Editing Gulf of Tonkin incident (section)

==Background==
{{Main|2 = Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group|3 = Operation 34A}}
[[File:Gen-commons.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1|The Geneva Conference]]

The [[1954 Geneva Conference|Geneva Conference in 1954]] was intended to settle outstanding issues following the end of hostilities between [[France]] and the [[Viet Minh]] at the end of the [[First Indochina War]]. Neither the United States nor the [[State of Vietnam]] signed anything at the 1954 Geneva Conference. The accords, which were signed by other participants including the Viet Minh, mandated a temporary ceasefire line, which separated southern and northern Vietnam to be governed by the State of Vietnam and the Viet Minh respectively. The accords called for a general election by July 1956 to create a unified Vietnamese state. The accords allowed free movement of the population between the north and south for three hundred days. They also forbade the political interference of other countries in the area, the creation of new governments without the stipulated elections, and foreign military presence.<ref name=Ang/>{{rp|11}} By 1961, South Vietnamese President [[Ngo Dinh Diem]] faced significant discontent among some quarters of the southern population, including some [[Buddhism|Buddhists]] who were opposed to the rule of Diem's [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] supporters. Viet Minh political [[Cadre (politics)|cadres]], who were legally campaigning for the promised elections between 1955 and 1957, were suppressed by the government.<ref>{{Harvnb|Doyle|Lipsman|Weiss|1981|pp=145–148}}</ref> In March 1956, the North Vietnamese leadership approved tentative measures to revive the southern insurgency in December 1956.<ref name=Olson>{{Cite book |last1=Olson|first1=James S.|last2=Roberts |first2=Randy |year=2008 |title=Where the Domino Fell: America and Vietnam 1945–1995 |edition= 5th |location=Malden, MA |publisher=[[Blackwell Publishing]] |isbn=978-1-4051-8222-5}}</ref>{{rp|67}} A communist-led uprising began against Diem's government in April 1957. The North Vietnamese Communist Party approved a "people's war" on the South at a session in January 1959,<ref name=Hastings>{{cite book|last=Hastings|first=Max|title=Vietnam an epic tragedy, 1945–1975|publisher=Harper Collins|year=2018|isbn=978-0-06-240567-8}}</ref>{{rp|119–120}} and on 28 July, North Vietnamese forces [[North Vietnamese invasion of Laos|invaded Laos]] to maintain and upgrade the [[Ho Chi Minh trail]], in support of insurgents in the south.<ref name="Morrocco-1985">{{cite book |last1=Morrocco |first1=John |title=Rain of Fire: Air War, 1969–1973 |date=1985 |publisher=Boston Publishing Company |isbn=9780939526147 |series=Volume 14 of Vietnam Experience|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dEhuAAAAMAAJ |access-date=26 May 2020}}</ref>{{RP|26}} The rebellion, headed by the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF, or [[Viet Cong]]) under the direction of North Vietnam, had intensified by 1961. About 40,000 communist soldiers infiltrated the south from 1961 to 1963.<ref name="Ang">{{cite book|last=Ang|first=Cheng Guan|title=The Vietnam War from the Other Side|publisher=RoutledgeCurzon|year=2002|isbn=978-0-7007-1615-9}}</ref>{{rp|76}}

The Gulf of Tonkin Incident occurred during the first year of the Johnson administration. While U.S. President [[John F. Kennedy]] had originally supported the policy of sending military advisers to Diem, he had begun to alter his thinking by September 1963,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/transcript-broadcast-with-walter-cronkite-inaugurating-cbs-television-news-program |title=Transcript of Broadcast With Walter Cronkite Inaugurating a CBS Television Program |publisher=[[University of California-Santa Barbara]] |date=September 2, 1963 |accessdate=December 1, 2022}}</ref> because of what he perceived to be the ineptitude of the [[Ho Chi Minh City|Saigon]] government and its inability and unwillingness to make needed reforms (which led to a [[1963 South Vietnamese coup|U.S.-supported coup]] which resulted in the death of Diem). Shortly before [[John F. Kennedy assassination|Kennedy was assassinated]] in November 1963, he had begun a limited withdrawal of 1,000 U.S. forces before the end of 1963.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://assassinationofjfk.net/national-security-action-memorandum-263 |title=National Security Action Memorandum 263 - Intro |first=Greg |last=Burnham |date=January 29, 2014 |publisher=assassinationofjfk.net |accessdate=December 1, 2022}}</ref> Johnson's views were likewise complex, but he had supported military escalation as a means of challenging what was perceived to be the [[Soviet Union]]'s expansionist policies. The [[Cold War]] policy of [[containment]] was to be applied to prevent the fall of Southeast Asia to communism under the precepts of the [[domino theory]]. After Kennedy's assassination, Johnson ordered in more U.S. forces to support the Saigon government, beginning a protracted United States presence in Southeast Asia.<ref>Lawrence, A. T. (2009). Crucible Vietnam: Memoir of an Infantry Lieutenant. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. {{ISBN|978-0786445172}}, Appendix A, p.218.</ref>

