Fact check
Is it true: Gulf of Tonkin incident: second-attack fabrication (Aug 1964)?
Yes — this is confirmed.
NSA historian Robert Hanyok's 2005 declassified study concluded that SIGINT had been selectively reported to produce a false picture of a 4 August 1964 attack that never occurred. Captain Herrick's same-night cable to Washington expressing doubts about the attack was received and set aside. Robert McNamara later acknowledged the attack likely did not happen. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, passed 98-2 in the Senate on fabricated intelligence, authorised the Vietnam War.
The claim
The Gulf of Tonkin incident comprises two alleged North Vietnamese torpedo attacks on US destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy in the Gulf of Tonkin in August 1964. The first attack, on 2 August 19
Key evidence
NSA Hanyok Report 2005: SIGINT selectively reported to fabricate second attack
First attack of 2 August 1964 was real and documented
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