LAT/AP: Analysis Casts Doubt on Vietnam War (Gulf of Tonkin) Claims

[DeepModem Mom]

Analysis Casts Doubt on Vietnam War Claims
By CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON -- A spy-agency analysis released Thursday contends a second attack on U.S. ships in the Gulf of Tonkin never happened, casting further doubt on the leading rationale for escalation of the Vietnam War.

Much as faulty U.S. intelligence preceded the invasion of Iraq, the mishandling of intercepted communications 40 years earlier is blamed in the National Security Agency paper for giving President Johnson carte blanche in the conflict.

The agency put out more than 140 long-secret documents in response to requests from researchers trying to get to the bottom of an episode that unfolded in the South China Sea on Aug. 4, 1964, and has been disputed since.

Among the documents is an article written by one of the agency's historians for its classified publication, Cryptologic Quarterly, declaring that his review of the complete intelligence shows beyond doubt "no attack happened that night."

Claims that North Vietnamese boats attacked two warships that Aug. 4 -- just two days after an initial assault on one of those ships -- rallied Congress behind Johnson's buildup of the war. The Gulf of Tonkin resolution passed three days later empowered him to take "all necessary steps" in the region and opened the way for large-scale commitment of U.S. forces....


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_top14dec01,0,1300678.story