The Gulf Of Tonkin is the incident that is still considered to be the start of the Vietnam

War, where two U.S. ships were allegedly bombed in vietnam waters. This incident is the root of
so many conspiracy and moral theories. Accusations and wonderings will surround this attack
for probably the rest of history as this war was very controversial. But the U.S was planning to
go to war before the Gulf of Tonkin Incident because there are phone calls, and documents that
prove they were considering attack before the alleged incident.
The phone calls, and conversations that happend behind closed doors prove that using
military force was being considered much before these attacks. In a conversation between
President Johnson and Special Assistant for National Security Affairs Mcgeorge Bundy, where
they are deciding whether to go through with fighting in vietnam, President Johnson says, “...I
just thought about ordering all those kids in there. And what in the hell am I ordering them out
there for?...” This conversation proves that in may, months before the alleged attack, the
president was seriously conflicted and considering using military action to take down
communism in North Vietnam. He was thinking about ordering U.S. soldiers to fight a war he
wasn’t even sure was worth anything. The U.S. was so concerned about communism, they were
willing to risk U.S. lives before we were attacked.
The united states was looking for a reason to go to war in Vietnam without ruining their
reputation. There were numerous documents proving this. Once the alleged attack on U.S.
ships was reported, they had a way to fight against communism without being held accountable.
This was an act of outright manipulation of civilian trust in the government. As you can see,
from a document written for the public from The 88th Congress of America held in Washington,
August 7th, 1964, “Naval units of the Communist regime in Vietnam,... have deliberately and
repeatedly attacked United States naval vessels lawfully present in international waters... The
United States is, therefore, prepared, as the President determines, to take all necessary steps,
including the use of armed force.” This document clearly shows the way the U.S. took this attack
as a chance to use military force in it’s own interest. This document proves that the U.S. found a
way to look as if they were a peaceful, freedom loving country who just wanted to provide a
helping hand in the fight against communism. The U.S. didn’t want to openly say to it’s civilians
that they were planning to go to war, so they stated that they were willing to take only the
necessary steps to fight against unlawful attacks. This document makes it seem as though,
because of the attacks, the U.S. was just protecting their country against the deliberate
attackers in vietnam.

The U.S. was in communication with the Embassy in Vietnam, and was in full support
against the communists, but didn’t know how to go about entering the fight without being
blamed for the backlash. In a telegram from The Department of State (Rusk) to the Embassy in
Vietnam (Lodge) Washington, May 22, 1964—7:40 p.m, months before the attack, they wanted
to communicate their support in the fight against North Vietnam. The document states, “We are
continuing to review carefully just what more we may be able to do within South Vietnam and
also the question of possible action against the North….. But I think you can see that the finger
would point straight at us and that the President would then be put in perhaps a far more difficult
position toward the American public and the Congress.” According to this document it is obvious
that the U.S. was thinking about how to go to war in Vietnam without having the finger pointed at
America. This is one of the most interesting documents because these communications were
not happening publicly, and so were much more representative of what was going on behind
closed doors. These conversations happend much before the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, and so
lead to suspect of planning war before any alleged attacks on the U.S.
As you can see, the U.S was planning to go to war before the Gulf of Tonkin Incident
because of the conversations we didn’t see as the public. The U.S. was basically trying to find a
way how to go to war, not if they should go to war. This implicates that the U.S. government
might have been more elusive and secretive than we might have thought as a country. This
means that what we think is happening today, might not be completely accurate. This implicates
that the U.S. might have even exaggerated the attacks in order to seem just in going to war, and
we might have to be a little more weary about what happens behind closed doors.