The Tonkin Gulf incident - 1964
President Johnson's Message To Congress
August 5, 1964 (Department of State Bulletin, August 24, 1964)Last night I announced to the American people that the North Vietnamese regime had conducted further deliberate attacks against U.S. naval vessels operating in international waters, and that I had therefore directed air action against gunboats and supporting facilities used in these hostile operations. This air action has now been carried out with substantial damage to the boats and facilities. Two U.S. aircraft were lost in the action.
After consultation with the leaders of both parties in the Congress, I further announced a decision to ask the Congress for a resolution expressing the unity and determination of the United States in supporting freedom and in protecting peace in southeast Asia.
These latest actions of the North Vietnamese regime have given a new and grave turn to the already serioussituation in southeast Asia. Our commitments in that area are well known to the Congress. They were first made in 1954 by President Eisenhower. They were further defined in the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty approved by the Senate in February 1955.
This treaty with its accompanying protocol obligates the United States and other members to act in accordance with their constitutional processes to meet Communist aggression against any of the parties of protocol states.
Our policy in southeast Asia has been consistent and unchanged since 1954. I summarized it on June 2 in four simple propositions:
1. America keeps her word. Here as elsewhere, we must and shall honor our commitments.
2. The issue is the future of southeast Asia as a whole. A threat to any nation in that region is a threat to all, and a threat to us.
3. Our purpose is peace. We have no military, political, or territorial ambitions in the area.
4. This is not just a jungle war, but a struggle for freedom on every front of human activity. Our military and economic assistance to South Vietnam and Laos in particular has the purpose of helping these countries to repel aggression and strengthen their independence.The threat to the free nations of southeast Asia has long been clear. The North Vietnamese regime has constantly sought to take over South Vietnam and Laos. This Communist regime has violated the Geneva accords for Vietnam. It has systematically conducted a campaign of subversion, which includes the direction, training, and suppy of personnel and arms for the conduct of guerrilla warfare in South Vietnamese territory. In Laos, the North Vietnamese regime hhas maintained military forces, used Laotian territory for infiltration into South Vietnam, and most recently carried out combat operations - all in direct violation of the Geneva agreements of 1962.
In recent months, the actions of the North Vietnamese regime have become steadily more threatening...
As President of the United States I have concluded that I should now ask the Congress, on its part, to join in affirming the national determination that all such attacks will be met, and that the United States will conntinue in its basic policy of assisting the free nations of the area to defend their freedom.
As I have repeatedly made clear, the United States intends no rashness, and seeks no wider war. We must make it clear to all that tha United States is united in its determination to bring about the end of Communist subversion and aggression in the area. We seek the full and effective restoration of the international agreements signed in Geneva in 1954, with respect to South Vietnam, and again in Geneva in 1962, with respect to Laos.
Joint Resolution of Congress
HJ Res 1145 Aug 7, 64
Formally titled: Southeast Asia Resolution
Approved by House 416 to 0; Senate 88 to 2To promote the maintenance of international peace and security in Southeast Asia.
WHEREAS naval units of the Communist regime in Vietnam, in violation of the principles of the Charter of the UN and of international law, have deliberately and repeatedly attacked US naval vessels lawfully present in international waters, and have thereby created a serious threat to international peace; and
WHEREAS these attacks are part of a deliberate and systematic campaign of aggression that the Communist regime in NV has been waging against its neighbors and the nations joined with them in the collective defense of their freedom; and
WHEREAS the US is assisting the peoples of Southeast Asia to protect their freedom and has no territorial, mili or political ambitions in that area, but desires only that these peoples should be left in peace to work out their own destinies in their own way; Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the US of America in Congress assembled, That the Congress approves and supports the determination of the President, as Cmdr in Chief, to take all necessary measure to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.
SECTION 2. The US regards as vital its national interest and to world peace and security in Southeast Asia. Consonant with the Constitution of the US and Charter of the UN and in accordance with its obligations under the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, (SACDT) the US is, therefore, prepared, as the President determines, to take all necessary steps, including the use of armed force, to assist any member or protocol state of the SACDT requesting assistance in defense<
SECTION 3. This resolution shall expire when the President shall determine that the peace and security of the area is reasonably assured by international conditions created by action that it may be terminated earlier by concurrent resolution of the Congress.