Congress Authorizes President Johnson to Use Force in Vietnam
U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War began in 1950, when American military advisers were sent to what was then called French Indochina. The first American combat mission was in 1964, and by the time the Vietnam War ended with a North Vietnamese victory and the fall of Saigon in April 1975, the U.S. had suffered casualties of more than 58,000 killed, over 1,700 missing, and more than 303,000 wounded. Despite this enormous cost in lives, money and equipment, the U.S. never declared war on North Vietnam—for America, the Vietnam War was not an official war.
Although it never declared war, Congress did authorize President Lyndon B. Johnson’s actions in escalating American military action in Southeast Asia. On Aug. 7, 1964, Congress passed the Southeast Asia Resolution—the so-called “Gulf of Tonkin Resolution”—authorizing the president “to take all necessary steps, including the use of armed force” to protect American military personnel and support U.S. allies in Southeast Asia.
The resolution stopped just short of declaring war, but it was all the authorization President Johnson needed. A bitter Senator Wayne Morse (D-OR) declared that the resolution gave the president “blanket authority to wage war.” Morse and Senator Ernest Gruening (D-AK) were the only two members of Congress to vote against the Southeast Asia Resolution.
The resolution was referred to as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution because of a conflict that occurred in that area off the North Vietnamese coast just days prior to the congressional vote. On Aug. 2, 1964, the U.S. destroyer Maddox and four jets from the carrier Ticonderoga fought with three North Vietnamese PT boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. The Maddox was in international waters at the time of the battle, conducting electronic surveillance of North Vietnamese military communications to aid the South Vietnamese army. Although initial reports claimed the North Vietnamese fired first, leading to American charges of an “unprovoked attack,” the Maddox actually fired the first three shots of the engagement as a warning to the advancing gunboats.
Another incident allegedly occurred two days later when the Maddox, this time joined by the U.S. destroyer C. Turner Joy, reported that it was again under attack by torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. However, later investigations concluded that the two U.S. warships were reacting to faulty radar and sonar readings caused by storm conditions—there were no North Vietnamese gunboats attacking them.
President Johnson believed that U.S. forces had been attacked twice in three days. In the past, he had resisted Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara’s suggestions that he bomb North Vietnam, but in light of these two attacks the president could hold back no longer. President Johnson ordered retaliatory air strikes against North Vietnamese naval stations, and right before the American planes attacked he gave a nationwide television address the evening of Aug. 4, 1964, explaining to the American people why he was authorizing military action.
Prior to the president’s speech, McNamara had received intelligence reports from the U.S. commander in the Gulf of Tonkin, Captain John J. Herrick, admitting there had been some confusion and suggesting that the August 4 “attack” never actually occurred. McNamara declined to pass this information on to the president, and consequently President Johnson believed that the news he was delivering in his televised address was completely factual and authenticated.
During his nationwide speech that night, the president also requested that Congress quickly pass a resolution authorizing military action. Three days later, with a nearly unanimous vote, Congress granted the president his wish and passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. American military involvement in the Vietnam War was officially underway.
The following two newspaper articles are about Congress passing the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. The first article is a news report of the congressional action, and the second is an editorial praising the approach taken by President Johnson.
This copyrighted article was published by the Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, Georgia) on Aug. 8, 1964:
Congress Supports Johnson’s Actions
President Hails American Unity
Washington (AP)—Both houses of Congress gave President Johnson a smashing vote of confidence Friday in the Southeast Asia crisis.
By a vote of 414 to 0, the House adopted a bipartisan resolution backing the President’s actions as commander in chief of the armed forces, and the Senate followed with an 88-2 endorsement.
The opposition votes were cast by two Democrats, Sens. Wayne Morse of Oregon who had repeatedly denounced U.S. policies in Southeast Asia as a threat to world peace, and Ernest Gruening of Alaska.
Gruening told the Senate “all Viet Nam is not worth the life of a single American boy.”
