The Gulf of Tonkin incident is a complex case where there's significant historical and documented evidence suggesting elements of deception, if not an outright false flag operation by today's understanding. >On August 2, 1964 there was an engagement between the USS Maddox and North Vietnamese torpedo boats. This incident is generally acknowledged as having occurred, though the context was that the Maddox was involved in covert operations that could have provoked the response. #### August 4, 1964 Incident: The supposed second attack that evening is where the narrative gets murky. The initial reports claimed North Vietnamese boats attacked the USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy, leading to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave President Lyndon B. Johnson broad powers to [escalate U.S. involvement in Vietnam](https://history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/gulf-of-tonkin). --- ##### Declassified Documents and Later Analysis: **NSA's 2005 Declassification**: Documents released by the NSA (National Security Agency) suggested that the intelligence was "skewed" to fit the narrative of an attack on August 4, with evidence indicating there was no second attack. **McNamara's Admission**: Years later, [Robert McNamara](https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2025/04/06/vietnam-war-robert-mcnamara-us-failure/82705336007/), who was Secretary of Defense at the time, admitted to the doubts about the second incident, essentially acknowledging that the U.S. government had misrepresented the events to Congress and the public. ##### Current Perspectives: Historians and researchers have since argued that the second incident was either exaggerated or entirely fabricated, with some even labeling it as a "[false flag"](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/false-flag) operation due to the deliberate manipulation of intelligence to justify broader military action in Vietnam. ##### Public and Scholarly Discourse: Discussions on platforms like [X](https://x.com) and in various forums often highlight the Gulf of Tonkin as a classic example of how governments might use or manipulate incidents to justify military action. These discussions cite the declassified documents and McNamara's later admissions as evidence. #### Conclusion: While the first incident on August 2 appears to have been real, the handling and reporting of the second incident on August 4, particularly how it was used to secure the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, suggest a degree of deception or at least a significant misrepresentation of facts by U.S. authorities. This has led many to view it as a pivotal moment where the line between genuine military response and strategic manipulation for political ends was blurred, if not crossed. While not all aspects of the Gulf of Tonkin incident might fit the modern definition of a "false flag" where one party commits an act and blames another, the manipulation of the narrative around the second incident certainly contributed to public and scholarly perceptions of it being akin to a false flag operation.