Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (7 August 1964), resolution that provided much of the legal authority for President Lyndon B. Johnson's escalation of the Vietnam War.On 2 August 1964, North Vietnamese gunboats attacked the USS Maddox, an American ship engaged in electronic espionage in the Gulf of Tonkin. Two days later, the Maddox and USS Turner Joy again reported being under attack. Doubts were subsequently raised—and still exist—as to whether the second attack took place, but the Johnson administration used it as pretext for retaliation. Denouncing this “deliberate aggression on the high seas,” the president authorized the first U.S. air strikes against North Vietnam. Seeking to bolster his presidential campaign against the hawkish Republican Barry Goldwater and to secure congressional backing for his Vietnam policies, Johnson asked congressional approval of a resolution authorizing him to take “all necessary measures to repel any armed attacks against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.” Two Democratic senators, Wayne Morse of Oregon and Ernest Gruening of Alaska, raised questions about the attacks and the blanket transfer of authority to the executive, but the Senate discussed the resolution less than ten hours and approved it 88 to 2. The House took less than forty minutes and voted unanimous approval.

Johnson often pointed to the resolution when congressional “doves” later questioned his authority to wage the war. Many congressman, on the other hand, concluded that they had been tricked, and in a symbolic act of defiance, the Senate voted in June 1970 to terminate the resolution. The 1973 War Powers Act sought to curb the power of presidents to wage war without specific congressional approval.
See also Federal Government, Executive Branch: The Presidency.

Bibliography

John Galloway , The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, 1971.
Edwin E. Moise , Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War, 1997.

George C. Herring