Johnson hailed the action as “a demonstration to all the world of the unity of all Americans.”
In a statement, he expressed appreciation to members of both parties for “their patriotic, resolute and rapid action.”
“The votes prove our determination to defend our forces, to prevent aggression and to work firmly and steadily for peace and security in the area,” the statement said.
Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona, the GOP presidential nominee, joined fellow Republicans in voting approval and support of Johnson’s decision to strike back at Communist North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. warships in the Gulf of Tonkin.
Goldwater did not take part in the debate, but he announced his support of Johnson’s action just before the President went on the air Tuesday night to announce the retaliatory strike. Johnson asked Congress then for its backing.
The resolution—Morse said it gives Johnson “blanket authority to wage war”—says:
“The Congress approves and supports the determination of the President, as commander in chief, to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.”
Some members, including Sen. George D. Aiken, R-Vt., said they voted with misgivings to uphold the President.
Aiken said he is “still apprehensive over the outcome” but that “as an American citizen, I feel I should support the President, whether he is right or wrong.”
Morse, allotted an additional two hours under a debate-closing agreement which gave the other senators one hour among them, cried out to a virtually empty chamber that no matter who was president nor how good were his intentions, “unsanctioned acts of war can lead to an all-out nuclear war and the end of this republic.”
Only Sen. Mike Mansfield of Montana, the Democratic leader, and the newly appointed Democratic senator from California, Pierre Salinger, were present as Morse spoke. Salinger, former White House press secretary, occupied the dais as acting presiding officer.
While no negative votes were cast in the House, Rep. Adam Clayton Powell, D-N.Y., took a noncommittal position by voting “present” and Rep. Eugene Siler, R-Ky., was announced as paired against the resolution. This meant in effect that if Siler had been present he would have voted “no” on the roll call.
In a statement released by his office, Siler said he opposed the resolution as unnecessary and contended the United States has no business fighting in Viet Nam.
Call Son Home
“If I should send my son into the street where a fight is in progress and if he got stung with a stone,” Siler said, “I feel I should not then send his big brother over into the house that flung the stone. Rather I should call the son home and help him to tend to his backyard business.”
Powell told newsmen who inquired about his stand:
“I have always been a pacifist. I have been for 34 years as a minister. But when my country is absolutely in danger as in time of war, then I will support it.”
Counting Powell, the roll call in the House showed 415 of the 435 members present. There are three vacancies.
The Senate vote accounted for all but 10 of the 100 members.
This copyrighted editorial was published by the Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) on Aug. 8, 1964:
United to Keep World Peace
Armed with the nearly unanimous support of Congress in the use of any measures necessary to protect American forces, President Johnson now has taken an important step to emphasize before the world the peacekeeping mission of this nation.
In selecting Henry Cabot Lodge to visit every capital of an American ally to explain our purposes in Southeast Asia, the President has chosen the civilian best acquainted with recent developments in Viet Nam to do the job.
A warlike power does not take the trouble to explain its motives to anyone and a peaceful nation would be reluctant to do so if there was any hint of aggression in its acts.
In dispatching Lodge on his mission of explanation, Mr. Johnson goes a long way toward refuting the charge of Sen. Wayne Morse who denounced the resolution of support as “blanket authority to wage war.”
As Ambassador Adlai Stevenson told the United Nations, U.S. forces are in South Viet Nam to protect the rights of its people to peaceful existence and freedom from aggression by their neighbors.
Sen. Morse knows President Johnson is not asking authority to wage war against anyone and Morse is not serving the best interests of the U.S. in providing an enemy with such quotes for propaganda machines.
Although danger of a retaliatory thrust from the North appears to be subsiding, [South Vietnam] Premier Nguyen Khanh has ordered a general mobilization of manpower and resources in a move that may convince his people that they are at war.
From the beginning, Washington has insisted that the war will be won or lost by the South Vietnamese themselves. The sooner they become actively aware of this the sooner the U.S. can withdraw its peacekeeping forces from Southeast Asia.
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