CONSPIRACY THEORY , THAT TURNED OUT TO BE TRUE... Conspiracy theory: The Gulf of Tonkin incident, a major escalator of US involvement in the Vietnam War, never actually occurred. Its true. The original incident – also sometimes referred to as the USS Maddox Incident(s) –involved the destroyer USS Maddox supposedly engaging three North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats as part of an intelligence patrol. The Maddox fired almost 300 shells. President Lyndon B. Johnson promptly drafted the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which became his administrations legal justification for military involvement in Vietnam. Problem is, the event never happened. In 2005, a declassified internal National Security Agency study revealed that there were NO North Vietnamese naval vessels present during the incident. So, what was the Maddox firing at? In 1965, President Johnson commented: “For all I know, our Navy was shooting at whales out there.” Worth pointing out: The NSAs own historian, Robert J. Hanyok, wrote a report stating that the agency had deliberately distorted intelligence reports in 1964. He concluded: “The parallels between the faulty intelligence on Tonkin Gulf and the manipulated intelligence used to justify the Iraq War make it all the more worthwhile.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 00:35:42 +0000