US History from WWII to Present (Vietnam)

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1.

The incident revolved around what is widely considered the beginning of President's Johnson's entrance into the war wherein the U.S. destroyer, which was on a covert mission to actually spy on the Vietnamese contrary to the reports released by the White House, exchanged gunfire and shots with torpedo boats that were manned by the North Vietnamese in the Gulf of Tonkin. Following the first incidence, the Maddox crew either were confused or blatantly lied about being fired upon by the Vietnamese again, which resulted in the Congress granting President Johnson the authority to wage war in South East Asia as he saw fit. Therefore, this incident can't be overstated in regard to its importance in the "Americanization" of Vietnam.
To fully understand the extent of this incident, which occurred in August of 1964, you must understand the first policy that America engaged in before the Americanization of Vietnam wherein there were only approximately 20-30,000 troops supporting the South Vietnamese, but after this incident, by late 1965, America had dedicated over 180,000 troops to the war in Southeast Asia and was in the process of sending many more. The incident that sparked this response was in accordance with the President's view that America couldn't lose a war to Communists. Therefore, the objective was to ensure that congress would bring a resolution that would grant war against what President Johnson called agitators and aggressors who were terrorizing peaceful South Vietnamese villagers and engaging in open aggression in open international waters against the United States. Therefore, several days after the incident, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin ...