 election. To this day liberals believe that Goldwater was defeated because he was too hawkish for the American people. In reality, the opposite was true. It was Johnson who salvaged his failing re-election campaign by launching us into the Vietnam War.
The American people were never told that the USS Maddox wasn’t exactly cruising along minding its own business in international waters. It was actually supporting an attack by South Vietnamese forces on North Vietnam. As for the fierce battle on August 4, even Johnson questioned whether or not our Navy was shooting at whales. To this day the North Vietnamese continue to deny that the attack on August 4, 1964 even occurred.
If you are worried about current events, be grateful for one thing. Obama did not seize the day and pull a Tonkin. He did not ask for authorization to destroy ISIS. If he had done so, Republicans would have no choice but to give him support. But instead of doing that, Obama is dithering incoherently and appears incapable of making a decision. Even if Obama ultimately man’s up, it will be too late. We may have narrowly escaped another Tonkin Gulf moment in Time.
Democrats, wiser than Obama, know this. That is why Senator Bill Nelson proposed the resolution for Obama. It is why Biden is screaming about following ISIS to the “Gates of Hell.” But there’s a problem. Our Commander in Chief either didn’t get the memo or he didn’t care. The good news is that while Obama will launch some airstrikes etc., he is unlikely to go off half-cocked into another war. The bad news is that this strategy is unlikely to work and at some point in the future, another President will have to do the heavy lifting. In the meantime we will pay a terrible price, but not as high a price as we would pay if Democrats used another Tonkin Gulf resolution to retain control of the Senate.
TDM