[[File:Norwegian MTB Nasty.jpg|left|thumb|upright=.8|[[United States Nasty-class patrol boat|Norwegian MTB ''Nasty'']] ]]

A highly classified program of [[covert operation|covert actions]] against North Vietnam, known as [[Operation 34A|Operation Plan 34-Alpha]], in conjunction with the DESOTO operations, had begun under the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) in 1961. In 1964, the program was transferred to the Defense Department and conducted by the [[Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group|Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group]] (MACV-SOG).<ref>Joint Chiefs of Staff, ''Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group, Documentation Study (July 1970)'', Annex F, Appendix x.</ref> For the maritime portion of the covert operation, [[United States Nasty-class patrol boat|a set of fast patrol boats]] had been purchased quietly from [[Norway]] and sent to South Vietnam. In 1963, three young Norwegian [[Sea captain#/Skipper|skippers]] traveled on a mission in South Vietnam. They were recruited for the job by the Norwegian intelligence officer Alf Martens Meyer. Martens Meyer, who was head of department at the military intelligence staff, operated on behalf of U.S. intelligence. The three skippers did not know who Meyer really was when they agreed to a job that involved them in sabotage missions against North Vietnam.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nrk.no/dokumentar/vi-som-stotter-amerika---norges-rolle-i-vietnamkrigen-1.908491|title=Vi som støtter Amerika – Norges rolle i Vietnamkrigen|author=NRK|work=NRK|date=December 10, 2000}}</ref>

Although the [[PTF boat|boats]] were crewed by South Vietnamese naval personnel, approval for each mission conducted under the plan came directly from Admiral [[U. S. Grant Sharp Jr.|U.S. Grant Sharp Jr.]], [[United States Indo-Pacific Command|CINCPAC]] in [[Honolulu]], who received his orders from the [[White House]].<ref>''MACSOG Documentation Study'', Appendix C, p. 14.</ref> After the coastal attacks began, [[Hanoi]], the capital of North Vietnam, lodged a complaint with the [[International Control Commission]] (ICC), which had been established in 1954 to oversee the terms of the Geneva Accords, but the U.S. denied any involvement. Four years later, Secretary McNamara admitted to Congress that the U.S. ships had in fact been cooperating in the South Vietnamese attacks against North Vietnam. {{citation needed|date=August 2020}}

In 1962, the U.S. Navy began an [[electronic warfare support measures]] (intelligence gathering) program, conducted by destroyer patrols in the western Pacific, with the cover name DESOTO.  The first missions in the Tonkin Gulf began in February 1964.  While intelligence collected by DESOTO missions could be used by OPLAN-34A planners and commanders, they were separate programs not known to coordinate mission planning except to warn DESOTO patrols to stay clear of 34A operational areas.<ref name=Ha01/>

[[File:USS Maddox (DD-731).jpg|right|thumb|upright=1|[[USS Maddox (DD-731)|USS ''Maddox'']] ]]

On July 29, 1964, the night before it launched actions against North Vietnamese facilities on [[Hòn Mê]] and [[Hòn Ngư]] islands, the MACV-SOG had launched a covert long-term agent team into North Vietnam, which was promptly captured. On 1 and 2 August, flights of CIA-sponsored Laotian fighter-bombers (piloted by Thai mercenaries) attacked border outposts well within southwestern North Vietnam. According to Edwin Moïse, the Hanoi government (which, unlike the U.S. government, had to give permission at the highest levels for the conduct of such missions) probably assumed that they were all a coordinated effort to escalate military actions against North Vietnam.<ref>{{Harvnb|Moïse|2019|pp=66-67}}.</ref>