- How do you start a war? Simple. Blame it on the other guy. That's essentially what the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution did for the United States in Vietnam. When Lyndon Johnson became the US president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, he was committed to carrying on many of Kennedy's policies. LBJ was especially interested in escalating the fight against communist insurgents in Vietnam. Johnson had made Vietnam a priority for his presidency, and it was a war he did not want to lose.

And another thing. The 1964 election was just around the corner. Johnson's Republican challenger, Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, was attacking the incumbent for being soft. Johnson also knew the American public wouldn't go for an unprovoked military attack by the US. So we needed an excuse, some reason to rally the troops. Johnson got his excuse on August 2nd of 1964.

A US Navy destroyer, the USS Maddox, was cruising the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin, a body of water located off the coast of northern Vietnam. The Maddox was engaged in an intelligence collection mission. Reportedly three North Vietnamese torpedo boats appeared out of nowhere and fired on the Maddox unprovoked. The Maddox wasn't harmed in the attack and called in an airstrike to repel the boats.

Another destroyer, the USS Turner Joy, was sent in to support the Maddox. And on August 4 there was supposedly a second incident involving North Vietnamese boats attacking the American ships. The reports were a bit hazy at the time, and no one was quite sure what had happened.

LBJ and his aides wasted no time in using the incidents to gin up support for increased military involvement in Vietnam. And at the time, no one in the news media questioned the legitimacy of information from the White House, especially when it came to national security.

On August 7, 1964, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was put before Congress. Both houses passed it overwhelmingly. The wording of the resolution was pretty broad. It read, "Congress approves and supports the determination of the President, as Commander in Chief, to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression."

In practical terms, you can do pretty much whatever you want over there, Mr. President. And he did. Johnson crushed Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election. And the US involvement in Vietnam quickly escalated from just advising South Vietnamese allies to a full-scale, open war, a war that lasted for over a decade.

Six years after passing the resolution, Congress would have voter's remorse. LBJ was out of office, and Richard Nixon was president. The American body count in Vietnam continued to rise, and popular support for the war continued to fall. So at the end of 1970, Congress said, we're repealing the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. It was too late to affect the events in Vietnam. That ship had sailed. But it did signal that Congress was no longer keen on giving any American president free rein to wage war.

The passage and repeal of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution paved the way for the 1973 War Powers Act. That legislation set limits on what presidents could do militarily without congressional approval. It was a direct rebuke to the broad powers Congress had granted the president with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

- Young people in large numbers came out and joined what became known as the Red Guards. These largely terroristic organizations were used to publicly humiliate, assault, and in some cases even murder political enemies of Mao and the Communist Party.