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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: renovator who wrote (242051)	1/13/2014 8:13:45 PM
From: bentway	Respond to of 544209

That's certainly true. I doubt Johnson thought it would be anything but a short, quick victory, with the military assuring him of one. We were at the height of our superpower-ness at the time. I'd never heard of Vietnam before being at risk of being made a slave and sent there to kill or be killed. usni.org <<Back on board the Ticonderoga , Commander Stockdale had been ordered to prepare to launch an air strike against the North Vietnamese targets for their "attacks" of the previous evening. Unlike Captain Herrick, Stockdale had no doubt about what had happened: "We were about to launch a war under false pretenses, in the face of the on-scene military commander's advice to the contrary." 19 Despite his reservations, Stockdale led a strike of 18 aircraft against an oil storage facility at Vinh, located just inland of where the alleged attacks on the Maddox and Turner Joy had occurred. Although the raid was successful (the oil depot was completely destroyed and 33 of 35 vessels were hit), two American aircraft were shot down; one pilot was killed and the second captured. 20 On 7 August, Congress, with near unanimity, approved the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which President Johnson signed into law three days later. Requested by Johnson, the resolution authorized the chief executive to "take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression." No approval or oversight of military force was required by Congress, essentially eliminating the system of checks and balances so fundamental to the U.S. Constitution. On hearing of the authorization's passage by both houses of Congress, the delighted President remarked that the resolution "was like Grandma's nightshirt. It covers everything.">> ================================================================= Looks like most historians blame McNamara for lying to congress, but at least one includes Johnson. I hated Johnson, then worked in his presidential library and learned some of his more positive accomplishments. Later, I hated Nixon. After W, I cut them both some slack.