A young Vietnamese man was killed when the truck he was riding in was blown up by a landmine laid by the Vietcong in August 1964. The Vietnamese mother wept and wailed over the body of her dead son. At that time, the United States and South Vietnam were preparing to declare war on North Vietnam.
President Johnson announced on August 5, 1964, that he would respond cautiously to any North Vietnamese attack and had no intention of expanding the war. Fighter-bombers from the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga and the aircraft carrier USS Constellation bombed four naval bases and oil depots in North Vietnam. An estimated 25 torpedo boats were destroyed and about 90 percent of Vinh's oil storage facilities went up in flames. Two American fighter planes were shot down by North Vietnamese anti-aircraft fire, damaging two of them. No North Vietnamese fighter jets were encountered in the air.
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and air raids on North Vietnamese naval bases boosted South Vietnamese morale, but Ambassador Taylor warned the State Department that the effect would be temporary and unlikely to sustain Khanh's military regime. On August 16, 1964, Khanh's military government in South Vietnam promulgated a new constitution that gave him dictatorial powers due to the instability of his political base. The newly established Military Revolutionary Council was approved, but the Buddhists felt threatened by the political ambitions and started more riots, encouraged by Viet Cong sympathizers and dissident students. The discontent in the urban areas spread to the rural areas, and the military government of Khan, who had antagonized the people, resigned the presidency and abrogated the constitution, and the dissidents immediately launched a military coup, but the military coup was foiled by threats to bomb the rebel positions.
Believing that the situation in South Vietnam would worsen further if the U.S. did not have its own identity, the Joint Chiefs of Staff deliberately provoked North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. forces with the Gulf of Tonkin incident. The U.S. could also have reason to launch airstrikes against North Vietnam. The Joint Chiefs of Staff decided that the military actions of the communists would determine the extent of the destruction of North Vietnam. President Johnson approved limited measures to put pressure on North Vietnam and agreed to launch airstrikes in the event that North Vietnam attacked U.S. forces. President Johnson agreed to respond with air raids in the event North Vietnam attacked American troops.
The attack on North Vietnam was launched. President Johnson resumed patrols, which had been suspended since the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Despite Johnson's caution, the resumption of U.S. Navy patrols and covert operations off the coast of North Vietnam soon led to a new problem: On the night of September 18, the destroyers Morton and Parsons, sailing in the Gulf of Tonkin, reported on radar that they had spotted what appeared to be a torpedo boat. Both ships maneuvered for about 40 minutes, but were unable to escape their pursuers and were hit by the gunfire they fired. The image of the supposed enemy ship disappeared from the radar screen. On two more occasions, the image on the radar disappeared after being hit by gunfire. In total, both Morton and Parsons fired about 200 more 127-meter and 100 76.2-mm shells. None of the torpedoes or shells seen on radar exploded. President Johnson questioned the attack and did not bomb North Vietnam in retaliation. Judging the situation in the Gulf of Tonkin to be delicate, President Johnson again suspended patrols and postponed the resumption of South Vietnam's maritime operations in North Vietnamese waters. on October 4, he authorized the continuation of tightly controlled, covert operations against North Vietnam.
President Johnson restrained himself, and two days later, the Gulf of Tonkin incident paid off politically, as he defeated Goldwater in the presidential election with an unprecedented 61 percent of the vote. However, there was a dark side to this victory. The American people gave strong support to President Johnson. However, a survey conducted by the polling firm Lewis Harris on the day of the vote showed that less than 42% of the public gave the president high marks for his handling of the Vietnam War; by early December, the figure for the Vietnam War had dropped to 38%. The American people were not certain whether President Johnson would take decisive military action to win the Vietnam War or withdraw from Vietnam. It was doubtful that President Johnson would lose the war if he did not take military action in Vietnam.
