Tonklin Gulf Incident and the Domino Theory
The Tonklin Gulf incident influenced the Vietnam war tremendously. On August 2, 1964, the U.S. destroyer Maddox got in a battle with North Vietnamese boats in the Gulf. A few days later the ship reported again to be under fire. Most historians believe that the second attack never really happened. But it is because of this "second" attack that really expedited the Vietnam war. It is said that by the end of that day, President Johnson had ordered retaliatory air strikes, and by the end of 1965, 180,000 american troops were on the ground and counting.
The domino effect was the reason for was in the 1950's through the 1980's. Promoted at times by the government, it speculated that if one state in a region became under the influence of communism, then nearby countries would soon follow, hence the name domino effect.
The Tonklin Gulf incident and Domino theory are important and relevant to the Vietnam war because there maybe have might not been a Vietnam war if the Tonklin incident didn't occur.
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| U.S. Maddox route, Gulf of Tonklin incident |
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It is crazy to think that the second attack may have been fabricated in order to justify U.S involvement in Vietnam.
ReplyDeleteIt's not really that amazing that the government fabricated this lie. They have lied about what is actually in the grains that we eat, they've lied to all of the public k-12 schools with their food pyramid, and many other things. What I'm more curious about is if there were any occurrences of the Domino theory, or if it was nothing more than just a theory.
ReplyDeleteIf you guys are familiar with The Bay of Pigs, it was pretty much funding by our government to overthrow Castro. Government is willing to go to extraordinary lengths be a catalyst for quarrel.
ReplyDeleteThis is a prime example that us citizens of America are so easily fed lies and misinformation by our very own government. I definitely feel that this whole incident was our way into the war, a total excuse to fight the Vietnamese.
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