Tonkin Gulf resolution

Tonkin Gulf resolution in U.S. history, Congressional resolution passed in 1964 that authorized military action in Southeast Asia. On Aug. 4, 1964, North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin were alleged to have attacked without provocation U.S. destroyers that were reporting intelligence information to South Vietnam. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his advisers decided upon immediate air attacks on North Vietnam in retaliation; he also asked Congress for a mandate for future military action. On Aug. 7, Congress passed a resolution drafted by the administration authorizing all necessary measures to repel attacks against U.S. forces and all steps necessary for the defense of U.S. allies in Southeast Asia. Although there was disagreement in Congress over the precise meaning of the Tonkin Gulf resolution, Presidents Johnson and Richard M. Nixon used it to justify later military action in Southeast Asia. The measure was repealed by Congress in 1970. Retired Vietnamese general Vo Nguyen Giap, in a 1995 meeting with former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, categorically denied that the North Vietnamese had attacked the U.S. destroyers on Aug. 4, 1964, and in 2001 it was revealed that President Johnson, in a taped conversation with McNamara several weeks after passage of the resolution, had expressed doubt that the attack ever occurred.

Tonkin Gulf Resolution (1964) Resolution of the US Congress authorizing the president to take military action in Vietnam in response to attacks on US forces. It was passed at the urging of President Lyndon B. Johnson after US destroyers were allegedly attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. See also Vietnam War

Tonkin Gulf Resolution (1964) A resolution by the US Congress, giving the President authority to take all necessary measures to repel any attack against the forces of the USA. The resolution was made in response to an alleged attack by North Vietnam patrol boats against the US destroyer Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin. The US involvement in the fighting in the VIETNAM WAR followed. Subsequent investigation revealed that the intelligence information on which it was based was inaccurate and, following the war, the War Powers Act was passed in 1973. This restricts the time a President can commit US troops without Congressional approval to 60 days.