Vietnam Remembered, Inaccurately

A left-wing high school teacher is actually complaining about a text book’s treatment of the Vietnam War, because it is written for the JROTC. “The authors cite then-President Johnson’s 1964 statements that North Vietnam attacked a U. S. destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin as the impetus for the broader war, ignoring overwhelming evidence from declassified documents that there was no such attack,” Sylvia McGauley writes in the Fall 2014 issue of the Rethinking Schools periodical.

McGauley teaches social studies at Reynolds High School in Troutdale, Oregon. As it happens, the official account of what happened at the Gulf in 1964 came up in a Washington Post shareholders meeting in 1989 that our founder, Reed Irvine, attended.

Irvine found himself in the odd position of, in effect, defending the administration of President Lyndon Johnson against attacks by then-Post editor Ben Bradlee. Additionally, Post publisher Katherine Graham, also in attendance, offered an odd defense of her editor.

Irvine wrote, “Bradlee said that was a fabrication by the Johnson administration to justify escalation of our intervention in Vietnam, made possible by passage of the Tonkin Gulf resolution. That resolution authorized President Johnson to take all measures necessary to repel attacks against U.S. armed forces and prevent further aggression. He used it to pour ground troops into Vietnam.”

“Joe Goulden [then with AIM] brought this up at The Post annual meeting, pointing out that Bradlee had, in effect, accused two Post directors, Robert S. McNamara and Nicholas deB. Katzenbach, of lying. McNamara, secretary of defense in the Johnson administration, had testified about the attacks on the U.S.S. Maddox and the U.S.S. Turner Joy before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on August 6, 1964. He again testified to the authenticity of the attacks in 1967 at a hearing where Katzenbach, the undersecretary of state, also testified. Both McNamara and Katzenbach were present at the Post annual meeting when this issue was raised, but neither made any comment. It was left to AIM to defend them against Bradlee’s charge that they had been part of a deliberate scheme to lie to Congress in order to get the Tonkin Gulf resolution passed.

“I pointed out that the August 2 attack on the Maddox is not in dispute. It occurred in broad daylight. A spent round from the North Vietnamese attack boat that lodged in the destroyer’s superstructure is on exhibit at the Naval Museum, and the North Vietnamese have admitted the attack. The attack on the Turner Joy on August 4 occurred at night when visibility was poor, and questions have been raised about the accuracy of the reports from the ship. However, the official Navy history of the Vietnam War published in 1986 concluded that the evidence substantiated the claim that the vessel was attacked. Mrs. Graham tried to say that Bradlee had ‘simply said that the truth is hard to arrive at’ and that government officials don’t always tell the truth. That, of course, wasn’t what Bradlee said at all.”

http://www.usni.org/magazines/navalhistory/2008-02/truth-about-tonkin

On 2 August 1964, North Vietnamese patrol torpedo boats attacked the USS Maddox (DD-731) while the destroyer was in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. There is no doubting that fact.

But what happened in the Gulf during the late hours of 4 August—and the consequential actions taken by U.S. officials in Washington—has been seemingly cloaked in confusion and mystery ever since that night.

Over the next three hours, the two ships repeatedly maneuvered at high speeds to evade perceived enemy boat attacks. The destroyers reported automatic-weapons fire; more than 20 torpedo attacks; sightings of torpedo wakes, enemy cockpit lights, and searchlight illumination; and numerous radar and surface contacts. By the time the destroyers broke off their “counterattack,” they had fired 249 5-inch shells, 123 3-inch shells, and four or five depth charges. 10

Commander Stockdale was again in the action, this time alone. When his wingman’s aircraft developed trouble, Stockdale got permission to launch solo from the Ticonderoga . He arrived overhead at 2135. For more than 90 minutes, he made runs parallel to the ships’ course and at low altitude (below 2,000 feet) looking for the enemy vessels. He reported later, “I had the best seat in the house to watch that event and our destroyers were just shooting at phantom targets—there were no PT boats there . . . there was nothing there but black water and American firepower.” 11

Captain Herrick also began to have doubts about the attack. As the battle continued, he realized the “attacks” were actually the results of “overeager sonar operators” and poor equipment performance. The Turner Joy had not detected any torpedoes during the entire encounter, and Herrick determined that the Maddox ‘s operators were probably hearing the ship’s propellers reflecting off her rudder during sharp turns. 12 The destroyer’s main gun director was never able to lock onto any targets because, as the operator surmised, the radar was detecting the stormy sea’s wave tops.

