Ok, so why did we fire on 4 North Vietnamese torpeodo boats which lead to escalation of war. And why did we shoot down that Iranian airliner and why did the russians shoot down KAL 007 ?
They were reported to have fired on US ships. The Iranian airliner was shot down in the midst of a military confrontation between the US and Iran that came about because the Iranians were attacking civilian ships transiting the Persian Gulf, and just after the Iraqi attack on the USS Stark. KAL 007 was within Soviet air space. Nonetheless, the Soviets shouldn't have shot it down and the shoot down probably cemented the image of the Soviet Union as the Evil Empire.
Unless American naval units have fighting a low-level war with the PLAN, I wouldn't expect the US Navy to initiate an engagement. Whether the Chinese have given their junior officers the green light is something we'll find out in the months and years ahead.
From all that I have read about it, those boats were phantoms that no one ever saw and were likely the result of hyperactive imagination.
Having been in a bunker during Tet 68 watching the dark, I know what imagination can conjure up.
No digital recordings of the radar tracks back then.