"I hope Bill O'Reilly et al apoligize."
Not sure I understand what you mean by why he would need to apologize. According to McNamara the North Vietnamese were forcing our hand one way or the other:
[Robert S. McNamara, who as defense secretary played a central role in the Tonkin Gulf affair, said in an interview last week that he believed the intelligence reports had played a decisive role in the war's expansion.
"I think it's wrong to believe that Johnson wanted war," Mr. McNamara said. "But we thought we had evidence that North Vietnam was escalating."]