On August 4, 1964, the Second Tonkin Gulf Incident occurred. The US Navy Destroyers, Turner Joy and Maddox began firing at nothing and evading nothing by taking evasive actions. They then reported that they wre under attack by North Vietnamese Navy craft of some type. Within hours, the Captain of the Maddos began sending cables expressing doubts as to what, if anything happened, but these may have been shortstopped by McNamara and hence not acted upon by LBJ or anybody else. This so-called second attack was then the basis for the Congressional action known as the Tonkin Gulf Resolution which authorized LBJ to use military force in Vietnam without any declaration of war, which he very much did. Subsequent in-depth studies showed that there was no attack and no North Vietnamese Naval assets anywhere remotely in the vicinity. James Stockdale, commander of the aircraft sent to provide cover to the two destroyers was to later confirm that there was nothing out there but "black water and American firepower".

But what about the original Tonkin Gulf Incident? Regardless of the above, the Tonkin Gulf Resolution was still legitimate under the terms of the Kellog-Briand Pact and UN Charter if the Maddox had been attacked in the first Tonkin Gulf Incident, unless, of course, it wasn't attacked There were a lot of issues regarding that so-called attack of which a few stand out. The North Vietnamese claimed a 12 mile territorial limit, and we did not agree with it and violated it just to prove a point as well as to gather intel. The Maddox was collaborating with South Vietnamese commandos who would stage coastal raids coordinated with the Maddox which would rush in and gather intel to feed to said commandos and other US and South Vietnamese military operations. It was, in fact, engaged in hostile military operations against North Vietnam at the time of the alleged incident. What really matters however, is the question of just who attacked whom. On August 2, while engaged in its usual shenanigans, the Maddox spotted 3 North Vietnamese torpedo boats approaching and opened fire on them at a range of about 12 miles. It then radioed to the effect. This was well beyond the effective range of the North Vietnamese torpedoes, none of which had yet been launched . It only later that the torpedo boats actually attacked, with 2 launching their torpedoes at some closer range approximating 5 miles, torpedoes which the Maddox still easily evaded. The Maddox, having fired first, wasn't attacked by anybody's definition of the term.

On this day in history:

1693 – Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Perignon's invention of champagne

1701 – Great Peace of Montreal between New France and First Nations was signed.

1704 – Gibraltar was captured by an English and Dutch fleet

1783 – Mount Asama erupted in Japan, killing about 1,400 people

1789 – The National Constituent Assembly abolished feudalism in France

1790 – A newly passed tariff act created the US Revenue Cutter Service which evolved into the US Coast Guard

1821 – The Saturday Evening Post was published for the first time as a weekly newspaper.

1873 – While protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the United States 7th Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer clashed for the first time with the Cheyenne and Lakota people near the Tongue River

1887 – Granny, a sea anemone, died in Edinburgh after nearly 60 years in captivity

1889 – The Great Fire of Spokane, Washington, destroyed some 32 blocks of the city, causing a mass rebuilding project.

1892 – The father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden were found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home. She was tried and acquitted for the crimes a year later.

1924 – Diplomatic relations between Mexico and the Soviet Union were established.

1944 – A tip from a Dutch informer led the Gestapo to Jewish diarist Anne Frank, her family, and four others.

1964 – Civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney were found dead in Mississippi

1964 – U.S. destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy (Ahem) mistakenly (cough cough) reported coming under attack in the Gulf of Tonkin.

1969 – American representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuân Thuỷ began secret peace negotiations which eventually failed. This was probably according to US plans

1977 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed legislation creating the United States Department of Energy.

1987 – The Federal Communications Commission rescinded the Fairness Doctrine

2018 – Syrian Democratic Forces expelled the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from the Iraq–Syria border

2018 – Two drones detonated explosives in a seeming attempt to assassinate Nicholas Maduro injuring Seven people

2020 – At least 220 people were killed and over 5,000 wounded when 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded in Beirut, Lebanon

Some people who were born on this day:

“Fear not for the future, weep not for the past”

~~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

1701 – Thomas Blackwell, historian and scholar
1719 – Johann Gottlob Lehmann, mineralogist and geologist
1792 – Percy Bysshe Shelley, poet and playwright
1805 – William Rowan Hamilton, physicist, astronomer, and mathematician
1834 – John Venn, mathematician and philosopher (
1844 – Henri Berger, composer and bandleader
1859 – Knut Hamsun, novelist, poet, and playwright
1877 – Dame Laura Knight, artist
1898 – Ernesto Maserati, race car driver and engineer
1901 – Louis Armstrong, trumpet player and singer
1910 – William Schuman, composer and educator
1912 – Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov, mathematician, physicist, and mountaineer
1921 – Herb Ellis, guitarist
1926 – George Irving Bell, physicist, biologist, and mountaineer
1932 – Frances E. Allen, computer scientist and academic (died 2020)
1937 – David Bedford, keyboard player, composer, and conductor
1939 – Frankie Ford, R&B/rock and roll singer
1940 – Larry Knechtel, bass player and pianist
1940 – Timi Yuro, singer and songwriter
1941 – Cliff Nobles, musician
1947 – Klaus Schulze, keyboard player and songwriter
1952 – Moya Brennan, singer, songwriter, and harp player
1954 – François Valéry, singer and songwriter
1959 – Robbin Crosby, guitarist and songwriter
1962 – Paul Reynolds, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1969 – Max Cavalera, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1973 – Eva Amaral, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1981 – Marques Houston, singer, songwriter, producer, and actor
1985 – Crystal Bowersox, singer, songwriter and guitarist
1986 – Nick Augusto, drummer
1989 – Jessica Mauboy, singer, songwriter, and actress

Some people who died on this day:

Don't borrow money from a neighbor or a friend, but of a stranger where, paying for it you shall hear of it no more.

~~ William Cecil

1526 – Juan Sebastián Elcano, explorer and navigator first to circumnavigate earth
1598 – William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, academic and politician, Principal advisor of Elizabeth I
1741 – Andrew Hamilton, lawyer and politician, won Zenger case
1875 – Hans Christian Andersen, novelist, short story writer, and poet
1942 – Alberto Franchetti, composer and educator
1977 – Edgar Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian, physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
2004 – Mary Sherman Morgan, chemist and engineer
2005 – Anatoly Larkin, physicist and theorist
2007 – Lee Hazlewood, singer, songwriter, and producer
2012 – Johnnie Bassett, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
2015 – Billy Sherrill, songwriter and producer

Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:

National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day
Coast Guard Day (United States)
2020 Beirut explosion commemoration day in Lebanon
National White Wine Day

Today's Tunes

Dom Perignon invents Champagne

Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney

Tonkin Gulf non-incident

1969 Vietnam peace talks

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Henri Berger

Louis Armstrong

Herb Ellis

Timi Yuro

Cliff Nobles

Klaus Schulze

Eva Amaral

Alberto Franchetti

Lee Hazlewood

Johnnie Bassett

Billy Sherrill

BONUS TUNES

Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. What's on your mind?

Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com

Open Thread, Champagne, Coast guard, Tonkin Gulf, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Louis Armstrong, Herb Ellis, Timi Yuro