By 0127 on 5 August, hours after the “attacks” had occurred, Herrick had queried his crew and reviewed the preceding hours’ events. He sent a flash (highest priority) message to Honolulu, which was received in Washington at 1327 on 4 August, declaring his doubts: “Review of action makes many reported contacts and torpedoes fired appear doubtful. Freak weather effects on radar and overeager sonarmen may have accounted for many reports. No actual visual sightings by MADDOX. Suggest complete evaluation before any further action taken.” 13

I’ve posted this before, but just in case you missed it, here’s my 2 cents on the Vietnam War:

Karma

Barack Hussein Obama, a man with no record of personal accomplishment, no leadership experience, and a man with strong connections to terrorists, criminals, racists, and anti-American Communists pulled it off and was elected then re-elected President of these United States. What does this mean and what does it say about the American people? Could it be that karma will finally bestow the consequences of dishonorable behavior on the American people?

Why do I say this? In answer to my question, let me remind you of this statement and where these words took the American people:

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

John Fitzgerald Kennedy Inaugural address, Friday, January 20, 1961

With these words ringing in our ears, my generation went to Vietnam and promised the Vietnamese people we would stand shoulder to shoulder with them until their freedom was secure and the enemies of liberty were defeated. By 1973, with the Paris Peace Accords signed by the United States, South Vietnam, and North Vietnam, the Vietnam War was effectively over and the United States and South Vietnam had effectively won the war.

But, it is to America’s eternal shame and disgrace that the American people then sided with Communist North Vietnam and betrayed the South Vietnamese people who had believed and trusted us. In 1974, the American people elected Democrats to our Congress who had rather see our country defeated than allow a Republican President to receive credit for defeating our enemies. This Democrat led Congress (the infamous 94th) cut off funding and support for South Vietnam and abandoned a valiant ally to their fate. American troops were withdrawn, but we departed with the hollow promise that we would return if the Republic of South Vietnam was ever invaded by Communist North Vietnam. As we all remember, in 1975 Communist North Vietnam invaded the South and the United States did nothing in response.

The tactic we had taught the South Vietnamese was to, when invaded by the North, fall back to a defendable position, stall the communist advance, force the communists to mass their forces before South Vietnam’s defenses, and this would allow time for American forces and air power to return to assist them as we had promised. South Vietnam did just that; for twelve days, outnumbered ten to one, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) held and stalled the communist’s advance outside Saigon near a little town called Xuan Loc.

Outside Xuan Loc during April 1975, in an effort as gallant as that of the Spartans at Thermopylae, the ARVN 18th Infantry Division held two North Vietnamese Army Corps at bay for twelve days. Every infantryman in the ARVN 18th Infantry Division died in that stand. None ran away and none survived. They died to a man fighting overwhelming odds and believing to the end we Americans would return as promised.

Just before the last ARVN soldier of the 18th Infantry Division died, he might have rolled over on his back and looked to the sky hoping to see the contrails of American B-52 bombers and he saw nothing. This last ARVN soldier then knew that he, along with all the Vietnamese people, had been betrayed. With his dying breath, this soldier must have then turned his gaze heavenly and beseeched God to Damn America.

Yes, there is such a thing as karma where dreadful consequences are meted out in recompense for dishonorable behavior. The American people’s just rewards for abandoning a valiant ally during their time of need could have been that the chickens came home to roost on the American people with an Obama Presidency, a Nancy Pelosi Congress, a Harry Reid Senate, a John Roberts Supreme Court, and it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving people.

The election of 2008 and re-election of 2012 was about more than just Obama, his arrogance, his empty resume, and his traitorous comrades. Just as karma provides consequences for dishonorable behavior, there are also adverse consequences for irresponsible behavior. As a people deserve the government they vote into office, they also deserve the consequences resulting from that government’s actions or inaction. The consequences of a government not securing a country’s borders is that a people will lose their country as we are now losing ours to an invasion of illegal immigrants. The consequences of not securing a country’s electoral processes to prevent voter fraud is the country will lose its Democracy to a Thugocracy as we have lost ours to a Chicago-mob run Coup d’état.

But the final insult to our Republic is with the election of Barack Hussein Obama, an avowed Marxist Communist, a significant chapter in American History finally closed. Our sixty-odd year long Cold War with Communism is over and the Communists won the war.

These words precede those of President Kennedy, so no one can say we didn’t see this coming:

“We cannot expect the Americans to jump from Capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving Americans small doses of Socialism until they suddenly awake to find they have Communism.”

Nikita Khrushchev, 1959

As we Americans continue to live out the old Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.”

By
Donald J. Taylor
A Vietnam Veteran

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