August 5, 1964 - After the USA engaged in covert naval activity offshore North Vietnam, they got the break they were looking for - Aggravated assault by the North Vietnamese and the rest is history.
Three years. It only took three years of an itchy trigger finger and the promise of large oil sales to the military to discard the warnings of President Eisenhower.
By Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon
Thirty years ago, it all seemed very clear.
"American Planes Hit North Vietnam After Second Attack on Our Destroyers; Move Taken to Halt New Aggression", announced a Washington Post headline on Aug. 5, 1964.
That same day, the front page of the New York Times reported: "President Johnson has ordered retaliatory action against gunboats and 'certain supporting facilities in North Vietnam' after renewed attacks against American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin."
But there was no "second attack" by North Vietnam — no "renewed attacks against American destroyers." By reporting official claims as absolute truths, American journalism opened the floodgates for the bloody Vietnam War.
A pattern took hold: continuous government lies passed on by pliant mass media...leading to over 50,000 American deaths and millions of Vietnamese casualties.
The official story was that North Vietnamese torpedo boats launched an "unprovoked attack" against a U.S. destroyer on "routine patrol" in the Tonkin Gulf on Aug. 2 — and that North Vietnamese PT boats followed up with a "deliberate attack" on a pair of U.S. ships two days later.
The truth was very different....
A sustainable economy that is peaceful in nature is possible. The American People have to want it above all else.
Who do you trust? The people that don't protect us from war, but, advocate it...or the people that get us out of it and seek peaceful economies?
Honorable Deployment and a global strategy to peace and peace keeping.
Good night.
