Another Johnson type Gulf of Tonkin debacle? The same modern technology that makes such possible also makes it likely that there would be a trail as to what happened - we would not have the world applauding us for causing a strike one our own land - active nuke or not..
The problem with the Gulf of Tonkin incident was not what happened then and in the days following.
The real problem was what didn’t happen in the weeks, months, and years that followed.
H. R. McMasters “Dereliction of Duty” is the seminal work on the issue. It lays the future failures in RVN directly on Johnson, the JCS and other military leaders.
In this case, the execution phase could be over in 120 hours.