*Ø* LBJ and the Gulf of Tonkin hoax
Ask any Australian how many people died in Vietnam and you'll be likely to get the answer "about 500". Ask an American and chances are they'll say "About 60,000".
That's because of the strictly military losses on the side of the non-Communist allies, virtually all of them adult combatants. But the fact is, well over three million mostly civilian men, women and children were killed. The numbers are confirmed by none other than former US Secretary of Defense, Robert S McNamara, and he said it to the former military commander of the North Vietnamese, General Giap:
"You lost ... 3,200,000 people," McNamara told Giap. "We lost 58,000."
McNamara asks Giap: What happened in Tonkin Gulf?
Which brings us to an unseemly anniversary today:
August 7, 1964 Vietnam War: The United States Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving US President Lyndon B Johnson broad war powers to deal with North Vietnamese attacks on American forces.
Johnson had told Congress and the American people that North Vietnam had launched an unprovoked attack on the American destroyer USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin. Later evidence, including words from Johnson’s Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara in his memoirs, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam, indicate that the facts were not as the Administration said ...
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with many more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date (or your birthday) when you're there.
Ask any Australian how many people died in Vietnam and you'll be likely to get the answer "about 500". Ask an American and chances are they'll say "About 60,000".
That's because of the strictly military losses on the side of the non-Communist allies, virtually all of them adult combatants. But the fact is, well over three million mostly civilian men, women and children were killed. The numbers are confirmed by none other than former US Secretary of Defense, Robert S McNamara, and he said it to the former military commander of the North Vietnamese, General Giap:
"You lost ... 3,200,000 people," McNamara told Giap. "We lost 58,000."
McNamara asks Giap: What happened in Tonkin Gulf?
Which brings us to an unseemly anniversary today:
August 7, 1964 Vietnam War: The United States Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving US President Lyndon B Johnson broad war powers to deal with North Vietnamese attacks on American forces.
Johnson had told Congress and the American people that North Vietnam had launched an unprovoked attack on the American destroyer USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin. Later evidence, including words from Johnson’s Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara in his memoirs, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam, indicate that the facts were not as the Administration said ...
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with many more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date (or your birthday) when you're there.
Pip Wilson posted item above at 1:36 PM | Permalink
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