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Captain Herrick's Cable from the USS Maddox — August 4, 1964
This is the original message sent by Captain John Herrick, the commander on scene in the Gulf of Tonkin, expressing serious doubt about the reported second attack on August 4, 1964. Despite this cable, the Johnson administration presented the attack as confirmed fact to Congress, which then passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorizing military force.
Source: U.S. Department of Defense, declassified. If the document does not load, click here to open it directly.
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution — August 7, 1964
The joint resolution of Congress (H.J. RES 1145) that authorized the President "to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression." Passed 416–0 in the House and 88–2 in the Senate, this resolution became the legal basis for the entire Vietnam War. Congress did not formally declare war — this resolution was used instead.
Whereas naval units of the Communist regime in Vietnam, in violation of the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and of international law, have deliberately and repeatedly attacked United States naval vessels lawfully present in international waters, and have thereby created a serious threat to international peace; and
Whereas these attackS are part of a deliberate and systematic campaign of aggression that the Communist regime in North Vietnam has been waging against its neighbors and the nations joined with them in the collective defense of their freedom; and
Whereas the United States is assisting the peoples of southeast Asia to protect their freedom and has no territorial, military or political ambitions in that area, but desires only that these people should be left in peace to work out their destinies in their own way: Now, therefore be it
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Congress approves and supports the determination of the President, as Commander in Chief, to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.
Section 2. The United States regards as vital to its national interest and to world peace the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast Asia. Consonant with the Constitution of the United States and the Charter of the United Nations and in accordance with its obligations under the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, the United States is, therefore, prepared, as the President determines, to take all necessary steps, including the use of armed force, to assist any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty requesting assistance in defense of its freedom.
Section 3. This resolution shall expire when the President shall determine that the peace and security of the area is reasonably assured by international conditions created by action of the United Nations or otherwise, except that it may be terminated earlier by concurrent resolution of the Congress.
The Pentagon Papers — National Archives
In 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara commissioned a secret study of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. The result was a 7,000-page document officially titled "United States–Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense." The papers revealed that four successive presidential administrations had systematically lied to Congress and the American public about the war — its origins, its progress, and its prospects. Daniel Ellsberg, a military analyst who had worked on the study, leaked it to the New York Times in June 1971. The Nixon administration tried to block publication, but the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the press. The Pentagon Papers shattered public trust in the government and strengthened the case for ending the war.
Source: National Archives and Records Administration. If the page does not load, click here to open it directly.
Ho Chi Minh — Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (September 2, 1945)
On September 2, 1945, Ho Chi Minh stood before a crowd of 500,000 in Ba Dinh Square, Hanoi, and declared Vietnam's independence from France and Japan. He opened by quoting the American Declaration of Independence — "All men are created equal" — and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man. He then catalogued decades of French colonial abuses and asked a simple question: if these universal rights applied to Americans and Frenchmen, why not to the Vietnamese? American OSS officers stood on the platform beside him. A Vietnamese band played "The Star-Spangled Banner." It was a moment when history could have taken a very different path.
Source: George Mason University, History Matters. If the page does not load, click here to open it directly.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" (April 4, 1967)
Speaking at Riverside Church in New York City exactly one year before his assassination, Dr. King broke his public silence on the Vietnam War. He argued that the war was inseparable from the struggle for civil rights at home — that America could not fund a war abroad while neglecting poverty, education, and racial justice at home. He called the U.S. government "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today" and described the cruel irony of sending young Black men to fight for freedoms in Southeast Asia that they did not enjoy in Georgia or Harlem. The speech cost him powerful allies, but King refused to separate the moral questions of war and justice.
Source: University of Hawaii. If the document does not load, click here to open it directly.
President Lyndon B. Johnson addresses the nation about the reported attacks on U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin and announces retaliatory air strikes against North Vietnam. This speech — and the congressional resolution that followed — gave the President the authority to wage war without a formal declaration. The "second attack" that triggered this response almost certainly never happened.
President Lyndon B. Johnson addresses the nation about Vietnam — and stuns the country by announcing he will not run for re-election. The Vietnam War has consumed his presidency. The man who passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, and Medicare has been destroyed by a war he could neither win nor end.
John Kerry, a 27-year-old decorated Navy veteran, testifies before the Senate on behalf of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. His question — "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" — becomes one of the defining statements of the antiwar movement. Kerry would later serve as a U.S. Senator and Secretary of State.
The Chennault Affair — Virginia Tech Institute for Policy & Governance
In October 1968, President Johnson was close to achieving a breakthrough in the Paris peace talks that could have ended the Vietnam War. But Nixon's campaign, through intermediary Anna Chennault, secretly contacted South Vietnamese President Thieu and urged him to boycott the talks — promising a better deal under a Nixon presidency. Johnson learned of the back channel through CIA and FBI intelligence, and privately called it treason. But he could not go public without exposing U.S. surveillance of a friendly government and an American political campaign. Nixon won by a razor-thin margin. The war lasted five more years. This article examines the evidence and the devastating consequences of putting political ambition above peace.
Source: Virginia Tech Institute for Policy & Governance. If the page does not load, click here to open it directly.
Walter Cronkite — "the most trusted man in America" — returns from Vietnam and delivers an unprecedented editorial on the CBS Evening News. For the first time, the anchor of a major network news broadcast tells the American people the war cannot be won. President Johnson reportedly responds: "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America."