Transcript: Chapter 12

Senator Barry Goldwater, (R) Arizona: [Republican National Convention, 1964] I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.

Narrator: In the middle of July at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, the right wing of the Republican Party triumphed. A major general in the Air Force Reserve, Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, was nominated for president. Goldwater's campaign slogan was, "In Your Heart, You Know He's Right." Some wag appended, "Far Right" and it stuck.

Senator Goldwater: Thank you. I'll say, so that all American people can hear, that the only enemy of peace in their world is Communism and I don't care whether it's Red Chinese Communism or Russian Communism or whose Communism it is, it's Communism.

Narrator: Johnson watched Goldwater on television, then flicked off the set with a smile. Goldwater had accused the Democrats of being soft on Communism. If Johnson could prove he was a staunch as his Republican rival, he would have more than a victory. The 1964 presidential election would be a landslide.

Less than three weeks later, close to midnight, Johnson made a dramatic television appearance.

President Johnson: As president and commander-in-chief. It is my duty to the American people to report that renewed hostile actions against United States ships on the high seas in the Gulf of Tonkin have today required me to order the military forces of the United States to take action in reply. Our response, for the present, will be limited and fitting.

Narrator: American bombers striking deep into North Vietnam demonstrated that Johnson was a committed anti-Communist. Johnson would use this incident to acquire the power to make war in Vietnam whenever and however he would choose.

Johnson accused the North Vietnamese of an unprovoked attack, but in fact, for six months, the president had been running covert raids against North Vietnam. Finally, on August 2nd, North Vietnamese torpedo boats retaliated. They fired on the U.S. destroyer Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin. The Maddox returned the fire, sinking one Vietnamese ship and crippling two others.

Dean Rusk, Secretary of State: And we took the view, when that occurred, that that might have been the action of trigger-happy local commanders and did not represent a governmental policy on the part of North Vietnam and so we tended to disregard that attack.

Narrator: Two days after the first incident, fearing they were once again under attack, anxious sailors on the Maddox fired their weapons into a dark, moonless night. Their uneasy commander began sending cables back to the Pentagon.

Daniel Ellsberg, Defense Department Staff: On August 4, I began reading the kind of cable that one very rarely saw in the Pentagon and that I don't -- I very rarely saw again. These were operational cables.

Narrator: Daniel Ellsberg, his second day on duty in the Pentagon, found himself reading this remarkable series of top secret messages from the Gulf of Tonkin.

Daniel Ellsberg: These are operational cables coming in on a flash basis, very special handling, about an operation that was going on at that moment on the other side of the world. The cables said, "We are under attack at this moment. We have just successfully evaded one torpedo. I am taking evasive action now. Two torpedoes. Now" -- another cable -- "four torpedoes are in the water. Six torpedoes are in the water. We have 21 torpedoes" -- not all at the same time, but -- "we've had 21 torpedoes coming at us." Apparently, the water was just sown with -- strewn with torpedoes.

Narrator: As soon as the Tonkin cables were relayed to the White House, Johnson prepared to retaliate.

Daniel Ellsberg: And then, suddenly, cable came in that was a warning bell, said "Reevaluation of the information we're getting here suggests that freak weather effects and an overeager sonar man may have accounted for most of the reports we've been getting. Recommend full evaluation before any action is taken."

George Reedy: Just as soon as we started to get coherent messages that had been put together, I began to feel a cold chill. "Hey, wait a minute. There's something wrong here."

Narrator: The commander of the Maddox was still doubtful. Were any North Vietnamese boats ever out there that dark night? At daybreak, reconnaissance planes scanned the ocean for a slick of oil, a stick of wood, anything that would be evidence of a North Vietnamese attack. Nothing could be found. The evidence was inconclusive, but Johnson went ahead anyway and ordered the first bombing raids on North Vietnam. Retaliation after Tonkin went on for nearly five hours. One pilot was killed, another captured. No one knew how many North Vietnamese were killed. The next day, Johnson presented his version of the incident.

President Johnson: On August 2, the United States destroyer Maddox, was attacked on the high seas in the Gulf of Tonkin.

Narrator: Facing a huge banner that proclaimed "Syracuse Loves LBJ," the president was careful not to reveal the whole story.

President Johnson: On August 4, that attack was repeated.

Daniel Ellsberg: He didn't explain that on the whole we think that there was probably was an attack to which we retaliated. They said instead, for obvious reasons, that there was an unequivocal attack upon our troops, which was a lie, and it was unprovoked.

President Johnson: The attacks were unprovoked.

Daniel Ellsberg: That, too, was a lie. We were running raids against North Vietnam, which the North Vietnamese correctly associated with the destroyer patrols.

Narrator: Johnson called in congressional leaders for a briefing.

J. William Fulbright, Senate Foreign Relations Committee: Well, as I recall it, he had me and a number of the committee down at the White House and told about this terribly unprovoked attack. We were very peaceably going about our business and all without provocation, they attack us, sent out these gunboats, you know, and surrounded us and shelling. They even had a little shell. This is evidence. It had fallen on the deck of one of our ships. It didn't occur to me to think he was lying about it or misrepresenting. I swallowed it. I -- I mean, it was a year or two before I discovered I had been taken in.

Narrator: Few Americans questioned the president's version of events. What happened on that dark night halfway around the world only became apparent later.

George Ball, Undersecretary of State: Johnson told me in some disgust that those damn sailors were shooting at a lot of flying fish and they ought to know better than that. He never thought -- well, he believed at first, but then he came to believe that there was nothing in it, that this had been -- they had just been seeing shadows.

Narrator: Johnson never asked Congress to declare war. Instead, he used the incident to cut himself loose from congressional control. He requested a resolution that would give him the power to expand the war without further authorization. After deliberating just 40 minutes, the House approved the Tonkin Gulf resolution. Not a single representative voted no. Over in the Senate, there were just two dissenting votes.

On August 7, Johnson signed the resolution. The language was broad, the authority sweeping. Johnson was heard to say, "It's like grandmother's nightshirt. It covers everything."

Clark Clifford: It was about as close to a declaration of war as one could get. That started us down the long road of Vietnam.