Gulf of Tonkin events II

This is a continuation of a piece I started yesterday about my dad's involvement in exposing the Gulf of Tonkin coverup that led to the escalation of war in Vietnam:

"McNamara Learns 2nd Tonkin Gulf Attack Never Happened" said the Associated Press headlined account of former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara's visit to Hanoi in early November 1995. Upon meeting Vietnam's retired military strategist and war hero, 85-year-old Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, McNamara asked what really happened in the Gulf of Tonkin on August 4, 1964. "Absolutely nothing," replied Giap.

In a followup interview with The Washington Post, McNamara said he was now absolutely sure the August 4 attack never happened. But it was precisely that nonevent which McNamara reported as fact to President Johnson, who in turn reported it to Congress on August 5, deceiving it into passing the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. The Resolution became the legal basis for America to conduct full-scale war in Vietnam.

Earlier in 1995, McNamara had concluded his book In Retrospect with "the lessons of Vietnam." Speaking in the first person plural, he listed 11 major causes for "our disaster" there. I suggest there is a twelfth lesson he should have noted: "We lied to Congress about the events in the Gulf of Tonkin on August 4 and then covered up our mistake." In Hanoi, he continued his shameful charade of being ignorant about what happened.

John White