456 ChaPter^9
to do more to save “South Vietnam.” Throughout 1964, the president sent
more troops and arms to the RVN, and authorized a series of covert measures
to undermine the DRVN. In August, two American destroyers, the Maddox and
the C. Turner Joy, were in northern territorial waters as part of the covert
operations when they allegedly were attacked by DRVN torpedo boats in the
Gulf of Tonkin. The attacks were never proven–Johnson himself laughed, “hell,
those dumb stupid sailors were just shooting at flying fish”–but the episode
gave him a convenient excuse to begin air strikes above the 17th parallel and
to ask Congress for authority to “take all necessary measures” to defend the
RVN. The so-called Gulf of Tonkin Resolution then passed 416-0 in the House of
Representatives and 88-2 in the Senate. The resolution was a blank check for
the president to wage war in Vietnam, or, as he put it, “it was like Grandma’s
nightshirt, it covered everything.” The Tonkin episode was indeed timely, for
conditions in Vietnam were deteriorating. Despite receiving $2 million per day
in American aid, the RVN was still in chaos, and the southern army’s desertionFIGuRE 9-4 President Johnson signs the Gulf of Tonkin resolution,
August 10, 1964