Agreed — should have been a freaking carrier group! But that could defend itself. A lone destroyer? Maybe. Those guys pack a LOT of punch for their size. But nothing like a full carrier group!
Of course, the ROEs are probably, “sit there and die.”
There are only two reasons that I can think of that the klown kommander would send one Destroyer: He doesn’t believe the Chicoms are going to attack it or he believes that they will...
This is actually US policy and has been for a long time. One destroyer can’t reasonably be called an attacking force. So we get to play the aggrieved party if fighting breaks out. We did this to the Russians frequently during the cold war.
And yes, the idea is to send them there and see if they get shot at. Sometime the other side does shoot. The North Koreans did. The North Vietnamese did. The Khmer Rouge did. Ahem... the Israelis did also.